After Story 201

“The lighting is good and it’s newly built, so the structure is well thought-out too. As you can probably see, the current resident is a clean person, so there’s no need for any repairs other than redoing the interior design.”

Haneul spoke as she opened the bathroom door, “There’s a lot of problems recently about newly-built apartments, isn’t there? Especially in regards to leaks.”

“There has been quite a controversy. But this place is okay. Before they started taking tenants, there were fewer than ten repair requests in the precheck stage. They were mostly trivial too.”

“That sounds good.”

“I can’t show you any ordinary item. It was president Lee’s personal request.”

Haneul smiled and looked at the estate agent. President Lee Junmin’s name value always did its worth.

“This place is for sale as well, right?”

“Yes, the current owner said he has to go overseas in a hurry, so the price is pretty decent considering that it’s on a VIP floor in a VIP area. This is probably the best house I’ll show you today.”

“I think so too. There’s no better place even considering the location,” Haneul said as she looked out the window.

Real estate in Seoul, especially one that had a view of the Han River, was infallible. No matter how many times they repeated their lives, she couldn’t remember a single time when real estate in Seoul had fallen. It might have stagnated sometimes, but eventually, it kept rising. There were 10 million people living in this cramped space, so it was not surprising that it kept going up even in a falling market.

Though, in this life, the population distribution seemed to be progressing pretty well with many people moving to the newly-built cities. Ultimately, though, the advantage of those newly-built cities was easy access to Seoul.

It wasn’t that she was buying real estate for investment purposes, but she did want to take root in a place that would rise in the future.

“Don’t you think it’s better to go with a larger apartment complex?” Maru asked as he looked around the living room.

“Let’s think about it when we have a child. For now, I think this place is good. How about you, sweetie?”

“I like anything you like.”

Haneul looked at the veranda for one last time before setting a contract deposit.

“I’ll contact you again with the necessary documents.”

“Thank you for your work today.”

“Don’t mention it. Just tell president Lee Junmin I said hi.”

The estate agent shook hands with Maru and sent him a strong message with his eyes. Maru smiled and said that he’d definitely do so.

“The president made things a lot easier,” Haneul said as she put on her seatbelt.

“He told me that you should definitely come to JA since he can help you with so much more. It seems he wants you there quite a lot.”

“President Lee has a good eye for people.”

Maru spoke as he started the car, “Are you going to extend your contract with your current agency?”

“No. JA has reached out to me, so there’s no reason for me to not go. If I move there, it’ll be a lot easier to work with you too.”

“Will the president on that side let you go that easily?”

“If I say I’ll be signing a contract with JA, they’ll probably smile bitterly while taking the contract away. It hurts my pride a little, but I can’t miss this opportunity.”

“Pride?”

“I didn’t manage to release anything good while I was in this agency. It would’ve been a lot more interesting to weigh both sides if the movie I shot last year did well.”

She might have been quite successful in running her business, but she didn’t reap any results as an actress. She knew she had to be satisfied since she achieved success in one area, but human greed knew no end.

“If I want to rise to your level, I’d either have to be lucky or take some time. Actresses get paid less too.”

“Take it slow,” Maru said.

“While you’re rushing far ahead?”

“Hun, you were doing two things at once. Your business has been successful, and you received considerable results as an actress too. I wouldn’t be able to do that. It’s thanks to you who stepped into creating a fallback that I was able to focus on acting work. You gave me so much support so of course I’ll bring results.”

“That makes me feel a little better.” She smiled mischievously.

She knew better than anyone an acting career was not a short-distance sprint, but a long-distance marathon. The reason she wanted to prove her worth as an actress despite that was purely because of her age.

An actor had things that they could only do when they were in their twenties. The same was true for the thirties and forties. No matter how good someone was at acting, their bodies wouldn’t be able to withstand the test of time.

She wanted to act alongside her husband in a piece that was only possible because she was at her current age. Then once again when she became thirty, and once more at 40.

“If I want to put Han Maru and Han Haneul in the main cast, I’ll have to do my best.”

“Then you can do that for the film director Na’s investing in.”

“For that, I’ll be participating both as an actor and the director. Oh, right. You’re going to need some stomach medicine when you work with me, sweetie. You know what that means, right?”

“I do. That’s why I’m contemplating if I should reject the cast or not. I love watching your acting but not acting according to your instructions. That’s just so hard. There’s a limit to being perfect, yet you’re so picky.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Haneul looked at her husband frowning before taking out her phone. The interview that the main cast of the drama shot last week was aired yesterday. As the interview proceeded over a drink, the responses were good.

“It looks like senior Hwang Hojoon will be quite popular as a wife-lover for a while.”

“The show actually edited a lot of it out. You know, he actually stayed quiet because of nervousness before we started drinking, but when he got into the mood, he suddenly started boasting about his wife a lot. The producer had a hard time holding him back from making a call.”

Maru chuckled as though he thought about what happened back then.

“What did you do after seeing that, sweetie?”

“Do what?”

“Didn’t you feel a sense of duty to boast about your lover? Senior Hwang was really sweet. I could feel his love for his wife. I was envious the whole time.”

“I guess I should’ve announced that I was dating, huh? I was too short-sighted. In my next interview, I’ll definitely say that I’m really happy because I went browsing through houses with the woman of my life,” he said in a grave tone.

“I’ll look forward to that,” Haneul said as she stroked his cheek.

“How’s your writing coming along? It looks like you’re coming home later and later recently. Is it not going well?”

