After Story 149

“Everyone’s living their best, huh? They’re trying hard.”

He put the lip of the canned beer against his mouth. A sip later, the can was empty.

He licked his lips and crushed the can before placing it on the desk.

Looking down from the hotel, he saw many people moving around busily. He followed a man in a suit who was walking quickly while looking at his watch, as though he was being chased to be on time.

He put on a mocking smile and got away from the window. Those people lived such pitiful lives. No matter how busy they lived their lives, the money that would end up in their hands would be chump change. When would they be able to buy a house and enjoy leisure?

“What are you doing?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

He put his arm around a woman who was wearing a shower gown and pushed her down onto the bed. The woman acted coquettish before wrapping her arm around his neck.

“You’re going to be tired if you do this in the morning.”

“We’ll see if that’s true.”

He kissed the woman on the neck before stripping down the gown on her shoulders slightly.

-Okay.

Hearing the director’s voice, Maru loosened his grip on the gown. The partnering actress under him stood up with a giggle.

“Mr. Maru, you can’t do that. How could you laugh like that at the end? I had a hard time holding back.”

“But you had an easier time thanks to it, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. The problem was that I had a harder time stifling my laughter than the acting itself.”

Maru put a blanket over the actress’ body. Coming inside the room, the production crew started cleaning up. The additional shoot was now over.

After putting on his clothes, he headed to where the director was, in the next room over.

“Did it come out well?”

“Why should I bother speaking?”

The director flicked his finger. He stood next to the director and checked the cut they just shot.

The actress’ expression as she fell on the bed was good. The way she wrapped her hand around his neck was also sticky.

A strictly business and sexual relationship was portrayed instead of that of a sweet pair of lovers’. It was exactly the atmosphere that director Lim requested from him.

“That looks good.”

“Should I smooth out the fat on your flank with CG? I can also add more muscle to your back.”

“Do you have money left over?”

Director Lim smiled and waved his hand in denial. He then took his headphones off and stood up.

“You should come with us to drink after we’re done.”

“I’d love to, but there’s someone I need to meet.”

“Hey, you should really drink out with me when I’m the director. Hyuk and Beomseok are also going to be there at night because they have a shoot.”

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s quite a firm refusal. Is it a woman?”

“Yes.”

“A young man says he’s meeting a woman so I can’t exactly hold you back, I guess. Anyway, good work today. Sorry to have you run around like crazy in this weather.”

“If you’re so sorry, please don’t edit me out during the final edit. Give me a lot of screen time.”

“Are you going to drink with me if I say I will?”

Maru shrugged.

“I guess I can’t help but give up on screen time. You should also drink lightly. You let alcohol influence this film too much.”

“Those who don’t drink while shooting are the strange ones.”

After shaking hands with director Lim, he left the room. He bid farewell to the staff members he worked hard with for the past two months. He even made an appointment to eat out together with the youngest member of the production team whom he had talked to a lot with.

“Yes, hyung. I just finished and am heading to the station.”

-I guess taking the train is a lot easier than driving. Good work suffering under the heat of Daegu all of summer.

“I don’t have any schedule for a while, right?”

-Yeah. For about a week.

“Looks like I can relax then.”

-Watch out for your body. You might become busy a week later.

“Something up?”

-Not for now, but my intuition tells me so.

“Looks like I gotta trust that intuition this once.”

After finishing his call with his manager Yeonjin, he got on the train.

He had come down to Daegu in the midst of summer and commuted to Suwon every once in a while, then stayed for another two weeks because of an additional shoot.

In the meanwhile, it became time for some of the tree leaves to change color.

He read a book and looked outside in a daze for a while before he realized that the sun had set and the train had arrived at Suwon station.

He got his luggage and left the train. The night air was rather cool. When he arrived home after taking the bus home, he saw that it was 10 p.m.

He stroked the head of the cat that was lazing around and took a shower.

Haneul was not at home. It seemed that her shoot was being delayed.

“Still at the shoot?” He made a call as he lay on the sofa.

The cat jumped up and sat down on his stomach.

-Yeah. There’s a problem at the set, so things are getting delayed.

“A set without problems is not a set.”

-True.

There was no energy in her voice.

“Are you not in a good condition?”

-I can’t say I’m good. How about you, sweetie? Finish up the shoot well?

“I just got back home. I was thinking that we should eat a late dinner together, but I guess it’ll be hard today.”

-I think the shoot is going to last into the night. You must be tired, so go to sleep without me.

“I’m not that tired. I’m still clear-headed because night and day have been switched around for a while. You aren’t here either. I wonder what I have to do in order to spend this long night without feeling bored.”

-I guess you can play with Ricebun.

“That girl, ever since she started getting along with you, won’t treat me like an owner anymore. At most, she thinks I just give her food.”

As he talked to her on the phone with a smile, he heard a knock on the door.

He didn’t order anything. He stood up and walked to the door.

“Wait sec.”

-What is it?

“Someone’s at the door.”

-I ordered something. I got told that the package might arrive late since our address is the last neighborhood.

He said he understood as he opened the door.

Standing outside was a person holding a phone in her left hand and a plastic bag in her right hand. It was his wife.

Maru stared at his wife in a daze for a while before quickly closing the door. Haneul shouted outside for him to receive the package.

“Looks like they got the wrong address,” he said into the phone with a smile.

-That can’t be right.

“I’m sure. Some weird lady was at the door. I was scared and quickly closed it.”

-I think that lady is going to be angry soon, so how about you open the door?

“I can’t let that happen.”

