After Story 188

"Come on in,” Maru said as he opened the door.

Daemyung stiffly walked inside. It was because of the things he had heard before they arrived.

He rolled his eyes and looked at the pair of slippers in front of the porch. There were two pairs. The two cushions placed on the sofa also entered his eyes.

“What are you doing, standing still like that?”

“You’re living together for real?” Daemyung asked as he took his shoes off.

He had heard about this before, that couples would live together in the same house. He never thought a close friend of his would be doing that though.

“You can live together for fake then?” Maru responded as though it was nothing much. Haneul, who followed them in, smiled and went into what was presumably the main bedroom.

He looked at the living room where there was a big TV.

The whole house was clean. It felt like a well-decorated model house. Even the wallpaper and the curtains were of matching colors.

“This is good.”

“What is?”

“The house. It’s nicely designed.”

“We put in a lot of effort.”

“Haneul must’ve worked hard.”

“She didn’t do it. This was all me.”

“You?”

Daemyung looked at Maru. This friend he had made in high school was definitely not the type of person to organize his house like this. He had the average sense of dirtiness of South Korean men.

He had once visited Maru’s house after he had been discharged from military service. It was moderately dirty and moderately messy, a single man’s residence that could be seen just about anywhere.

“So even tendencies can change when your personality changes, huh?”

“What’s so bad about my personality?”

“I was complimenting you. I’m proud that you’ve become a better man. I guess military service changed a man?”

“I don’t think it was the military.”

“Well, the military doesn’t create men. It ruins them.”

There was something that caught his eye while talking. It was a cat right behind the door on the opposite side of the main bedroom. It was the cat he had only seen in pictures.

He quickly came down from the sofa and crouched down before clicking his tongue.

“Kitty, come here.”

He tried wooing the cat for a whole minute, but the cat did not respond at all. In fact, it seemed to be wary of him.

While he had never raised one, he had quite extensive knowledge about cats. He was an over-the-internet cat owner.

“She’s picky even with me.”

Maru approached the cat. The cat stared at him for a moment before going inside the room.

“There’s no cute side to her.”

“Isn’t that the charm of cats?”

He wanted to touch the cat, but he was also afraid that he would get bitten. If even the owner was having a hard time, it wouldn’t be surprising if it scratched unfamiliar humans.

“Ricebun, come over to mommy.”

Haneul came out of the room after having changed her clothes.

He had forgotten because they were eating and quarreling over her writing, but she was a very beautiful woman. It was no wonder that she became an actress.

The cat appeared at Haneul’s call.

It raised its tail high up in the sky and relaxed it before raising the front paw in front of Haneul, as though looking for a hug.

“She’s so docile.”

“Only to her. I’ve been feeding her and washing her for years too.” Maru grumbled as he sat down next to him.

While they laid out the drinks and snacks that they had brought, Haneul came over with the cat in her arms.

“She likes being petted.”

Haneul lifted the cat by the sides and placed it in front of him.

He carefully reached his hand out to pet it from its head to its waist. The fur was stiffer than he had expected.

He then went a little further and touched right below its chin. The cat snapped its neck his way and glared at him. It seemed to be telling him to be respectful.

“She doesn’t like being touched on the face,” Haneul said.

Daemyung wanted to squeeze the cat’s face like foaming a kitchen sponge, but he didn’t dare. He saw a glimpse of the claws hidden underneath the squishy front paw.

“I’ll be satisfied with just looking.”

Pets, whether dogs or cats, were best to look at, instead of raising your own. Raising one, in other words, living with one, was no ordinary amount of work.

Daemyung took a few photos of the cat, which seemed to take interest in the snacks, before grabbing the beer glass. He talked about the things he couldn’t finish talking about at the restaurant while drinking.

Honestly, he had never talked to someone about writing before. He didn’t have anyone to talk to about it, and talking about dreams also felt rather pathetic.

However, Maru, and by extension, Haneul, were different. They quietly listened to him, sympathized with him, and asked him questions.

They didn’t say anything out of formality. That made him excited. He didn’t know that talking about his dreams was such an enjoyable thing.

No, he probably knew that. After all, he always talked about his dreams when he was young. He just stopped talking about them ever since he had gotten older, gotten mature, and the weight of his dream became too much of a burden for him.

“Still, it comes to me as a surprise that you’re an actor and that your dream was to be one,” Daemyung said as he looked at Maru.

This fellow, who had claimed that he would become an actor four years ago, had made his words true.

He first seemed to shoot an indie movie, and before Daemyung realized it, he was appearing in a commercial movie, and now he was in a drama that everyone around him knew. He thought that Maru was amazing.

“It’s quite surprising. Even I didn’t know things would be like this. Luck was a very important factor.”

“Everyone says that luck is the best and that you can’t do anything without luck, but I think differently. I believe that everyone has good luck. I believe everyone encounters a similar number of lucky events. It’s just the difference of whether they can use that luck or not. And that’s what skill is.”

Perhaps thanks to the alcohol, he could keep talking without stopping. He could even talk about the things he would usually not talk about out of embarrassment.

“Right, grabbing that luck is a skill,” Haneul said.

“Daemyung, is that an empty bottle?”

Maru, who was smiling, pointed at the bottle. Daemyung grabbed the bottle and shook it. The once full beer bottle was now bottoming out. The other bottles were the same.

“When did we drink so much?”

“Right. Did we have any more in the fridge?”

Maru stood up and headed to the refrigerator.

Daemyung spoke as he looked at his friend going to get more drinks, “If you live together, who does the household chores? The Maru I know isn’t the kind of great man who would do something like cleaning.”

