The sensation it caused was much bigger than Maru expected.

Maru scrolled down with his mouse as he sipped the still-hot green tea. The titles of the news articles on the screen started scrolling down. Touching real life story, true actor, an actor who has gained a new life. All of them pointed to one person, Kim Seokjoon.

After scrolling down a little, Maru clicked on one of the articles. The man, who talked about the failures of his life during their first trial run, was now wearing a neat suit, doing an interview. There were ten such interview articles. It just went to show how many places had an interest in this man.

The story of a man who pursued his dream his whole life would definitely become a hot topic, especially in this time when there were articles about how employment was hard, how self-employed businesses were going out of business, and about a student who committed suicide after taking the CSAT[1].

Surprisingly, that man managed to shoot two commercials for large companies during the past three weeks, managed to participate in a play that was played in Myeong-dong, and seemingly received a few scripts from a few drama production companies. There was even a fan café about him, as well as an anti-fan café. He was now more well-known than most actors.

“So things can turn out this way too?”

The interview even mentioned that he called his ex-wife. At this point, it felt like the goddess of fortune was focusing her blessings on this man. All of his problems were being solved in such a short time. Even his fear of cameras seemed to have been fixed after the play, so the goddess of fortune must have been present during his participation. No, perhaps there were several goddesses of fortune back then.

At the same time, the interest in the street performance rose rapidly as well. Maru was surprised to see around five hundred people last Sunday, but on the Thursday performance after that, there were so many people that they weren’t able to hold the performance in the same place. They blocked the entire road, and even the police came, making things worse. In the end, Ganghwan had no choice but to cancel the performance. The performances they scheduled to do on Thursdays and Sundays were entirely cancelled, and they had not decided on further action. The worries they had after seeing the crowd on Sunday had turned into reality.

From the way things were going now, it seemed difficult to resume the street performance. Ganghwan also said that the essence of the performance had been changed after the performances were cancelled, and from his expression and words, it seemed likely that there would be no further performances. A famous party would attract more people interested in the party rather than those coming to congratulate after all.

“Well, he’ll probably take care of things himself.”

Maru looked at the brightly smiling Kim Seokjoon’s face before turning off the computer. He could have become jealous in this kind of situation, but for some reason, he felt better instead to see this man do well. That day, among the numerous overlapping illusions, he and this Kim Seokjoon were very close to each other. He knew nothing about him - what kind of relationship they had, whether it was even true that they knew each other in the previous life. There was nothing that he could find out, but if they were really close, wouldn’t it be fine to congratulate him and be happy for his success?

“Just what in the world was that though?”

He thought about it again as he looked up at the ceiling on his bed, but he could not get a clear answer.

Forty-five. That was the age he died while he was driving a bus. Just one life. Then what was the meaning behind the several overlapping illusions he saw back then?

“Are you listening to me right now?”

Maru tried talking into the void. There was only one person on Earth that knew the answer to this problem. That woman. The one wearing the pure white suit, and possessed a beauty that seemed to be out of this world. That woman was probably able to tell him whether this was a result of simply chaotic memories, or had a different meaning altogether.

“Can’t you come and talk to me just one more time?”

The words left his mouth and spread through the air. There was no reply. Just as he was blankly staring at the ceiling, his door suddenly opened.

“Are you on the phone right now?”

It was Bada.

“No.”

“Then were you talking by yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“Oppa, if you’re gonna go crazy, then please don’t get me involved. Also, the food’s ready.”

Bada shook her head as she closed the door. Maru sighed as he stood up. This wasn’t a problem that he could solve with effort, so he should just give up, but that wasn’t so easy. Those strong images, he didn’t think they were all just imaginary. There was too much missing information in this problem. He could probably come to his own answer if he knew all the preconditions at least.

He pressed down on the side of his head as he left his room. He could see Bada in the living room, holding her bowl in front of the table on the sofa.

“You should really eat at the dining table.”

“I know, but Yooyeol-oppa is coming out.”

“Who the hell is that oppa?”

“You don’t know? He’s from Change!”

Bada waved her arms around in the air, seemingly describing something. She probably intended to imitate an idol dance, but she looked like a baby octopus instead.

“What happened to TTO who you liked so much?”

“The oppas of TTO are the stars of my heart.”

“And what about this Change-whoever?”

“The second stars?”

“Aren’t there things like the sun, the moon, or the planets?”

“Shut up and go eat already. I put your rice in the soup, so do whatever you want.”

When he went to the dining table in the kitchen, there was only a single bowl containing soup. All of the side dishes were in front of Bada. She was such a cocky girl.

He moved to sit on the sofa with the bowl and a spoon. He was watching TV while taking a spoonful of rice out, and just in time, the TV commercial was ending and the program was starting.

“Oh, the sitcom.”

The sitcom in which she appeared was now airing. Last week was the first episode, and today marked the 10th episode. As the viewing rates were quite low since the first episode aired during the week of CSAT, they rose a little with the start of each week.

“Unni’s here,” Bada said as she pointed at the TV.

She, who played the role of a poor high school girl, was going into the main character’s house in secret today and was opening the refrigerator. The number of appearances as well as the duration of the appearance was very small, but she successfully made him laugh, so it could be considered a successful debut.

Maru had a look at Bada’s expression. The scene was when she got caught stealing food, and it was a laugh-inducing scene, but Bada was just chewing on food. There were no reactions on her face at all.

‘Am I the only one that finds her funny?’

He thought that he had to think more critically, but he chuckled whenever she came out.

“Hey, Han Bada.”

“What?”

“Is she funny?”

“She is a good person….”

