Chapter 668
“Why did you become an actor, seonbae?”
Maru looked at Yuna. This young junior, who had bashed her head into the table in front of the convenience store while breathing heavily, had raised her head. From the rather abrupt way she asked the question, it seemed that she hadn’t sobered up yet.
“You feel okay now?”
“No, seonbae. My question was, why did you become an actor, okay?”
Yuna’s head made a big circle as she asked the question. It seemed like there was a large weight attached to her head. She seemed to be experiencing her world turning upside down as she bashed her head on the table again. She kept muttering something as though she was reminding herself of something, but Maru did not want to know what was happening within her.
Maru gave her a hangover drink he bought from the convenience store. Yuna accepted the canned drink and started scratching the lid. Tic, tic – after wrestling with the can, she looked at the can with teary eyes.
“Seonbae, why doesn’t this work?”
“Hey, don’t you ever drink when you’re with me next time.”
Maru stole the can away from Yuna and opened it for her.
“Drink.”
Yuna, who accepted the can with a dazed expression, drank a sip before frowning.
“It’s not tasty.”
“Just drink.”
“I have to drink it even though it isn’t tasty?”
“Do you want me to force you to drink it?”
“No.”
Yuna sniffed and kept drinking it. She gulped it down in one go before sticking her tongue out with a frown.
“It’s not tasty.”
“Consider it as medicine. Don’t vomit it out.”
“I feel even more strange now that I drank it.”
“If you feel like vomiting, run over to the corner over there.”
“You’re too cruel, seonbae.”
“You’re even crueler for holding back someone who should have gone home. You should’ve held back if it was your first drink. You drank a whole cup because you were given one? And in secret too? You might really get in trouble for that, you know?”
“I’m also regretting it. Don’t tell me off.”
Yuna glared at him, but she soon made a displeased expression again because of her upset stomach before bashing her head into the table.
“If you don’t feel good, it’ll be easier if you throw up.”
“No. I don’t want to do that in front of you.”
Yuna groaned as though she was sick, but she became better as time passed by. Though, she still had her head planted on the table.
“Can you tell me why you became an actor?”
“You’re quite persistent, you know that?”
“Can’t I be?”
“Why are you so curious about my story?”
“I’m curious because I’m curious. Do I need a reason for it?”
It was a strange logic, but he couldn’t think of a retort. He had the confidence to win if he dragged things out and disputed with her, but quarreling with a drunk kid was a tragic thing. Maru looked at his watch. It was 10:40 p.m. He calculated that they should stay here for about twenty more minutes. After twenty minutes, Yuna should either feel better or throw up.
“I think I said something like this before, but the reason I became an actor isn’t because of anything grand. I just had an opportunity, and I grabbed that opportunity because it looked good.”
“So you never intended to become an actor in the first place?”
“That’s right.”
“Lies. In my eyes, you seem to like being an actor more than anyone else.”
“And what makes you think that you know so much about me?”
“I have seen you a lot. Do you know how many times I played back your acting in Twilight Struggles? How about The Witness? I even practiced the same interrogation scene, you know?”
Yuna, who had been sitting obediently, suddenly fiercely glared at him and shouted while slapping down on the table. Maru quickly reached out and covered her mouth. Thankfully, no one was looking at them. As this street was filled with pubs, this kind of noise wasn’t even considered noise.
“That now was just like you, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, yeah. It was similar, so please be still.”
“I can also act your character in New Semester.”
“Okay, you’re good at acting. So be quiet, okay?”
Yuna nodded slowly. Just as Maru was about to feel relieved, she started acting. Maru fixed his eyes on Yuna, who said some lines that were familiar to him with a serious expression before standing up and walking a little away.
“Seonbae, where are you going?”
“You do your thing. I’ll just watch from over here.”
“Are you embarrassed by me?”
“Would I not be?”
“I’m not embarrassed at all though.”
Did the alcohol get to her brain a little late? Yuna stopped using polite speech. Maru took out his phone and started shooting a video. Yuna, who acted for about 2 minutes while swaying, suddenly stood upright before swallowing something. She fell back onto the chair as though all the acting churned her stomach.
“I feel like vomiting.”
“I knew it’d come to this.”
“Can I throw up?”
“If you’re going to, do it over there.”
“But I don’t want to. I’m going to hold it in.”
From what Maru gained from experience, an upset stomach from the first time drinking wasn’t something a human could control. Maru grabbed Yuna by the arm and went to the bathroom behind the building. The unisex toilet stank of cigarettes. Until Maru returned to the convenience store with Yuna after she grabbed the toilet, made inexplicable noises, and came out with dark eyes, Maru did not say anything.
“Shall we go?”
“Yes, seonbae-nim.”
Yuna became much more polite again. She seemed to have sobered up as she did not raise her head properly, and walked while looking at her feet. On their way to the train station, Yuna would sometimes stop walking and rip her hair out before sighing and starting to walk again. Maru looked at her for a while before deleting the video he shot before. Showing that to her later would be a cruel thing to do. Yuna, who walked down the stairs right by the wall, shook her head halfway down the stairs. Maru, who was up ahead, stopped walking and looked at her. Yuna raised her head. They met eyes. She seemed to have thought that he wouldn’t be looking at her as she hiccuped as soon as they met eyes before walking backwards.
Maru laughed out loud. He couldn’t help but do so.
“It’s funny, isn’t it? I got drunk and I couldn’t control myself. No wonder I’m funny. Why did I do that? My head and stomach still hurt. I’m never drinking again,” Yuna said.
From the way she got herself together quite quickly, it seemed that her resistance to alcohol was on the strong side. Those that didn’t have resistance would often suffer until the next day when they first drank.
“Sorry, but the way you acted was funny.”
“Funny, huh. I see.”
