Chapter 460 (1/2)
“Well done today as well. It’s quite cold today, so don’t just take off your tops when you play ball. Also, these days, many students get caught smoking in the park, and I’m not sure about drinking, but don’t ever smoke. Ordinary-looking folks like us don’t look cool even if we smoke, so you really shouldn’t. You’ll really regret it later.”
“Are you smoking because of the taste, then?”
Someone sitting in the 2nd column asked in a joking manner. Taesik, who was the homeroom teacher, chuckled as he ended the school day.
“Maru, see me for a sec.”
Taesik called out to Maru as he left through the front door of the classroom. Maru put his bag on his desk and approached Taesik.
“I saw you on TV. I did watch your acting quite often, but looking at you through a TV does feel quite different.”
“I looked really awkward, didn’t I?”
“Of course not. Even a clueless person like me thought that you were good.”
“So from what I see, you decided on your career path - an actor, right?”
“Yes, I’m going to try. I’m going to go at it head on without any room for regrets.”
Of course, it wasn’t that Maru didn’t have a place to run away. Maru’s iron rule was that he should always have some room for retreat. He couldn’t let a spider put a web over his mouth[1]. The three hundred million won in his bank account was his room for retreat.
“I see. So you’re going to be busy in the future as well?”
“I’m not sure about that. This field is the same as the others in the sense that I have to run around looking for work until I become famous. I think I’m still far from work coming my way without me doing anything.”
“You’ll do well. No matter how harsh this world is, someone who is skilled in one area is bound to be used in that field,” said Taesik as he nodded his head.
They went to the cafeteria and Taesik bought a cup of hot chocolate for Maru. Maru thanked him as he received it.
“You talked to your parents about it?”
“They know that I joined an agency. They didn’t ask anything specific, but they are the kind of people who would let me do something if I set my mind to it, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
Taesik patted Maru on the shoulder and told him to drink. So that was the end of the consultation? Maru sipped the steaming hot chocolate and asked,
“But teacher.”
“Yeah?”
“Have you decided on a date for the marriage?”
Taesik smiled and looked at the paper cup in his hands. After swirling the cup around for a while, he spoke,
“You’ll be hearing good news in a while.”
“Really?”
“Look forward to it. I’m also graduating from being a bachelor.”
“Don’t forget that you need to fit me with a suit once you decide on a date. You know that I was your cupid, right?”
“Did instructor Miso already take over the financial power?”
“That woman’s pretty vicious.”
That last line was a joke, but there was a sense of bitterness that couldn’t just be taken as a joke. As Maru knew how he felt, he silently nodded and drank the rest of the hot chocolate.
“Cheonho’s in class right?”
“Yes, he should be on cleaning duty.”
“Then can you call him here?”
“Understood.”
Maru said goodbye before leaving the cafeteria. Meeting a homeroom teacher like Taesik for even just one year out of the three years of high school would change school life, and beyond that, life in general. A good teacher was just that incredible. Also, precisely because they were incredible, they were dangerous.
“Damn kid, follow me!”
“Cheonho, you should go to the cafeteria.”
“Why?”
“A first year girl wanted me to call you out.”
The boys that were mostly cleaning under the desks all stood up and glared at Cheonho. Cheonho asked back if it was true in disbelief before pushing away the others and running towards the cafeteria.
Seeing him rush towards the main staircase at full speed made Maru feel bad for him. He thought that he should treat the guy to something later. He told the truth to the boys that flocked to him and asked if the girl was pretty.
“What a pitiful guy.”
“He was definitely serious.”
“Maru, you should watch out. He has a knife in his drawer.”
Maru chuckled and replied that he would.
Maru replied that it was simply a career consultation.
“Is he going through us all?”
“Probably. He called Cheonho out just now.”
“Cheonho? He seemed so excited though.”
Daemyung wondered if it was such a good thing to have a consultation with the teacher.
“Did Dowook go up first?”
Maru picked up his bag. Today was Monday. He had to go to Seoul.
“He went to the bunsik restaurant in front of the school to buy some kimbap for the others.”
“He really looks after the juniors quite a lot.”
While putting away the mop, Daemyung asked as though he just remembered something,
“Ah, the tarot you showed me during the day. Do you know what it means?”
“No. I was looking for similar pictures before I turned it off so I don’t know about it. Looking it up on the internet didn’t do any good.”
“I see.”
“Why?”