“No, it is going well, which is why I’m late. Frankly, though, Daemyung has gotten quite obsessive lately.”

“Obsessive?”

“It looks like he’s gotten a deep impression after watching the last episode of Case Number 0. Ever since that day, he wants to hold me back when I say we should wrap up and go home, saying that he wants to do more. At this point, I’m getting tired instead.”

“Daemyung is the type of person to charge straight ahead without looking around once he’s into something.”

Haneul sighed softly. “I’m really grateful. It’s also exciting to see that the quality is rising all the time. But it feels strange being held back by him every single day without a single day of break like it’s some factory work. I’m supposed to be the employer, but at this point, I’m on the disadvantageous side of this relationship. It’d be somewhat ridiculous to ask him to stop when he says he wants to do more. Do you think it’s about time I hand everything to him?”

“It was something you were expecting to happen, I mean, having him take care of the script while you focus on the production.”

It was as her husband said. It was something she had predicted would happen. Daemyung possessed great qualities as a writer even in this life. His skill at writing was improving day by day.

As writing was something abstract, it was hard to tell which version was better, but in the case of Daemyung, it was visibly getting better, to the point that it was better to call it evolution than improvement at this stage. Not just any evolution, but some kind of malformed evolution that was happening in a short period of time.

“Daemyung told me this as well, that he wants to see Han Maru acting according to his script. Maybe it was your acting that stimulated him more, rather than the drama itself.”

“That’s quite embarrassing.”

“You know you like it.”

While heading home, her husband received a few calls. Whenever he responded to a call, he said this: I remember, I do, we should meet up sometime.

“Who is it this time?” Haneul asked.

Maru responded after finishing the call.

“Elementary school reunion.”

“Did you always go to those?”

“No, they never gave me a call. I didn’t know it existed.”

“They want you to come?”

“They want to meet up with me if I have the time. The problem is that I don’t remember anyone, whether it’s this person or any of the other people’s names that he listed.”

“Isn’t it that you can’t differentiate them to be exact? I’m like that.”

The compilation of their life data was frighteningly massive. How many elementary schools did they go to and how many friends did they make? There were times when they mixed up if a friend was from this life or one of the previous lives.

“I should call later and say that I can’t go. I have so many people to look out for, so seeing my elementary school colleagues is going to be too much for me when they haven’t called me in years.”

“If you were originally attending, then I wouldn’t say that for sure, but I think you shouldn’t go just as you said.”

Having arrived home, Maru changed his clothes and got ready to leave. After scanning his outfit, she made a circle with her fingers.

“Drink in moderation.”

“Okay. You’re going to meet Daemyung, right?”

“Yes. He’s been nagging me to come too.”

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

“Good work.”

She saw him out after a light kiss.

Maru had become a lot busier ever since the drama ended. He especially had a lot of drinking sessions with people from the TV stations. It just went to show how much the value of the actor known as Han Maru had increased.

Haneul also changed into comfortable clothes and left for the office. The office was something she rented in order to work with Daemyung.

When she opened the door and went inside, she saw Daemyung curling around the table.

“What are you up to?”

“Thinking.”

After walking for a while, Daemyung went to the kitchen and started washing a cup. He washed the clean cup again and again. Haneul smiled as she saw that.

“You can’t write?”

“I can, but I don’t like it.”

“Did you write any of it down?”

“It’s on the desk.”

She saw a notebook on the desk. She picked up the note and started reading it. Other than the main theme and the main structure, the script had changed entirely. At this point, it was embarrassing to put Han Haneul as the writer’s name.

“Now, there’s only a hint of my idea left in it.”

“You don’t like it?” Daemyung asked as he put down the cup, looking worried.

“No, I like this better. I think it’s about time I take my hands off writing and focus on producing and acting.”

“But you’re the original creator, so keep looking over it. I might stray off if I don’t see any indicators in front of me.”

“That makes me feel complicated. My role is just as an indicator, huh.”

“It’s just a figure of speech.”

She tossed the note at Daemyung who looked apologetic. Daemyung was startled and received the note.

“Stop doing something weird and write. In my opinion, you’re the type of person who can only write with your butt on the chair.”

She brought Daemyung over and sat him down at the desk.

“From now on, I’m not going to write anymore. Instead, I’ll be focusing on supporting your work. Tell me anything you need for writing, whether it’s material research or interviews. I’ll listen to it as much as possible.”

“You’re suddenly giving me everything?”

“It’s not sudden. I’ve been watching you for a long time and concluded that this is the most efficient method. I told you when we started that you might be in charge of it one day.”

“But this is your work.”

“No, it’s yours from now on. If the writing wasn’t that good, I was going to keep having a hand in it, but there’s no need for me to do that when there’s someone better than me at the job. It’s more efficient to focus on what each of us does best, isn’t it?”

Daemyung hesitated and looked at the note. He really hadn’t changed, hesitating at a time like this.

She twitched her eyes and slapped him on the arm.

“Just because I’m putting you in charge doesn’t mean I’m not going to look at it. I’m going to be even more meticulous about it as the producer. You might be the one telling me to hold back, you know?”

Haneul opened the notebook and put it in front of Daemyung.

“Well, then. Let’s get to work, shall we? Writer Park Daemyung.”

Daemyung sneaked a glance at her and put on a complex expression as he put his hands on the keyboard.

“Why does it feel like I’ve suddenly been shackled?”

“It’s just your imagination,” she said with a smile.