Chapter 248 (1/2)

“Yes, father.”

“Like, a proper movie, not something with your friends from school?”

“Yes.”

“Hah.”

During breakfast, Maru told his family about his cast in the movie. His father, who was slowly scooping up his bowl of rice looked at him with surprise while his mother, who was scooping up the soup, made an expression of confusion.

“We’re going to read through the script this Saturday, and the filming begins next week. Thanks to that, I might come home late, or even stay the night out. It’s just one scene, so you don’t need to worry about it so much. Oh, the location is in Sokcho.”

His father put down his spoon and asked.

“When was this decided?”

“It’s only been a few days. I took the audition recently.”

“...You’ve grown my son. You’re already starting to take care of yourself.”

His father did not ask man things. He just encouraged Maru to do his best since he started it. With that, Maru was over a hurdle. However, there was still a lot to go.

As a happily married couple, his mother kissed his father goodbye as he went to work and turned around. At that moment, Maru had to smile nervously.

The fathers of South Korea really didn’t express their emotions much. They never asked honest questions to their children despite their curiosities. After all, the ‘image’ of a father was the one where they watched everyone’s back. Maru’s father was someone who also maintained that image. That could be seen from just how he didn’t ask many questions. Meanwhile, his mother also maintained the stereotypical ‘mother’ image in South Korea.

“Why did you not tell me about such an important matter until now!”

As he had expected, his father wasn’t even a proper hurdle. To calm down his mother, who had an intense glint in her eyes, Maru first led her to the dining table. It was his strategy to use his mother’s principles to ‘be quiet during a meal’ against her. When he had his mother sit down, he first gave her a cup of cold water.

“Mom. It’s nothing to be so surprised about. I’m just an extra. There are no problems, and there’s nothing dangerous either.”

“Do you think that’s what I’m worried about? You should have told us if you were involved in such an important matter! Maru, I know that you’ve matured. However, you’re still a high school student. You’re still too young to take care of all that by yourself.”

“Okay. I’ll report everything to you starting next time.”

Maru also planned to tell his family up front, but decided otherwise because he felt that his family might oppose him. As such, he told them after the fact. He didn’t want to be a disrespectful child to his parents, but he also did not want to give up on the things he wanted to do because of family opposition. Since his mother took a step back as well, there were no more problems now.

Breakfast began again and only the sound of chopsticks hitting the ceramic bowls could be heard. From his usually chatty mother stayed quiet the entire time, it seemed that her worries hadn’t been entirely lifted. Maru wondered what he could do to console her as he picked up a soybean side dish. His mother had finished her meal first and asked after going to the kitchen sink.

“So… how much are they paying you?”

Maru smiled and lifted his head. His mother was hinting with her eyes not to lie. She was very strict when it came to things like this.

“A hundred thousand won.”

“So much? I thought it was just one day.”

“Yeah.”

“Do famous actors appear on it?”

“Yeah.”

“Sheesh… anyway, don’t make your mother worried, okay? You should say no if they ask you to do something strange. I heard on the news that people are scamming others out of money by enticing them to become celebrities. You should be careful as well.”

“Okay. I’ll be careful.”

Maru nodded his head.

* * *

It was nearing the end of May. Thanks to the early heat from the summer, the school permitted air conditioners to be turned on during the day. However, it was only ‘permitted’. The air conditioner didn’t actually run. The only things that were working hard were the electric fans.

One noisy student asked the teacher if they could turn on the air conditioner, but the teacher didn’t even pretend to have heard it. Right behind the notice about the permission to turn on air conditioning as probably an even more important one that said that the electrical bills had to be reduced.

“I want to go home quickly,” Dojin spoke in a dragged out voice in a dragged out state as though he was a dried squid.

“Don’t you have to help out at Iseul’s restaurant?”

“...That is my home.”

“...I guess it isn’t easy being the son-in-law that lives with the wife’s family.”

Maru patted Dojin’s back.

“Iseul’s mother told me not to get a job after graduation and continue the store instead.”

“That’s good. You already have a job in this high unemployment rate era. Congratulations.”

“Is this something to be congratulated about?”

“Don’t get distracted. That kind of life isn’t entirely bad.”

Dojin made a powerless smile.

Their homeroom teacher entered with sleepy eyes. He just ended homeroom with a ‘do a thorough job on cleaning’ before leaving. The students rejoiced and got ready to leave.

“Maru, let’s go,” Daemyung and Dowook spoke as they got their bags. From today onwards, the acting club would get busy. They had to remake the props and the costumes from scratch.

“How do we go about making the scene?”

“It’s a holding cell so don’t we need to put up metal bars?”

“And where do we get that?”