Maru stood up as he grabbed the cardigan on his lap. Choi Hyunjin, who was approaching him quickly, stopped about five steps away from him. She looked like she was about to ask for a handshake in a friendly manner, but she suddenly started smiling awkwardly. Maru was puzzled as well. Why would she approach him so amicably? Considering that the first time they met was a week ago during a shoot, she looked strangely kind to him.
“Uhm, you told me I can drop the honorifics with you, right?” Hyunjin asked.
The person who just called him by name and said something about how she found the ‘right person’ suddenly looked rather nervous. Maru smiled for now. Hyunjin would probably be at unease if he did not.
“You’re going to use polite speech with me again? You don’t have to. We said we’ll drop the honorifics last week.”
“But still, after I called you, it sounded somewhat awkward.”
“What’s there to be awkward about? A senior wants to drop the honorifics with a junior.”
“Right?”
Hyunjin approached him by another two steps.
“What are you doing here? Everyone else is going out to eat.”
“I was about to go home since I’m done with my shoot, but the director told me she wanted to talk to me, so I’m waiting for her. She said she’d be back soon, but she hasn’t been back for a while. I wonder what she’s doing.”
“If it’s the director you’re talking about, I saw her run towards the parking lot.”
“The parking lot?”
“She was in such a hurry that I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
What could have happened for her to rush towards the parking lot? Hyunjin was worried that it may have been an accident.
“Please give me a moment.”
Maru turned around and picked up his phone. A call had come from Jayeon, who supposedly ran off in a hurry. Jayeon apologized for making him wait. There was an agitated voice mixed in the call. There was a woman who was getting angry. He could overhear something about parking and insurance, so it seemed that Hyunjin was right and there had been an accident.
“Director, did you get into an accident?”
-This ahjumma tried to run for it after crashing into my car, but thankfully, someone stopped her and called me. Madam! If you crashed into someone’s car, you should call the owner and talk about it first!
“You aren’t grabbing her by the hair or something, right? No matter how nonsensical the other party is, you can’t do that.”
It didn’t seem to be a major problem. The lady who crashed also seemed to be getting angry because of the shock. She seemed like she would apologize given enough time to calm down. There was a possibility that she would act entitled until the end, but once Jayeon’s eyes flipped and she started nitpicking, anyone would roll their tails between their legs.
“Come back once it’s all done. I’ll be waiting.”
-Would you like to eat something for now? You can eat something expensive. I’ll buy it for you.
“If that’s the case, I’ll be eating Hanwoo sirloin.”
-That’s taking things a little too far.
“So take care of it as soon as possible and come over.”
When he hung up, he saw Hyunjin staring at him.
“It’s the director, and she got into a little accident. No one’s hurt or anything; a lady tried to run for it after crashing into the director’s parked car.”
“Something like that happened to me before, and back then, someone really calm apologized to me and left me a contact number, so I managed to sort things out easily.”
“That’s the norm, but there are times where people try to gloss things over by getting angry. Do you have a shoot today?”
Hyunjin shook her head. She said that she had work near the TV station and was just visiting to say hello to the director.
“But she just walked past. It’s rather weird to go say hello now, so I’m going to go for today. Maru, are you going to keep waiting?”
“The director told me to eat something. I was just getting hungry, and I don’t have anything to do, so I’m going to stave off my hunger while waiting for her.”
“By yourself?”
“Yes, by myself.”
“If you don’t have anyone to eat with you, may I join you? I’ve also yet to have lunch. I’ll treat you.”
Hyunjin hesitantly waited after telling him that the gukbap restaurant in front of the TV station was good. She looked at him cautiously and looked like she would get hurt if he said he was going to eat alone.
“I didn’t do anything worth for you to treat me, so you don’t have to.”
“That’s true, but… nothing. Looks like I shouldn’t have said anything. It might be more comfortable for you to eat by yourself.”
“I’m not saying that I’ll eat by myself. I’m saying that we should pay for our own meals. Where’s this good gukbap restaurant you’re talking about?”
Hyunjin immediately brightened up and led the way. Maru thought about Woofie, who would be at the house. The dog’s expression as she wagged her tail while bringing a drool-drenched ball and asking him to throw it looked just like that. They left the set and crossed two roads. There was a gukbap restaurant in an alleyway that he usually did not use.
“Only people who know about this place come to this place. Whenever there’s a get-together around the TV station, I always come to this place to sober up. A senior told me about this place as well.”
The broth was boiling inside a cast iron pot. There were two items on the menu: Dried pollack gukbap and beansprout gukbap. Maru ordered beansprout gukbap. The gukbap came out before even five minutes had passed. He took a spoonful of the white broth and ate it. It was refreshing without any sort of smell.
“Pretty good, right?”
“I want to open a bottle of soju. I should be a regular in the future.”
“I guess it was worth introducing you to this place.”
