After Story 226

“Well, then. Here comes actor Han Maru. Give him a round of applause!”

Gyungho introduced Maru to his team, who were waiting. The members of his team, who were semi-doubtful that Gyungho would successfully bring Maru over, all cheered when they saw him.

“Please sit down.”

Maru sat down on the bench. “The people I’ve met a lot during the shoot are all here. If I remember correctly, you’re someone I crashed into a while ago.”

“You remember that? I rolled backward back then.”

“I do. You were so realistic that I was worried that you were hurt.”

“I’m pretty good at that.”

The atmosphere was good. They opened their lunch boxes while laughing.

Gyungho did not make haste. Today, he was just going to talk to him lightly. He didn’t know whether Maru was pretending to be kind or was genuinely so, but Maru would definitely be wary if he acted so obviously from the get-go.

“Everyone here is having a hard time, aren’t you?” Maru said.

“There’s no one who isn’t, is there? And rather than us, you have it harder. You had to run around all morning, didn’t you?”

“The weather really isn’t helping. I’d ask the director for a break if there’s a heat wave warning or something, but it just barely isn’t hot enough.”

“Right. If it was gonna be hot, then it should be really hot or not hot at all. It’s on an iffy level so I can’t even use heat stroke as an excuse.”

They continued talking about the difficulties they had during the shoot. For now, Maru seemed like an easy person to talk to. He listened seriously and sympathized with everyone as well. 99 out of 100 people would see Han Maru in a good light if they talked to him.

“But Mr. Han, aren’t you tired? I mean, you were hanging out with the members of team 4 after the shoot every time,” Gyungho said.

“I’d rest if I was really tired, but you know how that little bit of stamina comes back to you right after the shoot ends? Don’t you get that?”

“I know that feeling. It’s like studying. You can’t concentrate at all when you’re studying, but the moment you take a break, your mind suddenly becomes clear. Anyone who lives in Korea should have had this experience.”

Maru ate some of the side dishes and spoke,

“That’s how I chat with others after the shoot. As we talk, we share what we lacked during the shoot and give opinions about what we could improve upon in the next shoot. Well, most of the time though, it’s just exchanging jokes.”

“I’m envious of team 4. We are passionate about acting too.”

“You should ask your senior actors about it. Most of them should listen to your story seriously. They’re all good people.”

“I know that, but there’s still a sense of distance. I don’t want to risk getting an earful from them.”

Gyungho looked around asking for agreement. The team members all chimed in. They all said that it was hard to talk to the main actors.

“You should see how they’re doing during break time and ask them questions. There might be people who outright tell you that they can’t be bothered, but even those people should answer your questions.”

“I’ll try it later. Rather than that, talking to you like this makes me feel so refreshed. Talking to a successful actor sure is different. Isn’t that right? I feel like I’m learning something from just talking like this.”

Everyone nodded. As he had said his plan yesterday, they were all following along nicely.

Maru smiled and told them to make another occasion if there was time.

“Since you ask, I will of course try to arrange things. As a token of our friendship, I’ll buy you some coffee.”

“No, I’ll buy it.”

“It’s okay. You came here giving up on sashimi cold noodles, so I should at least do this much. Of course, it’ll be canned coffee.”

“Vending machine coffee or canned coffee is the best after a meal.”

Gyungho put a cigarette in his mouth as he held a canned coffee. He asked whether Maru smoked and got the reply that he had quit.

“How did you manage to quit something good like this?”

“I could feel my stamina deteriorating.”

“How old are you again?”

“It’s 2011, so that makes me 25.”

“You’re much younger than me, yet you can still tell that your stamina is deteriorating?”

“You should quit smoking as well. You’ll feel that the mornings are different.”

“I don’t think I can quit even if I die. Maybe I’ll quit right before I die.”

After exchanging jokes, it was already time for the shoot again. Maru crushed the can in his hands and spoke,

“I should go and get ready.”

“Let’s try our hardest in the afternoon too.”

“Yes, don’t get injured. Let’s do our best.”

Gyungho pushed the cigarette to the corner of his mouth and puffed deeply. Only after seeing Maru becoming distant in his vision did he throw away the cigarette butt on the ground.

“He’s such an innocent guy.”

“Yeah. He’s a man of character alright.”

“I don’t think it’s that nice guy-whatever you talked about. He genuinely seems like a good person.”

Gyungho listened to the opinions of his team and stomped on the glowing cigarette to put it out.

“That’s not the important thing. It doesn’t matter whether he’s actually a kind person or is just being pretentious. What matters is that he showed us his good side. People like him can’t look over small debts. Do you think I bought him coffee for no reason?”

One of the team members, who was listening, spoke, “I think we should just continue like this without asking him for anything. Let’s not take advantage of an earnest person like him.”

Gyungho frowned.

“You’re putting it strangely. Who’s taking advantage of who? We’re both benefiting from each other. You saw him, didn’t you? He liked it. He smiled when we called him a good person. That’s what feeds his ego. To put it nicely, we were doing counseling. Not that we’re experts, but still.”

“I don’t get it. I just want to stay on good terms with him.”

“We’re not fighting him, are we? I’m going to be on good terms with him as well. He’s such a good person so why would I want to be his enemy? It’s just that, he is someone with a lot of things, right? I’m providing him with the opportunity to share some of it with us.”

