The car stopped because of a taxi that stopped in the middle of a crossroad while tailgating. Sora tapped on the wheel with her index finger.
“Don’t those men know that tailgating like that just to arrive a few minutes early will lead them decades early into the afterlife?”
“I guess they’re just telling the others to crash into them if they have the confidence.”
“Should I?”
“So you’re the one who bought a ticket to the afterlife. I want to go to the afterlife as late as possible, so please hold back.”
Sora puffed the air out of her cheeks and lifted her front bangs. If she didn’t have a horn, she would probably have gotten off and smashed her head into the taxi, telling the driver to drive properly. In terms of recklessness, even Gaeul wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to her. Personally, Maru wanted to have someone like her around him. After all, she would finish whatever job she was given by herself.
“Don’t you find it a waste of time to be driving for someone like me on a golden day like a day off?”
“Looking after you is one thing, but this will also be a part of my career. Also, even though I’m taking a day off, staying at home will be boring, and going on a one-day trip somewhere doesn’t really suit me, so it’s better to work even on a day off.”
“You’re a workaholic.”
“I’m not that bad. If I’m given money to play around, then sure, I’ll leave everything behind and go somewhere. But do I earn money by playing around? Or would I get experience from it? That’s one slogan that travel agencies use that I can’t understand. ‘Discovering my new self.’ Heck. Can you really find yourself just by spending ten days in Europe when you couldn’t do so for decades? If broadening your horizons was such an easy thing, who would go through the pains to study? They’ll just replace it with traveling.”
“If that was the shared opinion of people in their twenties, I guess half of the travel agencies in the country would’ve closed down. Those travel agencies must be grateful to the youths with dreams.”
“Do you have dreams about traveling too? Like, do you feel like you can change if you experience something overseas?”
Maru shook his head. As a traveler of a journey known as reincarnation that no other person would’ve experienced, he could say for sure. He may have experienced hundreds, if not thousands of lives, and yet he couldn’t change his mind about loving a woman. He could not agree with the statement that traveling once could change a fundamental part of him.
“But I do not disagree with the statement that it may become a trigger. There are people who say they have changed,” Maru said as he pointed forward at the moving car.
Sora started driving again and replied,
“I call that an error of success stories. Imitating successful people is a shortcut to ruin. It’s common advertising material too. They sell self-development books, essays, and lessons on life by stimulating the desire that they can do it too, just like those successful people.”
“What did you say you were doing at your work?”
“I’m in the promotion department.”
“I see why you’re saying that then.”
The GPS navigation device notified them that they were at their destination. After turning around a building where people were lined up outside, he saw a café that had been decorated like a holiday house. There were people on the 1st-floor terrace and the 2nd-floor balcony.
“I sent a text that we’d be arriving soon.”
When Sora opened the window and poked her head outside, the people at the café waved their hands and cheered. Maru checked his own face with the camera on his phone. His face felt hot already. He couldn’t afford to become a tomato with BB cream on…. A fan meeting, which he never thought he would have in his life, was right in front of him. It was a nervousness incomparable to standing on a stage.
“Seonbae, don’t tell me you’re nervous?”
“Is it obvious?”
“Holy shit. I did think that something like this was going to happen when you introduced yourself last time on the stage, but you’re really weak at this stuff, huh? Don’t be nervous. It’s not like you’re gonna be eaten. All you have to do there is to smile calmly, say hello, and just talk. You finally got yourself something called a fandom, so you should display yourself properly.”
“Isn’t calling it a fandom an overstatement?”
“You know that girl idol band called Silhouette, right? They grew big enough to hold a concert by themselves. Even that began from a single video from one person before becoming a fan meeting that started from that. Right now, they perform in front of tens of thousands of people, but they only sang in front of four people during their first meeting, when they had seven members in their group. Seonbae, this might be a turning point for you too. Who knows? This small fan meeting might be a legendary fan meeting later?”
“Why don’t you try writing a novel if you ever quit your company? I’m sure you’ll learn really quickly if you learn from Daemyung.”
Sora parked the car in front of the café and he got off. He finally saw the big banner that he couldn’t see before because he was busy looking at the people. Pink hearts were embedded on either side and on top of that was a photo of him smiling. The slogan was simple: ‘Actor Han Maru fan meetup.’ If there was a ladder, he would have gone up and taken it off himself. The people walking by in front of the café looked at the banner as they walked past. He knew that it was lunchtime and there was no one who would care about that, but he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.
“Fans of Han Maru sure are prepared. Seonbae, why don’t we take a photo in front of that?”
He shook off Sora, who was grabbing his arm, and went inside the café. He just wanted to run away to a place where he couldn’t see the banner as soon as possible. Though, he soon realized that looking at the banner was much better the moment he opened the door and looked at the people inside.
Deafening cheers erupted. He felt like a traveler who had first set foot on foreign land. Even though what was being spoken to him was Korean, the words just went straight out the other ear. Mr. Han Maru, Maru-oppa, our actor – they were titles that went through his ears in a flash. He stood dumbfounded for a few seconds before taking a bow.
