Life, Once Again!

After Story 132

"I want you to play 'Myung', Miss Haneul. I originally wanted you to play 'Jungae,' but the distributor won't approve it. I wish I can shoot everything using my own funds, but I don't have enough money on hand."

Haneul shook her head in resignation as she listened to director Lee Sooae's words.

"I was expecting it. Even if it were me, I wouldn't want to let a rookie play the lead character. Then when should I go to the audition?"

"You don't need to go to an audition. This much casting is within my authority."

"Are you okay with that? What are you going to do if I turn out to be bad?"

"So, are you going to be bad? I believe that you're going to do better than anyone else. Let's decide on the guarantee the next time we meet, and let's finish talking about work here, shall we?"

"We can't hold off the important talk for later." Haneul smiled and raised her coffee mug.

"I know that you don't decide on the payment of the actors, director. That's usually the job of the investors or the production companies. But still, I want to hear it. I want you to tell me how much payment you're willing to offer me."

"If it was up to me, I'd love to pay as much as you want."

"How about realistically? Considering that you have full authority over the budget."

Director Lee Sooae's crossed her arms.

"That's an unexpectedly difficult question."

"I promise I won't negotiate with the information you've given me so don't worry. I don't really know the market price of the film industry quite yet."

"Normally, supporting actors are paid based on what they were previously paid. You know this, right?"

"I do."

"Unfortunately, you don't have anything that could be called a previous work. Either you were playing minor roles or showed up in student works. Did you perhaps get paid when you shot the work that was submitted to the Short Film Festival?"

"It was a guest appearance."

"I see."

Director Lee tapped her fingers and fell into thought. Haneul liked the fact that she didn't take this lightly and instead thought deeply about it. She waited for the director to finish pondering while drinking her coffee.

"The estimated number of shoots is 50. The number of shoots you'll be in will be around 10 to 15. It might be lower than that."

Director Lee uncrossed her arms.

"Those that we typically consider to be well-known supporting actors sometimes request guarantees per shoot just like they would do in dramas. It made sense since getting paid the same amount for 5 shoots and 30 shoots is not reasonable."

"But that doesn't apply to an actress like me."

"Right. That's because you don't have any prior experience. Since that's the case, your payment will be decided based on the payment table that the production company comes up with. The company behind this film, 'World Road' is known to pay well for leading actors, but they are quite petty when it comes to supporting roles. Though, I'm sure everyone must be similar."

"Then how much can I expect?"

"I can't tell you this for sure, but if I combine a little bit of my greed with real life, then I'd expect around 15 million won."

"That sounds like an amount that has a lot of your personal desire included in it."

"I'd love to give you more, but you told me to consider reality, so that's why I stopped there."

That was more than the amount Haneul had been expecting. It was rather surprising that payment really hadn't changed that much despite the change in worlds.

Well, looking back, the payment for rookie actors was around the same no matter which life it was.

"I hope you can help me out when I negotiate my payment."

"Miss Haneul. You asked this to put pressure on me, didn't you?"

"No way. I'm just having slight expectations."

"I'll say that you're a crucial actress, so if you do get a good payment, you should treat me out."

After that, she talked to director Lee for a long time. As they struck a chord together, they kept bringing up one topic after another without rest.

Haneul rather liked Lee Sooae, not just as a director, but as a person.

"I wasn't joking when I said that. Let's go traveling together sometime."

"Alright. Let's go before we shoot the movie. Only then will you not change your mind and will appear in the movie for me."

By the time they separated, they became like sisters. Haneul said goodbye to the director and returned home.

She turned on the electric fan and opened the window. The weather was getting warm. Soon, it looked like there would be mentions of tropical nights.

She stuffed the piled-up laundry into the washing machine and then powered on the vacuum. As she was spending more and more time at Maru's house, there was a lot of housework piled up at home.

Considering the monthly rent that left her wallet every month, it was quite a bit of a waste, but they couldn't exactly move in together right now.

She went to the supermarket and filled her fridge with some groceries. They were mostly ingredients that she was going to take to her husband's house. She only put some instant foods to eat by herself at home in the cupboard.

-It feels like just yesterday when the night winds were pretty chilly, but we're already in the season of electric fans and watermelons. Time sure flies.

She turned on the radio as she ate a late dinner. Today, her husband was the guest today.

-July 23rd. The Night of Stories. I'm Kim Suyeon. Please enjoy these two hours today too.

When she listened while eating, an hour passed by in a flash. She turned up the volume on the laptop before heading to the kitchen.

When she turned on the tap and picked up the sponge full of soap bubbles, she heard Maru's voice.

-I'm cheering for all the salary people who are listening to this while stuck in traffic, on a shaking bus, or on a crowded train. Hello, I'm Han Maru.

Along with an applause, Suyeon started speaking.

-Mr. Maru. What made you dress up all neatly today?

-Today's my first day for visual radio. I put some effort into it.

-You don't wear makeup and always come wearing the same jersey, so it's nice to see you all dressed up neatly like this.

-Right. You look different too, Ssu-DJ, wearing a refreshing dress when you've been wearing a baggy t-shirt with disheveled hair this whole time.

