After Story 112

"People? That's different. Have you ever created a documentary using people as the subject? I think it was an animal every time."

"Humans are classified under animals, though."

"That's true, but still, it's a bit curious."

"You are at the age where you are curious about everything."

Her father raised a food bowl and asked if she was going to eat breakfast. Sinhye shook her head.

"Why don't you go easy on the alcohol from now on? I don't want to worry about my daughter's drinking problems this early on."

"Sorry, dad. Looks like alcohol loves me. It won't let me go."

"You should refuse from time to time. You'll soon break up if you're the one being dragged around all the time, you know?"

"Alcohol will reject me? Not happening. It's already fallen deep for my charms, you know?"

Sinhye spoke as she looked at her father eating breakfast,

"What's this about a documentary about people? Your job is to observe things, isn't it? Did you perhaps lock someone up in a closed room and observe the change in their emotional state?"

"You're really creative, my girl. I'm sure you'll make it big if you write sci-fi novels."

"You aren't?"

"Like hell the management will allow something like that. We didn't observe an individual, but society and the era."

"That's cool, dad. The observer of the era. That sounds like a line from a play, doesn't it?"

Sinhye grabbed some garlic stalks with her finger and ate them. She felt a little better after eating something spicy.

"Now, stop beating around the bush and tell me. You always had me guess whenever I asked you about what you were working on. Can't you just give it to me straight?"

"Isn't it fun though?"

"Have I ever said that?"

Her father put down his spoon and smiled.

"What do you plan to do after you graduate college?"

"Me? An actress of course. I'll start from a minor actor and climb my way up. It's good to become a star in one go, but the chances of that are slim."

"How about your friends who didn't go to Arts universities? What do you think they're thinking about for the future?"

"Well, after graduation, the next thing will be employment, right? Going to college is just a precursor to looking for a good job after all. It might be called a place for higher education, but aren't they practically an extension of getting specs?"

"Employment. I guess that's the biggest obstacle you'll meet after CSATs, right?"

Sinhye nodded.

"A friend of mine went to a 2-year college, and she's already worried about what she wants to do. After all, in order to apply to big corporations you have to have graduated from a 4-year college. It's not about my life, so I can't just tell her to start from a smaller company either. You should know that better than me. You know the significance of first jobs even though we don't live in an era of life-long jobs anymore."

"I thought you were ignorant, but you seem to be thinking about a lot of things, huh?"

"I have a lot of worries too, you know? I did say I'll become an actress with confidence, but I know it's difficult. Especially if I see people close to me with real talent."

Her father raised the soup bowl and asked, "You're talking about that kid called Park Joohwan?"

"He's one of them, but I saw the real genius yesterday. Compared to him, Joohwan is somewhat immature."

"Genius?"

"Yeah. Don't even start. He managed to recreate characters that we've spent months practicing in just a few hours. He's only two years older than me too."

"He's that good?"

"You'll be surprised, you know? But you don't work with dramas, do you, dad? You don't watch them either. I'll ask just in case, but have you heard about the name Han Maru?"

"One of the construction companies I know is called Maru."

"Told you you wouldn't know him."

Sinhye thought back to the stage yesterday. It was much more worthwhile than when she was getting taught directly by a professor. It was the first time she thought that it was a pity that practice was ending.

"But what's all the talk about employment? Is the documentary related to that?"

"That's the main point: the increase in youth unemployment rates and the decrease in the overall employment rate. What is the truth like for South Korea, after having thought that we overcame the IMF crisis well? Whose shoulders is all that debt pressing on?"

"That sounds heavy from just hearing about it. Talking about penguins would be better."

"Thanks for the discouraging words before the airing."

Her father stood up with the empty bowls. Sinhye closed the lids of the side dishes.

In front of the sink, her father spoke as he turned on the tap,

"I've interviewed a lot of people, I mean young people. That's how the first episode was created: people living in Gosiwon."

"Gosiwon?"

"The doors to large corporations are so small that young people are directed to civil servants instead. The proportion is way bigger than I imagined. Compared to a decade ago, there's a strange amount of people trying to be civil servants. I'm sure it'll only increase in ten years from now on."

"Now that you mention it, one of my friends is preparing for the class 9 civil servant test. She used to be really good at studying too."

"It just goes to show that the times are changing. The awareness that stability is best is spreading amongst young people. It looks like it's not just a trend that will go away with time as it seems to be but the general opinion of the era. And that's why I decided to go with it."

"If I don't make challenges at my age, when else would I?" Sinhye shrugged.

"Maybe it just means that the times are becoming harsher for the young people," said her father.

Sinhye felt that this documentary was going to be on a different tangent than the ones he had made until now. There wouldn't be any pretty corals or cute squirrels. It would be a gloomy story.

She suddenly recalled Maru's voice. A stable and deep vocal tone. It was a voice that made her calm from just listening to it.

"You said that there's still the dubbing to do, right?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"How about you use the senior that I talked about before?"

Her father laughed.

"Dubbing is done by professionals or expert actors. This documentary especially needs someone with a heavy voice. Since it's a story about people in their 20s, I will be looking for young voice actors, but I'm not sure if there will be anyone to my liking."

