Chapter 996. Crank Up 9

Snow had piled up so much that it made Maru worried that the sea in front of Ulsan was going to be covered in snow. The local news talked about it being the highest amount of snowfall in a decade. The main roads were clear to drive as the local authorities responded quickly, but less used roads were filled with snow, enough to make driving difficult. Maru got some coffee from the cafe in the hotel and came outside. Snowplows were moving around busily.

"It did say it was going to snow, but it snowed so quickly and in large amounts. Man, the weather is so whimsical this year," Gyungjin said, following him out.

"Looks like we won't be able to shoot anything with things like this."

"If we are going to do the scenes progressively, then the snow has to melt. If there's suddenly a large amount of snow in a new scene, the genre might as well be fantasy."

"I thought it was going smoothly, but the weather is pulling our leg."

"Yeah."

They couldn't really complain about it to the heavens either.

"See the news this morning?"

Gyungjin put a cigarette in his mouth. Maru left the front of the hotel and walked towards the smoking area near the parking lot. Gyungjin smiled, saying that smoking in the snow tasted rather special.

"The taste of military service?"

"Something similar to that. It would be blissful if I could take a puff while eating some ramyun once I'm done with my shift. Maru. Did you always not smoke?"

"I did smoke a long time ago."

"A long time ago at your age, isn't that high school then?"

Maru winked instead of responding. He couldn't exactly explain that it was in his life before his death.

"Lee Miyoon, you know. She's done for now."

"Are the results out?"

"Yep. I guess even popular actresses have a swift fall from grace. I heard that the number of visitors for her trial was massive. It just goes to show the amount of interest in the matter. The people who went there described what happened in so much detail that it felt like I was there too. Every crime pinned on her was acknowledged, so she's bound to go to prison."

"There's still the appeal process, so she'll probably do various things to reduce her sentence."

"The thing is, it looks like she won't make any appeals. She admitted to all the evidence that the prosecutors provided and acknowledged her sins, repeatedly apologizing."

"So she changed lanes to getting a reduced sentence by showing she's repenting, huh?"

"It looks like it. Even I, who has no knowledge of the law at all, could tell that there's no way out of it. But still, it's quite scary. They say there's no one who's the same on the inside as the outside, but how many people are so drastically different like Lee Miyoon? I was really happy to see her when I met her once before too."

"That's just life for you."

Gyungjin flicked the cigarette before putting it in the trash.

"It makes me nervous that you're so readily accepting that. Maybe you have a huge secret too?"

"Anyone has at least one huge secret."

"Actually, I didn't tell anyone about this, but there are some people who'll be doomed if I say a word. It's just loyalty to those people that are preventing me from saying anything."

"That loyalty, you should take it to the grave."

While smoking, quite a lot of snow had piled up on their shoulders. It seemed that the forecast was going to be wrong when it said that it was going to stop snowing in the evening. They went to the hotel entrance again and dusted off the snow on their hair and clothes. On the opposite side, a child came out and hopped like a rabbit in the snow. The child's mother told the child to stay still, but the child kept leaving footprints on the snow piled on the road.

"They're pretty just around that age," Gyungjin said while looking at the child.

"That's true, they're very pretty around that age."

Children acting immature didn't change whether they were five or fifteen, but around pre-school age, them saying 'daddy, daddy' would be enough to dissolve any kind of anger. They would be so cute that the parents would doubt if the child was really their own.

"Why do your eyes make you look like you have had at least two children?"

"I guess that's how well I'm planning for the future. Living a cozy life with a good wife and a cute child."

"You're way too young to plan something like that though. Twenty-five? No, you're twenty-six now, aren't you?"

"If it was before, I would have had kids."

"How is anything now similar to before? In your twenties, you're supposed to be enjoying life. There's a couple I know who got married in their early 20s and another couple that got married in their mid-20s, but do you know what they tell me whenever we meet?"

"What do they say?"

"They tell me that marriage is happy, and it's worth doing, but, as late as possible, and if possible, never."

"They may say that, but they're probably busy looking at their children doing cute things whenever they go home."

Gyungjin said that he was right with a nod.

"Since we're on the topic, wanna have a look?"

What Gyungjin showed him was a video he supposedly got from his friends of a breastfeeding infant and a baby who just learned to walk. The dad was carrying the infant on his back. When the dad jerked up and down saying 'peekaboo', the infant giggled. The child who just learned to walk was walking with a walking aid toy. He walked towards the mother clapping in encouragement and the dad snatched the child midway and put him in his arms. The child cried the moment that happened.