Maru opened the door. His wife gave him the plastic bag.

“I thought you were going to be late,” he said as he checked the contents of the bag.

He saw some sushi. He had been thinking that he wanted to eat something light instead of something greasy, so it was perfect.

“I came here now because it was delayed.”

Haneul’s voice contained a lot of fatigue.

“Was it hard?”

“The director’s passion was quite something. Moreover, the camera director and the director had a fight in the afternoon. I thought they were going to finish the shoot just like that, but things soon got better and we barely managed to finish the shoot. The director was rather hearty. She’s a general alright.”

“Not as much as you, I would think. You’re going to get washed, right?”

“I’ll get washed after I eat. I’m hungry.”

“What do you want to drink?”

“Just one beer.”

He set up the table to eat lightly. He shooed away the cat loitering around in front of the sushi and took a seat.

Haneul tied her loose hair together and put it above her head.

“How are you getting along with other people? Are you having any problems?” he asked as he poured some soy sauce into a small dish.

“I’m good. The atmosphere at the set is okay too.”

“How about the action? I heard that you had to use your body a lot at the beginning. Are you okay?”

“I think they’re going to shoot all the wire action halfway through, and as for hand-to-hand combat, I’m an expert in that so it was easy,” said his wife while showing her arm. There were blue bruises.

“Easy? With those bruises on your arm?”

“It’s not my fault. The actor I worked with got totally absorbed and swung the wooden bat properly. It was made to break and even had styrofoam covering it, but it still hurt.”

“You should pay them back for it later.”

“Unfortunately, that person died today.”

Haneul put a piece of salmon sushi in her mouth. Her eyes widened as though it was to her liking.

“I didn’t expect much when I bought it at the market, but it’s pretty good.”

“Yeah.”

Maru asked as he took a sip of the beer,

“When do you think you’re going to die?”

“I’ll have to see the order of the scene placement, but I think it should be pretty soon. What scene did you do today, sweetie? You said you had an additional shoot.”

“A scene where I rolled around in bed with a fair lady.”

“You must have had it good, huh?”

“Not much.”

“Why?”

“Your face lingered in front of me.”

“You really can’t lie after all these years, huh?”

“Was it obvious?”

His wife pretended to poke his eyes with chopsticks.

He quickly raised the cat to block her. Being lifted in the air, the cat struggled before becoming limp, as though she was fed up with this.

“Look at her face. She seems like she’s really bothered,” Haneul said with a smile.

For a while, they talked about autumn as they ate. Just as they concluded that it might be good to go on a leisurely hike sometime, his wife stood up.

“There’s something I have to show you.”

She went inside the room and when she came back out, she was holding a small booklet. When he received it and opened it, he saw that it was a product catalog.

“This is practically a photo album.”

Maru flipped to the first page as he read the brand logo that said ‘Eterium.’

He saw his wife pulling her knees towards her while sitting down. The silk clothes softly draped across her shoulders suited her well.

Whether it was her pose, her eyes, or anything else, she didn’t lack anything. She held onto the gazes of the readers of the catalog with her faint presence as though to toy with them.

Literally attractive. That was the expression that suited the photo.

“Didn’t you put too much effort in?”

When he flipped over to the next page as he said so, he caught sight of another model. The first thought that came to his mind was that she looked like someone he knew. Eventually, he recognized that the model was Jung Dawoon.

“You shot with her?”

“You know Miss Dawoon?”

“I told you about Hanjoo Chicken Feet association, right?”

“The actor’s club that you often go to, sweetie?”

“She’s part of it.”

“Really?”

“Looks like the atmosphere around her changed again in this short while. She’s totally different from when I first saw her. From how she changed like this in just a year, it looks like she must have put in a lot of effort.”

“How was she a year ago?” his wife came over and asked.

“She had a feeble impression. I told you about Choi Seungah, right? The girl who allowed me to meet Miso-noona.”

“You did.”

“Seungah’s quite outgoing, while Dawoon was quite docile. But her impression totally changed when I met her at a shoot a few months ago. It looked like she strived to become extroverted.”

He looked at Dawoon in the photo. It must be because of the theme of the shoot, but she didn’t look that suited to this. Even more so because Haneul was next to her.

“Did you treat her well?”

“I couldn’t,” his wife responded.

“What do you mean?”

“Miss Dawoon really hated me. No, I guess it was jealousy to be precise? Now that I think back on it, our first meeting was strange too. It felt like she was strangely obsessed with me. She’s not a lesbian, so she probably didn’t do that because she wanted something from me, so there’s only one cause.”

His wife narrowed her eyes and looked at him.

“You are acting properly in public, right?”

“Your hubby isn’t daring enough to cheat on you. But, there is something that comes to mind.”

He briefly explained what happened between Seungah, Dawoon, and himself. Haneul nodded.

“Now that you tell me that, I think she still has attachments to you.”

“I didn’t give her any opening though.”

“She can make one even if you didn’t give her one.”

“Then looks like I’ll have to tell her properly before things go even more wrong.”

“Tell her off kindly. She was a total kid who’s quick to cry.”

His wife was about to say something more but suddenly smiled it off.

“Should we open another can of beer?” Haneul said.

Maru smiled and brought out some more beer.

After eating, his wife went to the bathroom to get washed.

Maru took out his phone and messaged Dawoon.

Not long later, he got a reply. She said that she couldn’t get back to him because she was busy right now.

-Then contact me when you have the time. I have something to tell you and something to hear from you.

He placed his phone on the sofa.

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