After Story 23

After Story 23

Maru grabbed the backrest of his chair. If he hadn’t heard wrong, his mother mentioned the word ‘actress’ just now.

Bada and actress, these two seemed completely unrelated like math and soccer. Had she ever shown interest in the entertainment industry? He looked back at his memories, but it was to no avail. He lacked information.

The Han Maru of this life had zero interest in his sister to the point that he didn’t know the name of her high school.

“She had such a dream?”

“I don’t know. She mentioned it out of the blue.”

“When was that?”

“It’s been a couple months. I thought she casually said it like when she grumbles about bad food, but she looked serious.”

“Does father know about this?”

“He does.”

“What did he say?”

“What could he say? He told her to try her hardest since she’s doing it. Whether it’s me or your father, we both want you to live doing what you want as long as you don’t get in trouble.”

After lamenting about it, his mother raised her head. “But isn’t an actress a little out of the blue? I never knew in my wildest imaginations that she had such thoughts.”

“You didn’t know about it, so who could’ve possibly known? Then she must have given up going to college, right?”

“She’s putting it off to the side for now. She says she’s going to apply to acting schools and try to go to a college known for their theater department.”

“I wonder if she knows if all the famous acting schools are in Seoul.”

“I’m sure everything good is in Seoul, schools, good restaurants, academies. If your father didn’t do something strange, saying he wanted to run his own business ten years ago, I would have bought stocks and we would’ve moved to Seoul.”

“Don’t you think it’s about time you stopped saying that? You’ve been using it for ages.”

“Don’t side with your father. You should side with your mom at a time like this, okay?”

“Ah, right.”

He washed and peeled the yellow melons before cutting them into slices and putting them on a plate. His mother watched him and said, “After living by yourself, you’ve become better at using a knife.”

“It’s not just the knife. I’ll cook you some soup in the future. I’m really good.”

“You’re all grown up now. You looked immature even after you got discharged from the military, but now you look fully grown up.”

He sat down face to face with his mother. He forked a slice of yellow melon and gave it to her. They chatted about cheap and good yellow melons before talking about Bada again.

“I wouldn’t be so worried if she focused on one thing. She’s a little like me in her stubbornness, but she also tends to give up easily if she tumbles over.”

His mother seemed to be dissatisfied with her daughter’s resolution. While she always said she wished for them to do what they wanted to do, she wasn’t someone who irresponsibly disregarded her children. Their mother was someone who always made them return to the right track if they strayed. She must truly be worried about Bada’s future.

“Not anyone can become an actor, can they? They get into controversies because of the smallest things, and they don’t even get proper sleep. Bada is a big sleeper, isn’t she? And her personality is something too. She’s someone who used to get into fights with those above her age, so I’m worried if she can endure the eyes of the people.”

“You’re already worried about what will happen after she becomes an actress?” he asked with a laugh.

“You never know.”

“What are you going to do if she says she is serious and wants you to pay for her acting school tuition?”

“I’ll think about it depending on the cost. If she wants to do it, I can’t let her not do it.”

“You’re way too kind, mom.”

“That’s why I married your dad.”

“I was wondering why you weren’t saying that.”

His mother laughed and stood up with the empty plate.

“You should have dinner before you go.”

“I plan to. When’s father coming back?”

“Your dad went to Jinjoo. He’s busy procuring facilities as the director-on-site or something.”

“I should give him a call then.”

“Yeah, you should. That’s your duty as a child. Your dad doesn’t show it much, but you know he’s an emotional person, right? I was watching a documentary with him, and I heard something strange behind me. I turned around to see that he was crying.”

“Mom, you should bury that in a corner of your heart so that father can be a proud father.”

“A man’s pride is told by his financial power and skills. You remember that.”

“You’re a mom alright, your nagging skills increase by the day.”

Just as he was watching the back figure of his mother washing the dishes, he heard the front door being opened.

“She really can’t come at the right time,” his mother said. The door opened and Bada came in.

She frowned as soon as she met eyes with him. “Why are you here?”

“I’m visiting to report my survival.”

“Since when did you do that?”

Bada took off her hat and came inside before lying down on the floor with a groan. He sliced some yellow melons and gave them to Bada.

“What’s this?”

“You’ve never seen yellow melons before?”

“I’m asking why you are doing something you’ve never done before.”

Bada looked at the plate with grave wariness and suspicion.

Maru clicked his fingers. “My arm hurts. Take it already.”

Only then did she accept the plate. She looked at the yellow melon like a stray cat poking at a trash bag before picking up the fork.

“You want to be an actress, huh?” He asked as he sat on the sofa.

Bada squinted and looked at him. Her eyes looked at his face before looking at their mother.

“Mind your own business. I’m going to do well by myself.”

“You looked into acting schools?”

“What’s up with you today? I told you to mind your own business.”

“I bought the yellow melons. Aren’t they good? They must be sweet. And it’s free which makes it even more delicious.”

