Chapter 258 (2/2)

“Then as a senior who has shot dramas multiple times, I shall give you advice. Hm, hm, bear this in mind since it’s an expensive piece of advice”

“I don’t like expensive things, so I’ll forgo it.”

“Listen to me. Let me act like a senior once.”

The conclusion was that she wanted to act like a senior. Maru sighed before looking at Yoojin. Yoojin raised her index fingers as she spoke.

“This is something that a senior actor has told me during shooting. ‘The camera only records the present’, and the other one is, ‘The one with more guarantee has more power’.”

“I don’t think that’s a suitable advice for a young fellow.”

“What’s that? You’re not the type to believe in Santa Claus even now, are you? Little kiddy Han Maru?” Yoojin said in a joking manner.

“Santa does exist. It’s just that he doesn’t appear in front of evil people like a certain someone who uses someone else’s girlfriend as a threat.”

“Oh no, you don’t wanna go there.”

Maru shook his head after seeing that Yoojin was planning to threaten him by taking out her phone.

“Do you have a guy you like?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I’m gonna become his friend, and we’ll hold a bachelor party.”

“That’s just being childish. And also, what’s a bachelor party?”

“...Forget what I said. What the heck am I saying to a kid.”

Maru felt nauseous after that as well since Yoojin kept talking non-stop. Although she was a noisy girl usually, she was especially talkative today.

“Hey, are you doing this because you’re nervous?”

“Who’s nervous?”

Although she talked back as though it was nothing, it seemed that Maru had hit the nail on the top of its head from how she looked away from him. Well, she was about to act with actresses that she had admired for so long, so it wasn’t that surprising. Perhaps the reason she called Maru out like this was also for her to shake off her nervousness as much as possible by talking noisily.

“Do well and don’t get nervous.”

“I’m not getting nervous,” Yoojin grinned back at him.

“We’re here.”

They were in front of the JA building. Although Maru had visited this place several times in the past, today felt somewhat new. There were a lot of people in the first floor lounge, and they were split in half right in the middle. On one side, people with phones, cameras and recorders were clearly moving around in a fluster, while the other side was busy with phone calls. It seemed that the former side were journalists and the latter side were the managers.

They two passed by an employee who was explaining the situation and took the elevator upstairs. The read-through was going to take place on the 7th floor. This was the floor that JA Production was using. Like when Maru came here for the interview, he followed the guide and walked down the corridor to his right. He walked down the corridor with glass walls and turned left once. He saw many people underneath the sign that said ‘Conference Room 1’. Just like on the first floor, there were people with cameras and managers. Everyone was waiting with a cup of vending machine coffee in their hands.

At that moment, a man with a short haircut approached Yoojin.

“Look who’s here. It’s been a long time, Lee Yoojin.”

“Ah, hello, journalist.”

The two greeted each other warmly. Maru got off to the side. The two seemed to be quite well-acquainted as they were smiling when they were talking to each other. Whenever the journalist talked about something, Yoojin giggled while covering her mouth. She looked very polite unlike the very down-to-earth appearance she showed Maru.

After their conversation ended, Yoojin walked towards Maru.

“You’re popular. A journalist knows you.”

“We got acquainted when I did a drama a while back. But I don’t really like him since he’s quite trashy, but I didn’t think I’d see him here.”

“Trashy? You two looked quite close back there.”

“I don’t want to get on the journalists’ bad side from the get go. If you want to continue down this line, you should practice your smiles you know? You won’t get any photos taken with a stiff expression like that,” Yoojin spoke as she poked Maru’s cheeks.

“But do we need to wait here as well?”

“I don’t know. Since everyone’s over there, we should be there too, don’t you think?”

Yoojin looked around when the journalists erupted into an uproar. They emptied their paper cups and picked up their equipment.

“Journalists, you should know this by now, but you can’t cross this line! Please abide by the rules!”

An employee appeared out of nowhere and spoke as he pointed at the white line on the floor. Maru stood behind that line as well. Somehow, he ended up standing with the journalists. Not long later, someone appeared at the end of the corridor. She was holding a bottle of water in one hand.

“Ahn Joohyun is here.”

“It’s her first commercial movie in four years. Take a good photo of her. We’ll upload it on the article immediately.”

“Hey, don’t push.”

The journalists started taking photos. Despite the fact that they were indoors, camera flashes were everywhere. Maru saw that Joohyun didn’t bat an eyelid despite the blinding flashes, and thought that she was a true pro.

Joohyun walked towards Conference Room 1 after waving her hands once towards the journalists. Someone that seemed to be her manager opened the door for her. She turned around one last time before she entered.

“What are you two doing over there?” Joohyun pointed at Maru as she spoke. The journalists all suddenly turned around.

“When did you switch jobs?” Joohyun gestured towards the two to come to her. Maru scratched his eyebrows and walked towards the conference room.

“You should’ve waited inside if you arrived.”

Maru looked behind him before speaking.

“This is the first time I saw something like that. Rather than that, you’re quite popular.”

“I’m a pop start after all. But I don’t really like it. I know that there is at least one person among those journalists that wrote a bad article about me. Should I go tell them to erase my picture?”

Joohyun smiled and talked about things that would be controversial without batting an eyelid. An actress that could swear during an interview was really quite daring. Yoojin, who was following Maru, spoke.

“Unni, you were really cool.”

“You can just give them the fuck you later as well. The pronunciation is important. It’s not ‘Fuh Q’. You should clearly accentuate each word. FUCK. YOU.”

“Hahaha.”

The two ladies entered the conference room joyfully. There were many people already seated in the conference room. On the long central table were some name tags with the names of the characters in the movie. There were chairs lined up against the walls as well, and there were people with scripts on those chairs as well.

‘Looks like extras are on the outside.’

It seemed that the central table was reserved for the main and sub roles. Joohyun boldly sat on the table. Of course, in front of her was the name of the character she was acting.

Maru sat down on one of the chairs in front of the right wall. One man who was sitting there, greeted him. Maru greeted back.

‘It’s definitely heavy here.’