After Story 141

"I-isn’t this taking things a little too far?” Mira said. Her voice was so small that it would be inaudible even with hearing aids.

Her eyes were always glued to the ground, and her shoulders were always curled up. It was as if she was born that way.

“Speak louder. I can’t hear a damn thing you’re saying,” Gomchi said as he glanced at Mira.

He didn’t like Dongsik, but Mira was just unbearable. How did it even make sense that they were going to commit insurance fraud with a woman like that?

Having been scolded, Mira curled her shoulders even more. She was shrinking and shrinking.

Gomchi was nearly fed up with her when she kept shirking away without even responding properly. He grabbed the magazine in front of him and threw it at Mira’s feet.

Along with a flop, the magazine hit the floor and opened. Mira groaned and flinched before falling over on the chair.

Gomchi clicked his tongue. Seriously, this woman was quite something.

“You want to proceed with her on board? Seriously?”

Gomchi looked at Gyukho and Dongsik, who were sitting at a desk. Gyukho was smiling as always, and Dongsik looked at Mira in pity.

“Hey, prick. Did Mira do something wrong? It’s because you act like that that she gets scared all the time,” Dongsik said.

Huh? This dude was blatantly siding with Mira. Gomchi pushed his cheek outward with his tongue and spoke,

“Why are we gathered here, huh? Are we here to enjoy a hobby together? Are we here to make friends while looking at faces we don’t even want to see? We’re here to earn money. And not only that, we’ll get cuffed the moment something goes wrong. And yet you want that kind of woman on board? What are you trying to do? Put on a comedy show?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll do better.”

Mira looked nervous. Dongsik said that it was not something she should be worried about and consoled her.

Gomchi looked at the two alternately before letting out an empty chuckle.

“What a load of bullshit. What the hell are you two doing? Are you here on a date? Should I book a love hotel for you? I saw a nice one on the way here. Why don’t you go fuck around there? It looks like you’re forcefully allowing her to join this because Dongsik, that fucker, fell for her, but let’s just give her to Dongsik as his girlfriend and bring a proper dude here. Huh? Gyukho, don’t you think so too?”

Since he decided to do it, he had to do this as cleanly as possible. Scamming was no children’s play, and if they made a single mistake, they would immediately be sent behind bars.

Just what were they planning to do with an introverted kid who couldn’t even speak properly, he couldn’t understand.

“You bastard. How dare you talk like that?”

Dongsik stood up. Gomchi approached Dongsik and pushed on Dongsik’s shoulder with his hand.

“Look at your eyes. You look like you’re gonna hit someone, eh? Fine, hit me. I don’t like having to do something with you anyway. What am I supposed to do with a guy who only knows how to leech off people?”

“And how are you qualified to say any of that? You’re fighting all the time, and you have low intellect and don’t know a shred of restraint. Hey, you know what? When we high school OBs met up, we all decided to not live our lives like you. You’re a brute who only knows how to use your fist. You don’t know how to hold back, do you? That’s why you quit college like that and got fired from your company.”

“I didn’t get fired. I quit, bitch. They tried to extort me with chump change.”

“That company is practically a charity for employing someone like you in the first place. Why else would anyone hire an idiot like you? Hey, can you even do addition properly?”

“Addition? I’m not so sure about addition, but I do know about subtraction a little.”

He smacked Dongsik on the chin. Due to getting hit, Dongsik fell back with a groan.

Mira screamed and trembled in nervousness.

“Shut the hell up. A person won’t die with just this,” he rebuked Mira before approaching Dongsik.

Dongsik was wiping his bleeding lips with the back of his hand and started rolling his eyes left and right when he approached him.

Gomchi could see him panic.

“You were always like that. You would always run your mouth like that and then freeze stiff when you get beaten up. Pitiful bastard. You’re a man with no guts. What can you do?”

He tapped on Dongsik’s cheek with his palm.

“I told you I can do some subtraction right? Let me have a look at whether you’re missing some teeth. If I smash two of your front teeth out, it’s subtraction, right?”

