After Story 99

After Story 99

“Alright, I’ll treat you out sometime. I have been feeling really iffy ever since you left like that, you know? You know how I feel right? I mean, I looked out for you a lot, didn’t I? Remember back when you first joined the club? I looked after you. We really got along well at the first MT too, didn't we?”

-Yes, right.

Sanghoon laughed as he spoke.

“You and I used to get along so well too, but people started having misunderstandings about us after we quarreled for that little bit. I mean, only people who are close get into a fight, right? People don’t fight when they don’t have any relationship. There’s a strange rumor going around the college, but if you happen to hear any of it, just don’t listen to it. You know that people talk bad about other people whenever they feel bored, right?”

-Uhm, seonbae.

“Yes, speak.”

-I’m with someone important right now. I don’t think I can continue calling you for long.

“Someone important? Then you should of course hang up. A junior of mine who has a bright path ahead of him is meeting an important person, so a close friend like me should never intervene. Also, you know that I’m a man of my word when I say I’ll treat you out sometime, right? I’m not saying it out of formality, so leave some time for me. Let’s drink and chat together like before.”

Sanghoon waited while holding his phone with two hands. A few seconds later, Maru hung up.

He sighed and put down his phone. His jaws felt numb because he talked like he was doing a 100m sprint.

“I almost won him over. I was worried for nothing.”

They had known each other for a while. Sanghoon patted his chest. It was a loss for him to be at odds with someone who might become successful as an actor.

He closed the lid of the laptop that had been turned off. The drama’s ending scene became quite a hot topic in various internet cafés and websites. People were curious about the two young actors who decorated the finale of the second episode.

Even Sanghoon, who was basically clueless about the entertainment industry, knew the importance of that interest.

Someone who just showed up on TV was receiving attention. This meant that people recognized that he might have the qualities to become a star.

While he didn’t like that, he had to be on the humble side here. After all, the more connections people had, the easier life was.

Who could tell? He might be able to get a female celebrity as his girlfriend or Maru would lend him money in times of need?

“Sanghoon, you’re so smart.”

He praised himself, saying that shame only lasted an instant. He felt proud of himself. Only those who lined up in front of the right people would be able to win in life. Maru also should have a good opinion of him since a senior was acting low. Of course he would. Sanghoon did so much for him.

Sanghoon drank the rest of the beer.

* * *

“Who was that?” Haneul asked while lying on the yoga mat.

Her waist was bent at a painful angle, though, the person doing the yoga seemed refreshed.

“An old debtee.”

“Debtee?”

Haneul let out a slow breath and raised her torso.

“There’s only one debtee that I heard about from you, sweetie. The 300K from college?”

“Yes, that one.”

“What artistic timing. He called as soon as your drama ended.”

“This man’s a master of wits. He was good at fawning over people from a long time ago. He talks like he’s willing to do anything to those higher than him.”

“How old is he?”

“A year older than me.”

“And he’s already fawning over other people? Looks like he won’t starve anywhere.”

“He’ll get by, even if it means begging.”

“There was always someone like that in every life.”

“That might just be human nature and he’s just faithful to it.”

“If that’s human nature, I’d rather be a monkey.”

Haneul went to the bathroom. He folded the yoga mat and pushed it between the side of the sofa and the wall.

“Get me some underwear and a towel.”

“I told you to bring it with you.”

She was mindful of everything, but she never took her towels and underwear when washing. He put his hand with the towel inside the bathroom and waved his arm. His wife chuckled and snatched it away.

“But hey, didn’t you put in too much effort?”

Haneul’s voice could be heard alongside the sound of water falling from the shower.

“Too much effort?”

“I mean your acting. I think you went a little too far because you were excited to be on TV again.”

“Is that how it looks to you?”

“I like that kind of acting, but I prefer it when you are more plain and deep. Well, I guess the scope of your acting was already decided with the character you were playing.”

“Looks like I should do my best to get a docile role next time. I wonder what’s good?”

“I liked that one. Do you remember ‘Your Spring, My Winter’? The one where you played a college professor.”

“I shot that after I was forty. And that was about flirting with a young student. You liked that?”

“Because it looked good. Did you know that I clenched my teeth really hard when I watched that? The film was really good, but I couldn’t tell if that guy smiling on the screen was smiling because of acting or because he liked the partnering actress.”

“Don’t even mention it. You were nagging me about whether I was grinning throughout the whole thing. I can still remember what you said. Wait, I can’t be the only one to get attacked like this. You also looked overjoyed to death when you were shooting a bed scene with a young guy.”

Haneul opened the bathroom door. She poked her head out of the small gap and smiled mischievously.

“It was good alright. That guy’s chest and abs were so firm. I could do my laundry on it. I think there were about ten thousand people who were lovers with me at film festivals, right?”

“Forget it. I shouldn’t have picked this fight.”

Having left the shower, Haneul sat down next to him, shoving her wet hair in front of him.

“How’s the response to the drama? That production style was definitely worthy of a news article.”

“I didn’t look it up. You know I’m kinda sensitive to things like that.”

“Looks like I should look it up instead of my introverted hubby.”

Maru picked up the cat that came to his feet. Haneul turned on the laptop and started searching on the internet.

“First of all, the drama’s 1st on the search term ranking. Congratulations, your drama didn’t get buried into nothing.”

Haneul shook her hair next to the cat which got some moisture on her. She waved her front paw while struggling.