“You’ll probably freak out if you know how much of a clean freak he is, you know?” Haneul shook her head.

“The interior design of this house, was it really Maru who did it?”

“Some were things that I bought, but Maru basically did all of it. He applied the wallpaper, hung up the curtains, changed out the flooring and even the tiles in the bathroom.”

“How can someone change so much? It’s like he’s a totally different person.”

“Maybe he is a totally different person?”

While talking to Haneul, Maru returned. His hands were empty, indicating that the refrigerator didn’t have any alcohol either.

“It’s somewhat too early to end it like this, so I’ll go buy some more. Wait here.”

Maru put on a hat and opened the door.

“Want me to go with you?”

Maru waved his hand in denial.

“It’s cold, so don’t bother. You two can chat, or maybe talk about what to do with work from now on. You’ll be working together from now on, after all.”

Maru left through the front door, saying that he’d be back soon. Daemyung chuckled before looking at Haneul.

“But do you really need my help?”

“Desperately.”

“Don’t you need to look for a professional instead of someone like me? At first, I thought it was on the level of a hobby, but now I know it isn’t.”

It was apparently a scenario that was planned to become a movie with monetary investment and everything. This wasn’t child’s play, but a world of professionals. Would she really need his help, when he couldn’t even become an amateur?

“You talked about luck before, right? That everyone receives a fair share of luck, and skill is about grabbing that share.”

“I did.”

“How about now? Don’t you think my proposal is luck that went your way?”

“It is luck. You’re doubling what I get from part-time jobs, so it’s definitely luck. But I’m just wondering if you really need someone like me.”

Haneul gave him a glance. The stare didn’t feel too burdensome. If she looked at him like this during their first encounter at the cafe, he would’ve been startled and turned his head around.

“Daemyung.”

“Yes?”

“It’s not really a saying I like, but I found out that something was rarely wrong in my life. A person’s value is not something they prove by themselves. It’s what others decide for them.”

“A person’s value?”

“I believe that you’re sufficiently helpful. I have saved up a considerable amount of money, but that doesn’t mean that I spend it easily. I only do so when it’s necessary.”

Daemyung knew that Haneul was an executive member of a rather well-known cosmetics company and that she was an actress who had debuted in a commercial movie. Maybe because of that, the weight of her words felt heavy.

“This is also a form of investment.”

“There’s a reason to invest in me?”

“There is. You’ll probably regret it later in due time, you know? That you wrote for me for just hourly wages.”

“I don’t get a single cent from writing right now. Would I really regret that?”

“You never know. Anyway, I only glossed over this at the restaurant, but since we’re on the topic, let’s come to a verbal agreement. Your commuting hours are up to you to decide, but you have to come to the studio. Your work will be to talk to me about the scenario and supplement my writing. Depending on the situation, I might hand everything to you.”

“Hand to me the task of writing the whole scenario?”

Haneul softly nodded.

“You said this is for a movie with investments and everything. Is it okay for you to do that?”

“Of course, I’ll have to check over the scenario you wrote. But it should be fine. The investor has pretty much blind faith in what I do.”

“I don’t know what the situation is like, but I’d be down for it as long as I can get money while also being able to focus on writing.”

“Good. Unfortunately, I can’t get you the four major insurances. I’m not trying to run a business here.”

“I don’t even wish for that far.”

“Then let’s have a handshake as a token of our contract.”

He lightly grabbed Haneul’s hand.

“I’m the contractee, then?”

“You’re getting paid, so you’re the contractee.”

“Looks like I’ll have to do my best to look good to the contractor.”

Maru and Haneul. These two were the same age as him, but they were really different. Compared to the two of them, Daemyung felt rather pathetic about his experiences.

While he was toiling away in construction zones, these two had not only found their own paths but had also achieved decent success.

He was thinking that he was doing okay since he had jumped into the workforce a lot earlier than everyone else, but now, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Why do you suddenly look dejected? Because of our newly defined relationship?”

“No, it’s not that. I just feel like I wasted my time.”

“Is there truly wasted time? I believe that such things don’t exist.”

It seemed that she didn’t say those words just to console him as it seemed that she genuinely thought so. That encouraged him even more.

Maru was so blessed. Where did he find someone like this?

“How did you end up dating Maru?”

It wasn’t that difficult of a question, but Haneul stayed quiet and fidgeted with the beer bottle.

She slowly stroked the lip of the glass before speaking again,

“He always looked for me. Whether I was hiding or running. He always came for me. He really is a tenacious stalker. It’s no wonder I ended up falling for him.”

In the end, Haneul smiled brightly. It was a weird answer for sure, but he somehow accepted it.

At that moment, the door lock opened and Maru came back.

Daemyung spoke as he looked at his friend holding plastic bags in each hand,

“Hey, you’re back, stalker.”

Maru said with a frown, “What the hell did you two talk about?”

He smiled and looked at Haneul. Today was the first time he met her, but he was already feeling relaxed around her like he was with Maru.

Haneul said that it was nothing much and told him to sit down.

“This is why you don’t leave meetings. People immediately talk bad behind you.”

Maru took out some drinks and snacks.

After that, they talked without end while drinking. Even after the snacks and drinks ran out, they did not stop talking.

When he realized it, it was 4 a.m. This was the first time he had stayed up the night chatting.

“Use these.”

Haneul tossed over some duvets before going to the main bedroom.

He and Maru lay down in the living room. His mouth was feeling sore after all that talking.

Just as he felt like he was going to pass out the moment he closed his eyes, something warm took a place next to him. It was the cat.

“This is good.”

Daemyung smiled and closed his eyes.

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