Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Hyehwa station . It’s been a while . The streets were filled with the gentle breeze of May . He could see people walking around with light clothes . Were they actors or audiences? Maru wasn’t sure . He could see a man walking around with a guitar on his back . The man sat down next to a cafe and started playing like that was his stage right there .

The guitar’s noise didn’t travel very far, especially without an amp . People still flocked around him regardless . The man’s melodic voice had quite the strength to it . Various students, couples, and individuals were flocking around him .

“Want to listen?” Miso asked . Maru nodded .

The man’s music was good enough to pay to listen to . The man was surrounded by a massive crowd in no time . After finishing his first song, he gave the crowd a short bow . This definitely wasn’t his first time . The crowd opened up their wallets as the man opened his case towards them . Maru took out a thousand won, too . One of the kids even gave the man an unopened pack of bread on his hand .

“Thank you . ”

The musician took a bite of the bread, giving a curt nod towards the kid . Someone else gave him a drink in response .

“Man, I’m lucky today,” the man laughed . After finishing his food, he started his next song .

He was playing purely using his fingers and voice, unaided by any devices . After singing four more songs, the man stood up from his spot .

“The next performance will be at Maronier park . ”

He left with that, bringing a part of the crowd behind him like rats following the pied piper .

“Shall we go?” Miso asked .

“Where?”

“What else would we do here other than to watch plays? Let’s just watch a short one . ”

Miso tried to drag Maru away by his arm again . Maru removed his arm from her grip carefully before walking by himself .

“You’ve got quite the personality, huh?”

“I don’t like being dragged around . ”

“Even if you were dragged all the way here already?”

“We could go back, then . ”

“…Tsk . You talk too well . ”

Miso stepped forward first . There was quite a crowd in front of both of them . It was a warm Saturday . It was inevitable that lots of people would come out to play . But as the two of them stepped towards one of the smaller theaters, a voice called out to them .

“You’re here to watch plays, right?”

The voice was from a handsomely-dressed man . Probably a college student . He had a few tickets and pamphlets in his hand .

‘A part-timer, huh,’ Maru noted .

One of the few regular things you would get to see at Hyehwa station . Some of it was done by the youngest member of the troupe, but most of it was done by hired part-timers . Maru knew about them pretty well . Since their pay rate depended directly on their sales, they would often stick to you like leeches .

“This is a play that our theater is host…”

Right when the man said about this much, Miso grabbed the man’s shoulder and pushed him away .

“We’re both in the same line of business . Can we not?”

The man shut his mouth with a frown . He looked like he stepped on feces . He dusted off his clothes and walked away muttering ‘freaking unlucky’ .

“What? Unlucky?” Miso snarled .

“Just leave . Don’t bother my work . Jeez . ”

The man stepped off after giving Miso a short glare . Miso opened her mouth for a second with an angry expression but stopped herself after a glance at Maru .

“Ugh, so many delinquents around here nowadays,” she said instead .

“Don’t worry about it . He’s just trying to make money . ”

“Right . Trying to make money . That’s why I’m being so understanding . But that doesn’t mean… wait, did you come here before?”

“A few times . ”

Maru answered lazily before turning to look at the man again . He was approaching a few female students with a bright grin on his face . He was beginning to explain with a bunch of gestures, halting the students’ movements .

“He’s got one, that bastard,” Miso said .

Maru took another look at the man and the students . The man was using more forceful words by the second . He could feel the students getting more troubled as well . The man showed them the tickets . He didn’t seem to be planning on letting them go unless they bought it . In the end, the students whispered together for a second before reaching for their wallets .

Maru headed over to the group . It wasn’t bad for them to get introduced to plays this way, but… He didn’t like how the guy was doing it . Threats were a no go .

“Just go buy the love tickets . ”

“Excuse me?” the students responded .

Maru could feel the man glaring at him .

“Students get to watch at a cheaper price . You should check them out . “

“Ah, thank you . ”

The girls shuffled away towards the way Maru pointed . They didn’t stop even when the man shouted ‘hey hey, come back, we have better things here’ at them .

“Damn it . Had to get a few idiots blocking my way . ”

The man stood in front of Maru .

“You here to sell tickets as well?”

“Nope . ”

“Then what are you doing? Why are you blocking my sales? Are you from a different theater? No, there’s no way . You’re just a high schooler . Fuck . ”

“Please why your language . And there’s nothing good about forcing your tickets onto poor students . ”

“Force? Me? Hah . You call a nice introduction like that a forceful one? Huh? Huh?!”

