Chapter 699

-The weather is still hot. Yesterday, I saw that it went as high as 28 degrees. Even this principal, who doesn’t feel hot that often, is having a hard time, so I’m worried about all the students, wondering how hard it must be for them. It looks like October being the start of autumn is a thing of the old.

The principal, who was talking on the podium, had a look at his watch. At the same time, sighs of relief could be heard. The principal always looked at his watch before finishing his speech.

-Anyway, watch out for heat strokes. Studying is important, but the most important thing is your health, after all.

The principal nodded towards the headteacher standing next to him. The headteacher put his face close to the mic and spoke,

“Next, there will be an award ceremony. Would Woosung High’s acting club please come forward.”

Maru uttered a short breath before walking forward. The acting club, whose members were standing at the front of their respective classes[1], got out of their line and gathered in front of the platform.

“Don’t screw up,” he said to Aram who was going up the platform.

Since there were too many of them, only the representative would go up to receive the prize from the principal.

“But I guess we did get one before we graduated,” Maru said to Daemyung.

“I feel really proud.”

Daemyung was looking up at the platform with a blissful expression. Maru saw a hint of red in the corner of the gentle-looking eyes.

“Are you crying?”

“I’m not.”

Although he was saying those words, Daemyung had turned his face away and was wiping his face with the back of his hand. It wasn’t just Daemyung who had become emotional. There were many first-year juniors who were stomping their feet in nervousness and those whose noses were twitching. Monday to Sunday. Two months before the preliminaries, they started gathering every single day to practice. They practiced for a minimum of four hours and at least half a day on weekends. Their passion finally bore fruit. It was natural for them to get emotional.

-The following school has achieved splendid results in the National Youth Acting Competition that is organized by the National Theater Association and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Ministry of Education and is awarded this commendation. October 2nd, 2005. Prime Minister Park Kwonho.

Aram received the certificate given to her by the principal. Having received it, Aram immediately turned around and waved the certificate above her head before cheering her lungs out.

“Oh geez.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows as he looked at the rejoicing Aram and the principal who was holding his hand out awkwardly. Only the head teacher’s awkward cough could be heard through the mic.

“It’s the grand prize!”

Aram shouted towards the sports ground.

* * *

“The grand prize, huh. Must be nice.”

Maru looked at Kang Sora who was sitting on the other side. She shouted ‘seonbae’ from afar, and she approached before sitting down after putting her food tray on the table.

“Don’t you have any friends?” Maru asked.

“Do I look like that?”

“I’m just asking why you eat here every time you see us.”

“Why do I need to get your permission to eat here? I’m a student here too.”

Sora grinned sneakily.

“Also, I’m not coming here for you, seonbae, so don’t take interest. If possible, block your ears too.”

Maru turned to look at Daemyung. Only Daemyung knew why Sora came to the 3rd year electrical engineering class to eat. Daemyung, who met eyes with him, suddenly started to quickly finish his food before standing up. Sora also stuffed her mouth with food.

“I’m leaving first.”

“Seonbae, I’m leaving first.”

The two left first while talking.

“What the? Daemyung, did you switch your girlfriend? This must be the mystery of the century.”

Dojin put down his spoon in disbelief. Maru just shrugged. He knew that these two were up to something together, but he didn’t know what it was about. If he wanted to know, he was more than capable of finding out with little effort, but he was staying still since those two told him to stay out.

“Uhm, I just witnessed the ex? Or the current? Girlfriend, I think?”

Dojin pointed at Jiyoon who was standing at the entrance. She was locking arms with Aram while watching as Daemyung and Sora left the cafeteria. Maru put his chopsticks in his mouth and looked at the two alternately. He wondered if it would be better to tell them so that it didn’t cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

Maru waved his hand at the members of the acting club who were looking for a place to sit down after getting their food. His classmates had all stood up after finishing lunch. The only one left was Dojin who remained behind due to curiosity.

“Well, if it isn’t the club president who one-upped the principal this morning.”