Bada’s lips twisted.

Ever since he entered high school, he had never talked in depth with his sister. He didn’t know anything about her; who she was close to, what she liked or what her hobbies were. They lived under the same roof but didn’t have a shred of intimacy. It wasn’t because of a specific incident or something. They just both gave up on getting to know more about each other.

Is there a need to show interest when we’re going to see each other for a long time? — starting off with that, it didn’t take long before they became completely disinterested in each other.

“I’m going to start looking into it now,” Bada said, as though it was to repay him for the yellow melon.

The previous Maru would have ended the conversation here. No, he wouldn’t have asked any questions in the first place. All he would’ve done was give her a glance when she enters the house.

“If you’re aiming for a college theater department, you should be aiming for an entrance exam that places importance on practical tests, right?”

Bada squinted, a hint asking him why he wanted to know something like that, and why he knew something like that. Maru only responded with a smile.

His sister seemed to be creeped out by her brother who was smiling, even more so than finding a cricket in the middle of the night, as she frowned.

“I just want to talk. I don’t plan to mock you, nor do I plan to educate you. I’m just purely curious.”

Right now, they acted like strangers when they met outside, but when they were young, they would often walk around the neighborhood while holding hands. Bada would be playing among Maru’s friends. She would be an observer and watch them the whole day. It shouldn’t be that they hated each other. They just became distant to the point they didn’t want to talk about what they were thinking.

When he waited calmly, Bada spoke again,

“I’m thinking about college as well, but I’m planning to audition to get into an agency.”

“That’s not bad. Any place you have in mind?”

“Would you know if I say one?”

“I can listen, even if I don’t know.”

Just then, their mother left, saying that she was going to buy something for dinner.

Bada didn’t say anything for a long time. She seemed to feel awkward due to the silence and turned on the TV. She switched the channels for a while.

“There’s a place called Sai Actors and they are holding an audition soon. It’s a bit peculiar in that they’ll go around the whole country holding auditions like some kind of idol group. There are no conditions for applying, and you can apply online and get tested offline if you pass that.”

“Is it famous?”

“It’s not a big place. But there are many veteran actors. I want to try it out. I know it’s absurd to think that I’ll pass in one go, so I’ll just treat it as experience.”

She was quite knowledgeable, from the schedule to the actors in the agency. Her cautious and sincere tone of words indicated that she didn’t mean this as a joke. This was the first time he saw Bada so serious in this life.

“And you’re preparing?”

“Little by little. It’ll be a minute of free acting and no props allowed, so I’m thinking about how to do it….”

Bada spoke quietly for a while before turning quiet. She seemed to have realized that she was getting into quite the detail.

“A minute is pretty long. It must be pretty hard if it’s your first time,” he said. He knew the pressure of the first audition, and the hardships that came with it, so he could tell how she felt.

His sister’s sealed lips became slack in an instant.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve heard things around. But rather than that, have you tried acting in front of other people?”

“No.”

Bada obediently replied, but then frowned as though she was dissatisfied. She seemed to be wondering if the black-haired animal in front of her was really her brother. She probably found everything unfamiliar and strange. The fact that they were talking face to face like this, not to mention seriously was extremely odd.

He stood up from the sofa and sat in front of Bada after bringing a chair from the dining table.

“Do it.”

“What?”

“I said do what you’re going to do at the audition as practice. Even if you do it a hundred times in front of a mirror, you should’ve realized that it doesn’t really help that much. If you’ve really prepared, that is.”

“Wh-why should I?”

“Don’t stutter. If you stutter in front of a judge, that itself will deduct points. If a beginner doesn’t even have the guts, no one will take you seriously.”

Bada shook her head, saying that she didn’t want to. She said that she had practiced enough and that she didn’t have to do it here to do well.

“If you can really do well, then you shouldn’t have a problem showing it here. I’m not saying that you should fill up the whole minute. Just show me what you have.”

“I said no. Why are you like this all of a sudden?”

“Let me ask you one thing. If you can’t act now, do you think you can act on the day of the audition like magic?”

Bada, who retorted his every word like tossing a ball back in tennis, suddenly became silent. One of the traits that he knew about her was that she didn’t lie in order to get herself out of predicaments. Just like his mother said, she was someone with the guts to get into fights with girls older than her. She found it shameful to lie in order to get out of a predicament.

“I just have to do it well on the day of the audition. I can do that.”

“You should know very well that what you said doesn’t make sense.”

“Why are you obsessed all of a sudden? Are you sick? Why are you doing this to me? You weren’t like this before.”

“I’m trying to do what I wasn’t doing before. Also, do you know what you look like when you overreact like this? You look like you have no confidence.”

“That’s not true.”

“It seems like it to me.”

“I said it isn’t.”

“It isn’t?”

“It isn’t.”

“Then you shouldn’t have a problem doing it. If you practiced enough, that is.”

“You’re being absurd. Fine, I’ll do it.”

When he poked her pride, he got a response.