Yuna made a dejected expression as she walked. Maru looked at her before approaching her.
“Can I continue from earlier?”
“Eh?”
“You know, what event triggered me to become an actor. Think of it as an apology for laughing at you.”
“Th-that sounds good.”
Maru put his left hand into his pocket before speaking,
“As I said before, there really wasn’t anything on my mind back then. I coincidentally came across an opportunity and I judged that taking that opportunity was a good thing, so I did it. It might make aspiring actors a little angry if they heard me though.”
“Then you really have no intentions at all to become an actor?”
“Absolutely none.”
“Would you have worked on something else if an opportunity for that came before your opportunity to become an actor?”
“Probably. So don’t study from my acting. It’s not worth your time.”
“Then what about now? Did you really not feel anything even after you became an actor? Are you going to switch to something else if it pays you more?” Yuna asked in a hurry.
Maru shook his head.
“I might have started doing this because of a coincidence, but right now, I’m grateful that I’m doing this line of work. Of course, acting is enjoyable, and even if I come across a job that will pay me more, I think I will continue my acting career. Like I said before, there are times when acting turns into something hard and painful, making me suffer, but my efforts to endure that process is proof of how much importance I place on it, as well as how much I enjoy it.”
After passing through the ticket barrier, they walked down the stairs. A train was coming in on the opposite side. A warm wind swept past the station.
“I was lucky. Something I started because of a coincidence turned out to match my aptitude and even earns me money.”
“It’s also because of your effort as well, seonbae. I believe that fortune does not come to people who don’t do anything. I believe that you can only enjoy it because you tried your best. I’m going to try harder in the future. I’m not going to run away. I’m going to face it head on.”
It seemed that she wasn’t completely sober yet, from how she could say those words so clearly while looking him in the eyes. Maru grinned. There was an announcement that a train was coming in. Scattering bright light, the train entered the tunnel. There weren’t many people entering or exiting the train.
“Sit.”
“What about you, seonbae?”
“You’re drunk, so you should worry about yourself.”
When Yuna sat down on the one seat that was empty, the man who was dozing off next to her became startled and stood up before leaving through the closing door. Yuna tapped on the seat next to her and smiled.
“You should sit down.”
Maru sat down and looked at the window opposite him. The world of black, which could be seen between the people dozing off, only had a few dots of light from the streetlights. Soon, however, numerous stars appeared in the sea of black. The lights from buildings, and the lights from bridges as well as cars. Yuna, who sat next to him, was dozing off while leaning forward. Her hair draped over like a waterfall. She swayed left and right whenever the train stopped, and at those times, her hair looked like seaweed.
He yawned. They said sleep was infectious, and indeed, his eyes soon closed. A dark scenery like the outside world unfolded in front of him. Just as he thought that he was going to fall asleep, he felt like the floor suddenly disappeared. Chills ran down his back and his sense of direction stopped functioning.
-You must be tired.
Maru found himself sitting on a chair. He was on a stage with two top lights on. On the other side was the masked man.
“It’s been a long time. You never answered my calls.”
-I did answer you from time to time.
“Those weren’t answers. You just said whatever you wanted before disappearing again.”
-That’s also a splendid form of conversation.
“If you say so. So, what made you call me here this time?”
-I didn’t call you, you were the one who came here. I neither have the power to call you nor summon you. I’m a trivial existence who only gains life whenever you act.
“So I came here because I wanted to? How peculiar. I didn’t really want to come here.”
-There are times when individuals do not understand their own hearts. Oh, now that I think about it, you were having an interesting conversation with the cute lady sitting next to you. The reason you started acting, was it?
“Was that fun?”
-Living here, cut off from the world, you’d laugh your ass off even if you watch ants in a trail. I had the chance to listen to a conversation between people, no less, so of course it was fun.
“It wasn’t anything much. It was the usual, boring stuff.”
-Don’t say that. Do you know how interesting that was?
The masked man stood up.
-I want to ask a few things.
“Do I have to answer you?”
-We are in a cooperative relationship in a way, aren’t we? We should help each other when we act in the future. If we’re supposed to help each other out, it will be better to get to know each other. I feel like we’re going to have a long conversation tonight, so I hope you can hang out with me.
“The night is long?”
-Yes. I can definitely feel that the time you can reside here has increased. Oh, before we start, can I ask you a simple question first?
“If it’s something I can answer.”
-It’s nothing much. It’s about your previous life. Do you still remember when and how you died?
“I won’t forget that. It’s still vivid in my mind.”
-Can you tell me about it?
“That’s not too hard. I was a bus driver. It was the 3rd of October. The weather was cool and the skies were clear. I detected something off while I was driving, but it was too late by then. A thick metal beam broke the windscreen and hit my chest. I felt stifled and I heard screams, yet the only thing on my mind was one thing – If I’m going to die, I might as well die alone. Well, something like that.”
-Splendid. Thanks to you, many people kept their lives.
“Maybe I did that because I didn’t want to get insulted after I died. Since I’m going to die anyway, I might as well be a courageous bus driver, right? It’s better than being a driver who took everyone with him to the afterlife because of immature driving skills.”
-That’s true. Do you remember when that was?
Maru sighed before speaking,
“I told you. 3rd of October.”
-How old were you?
“I thought you could read my mind, yet you ask all sorts of useless stuff.”
Maru reminded himself of back then and spoke in a small voice,
“I was thirty-seven at that time.”
KTLChamber's Thoughts
Thirty-seven…… Is the speed at which he loses his memories speeding up?
Editor's Note:
I kinda expected this but damn does it hit hard. Next chap will prob be me internally screaming at Maru.
Also, does anyone else find Yuna failing to open the can adorable. I've joined the Yuna fanclub. Author never gave me enough Gaeul to keep me hooked.