Maru had a look at Gyungjin's expression. Considering how he said something about getting married as late as possible, he looked like he considered the child adorable to death.

"But they also told me this too. You know how other people's children are so cute; it's not the same when you raise one yourself. There are many times where they feel hateful."

"Newborns put you on the edge. Every single breathing sound will make you teeter on the edge of life, and if the poop color is bad, then it'll make you worried sick for the rest of the day. If they wake up in the middle of the night and start crying, you hate it, but the child still makes you feel unease. Then when they start mumbling, you find it curious but feel like the world is collapsing once they start throwing tantrums with fluent speech. By the time they grow up to form their own opinion, they somehow feel distant and you start wondering about what acting like a father is. Then you hear people around you saying that you should act like friends and then resolve to get closer, but the gap between you and the child can't grow any longer."

Maru talked as though he was regretting the past. The figure of the child remaining in his memories made his heart stuffy just by remembering her. The child that still wasn't in this world yet might never get to see the light of day. There were definitely cases where he died in an accident before her birth. If such things as souls exist, what would happen to that child's soul, which wanes before it is even born? When he thought about it, he felt endlessly sorrowful and endless longing.

"Right now, you just sounded like you experienced that yourself. Do you perhaps have a hidden child? Is that the secret you can't tell me?"

"No way."

"You should really stop acting in everyday life. It'll confuse the people around you. I always have to stay in bed for a few hours once I do a scene with you. You know how many times I was slammed against the wall two days ago, right?"

"That was your death scene, so you put your effort into it. You were the one who said that we should do it again when everyone else said that we should stop there and move on."

"Is that what happened?"

Maru cautiously put the figure of his daughter 'Gaeul' that lingered in front of his eyes into the drawers of his memory, hoping that he would be able to see her in this life.

Gyungjin pointed at the sofa placed in the lounge, saying that they should have a talk if he didn't have anything else to do. Just as they were about to sit down, Maru's phone vibrated. Gyungjin's did also.

"Looks like our work was set out for us."

Gyungjin checked the message. Maru also had a look at his phone.

-We'll do a shoot tomorrow afternoon depending on the weather. We'll do the ending scene first.

It was a message from the assistant director.

"The weather's like this, so even the director will skip scenes, huh? The shoot for this title was definitely easier since it's shot progressively unlike other works."

"We got this much snow after all. From what I heard, the director apparently planned on creating the right environment at the beginning of February, even going as far as to use a snow machine if necessary, but the skies have created a free-of-charge set for us, so we might as well make use of it."

When Maru received the third edition of the script for the first time, the first thing he saw was the opening and the ending. He could remember the first line of the text without looking; Knee-deep snow. Considering the snow piled up right now, it should reach above the ankles, if not the knees. The ending began with Gukji walking through such snow. The camera would capture him going into the mountains while clutching the stab wound on his flank. After the head manager's dying voice fades out, the film would then rush towards the final scene without a single word like a soundless film.

"I won't be appearing on camera, but I'll go cheer you on. It's obviously going to be a tough shoot."

Gyungjin tapped him on the shoulder. As he said, it was going to be a difficult shoot. Maru always thought about an image before a shoot began. He thought about how things would unfold and what kind of picture they would create. For the ending scene though, he couldn't think of anything. It only felt vague. He would probably feel just as lost as when he did the first scene once he started the last scene.

"I guess I'll have to do it to the death then."

"I'll watch over you next to a warm heater."

"Then don't come. You'll make me feel terrible."

"It's just a figure of speech. Oh yeah, have you told Miss Gaeul yet?"

Gaeul said that she would definitely make another visit before the end of the shoot. It was out of formality more than anything else, but Gyungjin seemed to be looking forward to it.

"There's no way such a busy person will come again, is there?"

"It'd be great if she does. It was just for a single day, but the atmosphere was so good. Cheongho-hyung and the camera director had dad smiles the entire time."

"She's a ball of charm, so it's not surprising."

"Tell me honestly. You have an interest in her, don't you?"

"Is there anyone who doesn't?"

"Oh? Look at you. You're friends, huh? If it ever works out for you, please give me some help too. I'll be okay with anyone who's a friend of hers."

"You should look for someone close by. Not someone from afar."

"There just isn't anyone close by."

Gyungjin giggled before going up to his room, saying that he wanted to take a rest. Maru watched the people coming to the hotel in the lounge for a while. Many people came and went, but the ones that caught his eye were the parents holding the hands of their children. It was an affectionate scene he could never get tired of seeing.

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