After Story 136

She took out the dried fish from the box. Filefish, squid, octopus, pollack… there were all sorts of things inside. They filled the entire box too, so the price must be considerable.

She put the dried filefish filets on the table since they were packaged in small packs while putting the rest under the sink and in the cupboard.

Eating all of them might wear their jaw muscles out.

“We should hand these out to the people around us tomorrow,” she said to Maru, who came out of the shower.

Maru went to the sofa and sat down with a towel on his head. He looked exhausted like he had used tomorrow’s stamina in advance.

She mixed some cold water with green plum extract and gave it to him. Only after gulping it down in one go did he heave a sigh of relief.

“Didn’t you say you were going to a shoot for Hot-blooded Youths?” she asked as she sat down on the floor.

“I did. I went to the market.”

“You went there to work, so what’s up with all the dried fish?”

“The owner gave it to me as a token of appreciation.”

“All that, just for a token of appreciation?” She pointed at the empty box she put in front of the porch.

How thankful must they have been to give Maru a box full of expensive products?

Maru dusted the water off his hair with the towel before speaking,

“I was originally going to take it easy and finish the shoot there, but I received unexpected help. Thanks to that, the market was bustling like a concert.”

“Help? Someone helped you?”

She felt like this was going to be interesting, so she brought some semi-dried squid and some beer. She poured a glass for Maru while she drank directly from the can.

“There were quite a lot of people when the shoot started. The weather was good, and it was the weekly market day as well. That’s why I started selling squid there. You know how good I am at sales, right?”

“Right, you’re terrific.”

“When I did it, I thought back to when I was selling fruit with you, honey. We would drive around a 1-ton truck and set up stalls.”

“It was not just once or twice we did that, was it? Fruit store, vegetable store, accessories store — we practically ran all kinds of stores imaginable. If there’s one thing we didn't do, it might be a luxury brand store?”

She could think of multiple memories of selling various items off the top of her head. Her husband had always gone outside the store and started attracting customers in a loud voice whenever they ran their own business. Though, at times, he was introverted and was unable to do anything and just stared holes into the door.

She put some squid between her molars.

“Not just that, you were a diamond member in multi-level marketing schemes a few times. Thanks to that, you got into a fight with me a lot and even stayed hostile with my parents.”

“I’d like to say that it was all in the past, but it’s way too vivid.”

“You even had the title of insurance king and car sales king, so, of course, you were good at selling. So what, did you sell everything they had? And that’s why the owner gave you so much as a gift?”

“I did sell a lot, but not to the point that I would get so much. I think it was about an hour into the shoot? People started rushing in from outside the market. I found out later that Suyeon-noona blatantly promoted me on the radio.”

“On the radio?”

“I didn’t expect her to do that. I didn’t ask her to do it, and it shouldn’t have been the president’s order either. One wrong step, and I might have heard that it was blatant favoritism from the public.”

“So Miss Suyeon brought it up on her own accord? You two got close, huh.”

“I really didn’t know she’d look out for me like that.”

“So thanks to her, you sold out everything, huh?”

He shook his head. “Although people did come, it wasn’t that large of a number. They were just people passing by making a visit. I’m not yet an actor who’s charming enough for people to go out of their way to visit, am I?”

“You mean someone other than Miss Suyeon helped you?”

He smiled as though the memory was still vivid.

“Jichan-hyung came to the scene.”

“Jichan?”

There was no one that came to her mind immediately. Jichan, Jichan. When she ruminated on the name for a bit, she recalled a face. He was such a famous person that she didn’t associate him with her husband.

“Jichan from Alt? The idol that you did a drama with?”

“Yeah. Although we do keep in touch from time to time and meet up to drink every once in a while, it’s been quite a while since we met. He’s a busy person after all. I don’t know where he got the news, but he came to the market.”

“I can see what happened. A celebrity of that level must have brought a huge number of fans.”

“Tell me about it. At first, he just came secretly and sold some things for me, but a photo was soon uploaded to social media, and fans started flocking like mad. Even the police ended up coming.”

“It’s not unreasonable since people were gathering without any prior arrangements. But Joong-il market should be pretty wide. Did people fill up all that space?”

“Don’t get me started on that. It was hard to move. It was practically a guerilla concert, alright. Fandom is something incredible. When Jichan-hyung sold the items and shook hands with whoever bought the stuff, people competitively started to buy stuff. Thanks to that, we sold out everything, down to the last item in the warehouse.”

He coughed dryly and leaned back against the sofa.

“The producer smiled in joy. Well, it’s not surprising. The response was good, and above all, an idol member who doesn’t show up on TV but goes around on overseas tours actually showed up.”

“So the viewing rate will increase, huh?”

“Probably?”

Maru groaned and lay down on the sofa. Haneul lightly massaged her husband on the shoulders.

“Good work, my hubby.”

“I feel like I’ve done proper work after a long time. But I think I might have taken things a little too far. I think I’m going to be down tomorrow as well.”

“You don’t have a schedule tomorrow, so rest easy. Oh, right. When do you start shooting your movie?”

“Next week. That’s why I have to go down to Daegu on the weekend. Since we’re on the topic, please look after Ricebun for me during that time.”

“You’re more worried about Ricebun than me, aren’t you?”

“You can feed yourself, but she can’t.”

Her mouth twitched. She pressed down with her thumb into his shoulder blade. Maru groaned and wriggled.

“You should pack your luggage early. Don’t stuff a bunch of underwear into your bag on the day you’re leaving.”