“Maru-seonbae, please don’t talk about that. Do you know how much of an earful I got from the headteacher? This was supposed to be a good day, but it was ruined.”

Aram sat down on the spot. Jiyoon sat next to her. Maru glanced at Dojin, who kept poking his side, before talking to Jiyoon.

“Uhm, Jiyoon.”

“Yes?”

Jiyoon was smiling as though her favorite side dish was on the menu, or perhaps it was due to lingering feelings from winning the grand prize. From the way there were no fluctuations in her emotions despite the fact that she saw Daemyung and Sora leave together, she seemed to know something as well.

“You know that Daemyung and Sora are preparing something together, right?”

Maru asked her in a roundabout way. He was planning to tell her that they were working together on something if she said she didn’t.

“Oh, they told me to keep it a secret from you,” she said cautiously.

As he had expected, Jiyoon also seemed to know that Daemyung and Sora were secretly working together.

“If you know, then it’s fine. I thought you might have been misunderstanding something.”

Jiyoon dazed out because she didn’t know what that meant, and when she realized, she shook her hand in the air and spoke,

“Daemyung-seonbae and I are still doing well together.”

“I know.”

“Okay… but who told you about it, seonbae? That they’re preparing a scenario. They told me to never tell you about it since it was a secret from you. How did you even find about it?”

Maru put on an awkward smile. He unintentionally found out what those two were up to. A scenario, huh. When he smiled and didn’t say anything, Jiyoon seemed to have noticed that something was wrong and spoke first,

“Did… you not know?”

“I only knew that they were up to something, but I didn’t know that it was a scenario they were working on. I didn’t mind it since they told me not to stick my nose in, but I guess I just found out.”

“I just made a mistake, didn’t I?”

Jiyoon widened her eyes in surprise and fell silent.

“Just pretend not to know anything. I’ll pretend not to know anything either. But since we’re on the topic, can you tell me what kind of scenario it is? I’ll forget about it afterwards.”

Jiyoon hesitated before speaking in a small voice,

“It’s a film scenario. One with you as the main character.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I don’t know the details either. I think they called it a five-minute film? Anyway, they’re working on a really short film scenario. Daemyung-seonbae told me beforehand that he might be spending a lot of time with Sora, so I knew about it.”

“A film huh. Alright. Oh, as I said before, I will keep pretending that I don’t know anything, so you don’t have to worry about it either.”

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Uhm… I don’t have the confidence to lie….”

Haha – Jiyoon laughed awkwardly.

* * *

“That’s the problem with you, seonbae. Why do you think a surprise is called a surprise? It’s because the person in question doesn’t know about it. Didn’t I tell you back then? To just pretend to not know anything about it? You just don’t have the patience, I tell you.”

Maru pressed his fingers between his eyes as he listened to Sora’s words. He felt like a woodpecker was pecking on his skull. Her sharp words made his ears hurt as well.

“I told you I’m sorry. I was so curious that I grilled Jiyoon about it. She seemed to be in the know.”

“Poor Jiyoon-seonbae. That seonbae is really feeble and gentle, so she’ll get hurt if an evil person like you pecks her for answers.”

“I’m no bird. I don’t peck. I just asked her what it was about in a gentle manner. A;lso, I’m not evil.”

Sora raised her eyebrow. Maru stayed quiet. He was unnecessarily causing more trouble for himself.

“Sora, since it’s like this, do you think we should get Maru’s opinion as well?” Daemyung said from the side.

“Daemyung-seonbae. You are the father of this scenario. Are you saying that you are going to hand over your precious child to someone else?”

“N-no. It’s not like that, I was just saying that maybe we could get a little of his input….”

“No! Solitude is important to a creator.”

“But we’re working together on this anyway….”

“I’m only working with you to write the script. The overall plot and structure of the play is only meaningful if you’re the one who comes up with it. How many times do I have to tell you? Seonbae, you have the talent, and in order to make that talent blossom, you have to learn to clash against a blank piece of paper and to fight with it.”