"There's a saying that you'll get something nice if you listen to your daughter's words."

"I refuse."

"Don't say that and listen to me this one time. That senior's voice is killer."

"Didn't you say he was an acting genius?"

"And he has a good voice as the cherry on top. Didn't you always say that you have to pay back your graces? That senior helped your pretty daughter for one day, so don't you think it's okay to give him a small opportunity like that?"

"If you want to pay back his graces, then you do it. Dad has to do work, so I'll pretend I haven't heard it."

"You might regret it later."

Her father smiled and went to his room. Sinhye shouted at the closed door.

"His name is Han Maru! At least keep that in mind!"

* * *

"You're here?"

Nam Jaehyun gave his half-dying junior a cup of coffee.

"I'll be in trouble if I drink something in the editing room," said his junior while receiving the coffee.

"I can cover for you even if the president comes here, so drink quietly. Rather than that, how's the final cut that we got from the CG team?"

"It's perfect. It's just the picture you wanted. You should have a look at it later. Though, it's pretty boring without the narration."

"Let me have a look at that now. I'll skip over some parts. There aren't any errors with the graphs and numbers, right?"

"You checked firsthand, and then I and the numerous zombies here checked again and again, and we haven't found any problems. If there are any errors at this point, it's not an error on our part. It's the data we got that's an error."

"They're sensitive numbers so we can't get them wrong."

"Of course, we'll be in big trouble if they are."

Jaehyun looked at the screen. He had checked the video several times, but he still looked ardently every single time just in case there was an error.

He had the exhausted junior get some rest and started editing himself.

"Did you get some sleep?"

"I had a good sleep at home after a long time. And you?"

"You can see me. I couldn't be bothered to go home, so I slept in the sleeping area. Senior Bae asked me why I was here when I'm past the point of doing work past hours."

"You should go home and sleep. Only then will the people below you get some rest."

"You think they'll get any rest just because we do? Also, we should be using all our energy because we're in the last spurt. I had a bad feeling when you said that this was the founding anniversary special, but I didn't know it would be this hard. Heck, I think it was better when I was fighting mosquitos in safaris. Interviewing people is more mentally exhausting."

Jaehyun chuckled before going to the next scene. Having gone through the CG team, the video looked just as good as he wanted it to be.

If it was the drama department, things would look awkward here and there because they were so pressed for time.

"Good, it's well-made. The mix of the sound and the video is good too."

The junior watching the screen spoke,

"I'm not sure if I should be saying this as one of the creators, but it's a rather bitter documentary for sure. The rate of suicide has leaped over the past few years, right? The rate of attempted suicide among minors was so high that it made me shocked."

"It just means that there has never been a harsher time for youths."

"But if you look at the distribution of the population according to age, I think it'll be even more problematic in ten years. I wonder if my daughter can get proper employment."

"You should earn while you still can. You'll have to take care of her marriage as well. Being Kangaroos is no longer a matter of other people."

"That's true. Oh, how's Sinhye these days? Is she still causing a fuss about becoming an actress?"

"She already got into an arts university. That happened a year ago."

"Time sure flies. My daughter will soon be in middle school too. She'll be in college in no time, right?"

"Right."

Jaehyun stopped the video. He couldn't find any flaws in the final cut. Adding the narration and adjusting the sync would complete the project for airing.

"Who should we go to for dubbing?"

Jaehyun turned around to look at his junior.

"I don't know. I think we should go with a young voice actor just as we planned, but looking at the video, I think a voice with a heartfelt sound is going to be better."

"You did ask for voice samples from the RBS voice actors, right?"

"I did. Would you like to listen to them first?"

The junior played back the recorded audio. The voice actors read some text for about a minute.

He played back the video and listened to the narration. As they were professionals, their pronunciation and volume were perfect. The problem was that none of them really struck a chord.

"They're all good, but they're lacking something. Should we look for veteran voice actors instead?"

"This is about people in their twenties, so a young voice should be better."

"How about we use singers? I had a look at some documentaries created by RBS that used an idol as the narrator, and it was quite good. It can attract attention too."

"As long as they're good, it doesn't matter if it's an idol or not. But do you think there's one that fits this?"

"That's true. Or would you like to do it instead?"

"Are you teasing me?"

The junior snickered before leaning back on the chair. Semi-laying down, the junior yawned.

"Let's just ask for verified professionals. If we bring some immature kid just because we want to use a young person, it's going to be hell in the dubbing room. You know how disastrous that can be."

"The narration is the cherry on top. We have to go with the best option possible."

"Do you have anyone in mind? It will start airing next week, so we gotta get it recorded. If we can't make the schedule, there's going to be a fuss again."

"Don't you have anyone in mind? Should we just go with veterans instead?"

"Don't shift the responsibility to me. You're the one in charge. I'm just going to go with whatever you want to. If the results are good, I'll get some benefits, and if it's terrible, I'm going to run."

"No matter how far you run, you can't run outside the station."

Just as he was pondering while looking at the paused screen, he thought back to the conversation he had with his daughter.

There was a name right at the end.

"Han Maru."

"What?"

"Since we have time left over, shall we go man-hunting?"

"What the heck does that mean?"

Jaehyun tapped his junior on the shoulder and stood up.

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