-Me? I've always shown up fashionably.

-It's really nice to see you lie so naturally.

-Wow. How can a person change like this? On his first time here a few months ago, he had so much difficulty talking to me, but now he's teasing me. Everyone, how could he do this to me?

Haneul listened to the broadcast with a smile. The two of them got along well together.

The stiff speech had disappeared, and now they were close enough to playfully diss each other live.

Her husband was getting more and more well-known through the radio. He had quite the talking skills in a radio broadcast that had a large audience, so it was natural for him to be the topic of many.

The fact that the two hosts were split up into moral and practical sides of reality also had great responses.

On days when Maru was on the radio, it was more common to see people looking for Maru than Suyeon on the radio bulletin board.

He was definitely gaining more and more recognition. If the movie he was about to shoot became popular, then the media would start paying attention to him as well.

She turned the volume down on her laptop and opened the script that she got from director Lee Sooae. Although this script would go through a lot of revision once the shoot starts, the character would not change.

She was going to polish it well and show everyone properly.

Since her husband was making fast progress, she also had to move busily. They had to be on similar levels if they wanted to meet as similar-level characters in the same work.

She lay down on the mattress and repeatedly read the scenario while twisting her waist.

'Myung', the character director Lee assigned to her, sublimed into her awareness.

* * *

"The payment is 25 million won. There will be adjustments, but the number of shoots will be about 15," Yeonjin said. "The main shooting location will be Daegu. Depending on the schedule, it might be better to find lodging there to shoot."

"Daegu in August, huh? That's gonna be hard."

"It's good that it's a modern setting. If it was a historical one… just thinking about it makes me dreadful."

Maru looked at the hourglass he placed on the side. The sand had all fallen to the bottom. He wiped his face with a towel and left the sauna.

He went in front of a large TV along with some instant noodles, sikhye, and a boiled egg. As it was a weekday evening, there weren't that many people.

Hot-blooded Youths was being played on the TV, which was the only thing making noise.

"The day after tomorrow is the shoot, huh," Yeonjin said.

"I guess I'm going to suffer there. Since I'm doing it, I hope they give me something difficult. I won't be able to get any screen time if it's something awkward."

"Are you confident in your strength?"

"I'm not entirely sure about strength, but I do have some tricks up my sleeves."

Maru put the boiled egg in his mouth. He was gaining weight to play the role of Gomchi. He could eat without restraint until he got some flesh under his chin.

"A burly character is definitely much better than a skinny one."

"Because you don't have to go on a diet?"

"Yeah. Sometimes, it's harder to get into the right body shape than the acting itself. Especially when there's one get-together after another."

"You are exercising frequently though, right? You can't just be gaining weight through eating."

"I've been increasing my weight training recently with the trainer. It's just pure bulking up without any form of definition," Maru said as he looked at his right arm, which had gotten quite thick.

If he started taking care of his diet and his exercises, he would get a body suitable for photo shoots. However, he was intaking more than sufficient nutrients and was exercising non-stop, so he was gaining weight without producing any streamlined contours of his muscles.

"You know you have a schedule tomorrow, right?"

"You mean the audiobook recording? How long do you think that will take?"

"The schedule is split up into parts, so you should see how it goes depending on your condition. You don't have to finish it in one go, so just try it for an hour if it feels like too much."

He stood up after eating all the food he bought. Even though he had sweated quite a lot in the sauna, he sweated even more when he left the building.

The tropical nights were here. When he went to the Han river park right nearby, he saw people laying out mattresses to stay away from the heat.

Memories he made with Haneul here swept in. Now that he thought about it, they always stayed at home together because they were both busy with work and had never gone out together.

"Your eyes tell me that you're thinking about your girlfriend?" Yeonjin said from the side.

"Did I get found out?"

"It's good that you have a girlfriend, but don't show it. You know that, right?"

"Of course. I haven't been doing this business for one or two days."

Yeonjin didn't pry too deeply about his girlfriend. He only knew that Maru had one. It seemed to be his method to keep a certain distance even if they become personally close.

Maru also didn't mention more than necessary. Once more time passes and it became okay to talk about personal histories, he might talk about it then, but that time wasn't now.

Moreover, he experienced several managers backstabbing him. Secrets were necessary for both of their sakes.

"But are they really not going to tell me what I'm going to do?"

"I asked the writer, and apparently they have to shut up because of the controversies about manipulation and whatnot. You're going to have to find out in two days."

"How stuck-up."

"I thought you wanted to do something difficult, didn't you? Don't worry, then. From the nuance they gave me, it doesn't look like an easy job."

Yeonjin laughed, telling him to go suffer.

* * *

"We'll put the mics on you now."

Maru put the transmitter for the wireless mic on his waist and looked in front of him. The camera lens had finished adjusting and was waiting for him.

"It's hot, so we're going to quickly shoot the opening and go to the next part."

He nodded as he looked at the writer that came to explain.

He made eye contact with the idol who went around greeting others. He smiled awkwardly and waited for the main host to arrive.

Not long later, the main host arrived. He was given a mic as well before being put in front of the camera.

"Well then. We'll begin after a clap," said the producer.