He slightly pinched the frozen Dongsik’s cheek. Seeing him totally scared made him feel like it was ridiculous to fight.

“Done yet?” Gyukho cut in.

Having come down from the desk, Gyukhio flicked a finger as though to signal them to gather around.

Gomchi glared at Gyukho but still followed his instructions. Gyukho was an extraordinary guy. He was worth following. As a practice, Gyukho tried double-billing a car repair fee and it became apparent that it was too easy to get his hands on millions of won.

Gyukho was a natural. With him, it should be possible to earn tens or even hundreds of millions.

However, Dongsik and Mira were unreliable. Dongsik at least tried to use his brain, but Mira seemed like she couldn’t do anything at all.

“Gomchi,” said Gyukho.

“What?”

“You trust me?”

He looked at Gyukho’s deep eyes; those eyes seemed to wander into the depths of time, instead of just looking at what was in front of them.

He nodded. “I do.”

“Then trust Mira as well. She’s not here to fool around. She’s someone who’ll do it if it’s necessary, and we need her for our plan.”

“I’m just iffy, especially with how Dongsik that prick is protective of her. We’re in a position where we’d be doomed with a single mistake, so what if something goes wrong while covering for someone else’s ass?”

“Don’t worry about that part. I’ll take care of that on my end. Also, Mira. You remember what you promised me, right? You have to change. Otherwise, you’ll go back to that gutter.”

Mira nodded vigorously when she heard the word gutter. What circumstances she had, Gomchi didn’t know, but Mira’s expression did change.

“We’re a team. We are each other’s heads and hearts. If one’s missing, then we die just like that. So let’s look out for each other, okay? You know that internal consolidation is important if we want to earn big, right?” Gyukho said with a grin.

Gomchi also grinned in satisfaction. As long as Gyukho, the centerpiece, was here, this team wouldn’t have any problems. As for Mira, he decided that he’d watch her for a while.

“Dongsik, did that hurt?”

“It does, son of a bitch.”

“Remember that and hit me later. I’ll gladly take one.”

Dongsik scoffed.

Although there were many conflicts, they didn’t last long. In the first place, they weren’t gathered here because of some incredible friendship.

They all knew that they had only gathered for the sake of money, so there was no need for needless emotional squabble.

What they needed were skill and guts.

“I’ll also do better.”

Right after Mira spoke with a smile, she seemed to find her nose itchy and she ended up sneezing loudly.

There was a short moment of silence.

“Look at that, even her sneeze is awkward,” he said.

Following that, Dongsik told him to lay off.

Gyukho also smiled and said that it was okay.

At that moment, Mira lowered her head.

“I’m sorry. I’ll do that again. I’m sorry.”

* * *

Maru pulled forward his body, which he had jerked backward. He had to breathe calmly for a while in order for his taut nerves to return to their normal state.

He pressed between his eyes with both of his thumbs, resolving the various emotions that had been spread around in his body, and then raised his head.

Gomchi subsided, and Han Maru returned.

“I’m sorry.”

Gayoung was apologizing with a smile.

Was this the third, no, the fourth time?

Kim Hyuk stretched his arms out and turned around. Maru also stood up from his seat.

“Maru, are my teeth okay?” said Jung Beomseok, the actor playing Dongsik, as he pointed at his front teeth.

“I think they’re cracked. One on the top and one on the bottom.”

“Right? I knew it. Your hit had emotions in it. If we ever have any grudges, then tell me about it. I don’t want to end up with broken teeth.”

Beomseok was someone who had a mischievous attitude no matter what he did. He boasted conversational skills that did not lose out to a comedian, and anyone around him would keep smiling.

Even Kim Hyuk, who enjoyed making others laugh, was helpless in front of Beomseok. It was to the point that even director Lim told him to stop with the jokes.

“It was going good too,” said director Lim. “Gayoung. The others continued the scene well. Why didn’t you just go with it?”

“I was going to, but I felt like it was no good. Didn’t you feel the same? I felt like the atmosphere had changed a little,” said Gayoung as she looked at the other actors.

As the director said, if she followed up with an ad-lib instead of apologizing, he wouldn’t have needed to shout cut.