“Okay.”

“You always respond well.”

After slapping his butt, she started cleaning up. After she washed her hands at the sink and came back, she heard snoring. Maru had fallen asleep during that time.

“Old man, you can’t be sleeping here. You should brush your teeth and sleep on your bed.”

“Can’t be bothered,” he replied with drowsy eyes.

She dragged him out of the world of sleep. Even if the world was turned upside down many times, and even if an uncountable period of time had passed, this kind of scenery would never change. That was also what put her at ease.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” he said as he lay on the bed.

She shook her head and turned off the lights. She came out to the living room and turned on the reading lights she got recently and opened the movie script. She flipped over the pages while listening to the faint breathing sound she could hear from the bedroom.

After reading the script from beginning to end, she took out her phone. She went on the internet and saw that Hot-blooded Youths was number 17 on the recent mostly searched terms. Above that was Yoo Jichan.

“Why can’t they search Han Maru too…” she muttered as she looked at the articles.

Journalists in the entertainment industry had written articles mostly centered around Jichan, who hadn’t appeared on TV for quite a while.

“'A new actor’s unexpected relationship. They did a drama together earlier this year.' Journalist, you should’ve written the actor’s name if you were going to go that far.”

She logged in and left behind a comment. Amidst the comments that talked about Jichan was a single comment that said ‘Han Maru, I’m rooting for you.’ Though, it soon disappeared in the wave of other comments.

She walked around the living room while reading her script and sometimes said her lines out in a small voice to practice before going into the bedroom.

There, she saw her husband sleeping with his arms fully unfolded to the sides. He seemed to be quite hot as he had pushed the blanket to the side. He also seemed to be sweating slightly.

After turning on the air conditioner to night mode, she put the blanket over him.

She lay down next to him to get some sleep when an arm flew over her neck. She was about to wake him up and tell him to sleep properly but decided not to after seeing him breathe out.

“He’s a kid, even grown up.”

She pushed his arm away and closed her eyes.

* * *

He felt like he had a nightmare where he got crushed under a building, and when he woke up, he found out the reason why. It turned out that his wife’s leg was pressing down on his flank. It wasn’t just ‘placed on top.’ She had turned her waist over to put pressure.

“If you didn’t like something, you should’ve said it in words.”

Maru smiled and took off his wife’s leg. She had fallen deep asleep while drooling a whole lot again.

He gently took out the strands of hair that had rolled into her mouth. He was pretty sure that there would be a lump of hair in her stomach like a cat’s hairball.

He lightly washed his face and went out for a jog. He had gained a moderate amount of weight, so it was time to manage himself. He wanted a sturdy, reliable body, not a round one.

After running half a lap around the park, he walked for about another 30 minutes. Despite doing just that, he sweated bullets. Summer was still summer; it was hot.

When he returned, his wife had woken up and was washing up. He mentioned briefly the tragedy that happened during the night, about how he had a nightmare because he was crushed by her leg.

“I didn’t do that though?” she retorted, widening her eyes like a rabbit.

Sensing the evil aura contained in those words, he was sure that she was aware of it.

“I’m such a docile sleeper. You know that.”

“Yeah, I do. Of course, I do.”

While he took a shower, his wife had finished getting ready to leave. She was wearing a black suit that made her look leisurely. She was wearing bootcut pants and black high heels. Holding a brown cross bag at her waist, she opened the door.

“I have a meeting with a business client today, so I might be late. You should eat the side dishes in the fridge and warm up the rice in the freezer.”

“You’re a full businesswoman today, huh?”

She smiled. “Friendly Aroma decided to launch a department store this time.”

“That was quick.”

“I was lucky. We’ve also scheduled a collab with a designer shop named ‘Eterium’ in Myeongdong. We were originally going to keep going with an inexpensive brand image, but we kept getting offers, so I’m going to try it.”

“Who’s modeling?”

“This time, it’s going to be me. Yeonjoo said she couldn’t bear to do it. Well, they wanted me to do it too.”

“I can hear your value rising. Don’t you have to resign the contract for your movie, honey?”

Of course, he was just joking. She also laughed and opened the door.

“Since the director recognized me first, I don’t really mind the payment. I’m just wondering how good she’ll make use of me. How’s the director on your side?”

“I’ll have to experience more to be sure, but he has his pride. He’s trying to put an end to the streak of self-replication, so I’m sure it’s going to be interesting.”

His wife started closing the door.

“You look overjoyed to death.”

“I’m looking forward to the day I go to Daegu.”

Slam.

The door was shut.

He turned around and went into the bedroom. He took out the travel bag that he hadn’t used that many times and packed up.

In two days, he would go down to Daegu. This was the first role he got that played a significant role in the story in this life.

It was very good considering that it was an achievement he made in just one year. Although no one could tell what the results would be like, he was satisfied that he received an opportunity at least.

Maru muttered the lines that flashed past his head and packed his stuff.

* * *

“Is that it?” Yeonjin asked after seeing Maru’s luggage.

All he had was a small travel case. He was going to have to spend at least ten days there, so it was quite lacking considering that.

“I only packed my underwear. And a few books to read.”

“Well, I guess that’s all you need. Get on.”

He started the car after Maru got in. Maru, who sat in the back seat, placed his script on his lap and started reading slowly. He looked serious as he did that, so Yeonjin quietly drove without saying anything.

When Maru got out of his position, they were at the expressway stop. His focus was incredible.

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