Bada did not say that she was funny. Maru stared at the back of Bada’s head for a while before giving her a solid smack.

“Ah, why?”

“Why don’t you learn to lie a little?”

“I’m really sensitive when it comes to comedy, you know? I can’t say something that’s outside of my comedic philosophy funny.”

“What kind of philosophy is that?”

She was so funny. He was chuckling as he looked at her on screen when he felt a sharp gaze hit his face. Bada was staring at him with a spoon in her mouth.

“You’re so dumb.”

After hearing those words, Maru quietly stood up and walked towards Bada’s room. Bada shouted ‘what are you doing?’ and followed him.

“The card.”

“What card?”

“I’m taking it back.”

“...Ah, oppa.”

“It’s only oppa when you want something from me, huh.”

“Unni is really funny. I laughed my butt off.”

Bada started laughing. Though, it clearly said ‘fake’ on her cheeks.

“Huh? It’s Yooyeol-oppa’s voice!”

Bada ran towards the TV. She was clearly seriously addicted to idols. Maru returned to the sofa as well. On the TV, there was a good-looking boy reading a book.

“He’s Yooyeol?”

“Yeah, doesn’t he look cool?”

Bada grinned from ear to ear. Perhaps a photo and a poster of that idol might appear on Bada’s wall soon. Now that he thought about it, she did tell him that she was shooting with an idol. Also, he felt like he had seen that face somewhere. The name ‘Change’ didn’t seem that unfamiliar either. Now, then, where had he heard about it before?

“Unni has it good. She gets to see Yooyeol-oppa up close.”

“Like hell,” Maru said as he stopped thinking about it.

He felt like it was a waste of calories to remember the face and name of an idol. He wolfed down some rice before standing up.

“Ah, right. Oppa, I saw a commercial yesterday.”

Maru, who was pouring some water, looked at Bada.

“What commercial?”

“You know, that historical drama. The one that you said you went to the countryside to shoot. What was the title again? I think it was four letters….”

“You mean Apgu?”

“Right! Apgu.”

“When does it start?”

“Third of December, if I remember correctly. Oppa, are you the main character?”

“I’m the second beggar.”

“What the, that’s it? I thought you were playing some amazing role since you went all the way there to shoot.”

“Sorry I’m not playing a significant role. But you do care huh. Even I didn’t think about it until now.”

“I remembered it to boast about it to my friends, but I guess that’s not happening.”

“My little sister, in dramas, minor roles like me have to create the foundation so that the main characters can….”

“But the viewers only remember the main character, don’t they?”

Bada was dumb at times, but she was very sharp at times like this. Maru bitterly smiled before shrugging. She wasn’t wrong after all.

“You mad?”

“Yeah, I’m mad.”

“Then why don’t you pour me some water while you’re at it?”

Maru didn’t know what kind of man would take this girl in the future, but he inwardly apologized to said man. Sorry for not educating her properly.

“How is it going with Dowook?” He asked as he handed her a cup of water.

“Right, since we’re talking about that,” Bada grunted before emptying the cup of water in one go.

“That oppa is not meeting me saying that he’s busy. Something’s clearly happening right?”

“What’s happening?”

“Dowook-oppa is good-looking, isn’t he? Unlike you, that is.”

“Hey, I’m not so….”

“Not so?”

“I do hear that I look gentle wherever I go.”

He couldn’t say that he was good-looking with his own mouth.

“Like hell that’s true. You know that you look really scary if you stay still, right? Not only are you not good looking, you even give off a bad expression. You should always smile.”

“Are you saying that while being aware that you aren’t that much different from me?”

“What do you mean? Mom said that she made you half-assedly, and made me with all of her efforts.”

“That’s incredible. I never knew we lived in an era where it was possible to do plastic surgery within the womb.”

“Why don’t you go look in the mirror before saying that? Anyway, that’s not the important thing here.”

Faces did matter a lot to actors, yet she just treated it as ‘not the important thing’ here. He felt a little sad, but he didn’t say anything since it wasn’t like Bada was going to listen to him anyway. He thought that he should halve her next month’s allowances.

Maru took a glance in the small mirror next to the TV. He did look a little on-the-edge because his eyes were a little narrow, but he didn’t look scary. Just as he was thinking about that, he felt a sharp pain from his knee. Bada had kicked him.

“He even replies to my messages late these days.”

“Let’s just conclude that his love for you has dwindled.”

Actually, the acting club went into a state of emergency because of the winter youth acting competition. The reason was simple - the prize money was revealed. The youth acting competition held in the winter, which was hosted by a business, had a total prize pool of 25 million won. It was several times that of last year’s, and the grand prize was a whopping 10 million won. Taesik declared that he would split the money evenly across the members, and the kids who originally aimed for the ‘title’ with the prize, now aimed for the prize ‘money’, doing their best in practice.

“Perhaps he’s two-timing me?”

“You clearly watched way too many dramas. He’s just busy with practice.”

“No, I feel like something’s off.”

Bada made a serious expression. Just then, her phone started ringing in her room.

“You got a call.”

Bada nodded her head and went into her room. A while later, giggles started escaping her room. It seemed that Dowook had called.

“What a turn of events.”

He clicked his tongue and returned to his room, and his phone vibrated as though it was waiting for him. He received a text. He picked up his phone and checked the message.

The contents were simple.

-Twilight Struggles in cinemas tomorrow.

After seeing that message, Maru sighed.

“Does it even make sense that you can’t watch the movie you shot?”

An R18 movie.

He acted in it, but he ironically couldn’t watch it.

[1] College Scholastic Ability Test. Wikipedia for more info.