“You know that’s why Ricebun hates you, right?”

“She always scratches me whenever she sees me even though she sees that I’m with you the whole time. It’s war. A peace treaty fell through, so I’m going to annoy her into giving up.”

She typed on the keyboard again. Maru looked at the screen that changed quickly.

“When did you join internet cafés like that?”

“I’m an owner of my own brand. Of course I made an account so that I could promote things. Though, I’m not doing anything for the time being.”

Maru looked at Haneul smiling and whispered into the cat’s ears.

“Ricebun, just give it up and admit that she’s mommy. You’ll never win against her, you know?”

The cat struggled in his arms and sprung out to escape. She looked at him after getting far away. You can play on your own without me – she seemed to be saying.

“There it is.”

Haneul turned the laptop around so that he could see better. There was a list of articles searched by the drama title.

Maru looked at each one with his eyes. He saw one related to minor actors in the middle.

“A world where the lead characters aren’t everything; A rebellion of minor characters. I don’t know who that journalist is, but he has a knack for naming things. Moreover, it’s not just one. There are about five or more articles similar to this, as though they foresaw that the search rankings would be related to this.”

Haneul clicked on an article.

“Really?”

“I smell a little bit of president Lee Junmin, who will cherish you in the future, sweetie, but from how some named media outlets are talking about it as well, albeit in short excerpts, this wasn’t entirely done through money.”

Haneul showed him some other articles. Although those weren’t written beforehand and the content was quite short, they were still thankful articles that talked about minor actors.

“If you think about it, it’s quite curious. That whimsical god told us that this is our last life and that it will be different from the previous ones, yet Han Maru still managed to meet Lee Junmin. If you think about it like that, maybe you’re tied to him tighter than to me?” She said, her eyes full of mischief but still with a hint of heartfelt jealousy.

“Maybe. Oh, speaking of the president. He got married.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Really?”

Haneul turned around. She, who rarely got surprised, seemed very startled.

“Is it to Jung Haejoo?”

“Yes. He married that person.”

She closed her mouth. Although they were facing each other, Maru didn’t feel like she was looking at him. She looked like she was having difficulty looking somewhere distant, at a place where neither time nor distance could be made out.

“I think it was Miss Jung Haejoo who came to find me when I wished to turn back time, back when the whole repeated reincarnations started. It’s an extremely distant memory and the memories of when I was a rabbit are blurry so I can’t be sure about this, but she too, like us, must have managed to….”

Maru reached out and grabbed her hand. She looked at the hand that held hers before twinging her nose and smiling.

“It’s over, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s all over now. We’re just ordinary citizens bound to common sense.”

“So we should do away with the fantasy.”

She sat next to him after picking up the laptop. Maru put his arm around her shoulder and massaged her lightly.

“Does president Lee still like dogs?”

“The reason I caught his eyes is because of the abandoned dogs public advertisement. Apparently, it was him who paid for it.”

“That’s an amazing coincidence.”

“If it was a public service advertisement about abandoned cats, then we might have never met.”

“Since we’re at it, shall we get a cute, gentle dog who doesn’t scratch instead of Ricebun?” Haneul said as she looked at the cat scratching the dining table leg. The cat glared at her as though she understood what Haneul was saying.

“That’s no cat. She must be a person.”

“Try to get along. You’ll be seeing her a lot in the future.”

“Mr. Han Maru. Is it her? Or is it me? Choose one.”

Maru stayed quiet.

“I see, I guess a young and cute cat is much better than an old wife.”

Haneul walked over to the cat. She picked up the cat that stared at her. For some reason, the cat stayed docile.

“Sweetie! Look at her!”

Haneul immediately got excited and jumped around. The pouting ‘old wife’ from before was nowhere to be seen.

He looked at his wife dancing a waltz with the cat before reaching out to his phone. He had gotten a phone call.

“Yes, mother. Did you watch it?”

It was his mother. At first, she talked about how gory it was and that she barely managed to watch any, but then she asked worriedly about whether he was going to stop appearing.

“That character died, so I guess I should look for my next work.”

-What a pity. I boasted to others that my son’s on TV too.

“I did get on TV. Did Bada watch it with you?”

-She did. She went back into her room looking pissed after watching it. She’s all passionate about practicing now.

“I guess it’s good if she got stimulus. You should sleep now. It’s getting late.”

His mother hung up after telling him that he did good work.

“Mother-in-law?”

“Yeah.”

“What did she say?”

“Good work.”

“It must have been hard to watch because of the rather rough production direction.”

“Yeah, she told me it was too gory. She’s a strong person, but she’s unexpectedly weak with things like this.”

“Strong? Your mother’s such a little girl. You really don’t know a lot about your mother, sweetie.”

Just as he was about to retort, his phone started vibrating. From text messages to app messages, his phone was on fire.

The power of public TV dramas was quite a force to be reckoned with every time he experienced it. The people who he kept in touch with all sent him texts. They were all asking the same things though: was that you?

“There’s no Han Maru who acts smug and spends all his money, right?”

Haneul pointed the cat’s front paw at Maru’s chest.

“Well, I think there’s about a hundred of them.”

“I’ll forgive you until the 5th iteration. No more than that. We still have a long way to go starting from housing.”

“You were always in charge of the financial matters.”

Even as they talked, he kept getting messages and calls. Maru shrugged and picked up the call. It felt like tonight was going to be quite a busy one.