Life, Once Again!

After Story 101

Maru approached the man waiting on the train platform. As they had only exchanged names through a phone call, this was their first meeting.

“I’m Baek Youngjae.”

“Han Maru. Nice to meet you.”

Maru offered him a canned coffee that he had bought beforehand. Youngjae thanked him and accepted it.

“It’s great that the weather has gotten rather warm.”

“Right.”

They talked over coffee while waiting for the train. They began with introductions. Youngjae said that he was twenty-six and that it had been over four years since he started working as an actor.

“I’ll be twenty-four this year.”

“Really? You do look rather young.”

“That’s the first time I heard that.”

“Just take it for what it is.”

Youngjae smiled gently. He didn’t seem to be the type to want to become close friends on his first encounters as he kept using formal speech.

“How many times have you worked on movies?” Youngjae asked.

“This is my first time. How about you?”

“Well, I think I played a minor character about ten times. But I’m rather looking forward to this one because I have quite a lot of lines. Most of the time, I was usually just background with no lines at all.”

Youngjae twitched his eyes and displayed some facial acting. His expression became rather vicious.

“I’ll wear a suit and stand behind the main characters with this face. I think I played a lot of thug roles. I want to be the leader someday.” He let out a chuckle.

Not long later, a Mugunghwa-ho train came to the platform. Youngjae sat by the window.

“Would you like to eat some kimbap? I bought some because lunchtime is going to be quite awkward. Buying anything to eat inside the train is going to be expensive.”

Youngjae showed him some kimbap wrapped in aluminum foil.

Maru grabbed just two pieces. Looking at Youngjae reminded him of the old times. Minor actors had to take care of everything from transportation to living, clothing, as well as all the other preparation processes. Some production companies would pay their expenses afterward, but most of the time, it was insufficient, and there were times when they didn’t get any money at all. Above all, the broker fee was quite big.

What connections would a minor actor use to win roles? They just pay the casting manager a portion of their payment if they get a role. And after taking out various expenses after that, they would hardly have any money for daily expenses.

“What do you do usually?” Youngjae asked after about an hour of silence.

“I did think about taking up part-time jobs, but I was lucky enough that I don’t have anything to do for financial support. How about you, Mr. Youngjae?”

“I do various things. I guess many people are the same. I work at a PC-bang on the weekend, and I look for short-term jobs during the week. As you know, if we get shoots scheduled like this, it’s impossible to get a fixed slot part-time job. There’s a limit to asking to change shifts. I can’t keep asking the owner to be considerate of me.”

“That’s the difficult part. When you get a part-time job with good pay but get contacted with a role the next day, it really makes things awkward.”

“Right. I'm happy getting a role at all, but if it’s a one-shot thing like a movie, it’s even more of a pain. That’s why I sometimes wonder why I took up acting at all.”

“You start acting because you like it, but if there’s money dangling in front of your eyes, it’ll drive you crazy.”

“Everyone must be like that, right?”

“I wonder how many aren’t.”

A snack cart came into their carriage. Maru raised his hand to call for the crew pushing the cart.

“It is still three hours until Busan, so let’s have some snacks. Choose what you want,” he said to Youngjae.

Youngjae waved his hand in denial, his face looking rather troubled. He said that he was okay and that he was not hungry at all.

Well, for someone not hungry, he did clean out the bits of carrot remaining in the aluminum foil.

Maru grabbed whatever snacks he reached out to. He also grabbed a handful of chocolate bars which could be eaten later.

“That will be forty-seven thousand won.”

He put the change in his wallet and split the snacks on his knees exactly in half. He gave one half to Youngjae, who gave him awkward glances.

“I don’t need this much.”

“The weather’s cold. It’s not like they’ll give you snacks at the set either. You should keep them and eat them later.”

“How much did it cost again? I’ll pay for half of it.”

“It’s okay. I told you, didn’t I? That I’m not doing any part-time jobs for the time being because I was quite lucky. Think of it as the price for getting kimbap from you and take it. You know you’ll put me in a tight spot if you keep refusing, right?”

He opened Youngjae’s bag in his stead and stuffed the snacks inside.

“Thank you.” Youngjae smiled awkwardly. He was a rather innocent fellow.

Maybe Maru should have bought a lunchbox and given it to him as well.

Youngjae peeled a boiled egg and put it in his mouth. Maru also ate one in one go after cracking the egg with his head.

“Is it okay if I ask you something?” Youngjae asked while cleaning the eggshells.

“What is it?”

“What did you mean when you said you were lucky? Did you win the lottery or something?”

“I guess you could call it a lottery. I was just quite lucky enough to do multiple shoots in a short period of time. Thanks to that, I don’t have to worry about rent.”

Though what really helped him out was the deposit for the exclusive contract, he didn’t need to explain that now.

Youngjae shut his mouth. He seemed to fall into deep thought before reaching out into his bag. What came out was a wallet. He opened the brown wallet and took out two ten thousand won bills.

“Take it.”

“It’s okay.”

“You earned that money with your own efforts. You’re also a minor actor who shouldn’t be that much better off than me. Twenty thousand won isn’t a small amount.”

Youngjae smiled and held out the money. This young fellow was actually quite proud and cool. He looked like he would get angry if Maru didn’t take it. Though, Maru didn’t want to take it either. At times like these, it was quite an inconvenience that he was young. He couldn’t buy other people food easily as a senior in life.

“Then just buy me some gukbap when we get to Busan. We have to eat dinner anyway.”

