“They’re all things you know already, so you shouldn’t have to change much. There isn’t that much time left until the performance, so rather than looking for new things, you should do repeated practice so that you can smoothly show what you have already.”

Maru closed the script and had a look at the time. It was 6:48 p.m. Almost time to wrap things up.

“Try the things I told you before one more time once you get home. If you guys have the time, it’s not a bad idea to rehearse just by yourselves.”

“You’re leaving now, seonbae?” Aram asked as she stretched her arms.

“I have an appointment.”

“A date?”

“There you have it.”

“Oh, it’s not.”

“You’re good.”

“It hasn’t been just one or two days. Rather than that, what kind of appointment is it really? A shoot?”

“The first interview of my life.”

“Really?”

Bangjoo and Jiyoon also widened their eyes and approached him. Maru explained to them that he was just the sidekick.

“But still, it’s an interview.”

“She’s right. Congratulations.”

“Congratulations, seonbae-nim!”

He unintentionally got cheered for.

Maru shrugged before standing up.

“Anyway, what are you guys going to do? If you’re going to go home, you might as well leave with me,” Maru asked the three.

Jiyoon spoke after a while,

“I think we should practice just a bit more by ourselves. We usually practice until 9 after all.”

Jiyoon stared at Bangjoo and Aram. Bangjoo said that he didn’t care. Aram replaced her answer with a nod.

This was a little unexpected for Maru. When the 2nd years were absent, it was usually Aram who led everyone. Jiyoon was a girl of little words, and Bangjoo also followed Aram’s words without a fuss after all.

Jiyoon resolutely picked her script back up again after expressing her opinion.

“Jiyoon has changed a bit since Daemyung-seonbae is sick.”

Aram chuckled. Maru understood Jiyoon’s attitude after hearing that.

“It’s not like that.”

Jiyoon became flustered and denied it, but it was clearly written on her face. It seemed that a sense of duty drove her to replace Daemyung’s absence.

“Then I’ll have to ask you to clean up afterwards. Don’t go home too late.”

“Yes.”

“And also.”

Maru took out some money and handed it to Jiyoon.

“It’s dinner time right now, so go buy something to eat. Or just eat out once you’re done.”

It was Aram who took the money instead of the hesitating Jiyoon.

“Thank you, seonbae.”

“Thank you for the treat!”

He left and closed the door before glancing inside through the window. The three of them had immediately started practice. He wanted to show this to Daemyung who was worried sick about practice.

“Hello?”

He got a call when he climbed down the stairs. The caller was Byungchan.

-Maru, have you departed yet?

“Yes, hyung. I just left school. It won’t take that long to get to Suwon station from here.”

-Should I pick you up in my car?

“That’s okay. It’s not that far. Have you arrived yet?”

-I’m already here with Sooil.

“I guess I’ll be the last one there. Rather than that, I hung up after just hearing about the interview yesterday. What is this interview about?”

-Do you know Sharon?

“Sharon? You mean Sharon Stone?”

-No, the women’s magazine Sharon.

“No, this is the first time I heard about it.”

-Well, I guess it’d be even more strange if you knew about it. It’s the number 1 magazine ranked by subscription, and they wanted to interview you.

“An interview from a women’s magazine?”

-Yeah. It’s not that rare. In fact, those kinds of magazines interview a lot of male actors. And also, Sharon is really good when it comes to that.

“Why would something like that want me… I guess I can understand why they want Sooil, but I don’t understand why I’m in it. I don’t think bundling nameless actors like they do in dramas really work here.”

-They called your name out. They said that they wanted to interview Yoo Sooil and Han Maru among the young actors of JA.

“I was called out?”

-Yeah. I also thought that the agency approached them first about it, but it turns out that one of their journalists reached out first personally.

“What a rare event.”

-I got to call them due to scheduling and stuff, and the journalist there seemed to know you.

“Really? What is his or her name?”

-She’s the journalist Choi Miyeon. Do you know her?

“That’s not a name I’ve heard before. It’s not like I have any connections to journalists either. How strange.”

-Perhaps you became famous without you knowing it? I mean, your appearance in The Witness received very good judgement, didn’t it? Ah, there were articles about the beggar that was good at acting at the beginning of Apgu too.

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

-It’s about actors I’m in charge of, so I should be up to date with the news.

There was a laugh of satisfaction from the other side of the phone.

“If it’s like that, I guess I must rejoice. But I won’t get too excited yet. I guess I’ll find out what’s really happening once I’m there.”

-Alright. Oh, have you had dinner yet?

“No, I’m kind of short on time, so I was going to eat after the interview. I don’t think the interview will take a long time after all.”

-Then let’s eat together once you’re here. I was told that the interview will last about an hour, so you can think of it as a late dinner.

“Alright then. Oh, the bus is here. I’m hanging up.”

-Watch out on your way here.

Maru got on the bus that stopped in front of him. A women’s magazine, huh. The thick magazine that he saw at the hairdresser’s he followed his mom to when he was young - that was the entire presence ‘women’s magazine’ had in Maru’s head. Maru wondered if they had the room to put an interview of an actor that was gradually gaining fame and an actor who was practically nameless when they must be lacking space to put ads on it.

‘She seems to know me, huh.’

He rolled the name Choi Miyeon in his mouth for a while, but nothing came to mind. In the first place, there was no way he had any connections to a women’s magazine.

He got off the bus and entered the café on the opposite side of Suwon station.

“Over here.”

He saw Byungchan wave at him.

“Where’s Sooil?”

“He left saying that he had an urgent call. You didn’t see him?”

“No, he wasn’t outside.”

“Where did he go then, I wonder.”

Byungchan leaned forward and looked outside the window before turning his head towards the entrance. The automatic door opened before a lady wearing jeans and a trench coat entered the café.

“Is she your type of girl?”

“Huh? No.”

“I think she is though.”

At that moment, the lady that came in looked around for a while before taking out her phone. A moment later, Byungchan’s phone started ringing inside his pocket. As soon as he picked up the call, the lady standing by the door smiled and approached them.

“Sorry, I didn’t tell you about the location for the interview even though I was the one who asked for it. Oh, let me introduce myself. I’m Choi Miyeon from Sharon.”

“Ah, you’re journalist Choi Miyeon. I am manager Lee Byunchan and I work for JA Production.”

The lady smiled and took off her backpack. Byungchan then gave her his business card. Miyeon also took out her business card and they exchanged them.

“You must be quite flustered since the schedule just came to be out of nowhere, right?”

“No. You’re doing an interview with some of ours. Who cares if it’s a little random?”

Byungchan scratched the back of his head as he smiled. His usual snappy attitude was gone and he was grinning from ear to ear.

“You must be Mr. Han Maru, am I right?”

Miyeon turned around to face Maru. Maru lowered his head to take a bow on the spot.

“Yes, I am Han Maru.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Choi Miyeon. I hope I can get a good interview from you today.”

“Likewise.”

Miyeon took off her coat and took out a digital camera and a notebook from her bag.

“Where’s Mr. Yoo Sooil?”

“He left just moments ago, but I can’t see him anywhere. I’ll go look for him.”

“You don’t have to go that far.”

Without even listening to her, