He saw his phone ringing and left for a moment. The smell of burnt charcoal, which he couldn’t smell inside the restaurant, became vivid again. He took the call next to the vending machine right outside the restaurant.
-Seonbae-nim.
“Oh, it’s you, Bangjoo.”
-Yes. I have something to ask. We need to be in Seoul by 9 tomorrow, right?
“Yes, by 9.”
-You’re taking the train, right?
“Probably.”
-My sister says she’ll take me there by car. Do you want to come with me as well?
“Senior Joohyun said that?”
-Yeah. She’s taking a break tomorrow, that’s why.
“That’s good for me.”
-Then why don’t we meet at 7 at Suwon station?
“I’m okay with that. Then see you at 7 tomorrow.”
-Yes.
Bangjoo replied vigorously. After hanging up, Maru sighed. It was a tiring day. He turned around his head to have a look inside the restaurant. The minor actors were laughing and talking to each other. When they just arrived at the restaurant, they all asked him what his relationship was with Suyeon, but they soon lost interest when he said that he just met her once before during a shoot. The one that led the conversation after that was number four, Moon Gwangseok.
His phone was indicating that it was 6 o’clock. It had been a whole hour already since they arrived at the restaurant. They had talked enough as well and it was about time they separated. He went back to the restaurant and sat back down. They finished up all the meat, and they were eating fried rice and doenjang-guk.
“This is just between us, but the actors we saw at the set today, don’t you think they are bad at acting?” Gwangseok spoke as he looked around the table.
“Bluntly put, even we can do that much, right? But they look down on us too much, especially that Lee Miyoon. I don’t know what the heck is wrong with her. I almost stepped in and shouted at her to stop.”
“She did take it too far.”
“Yeah.”
The others agreed with him.
“Apparently, she’s well known for bullying minor actors. I also heard this from someone else, but there should be a lot of people who gave up being an actor because of her,” a woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses spoke.
“Oh really?”
“Yes. If she doesn’t like someone, she just blatantly picks on them like she did today and makes them leave by themself. Also, this is just a rumor, but apparently, she sleeps with men that are a lot younger than her.”
“How evil.”
“But there’s actually quite a lot of people like that. Human trash, I mean,” the woman with the glasses sighed faintly. Everyone paid attention to her.
“I went to a commercial high school and didn’t go to university. I was an accountant for a small company before I decided that I want to become an actress. I guess I’ve been working there for a year. During that year, I experienced a lot of things. I’ve met people that couldn’t be described with the word ‘trash’, and had a really hard time until I was eventually driven out by them. At that time, I thought that it was just this place that had some really weird people. But I found out that I was wrong. In the entertainment industry, there are even worse people and more of them.”
“There are always evil people that leech off others.”
Gwangseok consoled the woman. He patted her shoulders and even grabbed her hand. He was hitting on her even at a time like this.
Maru didn’t say anything and just scr.a.p.ed the fried rice off the pan with his spoon. He did not want to hear rants from people that just entered society, nor did he plan to tell them about it. In the end, they had to experience it for themselves. The dirtiness and vileness of society could only be understood after seeing it for oneself.
What was supposed to be a place to get close became a place for ranting. Of course, their target was Miyoon. No, it wasn’t just Miyoon, but everyone at that place. Someone’s bad at acting, someone’s picking on them too much, and someone is too talkative.
From how they were getting more heated up due to the conversation, it seemed that they were going to continue this topic for quite a while. He ate the slightly burnt rice. For a brief moment, people looked at him, but when he smiled back, they just nodded and went back to their conversation. They were probably thinking that he was too young for all of this.
“Aren’t you going to eat more?”
“So you were hungry. You can eat a lot. You still have it good. Once you graduate high school, it will be hell,” Gwangseok spoke.
“Yeah. You should play around while you’re still in school. You don’t get why we’re so angry right now, do you? You’ll understand a little once you graduate and enter college, that a.d.u.l.ts are scary.”
The woman with the pink lipstick, who sat next to the woman with the glasses, spoke. She scattered some crushed laver.
“Should I order some more meat?”
“No, this is fine for me.”
“Hey, you should eat a lot while this hyung buys it for you. Once you grow up, you won’t get any of this treatment.”
Those words came from a man sitting opposite Gwangseok.
The flow of the conversation naturally went towards talking about their middle and high school days. Maru inwardly smiled as he watched them. Those were the good days – such words were said even when he was forty-five. He would reminisce about when he was still thirty, and treat his thirties as the golden years. However, when he was thirty, he reminisced about when he just finished mandatory military service and thought about how good it was back then. During the military, about university, and in university, about high school days.
In the end, if people could not be satisfied with the reality they’re living in right now, they would not be able to look at the future. Even though time came from the past and was going towards the future, people’s minds always thought about the past and longed for the past. He knew this because he experienced it himself.
It wasn’t that retrospects were bad. Sometimes, it could be a form of motivation for living. Thinking about how reckless one was in the past, and how stable they are currently. However, talking about such things while drinking like this was meaningless. Even more meaningless than the fried rice in front of his eyes. Fried rice had some nutritional value, but reminiscing about the past had none of that at all.
It only pained the mouth.
That was why he just moved his spoon.
“But we came all the way here. Many people quit before they even become a minor actor. But we are getting screen time even though we’re young. It means that we’re doing well. As long as we don’t encounter people like that woman who finds joy in blocking other people’s ways, we’ll be able to become good actors. Here, raise your glasses. Maru, you can toast with coke.”
Gwangseok poured soju for everyone. Maru raised his cup with coke in it and toasted. Clang, his cup clanged with the soju glasses. Everyone started drinking soju, but one person stopped halfway. It was the earphone girl, named Choi Gyunglim. She participated in the conversation once in a while, but she stayed silent most of the time. She smiled when she checked her texts on her phone, but she stayed expressionless when she talked with the other minor actors. People seemed to have noticed her attitude and did not talk to her at all. They only asked her ‘don’t you agree?’ from time to time when they needed to lead the conversation in a specific direction.
With more alcohol in their bodies, they started talking bad about Miyoon and the other actors even more fiercely. The conversation looped again and again. This meant that it was about time they stood up. Since some of them looked drunk, now was the perfect time to finish things up.
“Actually, I was planning to say something to that woman!” Gwangseok pointed at the empty air as he spoke.
“She has no skill, who’s she to bully someone else? I was really going to talk to her about it, but she stopped as soon as she saw me look at her, right? You know, I do look a bit fierce.”
“Right, right,” the woman in glasses spoke.
The two seemed to get along well. If they finished things up right now, they might hold hands and walk straight into a motel. As Gwangseok looked brave and had decent looks, he looked quite likeable. That is, he looked likeable. Anyone who paid attention to the way he spoke would have their affection graph towards him fall rapidly like the stock market graph during an economic crisis. The woman in glasses seemed drunk and didn’t seem to have enough reason to notice that.
The others also told Gwangseok that he did well to hold it in.
It was funny at this moment. Maru had the urge to shoot everything that was going on right now with a camera and show it to them the next day. At this point, it was a black comedy.
“Not like you would be able to say anything to her when you’re actually in front of her.”
A small voice could be heard. Fortunately, thanks to Gwangseok’s noisy chatter, the others didn’t seem to have heard it. Maru looked at Gyunglim who sat opposite him. Her face was bright red. It seemed that she was really weak with alcohol.
“Such a showoff,” she spoke again.
Maru scr.a.p.ed his spoon on the pan in hopes that her voice would be covered by the noise. Please, let’s part ways nicely. His wish seemed to come true, only to be destroyed by Gwangseok turning his head around.
“What was that?”
Gwangseok’s face became rigid as he looked at Gyunglim. Being glared at, Gyunglim didn’t say anything. She looked very fl.u.s.tered. She spoke all that because of the alcohol getting the better of her, and it seemed that she was panicking slightly now that he actually heard her.
“Hey, you’re funny. I’m a showoff? I’m just saying the truth.”
“Hey, Gyunglim. You have really bad manners. You don’t like us, do you?” The woman in glasses fixed her glasses as she spoke.
Everyone’s attention was now on Gyunglim. Gyunglim said that that wasn’t what she meant, albeit just barely. At that moment, she looked at Maru.
Maru simply ignored her and focused on putting the rest of the fried rice onto his plate. The minor actors all spoke out to her.
“Hey, why are you so uncooperative when we have to stick together? You really aren’t likeable.”
“You aren’t planning to tell that woman what we said, are you?”
“No way, that’s just harsh. We just talked bad about her together, she’s not human if she tells that woman on us.”
Gyunglim kept defending herself by saying that she misspoke. However, it seemed that the others didn’t plan to see her in a good light since she hadn’t been participating in the conversation since the beginning.
“Let’s go for a 2nd round. Gyunglim, you’re going home, right? From looking at your face, you need to stop drinking.”
“Yeah, you should go home and get some rest.”
“What about you Maru?”
“I can’t drink, so there’s no reason for me to tag along. I should go home as well. I live in Suwon so I’ll be home late even if I go now.”
“Then you should get going quickly.”
While Gwangseok paid the bill with his card, the others went to the bathroom. It seemed that factions had formed already as the woman with the glasses and the woman with the pink lipstick were hooking arms, giving a glance at Gyunglim before they stood up. The only ones left at the table were Maru and Gyunglim.
“You could’ve helped me out a little,” Gyunglim spoke as though she was wronged.
It seemed that she didn’t like how he ignored her when she looked at him for help.
“Why would I?”
When he asked back, she bit her lips, having nothing to retort.
Like what happened during the day, she really lived without thinking. Her personality was decent and bright enough to make jokes, but she was too light-mouthed. She was the type of person that would run into big trouble because of blurting out something unnecessary.
“Didn’t I tell you that you shouldn’t say things you can’t take responsibility for? If you said all that because of alcohol, then you should really stop drinking in the future. A grown-up should be responsible.”
“But he’s acting all c.o.c.ky and it’s unsightly.”
“How ironic. You told Gwangseok-hyung about how he wouldn’t be able to say anything in front of that woman, but I see you’re doing the exact same thing.”
“That’s….”
Gyunglim stuttered. Maru clicked his tongue as he stood up. Gwangseok was a tiresome person, but this woman was even worse.
“I’m going then. We’ll meet again if chance allows it. The people we met today, you might meet them again if you continue doing actor work, so be close with them.”
“…Okay.”
Gyunglim spoke as she looked somewhere else. He tried to meet her eyes, but she kept looking somewhere else awkwardly. She was someone that brought out her pride during unnecessary occasions, but couldn’t say anything when it was truly important. She was neither smart nor capable. If she was kind, then at least that would be a good part about her, but she wasn’t that either.
Gyunglim suddenly put on her earphones. Then, she stood up, picked up her bag, and left. The other minor actors, who were talking outside, just laughed in vain when they saw Gyunglim walk by.
Maru shook his head and left the restaurant.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
“Alright, be careful on your way home, and see you next time.”
“Yes.”
Separating from the rest of the minor actors, Maru started walking towards the train station.