Gyungho said that he would take care of it himself and that they should not give Maru any hints. Other than the one person who didn’t seem to like it, everyone nodded. It would be strange if they disliked it when he was saying that he was going to handle everything.

He put on his costume when he heard that they should get ready. When he arrived at the shoot, Maru was right in front of him. When he smiled, Maru smiled back.

Gyungho looked at the team member that looked rather unwilling. That fellow was really too inflexible. It wasn’t that he was committing a crime. How was it a crime to receive help from someone who wants to help others?

“People have to be flexible in life,” Gyungho muttered loudly enough for that opposing member to hear.

The other members of the team didn’t say anything much. He did warn them, so they shouldn’t tell Maru anything weird.

Moderately taking advantage of others and getting taken advantage of. That was how to live in the world. There was an extreme minority who could benefit just by walking down the right path, and normally, such people were referred to as geniuses.

Ordinary people like him had to get whatever the geniuses spilled.

Even if he did take advantage of Han Maru, would that harm him in any way? He wasn’t asking for money, just a small opportunity. There was no problem with that.

“Don’t come thanking me later.”

The shoot began. It was just as hard as before. He rolled on the ground and got injured. While he applied some pain relief patches on his butt and took a rest, he watched Maru’s acting.

“Lord big boss, I think this place is exposed.”

‘Dooho,’ who always boasted a foul mouth, spoke with a serious expression. On the other side, Hong Geunsoo, who was listening to the line, also had a dark complexion as though he was placed in the middle of a real crisis.

“They’re on a totally different level alright.”

Gyungho respected those two people. The amount of energy they poured into acting was on a whole other level. He imagined himself acting in place of those two. It wasn’t a great scene for sure. That was his limit. Maybe in the future, he might be able to act on the same level as those two, but that time wasn’t now.

The amount of talent they were born with was just different. He just had to let those two geniuses rush ahead. The moment he tried to speed up to catch those two, his lungs would rip.

Rather than watching the geniuses get farther and farther in despair, just jogging while looking at the ground was a much better option. That was how ordinary people lived.

The skies turned dark before it started raining. The shoot was temporarily on hold. The production crew dismantled the equipment while getting wet, while the actors got under a shelter.

“It doesn’t look like a short shower, does it?” said a member of the team.

“From the looks of it, it’s going to rain into the night.”

Gyungho looked for a cigarette from his costume pocket. What he grabbed was only an empty pack. He clicked his tongue and squeezed it.

“From the looks of it, someone was going to die in that scene.”

“It must be Han Maru, right?”

“Probably. Putting that aside though, those two are really good. I thought Han Maru was just good at action, but he was really good in that emotional scene as well. I couldn’t hear his voice that well, but I could feel the emotions from just looking at his expression.”

“That’s why he’s a main actor. You have to admit that his acting skills are good, right?”

“What was I doing at his age again? Was I studying in an acting school?”

“I think I was.”

“Is there anyone here who wasn’t?”

They were in their mid-20s to early 30s. It wasn’t just team 1. The majority of the teams consisted of members around this age. As stamina mattered a lot, the production team simply didn’t cast any older actors.

There were numerous actors here who were younger than Hong Geunsoo, but older than Han Maru. Most of these people must be thinking the same thing: what was I doing when I was his age? I think I tried hard, but why am I still stuck here?

“It’s a difference in talent. That’s why people like us are more desperate for opportunities. Just you wait, I’ll get that opportunity off him. Who knows? I might be able to get in touch with JA.”

“I would have no other wish if that came true.”

“Actually, I was just saying that. I don’t even wish for JA. I’d be satisfied as long as I get a named role in another work or get to say hello to a director.”

Gyungho raised his hand and waved at Maru who was getting shelter from the rain. Maru also greeted back.

“See that? He doesn’t ignore me. He’s a good guy. I’m sure he’ll help me out as well with that good personality of his.”

The production crew retracted all the equipment as though they judged that the rain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.

“We’ll notify you when you have to prepare by teams, so you should come out at the right time. Thank you for your work today.”

The shoot ended. Gyungho looked around before heading to Maru, who was walking with his manager.

“Mr. Maru,” he said as though he found him due to a coincidence, “It’s raining all of a sudden.”

“Yeah.”

“The shoot ended early and the weather’s like this, so why not have some rice wine with us?”

Maru exchanged looks with his manager. He handed his umbrella to his manager before walking over to Gyungho.

“Hyung, you should go back and get some rest first. I’ll go back after I drink a little with these people.”

“Drink in moderation. The shoot might resume early in the morning if the rain stops.”

The manager left. Gyungho headed to the residence with Maru. On their way there, he called his team members and told them that Maru was coming with him. When they arrived, there was a simple drinking table set up.

“I ordered some side dishes through delivery. They should be here soon.”

“You treated me to coffee during the day, so I’ll pay for those.”

“An important person has come, so I should naturally be the one to treat you,” Gyungho said as he sat Maru down.

After the side dishes arrived, some drinks were exchanged. The men emptied bottle after bottle of rice wine while chatting loudly.

Maru fit in with them better than he had thought. The way he spoke was kind, and above all, he did not put a wall around him. He was a really open person.

It was likely that he would nod even if Gyungho brought up the request, even more so if that request was something that wasn’t easy to refuse, and refusing would make him look petty.

Gyungho did not dream of reversing his life with opportunity. He just needed a small trigger, a minor one that didn’t see the light of day because they were one of many at the feet of the genius.

“You must have it good.”

Gyungho started.