Chapter 298 (1/2)

“Where did you come from?” The man asked politely.

Byungchan told him that they were here for the drama.

“Please park your car behind the school. There might be problems if you park it elsewhere, so try to park it as deep inside as possible. I hope you can park next to the people from the TV station. Did you get that?”

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

The man then saw them off by touching his security uniform hat once.

“Phew, it’s somewhat nerve-wrecking.”

“Do most schools have a janitor’s office at the school gates?”

“Well, the school I went to certainly didn’t have one.”

“Mine doesn’t have one either.”

Byungchan slowly drove along the edge of the school field to the back of the school.

“Wow, this place is huge.”

Even Maru was slightly shocked when he saw the parking lot and another school field that was hidden behind the school building. Two school fields for one school? The field near the entrance had grass and soccer goals, but the field at the back had tracks for the track and field activities. There was also a tennis court, a basketball court, and a futsal field around the outside.

“This place must be operated by some large foundation or something.”

“This place is incredible.”

Byungchan spoke nervously. Maru wondered what it was about and looked where Byungchan was looking. There were cars on either side of the parking lot, and every single one of them was a high-class sedan. On the left were cars produced within the country, and on the right were imported cars. It looked as though a slight nick would cost an average man’s salary. Even the wheels looked premium and just looking at them made Maru laugh in vain.

“Why are there so many cars that people would never be able to afford with a teacher’s salary?”

“How would I know? Hey, look at that one. Isn’t that a sports car where you can open the roof?”

“Wow, that probably costs as much as a house right there.”

They finally understood the reason why the janitor warned them to park their car ‘deep inside’. There was no way teachers drove such cars, so they must belong to the parents of the students here. Maybe there was some kind of parent meeting? In any case, Maru was flabbergasted at the completely different scale of fortune displayed here.

“It’s over there.”

“When does the shoot begin?”

“Uhm, it’s 12 according to the schedule, but it probably won’t start exactly at that time. I have a lot of experience taking part time jobs like this one, and there was always some wait.”

Just then, Byungchan got a call. While he was on the phone, Maru looked around. He saw someone giving orders with a walkie-talkie in hand. He was probably the producer or the assistant producer.

“Supplementary characters, please gather round!”

A woman who had tied up her short hair above her head used a cone as an amplifier to shout. Maru tapped on Byungchan’s shoulders to get his attention and pointed at the people gathering around. Byungchan covered the microphone on his phone and told him to go.

Maru walked past the school building sandwiched between two school fields and walked along a clearly landscaped path until he reached a smaller building compared to the main building. It was a building that couldn’t be seen from the school gates. It was a gym building with the entire front wall covered with windows. So schools like this do exist, huh.

“Please find a gym uniform that matches your size and change into it.”

The woman with the red cone pointed at the gym uniforms as she spoke. There were around ten people that came with her. They all started rummaging through the pile of clothes before going to the toilet inside the gym to change. Maru also changed into a gym uniform of suitable size. There was no smell since they seemed to have washed them properly.

“They’re currently shooting in the main building right now, and after that, we’ll shoot a basketball scene in the gym. There are students in class right now so don’t disturb them and try to move around on this side as much as possible. It’s also absolutely forbidden to smoke here so don’t smoke. I won’t be responsible if you get caught smoking, okay? You’ll have to wait just a little until the shoot starts.”

“Okay.”

The supplementary characters replied in a calm voice. They looked young, but they all seemed to be in their 20s. After the woman left, people gathered under a shade. Although they all looked different to each other, they took similar courses of action - dazing out. Some people started to read books, but not long later, the books became pillows instead. Maru also took out an MP3 player. He decided that he should enjoy this moment.

People started lying down on the cement floor one by one. They were still getting paid for this, right? This was a very good part time job.

“Stand up, all of you.”

Maru opened his eyes when he heard the sudden voice. There was a man standing in front of the sun. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt and had a handkerchief tied around his head. He looked at the supplementary actors with sharp eyes.

“This is supposed to be a road for people to walk on. Who told you that you can lie down? Huh? Sit down if you’re going to wait.”

Hearing his words, some supplementary actors sat up like new soldiers that just entered the military, while the rest just slowly sat up while trying not to piss him off any further.

“Geez, this is why we can’t pick just anyone.”

After grumbling, the man left.

“Who the hell is he?”

“He’s the leader. Is this your first time doing this job?”

“Yes.”

“You can just ignore him if you don’t plan on doing this for long, but if you do want to do this for a long time, you should really not piss him off. He’s the one that decides which actors to pick for the supplementary roles.”

“Ah, okay.”

Maru found out the identity of that man after overhearing the conversation. Leader, huh. Any kind of workplace had a management-level personnel in one form or the other, so it wasn’t that strange for there to be one for supplementary actors.

“He’s quite a picky man. I heard that he was promoted to leader after working 8 years as a supplementary actor. He’s someone that knows the hardships of this job well, but he never cares about us.”

“That’s not good.”

“But what can we do about it? He has a lot of connections around here so we have to get on his good side. There are about three places that get their work through him. He does swear at me a lot, but I’m still thankful for him since he provides work for me.”

“You must have it hard. Have you done this job for a long time?”