Chapter 547 (1/2)

“Going home?”

“I just finished, so yeah. Didn’t you finish a while ago?”

Okseon nodded at Maru’s question. This was unexpected. Okseon had never taken the initiative to talk to him until now. She looked like someone who innately refused to join a group. She appeared in places she deemed necessary and liked to stay alone otherwise. Of course, this might be all wrong. She might actually be someone who had a shy personality around other people. The reason Maru had to deduce even such a simple thing was because he knew absolutely nothing about her. Okseon even quietly disappeared during meal times and only came back just in time for the shoot, so there was no opportunity to talk to her.

“Yeah.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I had something to ask you.”

Maru looked at his watch. Okseon’s last scene should have ended 20 minutes ago.

“You should’ve texted me. It seems you’ve been waiting for quite some time.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Kang Giwoo, what do you think of him?”

“Kang Giwoo? Kang Giwoo is Kang Giwoo.”

“You haven’t noticed?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“Okseon.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, but I have a train to catch, okay? There’s not long left until the last train. So if you have something to ask, ask properly. I don’t like puzzles.”

“Good, then I’ll ask right away. Giwoo seems to be copying you, what do you think about that?”

“If he’s copying me, then he’s copying me.”

“Yeah. Is that all you wanted to ask?”

Maru looked at the time. If he missed the last train, he would have to take a taxi and pay nighttime fares. He wanted to avoid that.

“Was I wrong this time? I thought you weren’t like this.”

“I don’t know what kind of Han Maru exists is in your head, but can I get going if you’re going to keep beating around the bush? Nighttime taxi fares are scary.”

“Don’t you need to solve the problem?”

“Is the fact that Giwoo is copying me a problem? If it’s that, you can just ignore it. Whether he copies me or not, it’s up to him.”

“I thought you were more mȧturė than the others, but I guess I was wrong.”

“Me? Of course not.”

“There’s that time with Dongho as well - you proactively solved trouble that other people created. You handled it mȧturėly too. I thought I had a lot to learn from you based on what I saw. However, it seems that I was mistaken. You were just ċȯċky. You don’t know the real problem.”

“No, you don’t know how serious this is. Giwoo isn’t just imitating your acting. He looks like he’s imitating everything about you. Recently, Giwoo’s acting skills rose a lot. I can tell that from how the producer doesn’t say much about him. That’s all thanks to him copying you.”

“That’s good. If Giwoo’s acting skills improve, New Semester’s viewing rates will rise and our faces will become more well-known as well. I don’t see what’s bad about that?”

“You are a really stupid kid, huh. You didn’t calm Dongho down back then. You are just both stupid and somehow just clicked and synergized with each other.”

“Well, this makes me thankful. This is the first time we talk like this after the months we spent shooting together, and the conclusion is that I’m stupid, huh. I always forget that I’m stupid, so thanks for reminding me of that. Is that all you had to ask? Your question should have been answered with the conclusion being that I’m stupid. I think I'll have plenty of time to catch that train if I go now, so can I get going?”

Maru looked at Okseon’s mouth. He thought that she was some female monk who chose to be mute outside of work, but she turned out to be some alien girl from the 4th dimension. He thought that she didn’t have any interest in the others, but it turned out that she had actually been observing everyone this whole time.

He already knew that Giwoo was imitating him. All forms of studying started from imitation, did they not? Maru didn’t mind it since it would be laughable for him to scold Giwoo over copying something abstract. It would be much more beneficial for him to research facial expressions if he had the time to do something like that.

“I told you all this, and yet you’re going to stay still?”

“Please, I beg you. Tell me what you want from me. I want to stay friends with you as much as possible. We are coworkers after all, aren’t we? Even if we can’t be friends, I don’t want to be at odds with you either. But, if you keep beating around the bush like this, I have no choice but to ignore you. You don’t want that, do you?”

Hearing those words, Okseon’s lips twisted. Whew, so she could make expressions like that. She always stayed expressionless except when she was acting, so Maru thought that she switched her emotions off when she wasn’t acting, but it turned out that she could make expressions after all.

“You want me to tell him that?’

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?”

“I think it would be strange instead if I understood.”

“You are really stupid, aren’t you? Don’t you know the meaning behind what I just said? He improved his acting by imitating you.”

“I got that, but I think I’m a bit stupid after all.”

“Then you should obviously make him stop.”

“Like I said, why? You don’t want the reputation of the drama to rise?”

Okseon walked out from the shadows under the school gates. She had returned to being expressionless, but her eyes were still fierce.

“This is why I don’t want to hang out with kids like you. It’s hard to give you advice. What else would I talk to you about?”

“Okseon, did you perhaps lie about your age?” Maru asked with a smile.

“What do you mean?”

“You said ‘kids like you’, so I just asked. If you’re older than me, I’ll treat you as such. If that’s what you wanted, you should’ve told me sooner.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Of course not. I’m just asking purely. I’m a bit stupid after all, so I don’t know the underlying meaning behind words so I just interpret them as they are. You understand that, right?”

Okseon suċkėd her lower lip inwards before biting on it.

“Anyway, you must say that to Kang Giwoo. We are all creating this drama together, but the popularity will be divided among us. Looking at the interviews and news articles recently, I can see that they’re all focusing on Giwoo. Until about episode 4, the child actors were lumped together, but after that, the spotlight is going to Giwoo and Yeseul, these two. This is because Giwoo’s acting skills improved. Yeseul is just riding his popularity.”

“You might not know because you’re young, but this is a fierce competition. If one person becomes a star, then the actors beside that person will just fall to being extras. The viewing rate for this drama is pretty high. From the way it’s gaining more and more views with each episode, it’s clearly gaining momentum so we need to suppress Kang Giwoo before he gets even more attention. Okay? Popularity is limited. The more popular Giwoo becomes, the less known we’ll be, you idiot.”