Chapter 235 (1/2)
“Yes!”
“Really?”
“Yes!”
Maru looked at the two people as he ate the sliced cake with cashew nuts on it. Seeing Joohyun, Yoojin had a passionate smile on her face that was never seen from her before. From how her hands were shaking on top of her knees, it seemed that she was excited by no small amount.
“That was unexpected. There aren’t many in the younger generation that like me.”
“No way! I like you to the point that I’ve collected all the magazines that you did interviews with. I even remember what you said in QC.”
“QC? You mean that?”
“Yes, that!”
“You really have it? Even I don’t have one…”
“During the interview, you…”
“Told the media ‘fuck you’?”
“Yes! I was so refreshed by those words so I never threw it away. You were so cool, unni.”
“You’re embarrassing me.”
Hm, Maru didn’t know what that was about, but he tried to stand up so as to not bother the two. Both of these women weren’t ordinary. It would be a pain for him if he got involved. However, as soon as he tried to lift himself up from the chair, he saw Joohyun staring at him.
“Going somewhere?”
“I’m planning to go somewhere else so you can have a nice talk together.”
“It’s fine, you can stay here. Or perhaps you’re not comfortable with me?”
“Well, I kinda am.”
The other party was a top-tier star. Thanks to that, he could feel an uncomfortable amount of gazes hitting the back of his head. Some were even approaching them. No matter how much he didn’t care about other people’s opinions, he wasn’t capable of eating comfortably in the middle of attention from over a hundred people.
“That’s not good.”
Joohyun covered the part above her chest and stood up. Then, she said to everyone around.
“I apologize, but I’m here on a private matter today, so don’t mind me and do your business as usual. You know what I mean, right?”
A crisp voice resounded out. Everyone returned to their seats as though they were possessed by something. Although some of them were still giving them glances, it was solved with a glare from Joohyun.
Everything quietened down in less than a minute.
“Is that enough?”
“Unni, that was so cool.”
Maru smiled bitterly and sat back down again. A top-tier star sure was different. It seemed that anyone who reached the top of their field, regardless of what their field was, had a unique charisma to them. On top of that, Joohyun was known to express what was on her mind without restraint. No one here would want to get an earful from her just because they pissed her off.
“But hey, you look like someone I know. Who was it again?” Joohyun asked as she looked at Yoojin.
“Oh, you’re probably referring to my mom. Choi Jung’s Hair. Do you know about it?”
“Yes!”
“No wonder you looked familiar. An aspiring actress huh. Are you cast in this movie as well?”
“Yes. Though, I’m an extra…”
“Really? Congratulations. I was obediently going to school when I was your age. You’re something.”
“You swept the awards by storm on your debut though, unni. Compared to that, I’m nothing.”
“No way. You’re so pretty. If you have acting skills down, then you’ll become bigger than me.”
“Not at all. How can I become bigger than you, unni? Heheh.”
Heheh? Yoojin had become completely defenseless. It seemed that Joohyun wasn’t as simple as an idol-like figure in Yoojin’s mind.
“Uhm, unni. Can we take a picture together?”
“Of course.”
“Wow, thank you. Hey! Han Maru!”
Maru grabbed the phone that was flung at him. She really was careless. Joohyun put her arm around Yoojin’s shoulder, while Yoojin reached out and hugged Joohyun’s waist.
“Here it goes. Say cheese.”
After taking about three photos, Maru gave the phone back to Yoojin. Yoojin received the phone as though she was handling her family’s hereditary treasure.
“Han Maru,” Joohyun called out to him.
“Yes?”
“I’ve seen your audition tape. You were good.”
“...Thank you.”
The flattery was rather unexpected, so he was a beat late in saying thanks. The conversation they had on the school stairs that day was a little emotional so he felt that he would feel uncomfortable with her, but there was nothing like that. In fact, Joohyun looked at him with a smile as though she had found an interesting creature. Maru was very uncomfortable with that gaze. Yoojin seemed to have finished checking on the photos as her ears were perked up, listening to Joohyun’s words. It seemed as though she would listen to any of Joohyun’s words.
“I was a little surprised. I don’t give advice like that often. Just as I detest others interfering with the things I do, I don’t really like interfering with other people’s lives. But when I looked at you, you looked like you just needed a final push. That’s why I said a few things back then. Though… from what I saw in the tape, you only took in the parts you needed and threw away the parts you didn’t.”
“Is that how it seemed to you?”
It wasn’t that Maru proactively tried to change something about himself. He just acted as normal. To a certain extent, he agreed with Joohyun’s words that he should get to the bottom of his emotions, but he did not see the need to put it into action. That was because… he already had a taste of what it was like at the bottom, no, an even deeper abyss than that. Death, that felt like something the word ‘brutal’ or ‘tragic’ couldn’t even begin to describe.
“It wasn’t? I thought my advice to release everything you have worked on you. The act you did in front of the camera had depth to it that is hard to find from people of your age, so I thought that you had a moment of epiphany.”
“That advice was definitely useful, but it wasn’t that practical in my case. I just acted as I normally did.”
“Really? That’s strange. You were different from the time I saw your stage last year.”
Different - Maru closed his mouth and thought about that word for a while. He was reminded of that peculiar moment back at the audition. The frustration about the unfairness of being driven to death welled up inside him and he released it in the form of acting. It was quite an honest self-confession, and he had never expressed his honest emotions like that other than when he had a drink with Moonjoong. Oh, there was one other occasion. It was when he confessed to her. However, the quality and level of emotions he expressed in those two occasions were drastically different to what he showed in the audition. His inner thoughts that he expressed to Moonjoong and her were pure. There was no malicious intent. To compare it to color, it was close to ‘white’.