“Hello. I’m Han Maru.”
He naturally clasped his hands together in front of his stomach. There was a sense of responsibility that suppressed his nervousness. These were people who had taken their time off to come see him, an insufficient actor. He couldn’t give them disappointment on their first meeting.
“Who did the banner outside? It was great,” Sora said as she followed inside.
Her question livened up the awkward atmosphere in an instant. A woman who had sunglasses on her head raised her hand. She said that she could easily make one because her business dealt with them.
“Thank you. But you photoshopped me too much. My skin is on the darker side.”
“You’ll get better if you look after your skin a little. Of course, I’m not saying that it’s bad as you are now.”
“Thank you, even if you don’t mean it. I’ll try my best to get it treated so that I look like the one outside.”
Maru proactively talked to his fans. He thanked every one of them for coming and got to know them. There were things he needed to know for the sake of a smooth conversation. His sense of shame faded out when he started talking to them. Sometimes, he didn’t know what to do when his fans stared at him without saying anything, but Sora came to save him whenever that happened.
There were only about thirty people in total, so everyone got close to each other soon. Although they belonged to a variety of different ages, occupations, and hobbies, they shared the common point that they were fans, so there was no awkwardness. Maru had assimilated with them and was talking with them. It became a talk show where both parties talked, instead of a one-sided lecture.
“I thought you were going to show up until the end in Doctors. It was such a pity that you disappeared midway.”
“Me too. Honestly, a part of me wanted you to hook up with the daughter of the director. I’m sure there might be people who would hate that kind of plot, but I empathized with the character so much that I wished he did well. But in the end, that character just got sent to another hospital.”
“Apparently, that’s what’s realistic. I asked my husband, and while there are people who become resident doctors in the hospital they spent their time in as interns, apparently, some people get sent to other hospitals if there’s friction between other members.”
“How was it for you? Didn’t you feel disappointed because you had to leave midway?”
Questions that the fans discussed among themselves came his way. Maru felt the gazes focusing on him and spoke,
“It’d be a lie to say that I didn’t feel disappointed. It was the first character I played that received so much attention. But it was better for the character to leave the story for the plot. I was told that the writer was torn about it as well, about whether it was the right thing to do to exclude him or not. You know what people say, right? People should leave while they’re still being applauded. I received good opinions, increased interest in the drama, and added an element of freshness to the story, so as a supporting character, I fulfilled my role. If the writer got greedy and invested more time into the character known as Bigfoot, I’m sure the result wouldn’t have been good. The drama has a time limit after all. Assigning valuable story time to a minor character instead of the main characters is getting priorities wrong, and if that happened, the central plot of the drama would have collapsed.”
Maru gave his honest opinion. People who liked things had sharp eyes. Rather than being polite and making roundabout comments, Maru talked about everything he could within his limitations. He wanted to do so too.
He thought that not many people would have any interest in the drama because they were fans of the indie film ‘Starting Point,’ but all the fans here seemed to have watched the drama as they nodded.
“Can I ask you one thing?”
As soon as he spoke, the fans urged him to say it regardless of what it was.
“Tell me honestly. Who here watched Doctor’s Office during the main run, and watch Doctors through a rerun or a download?”
More than half of the people here raised their hands as though they didn’t feel any shame about it. Maru laughed out loud. So viewing rates didn’t lie after all. All of a sudden, there was a discussion about why Doctor’s Office was more interesting. People in their twenties and thirties sided with Doctor’s Office. They were people who tended to get absorbed during watching, so their general opinion was that they didn’t mind the political stuff. The people who liked Doctors mostly did so because of the audio, and Maru agreed with them on the fact that it was easier to understand even after missing a few minutes.
“Next time, I’ll watch everything you’re on during the main run.”
“Me too.”
Maru scratched his head and spoke,
“I don’t know when I’ll shoot a drama again, so you might have to wait for a long time to see me.”
Maru thought that they would tell him that he should soon get another one as a form of encouragement, but the fans were ruthless. He even heard advice that it was hard for new actors to succeed these days, and he should do his utmost best. Maru clapped and said that that was right.
“I created a short video, and while I get that set up, our actor Han will brew each of you a cup of coffee,” Sora said as she pushed his back.
It seemed that there was something else she had set up beforehand. When he came to, he was wearing an apron.
“Uhm, can I take a photo of you? You look really cute in an apron,” said a girl who seemed to be in college.
When Maru accepted, all the fans sitting down stood up. Their hands were all holding phones and cameras that they took out god knows when. Maru even saw some camera lenses that cost as much as a second-hand car. They were indeed fans who prepared for the fan meeting during the film festival. Their preparations and drive were extraordinary.
“Let’s all shoot once each and then shoot a group photo!” Sora shouted.
To Maru’s ears though, that sounded like ‘here’s a mackerel for cheap.’ When else would he experience something like this? Thinking as such, Maru pulled his apron tight and walked towards the fans.