He grabbed Youngjae’s hand and put the money back inside the wallet.

“I’ll buy you an extra-large sized one.”

“Sounds good. No wait, do you like gukbap or do you like wonton?”

“This is my first time going to Busan, but I heard that spicy glass noodles are really good….”

Maru shook his head. He could accept anything but that. Youngjae looked at him before speaking,

“Let’s go with Soondae-gukbap.”

The train arrived at Busan station three hours after that. They took their luggage and left the train. The sun was already setting over the sea.

“I heard from someone I know, and apparently, the lodging on that side is cheap. I heard everyone stays there when there’s a shoot in Busan. Though, I did hear that the facilities weren’t that good.”

“We’ll only be staying here for a few nights, so a place to sleep is all we need.”

He followed Youngjae to the lodging. They paid money to the owner who was grinding some garlic at the counter before going to the 2nd floor.

As Youngjae said, the facilities weren’t that good. Still, the room was warm and there was hot water. That was enough.

“Let’s get some food now. Extra-large gukbap it is. Is there a place you know?”

“Wait a moment. It’s been quite a long time since I last came here, so I’m not sure if the restaurant is there or not. Let’s try going for now. If not, we can eat nearby.”

He went to the gukbap restaurant that he frequented while living as a previous Han Maru.

It was an old couple running their business on the first floor of a run-down building, and the taste was really good.

“It doesn’t look like there’s going to be a restaurant here,” Youngjae said.

Maru nodded as he looked at the flashing LED lights.

There was a large-scale electronics shop in the place where the gukbap restaurant was supposed to be. This was the first time he saw an electronics shop in this place. He smiled bitterly and headed to the next block over.

He just went to a gukbap restaurant that caught his eye.

He took out a soondae from the boiling ceramic pot and put it in his mouth. It was good, but it felt lacking. Maybe it was how memories got glorified. God was so petty. Leaving behind a gukbap restaurant wasn’t that hard.

They drank a bottle of rice wine together before returning to the lodging.

When he came back out after washing first, he saw Youngjae sitting down in front of an old TV. He was practicing acting while watching a drama.

“What kind of role do you want to play if you ever get to play a main character?” Maru asked as he dried his hair with a towel.

Youngjae responded without hesitation,

“I’m not sure if it’ll be possible, but I want to play Yeonsangun, the King from the Chosun era.”

“Yeonsangun?”

“Yes. He’s a terrible figure if you place him by himself, but if you look at him as a character, he has that charm that makes me want to play him. Vengeance, lunacy. I think it’ll be fun.”

“Have you ever practiced? I want to watch you.”

“Then would you? It’s nothing amazing and not worth anyone’s evaluation, so I didn’t show it to anyone until now.”

Maru applauded and sat against the wall. Youngjae, who looked like he was going to start acting at any moment, wiped his mouth and hesitated. Maru could tell what he was going through.

It was actually quite a lot of pressure to act in front of a total stranger, instead of a professor or a judge. It was a different kind of tension that ruled over the body unlike when acting in front of multiple people.

Moreover, this was a run-down lodging. Even a veteran would find it hard to start acting in a space that didn’t have the correct atmosphere.

“It’s really embarrassing.”

“Just show me a short one. Is it from something that’s been out before?”

“There’s a historical drama that was released a few years ago. Have you seen ‘Death Flower’?”

“I have. The Yeonsangun from that drama was quite intense.”

“It left a deep impression on me.”

Youngjae shook his hands and feet, probably in an attempt to shake off his nervousness.

He eventually started talking. It was the scene where he released his suppressed anger to the Former Queen Insu, who was also his grandmother.

“For what cause have you driven my mother to her demise?”

Youngjae released the suppressed emotions at once and opened his eyes aglare. It was a moment that was supposed to be overflowing with killing intent and make the audience freeze.

Youngjae, who twisted his lips as he continued acting, suddenly closed his eyes before letting out a chuckle.

“It really is hard to do it properly. I think I need more practice.”

“It was good though. You should’ve done it until the end.”

“It felt somewhat wrong. It’s like this every time. I feel like I’m dragging things out at a part I should be bursting out.”

Youngjae sat down.

“Why don’t you do something too, Mr. Maru?”

Maru put his towel over his shoulder and stood up. He didn’t know if this would be of any help, but he wanted to give a small gift to this junior who knew his etiquette.

“Then I’ll also play Yeonsangun.”

Youngjae smiled and applauded. It might be a situation that might make him unpleasant, but it seemed that Youngjae enjoyed looking at other people’s act. That attitude of his was what made Maru overjoyed. This fellow was someone who knew how to enjoy acting and cherish it.

“I also liked that part you just showed me. I’ll never be better than the original, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be quite decent.”

He stretched his shoulders once before loosening his whole body. He had to dance with a sword in order to relieve the resentment of his mother, who had died an unjustified death. Even his grandmother would not be able to avoid his wrath. He may not be able to kill her, but she would definitely have to pay a similar price.

He snapped the towel on his shoulder strongly. Along with a strong pop, his mind had migrated to a historical drama set.

Severely drunk, he saw his grandmother in front of him; it was the terrible woman who witnessed his mother’s death, yet did nothing about it.

He staggered and took a difficult step toward his grandmother. His grandmother’s face, overlapping over Youngjae's, started being colored in ruin.

He uttered every single syllable of words very slowly and clearly so that his grandmother could hear the boiling wrath in him.

“Why, for what cause have you driven my mother to her demise?”