“S-sorry.”

He didn’t do anything wrong, yet Daemyung apologized quickly. Maru understood how he felt. Being grilled like that would make anyone apologize regardless of their will.

“That’s enough. Whether I know about it or not doesn’t have a huge influence on your work, does it? Just do whatever you were doing. I’ll just stay out of it.”

“It’s over now. This is like preparing for a secret birthday party, but the person in question finds out and goes ‘oh, you guys can go on’. It’s disheartening and unmotivating. It’s your responsibility, so you should treat us to something good.”

“Sora, you should definitely look into being an insurance saleswoman or selling things to oversea travelers. You should be able to earn hundreds of millions of won per year.”

Maru calmed Sora down by promising to treat her to dinner.

“But hey, you are pretty well-off. Do you really have to get food from me?”

“My mom always told me that getting cheap food from others is always better than getting expensive food for yourself.”

“What a good teaching at an early age.”

Maru sighed before looking at Daemyung.

“So you two were creating a five-minute short film because of what I said before?”

“Yeah. I thought that gathering like this would be difficult once we graduate. I wanted to try shooting a film with my scenario and your acting. The thing with the film production club also motivated me.”

“But you increased the time while you were doing it because you felt like 5 minutes was too short?”

“That hasn’t completely been decided yet, but I think it’ll be around 20 minutes.”

“You do know that a 20-minute short film is pretty hard, right?”

“I know. I heard it from Sora. She told me about how many times you guys had to move around.”

Sora, who was listening from the side, raised her chin upwards and snorted.

“For me, I’d love to do your scenario as long as I can fit it in the schedule. Since we’re at it, what’s the plot like? Is it based on the auto-biography-like novel that you were working on before?”

Daemyung shook his head.

“No, it’s not that one. That one’s not even complete yet.”

“Then what’s it about?”

Daemyung looked at Sora. Sora nodded once.

“It came to me after watching your acting until now; I think you get absorbed when you handle negative emotions. The pains in life, should I call it? There’s a sense of experience as well. That’s when it came to me to write about something very sad, and I want you to do it.”

“Something sad?”

“A sad love story. A bit cliché, isn’t it?”

Daemyung looked down.

“Do you not have confidence in your story?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Then you shouldn’t make a face like that as the original creator, especially in front of the actor you want to cast. Geez, I wonder if I can shoot in peace.”

Only after hearing that, did Daemyung faintly smile.

“So scripted by Park Daemyung and produced by Kang Sora?”

“It’s scripted by Park Daemyung and produced by both of us. I heard Daemyung-seonbae was also an aspiring producer, wasn’t he? That’s why we decided to do it together. Oh, I guess it’s sponsored by Kang Sora. I am in charge of the equipment and the food.”

“The rich sure are different.”

“That’s basic.”

Maru looked at the two alternately. Did he pursue something passionately when he was at that age? Striving towards a concrete objective, for some reason, made Maru feel proud of the two.

“Wait a sec.”

Sora took out her phone. After parroting ‘yes’ for a while, she widened her eyes as she hung up.

“What made you so surprised?”

“Uhm, Maru-seonbae.”

“What?”

“Let me pinch your cheeks for a sec, okay?”

After saying that, she suddenly approached and grabbed his chin. Maru groaned because of the sharp pain. After pinching ruthlessly, Sora asked,

“Seonbae. Did that hurt?”

“Get your cheek over here. I’ll let you find out.”

“So it does hurt, huh? Then it must not be a dream, right?”

“Do you think it’s a dream? Just what was it about?”

“Uhm, the thing is….”

Her voice, which always sounded bold, was shaky for some reason. She clasped her hands and licked her lips before speaking in a dazed manner,

“We’ve been invited to an award ceremony. It’s the grand prize.”

[1] Class 1-1 would be standing in one line at the very left, followed by 1-2, all the way up to 3-X at the very right.

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