“Gayoung likes being perfect,” Kim Hyuk said from between director Lim and Gayoung.

Director Lim and Gayoung had been on bad terms since the beginning of the shoot as Gagyoung would object to director Lim’s instructions from time to time, even while being obedient.

It wasn’t bad to the point that director Lim had to point it out, and Gayoung was also being careful not to give the director an opportunity to do so.

“Director. Why don’t we take a break? I need to go to the bathroom.”

“You don’t have to tell me so, so just go. This isn’t school.”

“I’m just scared you’ll grumble about me if I leave without saying a word.”

It was like watching a fight between a fox and a bear.

Gayoung left the place. Director Lim stared holes into the back of Gayoung’s head before leaving the scene with a cigarette in his mouth.

“Wait,” Beomseok said as he poked Maru on the flank.

Kim Hyuk was with him.

“Who do we side with? The atmosphere is really iffy. Hyuk, what do you think?”

“How can we side with either? We have to think about how to make their relationship better.”

“If there was a method to do that, I would’ve tried already. Han Maru, don’t you have anything? You’re the youngest out of us, so you must have a malleable brain.”

Maru shrugged.

“How can I provide an answer to something even you can’t? But before that, why do those two have such a bad relationship? At first, I just thought the director didn’t like her because she was late all the time, but from what I see, that’s just one of the reasons. Gayoung-noona also seemed to be overly annoyed with the director.”

Kim Hyuk and Beomseok both shook their heads.

“At this rate, the atmosphere at the set is going to turn shit. I had a pain shooting the last movie too because the director and an actor fell out.”

Beomseok sighed.

A shoot was something that involved people working with people in everything from A to Z. Naturally, there were bound to be conflicts, which may lead to bad relationships. Eventually, either the director or the actor might change as well.

Most of the time, the actor would be the one quitting, but sometimes, the director would be changed.

For ‘Depths of Evil,’ director Lim was the one who came up with the script, so if the problem deepened, Gayoung would be the one quitting. Though, in most cases, things did not go that far.

Maru massaged the back of his neck. The plot was good, the actors were good, and he even liked the production style, so he was looking forward to this, but an unexpected problem was dragging this whole thing down.

As they were all professionals who worked for money, they would not do something that might harm their work.

However, if the strange emotional conflicts continued to occur, it would definitely affect the final outcome.

This was especially true since director Lim’s nature was notorious for being like a volcano. It was to the point where they would sometimes receive complaints from the local residents because of his shouts.

On the other hand, Gayoung, while looking strong on the outside, was someone who would soon cry after her threshold was reached.

One side shouting, and one side crying.

That would really ruin the mood.

“Thank you for your work.”

When the shoot ended, it was 1 a.m. Beomseok hinted at Maru and Kim Hyuk.

The two of them approached Gayoung.

“Gayoung,” Kim Hyuk called out to her.

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering if we could have a talk. Are you okay on time?”

Gayoung put her lips together before speaking in a pitiful tone.

“I’m sorry, oppa. I’m too tired. Let’s talk next time. You’re okay with it, right?”

“Er, okay. If you’re tired, you should get some rest.”

Maru spoke in Kim Hyuk’s stead since he looked like he was going to send her home.

“Noona, do you have a problem with the director?”

“Why? Do you think there’s a problem?”

“Yes. It sure doesn’t look like you two are in a good relationship.”

Kim Hyuk also expressed that he was of the same opinion with an awkward smile.

Beomseok did the same.

“You think I’m the problem?”

“I wouldn’t know who the problem is. That’s why I think I need to listen.”

Gayoung sighed.

“I’m trying to fix the director’s bad habit. Director Lim, you know, what era does he think he lives in, looking down on actresses just because they’re women? Does he think I’m that easy? Am I that bad?”

As she said that, her eyes became red before she started crying.

The sudden burst of tears not only confused him but Kim Hyuk and Beomseok as well, making them fall silent.

“Anyway, you’re all going to side with me, right? Actors should band with actors.”

The words Maru was worried about the most came out of Gayoung’s mouth.

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