After eating some more, he added some spicy paste, which was on the table. Hyunjin said that it was used instead of chili powder. The broth was still first-class after it had turned spicy. He was reminded of Gaeul, who said that she wanted to drink a refreshing broth. Whenever she had a heavy drink, she looked for something hot to drink as food the next day. She would probably love it if he took some home.
Maru was eating a spoonful of the gukbap when he saw that Hyunjin’s hands were completely still. She was stirring the gukbap with her spoon just a while ago. He was near his limits of playing dumb. She was expressing with her whole body that she wanted to say something.
“You have something to say, right?”
“No, that’s not entirely true.”
“Usually, people who say that do have something to say. You introduced me to such a nice restaurant, so if you have anything to say to me, please go ahead.”
He did somewhat expect this to happen when she asked to eat together. She was not the type of person who would naturally talk to people who she felt a sense of distance to. He had only seen her for the first time last week, but he could tell that much. After all, the only reason she decided to drop the honorifics was the director jokingly telling them to get closer.
“I just wanted to thank you.”
“Did I do anything that you needed to thank me for?”
While there was a bit of silence, Maru looked back on the events that occurred during the past week, but he didn’t remember doing anything that might have made her grateful to him.
“I was so grateful during the shoot. I was at a loss as to what to do with my emotions, but you guided me. I feel really sorry and grateful for that.”
“People can’t be perfect all the time. It was just that I was in a good condition that day while you weren’t.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a good condition,” she said as she looked down at the floor.
“Don’t be like that. You were good that day. I’m also terrible on bad days.”
“In my eyes, I don’t think there was ever a time you did badly. I watched you during the shoot from time to time. Although they were short scenes, you never made an NG. I was really curious and envious of you.”
“A minor character doesn’t have much to do. It’s because my lines were all simple.”
“Well, I don’t think I can do such a simple thing.”
Maru looked at Hyunjin as he put his spoon in his mouth. The reason she looked like she lacked energy was probably because of the articles. Among the numerous articles that talked about Doctors, the drama, some of them talked about Choi Hyunjin’s acting skill and how it was bad. The middle-aged actors showed their experience, while Lee Heewon was considered one of the best among actors in their twenties, and Yoonseo had managed to remove her label as an idol. The only shadow cast over the good evaluations of the main cast was Choi Hyunjin.
“I was praised for my acting on my 2nd year of debut, but now that it’s been ten years, I’m only hearing that my acting hasn’t changed.”
Hyunjin sighed while stirring the gukbap before eventually apologizing with a smile.
“I didn’t ask to eat with you just so I could complain about my own life, but I ended up doing it.”
“That’s understandable. If you are having a hard time, it’s good to grab just anyone and talk to them about it. I almost broke down while suffering by myself like a fool until just a while ago, but a thankful friend realized the state I was in first, so now I’m all good.”
“Thanks for telling me that. But that’s unexpected. Honestly, I thought you wouldn’t listen to things like this.”
“Why?”
“I dunno, just the atmosphere around you?”
Hyunjin’s eyes looked up.
“I do look rather expressionless. My sister tells me I look cocky, while people close to me take it a step further and tell me I’m cold-blooded. I even heard that I’d get the Academy Award if I just hold a knife if I’m supposed to be acting as a murderer.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“Thank you. Your words put me at ease. But if you leave that any longer, that thing will no longer be gukbap but porridge. There’s still more time, so you should eat even if you have anything more to say.”
Only then did Hyunjin start eating. Maru sent a text to the director saying that he was eating at this gukbap restaurant. Jayeon replied to him that she’d come after wrapping things up. From how she was still tied down in the parking lot, it seemed that her opponent wasn’t ordinary either. Maru put down his phone and watched Hyunjin eat for a while. If anyone asked him what ‘eating blessedly’ looked like, he would reply that it would be the woman in front of him. He locked eyes with Hyunjin who was placing a kkakdugi on top of her spoon.
“Am I too unlady-like while eating?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You seemed to be looking at me so curiously.”
He just smiled because that made him flinch inwardly. Hyunjin, who was chewing with all her energy, suddenly looked forward in a daze. Maru turned his head to see behind him. ‘Doctors’ was being rebroadcasted on the muted TV. It was the scene that they shot just last week. It was the scene where he was talking to Hyunjin in the corridor. The owner, who was looking at the screen with them, gave them a glance. When he met eyes with her, she winked at him. As her business was right in front of the TV station, she didn’t look at celebrities like they were rare animals.
“You look much better in real life than on a screen,” said the owner.
Maru smiled and told her that she was a beauty as well. He received good words, so he had to return them, even if he didn’t mean them.
“It was that time, when I felt grateful to you,” Hyunjin said.
Her eyes were on the TV, but what she seemed to be looking at was a week in the past.
“You can stop thanking me. Also, you were really good back then. The director shouted cut in excitement.”
“The thing is, I was dazed because I felt like my own acting wasn’t my own.”
Hyunjin put down her spoon.