The man poked Maru’s shoulders a few times . A word bubble popped out when their eyes met .

[Fucking turd . ]

Well, there really was no need to see it .

“I’m sorry for being a little turd . In any case, I would actually like to apologize for interfering with your business . ”

Maru bowed . He wasn’t planning on saying this much in the beginning . He was just planning on walking away after getting the girls away . But the more he talked, the more annoyed Maru became . Why was he getting so annoyed over this? This wasn’t the type of thing that should bother him this much .

“Hah, just leave . You’re annoying me . ”

“Just don’t be so forceful . What if they never come here again?”

“I get it so leave . Fucking…”

The man raised his fist . Maru wasn’t too surprised . The first thing that came to his mind was ‘I’ll just report him if I get hit’ . The classic method of defense against older men . He stepped forward, taunting the man to punch . The man was the one who became more troubled by that . He walked away with an annoyed face, looking for a new place to sell tickets .

“You’re quite a piece of work, did you know that?” Miso said .

Maru had to agree with that one . He really didn’t expect to be doing that . That wasn’t something neither his younger or older self would’ve ever thought about doing . So what was that? What made him so annoyed at the part-timer? He couldn’t really figure out why and thinking about why just made his head hurt more .

‘Did something happen in the future?’

His memories were just getting hazier . Watching them just sink underneath like that in real-time made him feel a little scared sometimes .

‘At least I can remember them at crucial moments . ’

“Let’s go . ”

“…Sure . ”

* * *

The place Miso lead him to was a small theater located on the second floor of a building . The theater’s name was Blue Sky .

“Blue Sky?”

“Seem familiar?”

Miso smiled mysteriously as she stepped in . When Maru followed, he was greeted with a line of people next to the entrance . He could hear a few voices from inside .

“We’ll be accepting those with assigned seats first . I’m sorry for the wait this might cause . ”

A lady was guiding the crowd with a smile . She seemed to be in her mid-twenties .

“Let’s wait a bit . We don’t want to bother the audience . ”

“Sure . ”

Miso was very forceful a lot of the times, but when it came to her work she was more serious than anyone else . Eventually, they were next in line .

“Senior!”

“Hey . ”

“It’s been too long . ”

“Too long? I was here 2 weeks ago . ”

“But I wasn’t here then . Are you here for someone?”

“Nah . I’m here to show this kid a play . ”

The woman’s eyes landed on Maru, who responded with a curt nod .

“He looks nice . Who is he?”

“I have no idea . ”

The woman made a confused look for a second .

“You got any seats left? We’ll stand in the back if not,” Miso continued .

“We’ll probably have a few available . ”

“I’ll wait, then . I want to check if you’ll get any more customers . ”

“Ok . ”

Maru stepped into the theater with Miso . It was dimly lit with darkened lights . There seemed to be around 70 seats in the entire theater packed into the building . It wasn’t possible to sit comfortably, but that was what made theaters charming .

“Please stop eating once the play begins . We’ll give you plenty of time for pictures after the play as well, so please refrain from that during the actual play . These are rules that are meant for you to enjoy the play to the fullest, so please understand . ”

The lady at the line started talking on the stage . The audience started putting away their food immediately .

“We don’t have any spare seats . ”

“I can watch standing . ”

“Yes, let’s . This can be pretty fun, too . ”

Miso seemed strangely excited . She actually felt quite a bit different compared to her usual self when she came to Hyehwa station . More… excited? Kind of in a way that kids were excited . The lights started to dim in the theater, signaling the start of the play . Right then, someone came up to the two of them to talk .

“You’re here . ”

“Yep . ”

Maru took a look at the man talking with Miso . He couldn’t make out much of the man’s face out of the shadow .

“Alright, I’ll see you later then . ”

“Where are you going?”

“The director wants to see me . ”

“Ugh . You’re a total star now, aren’t you?”

“Psh, this is nothing . Who’s the kid?”

“Who knows, a future coworker?”

“Hm, is that so?”

Maru squinted . His eyes were starting to adjust to the dark light, but before he could make out the man’s face, he stepped away from sight .

“Sorry you have to work with Miso . She’s a piece of work,” he said before leaving .

Maru couldn’t help but snort a little . Miso opened her mouth to say something, but the play started by then .

“It’s starting . ”

“Shut up and just watch . ”

“Alright . ”

Ding .

The spotlight turned on with a ding of a bell .

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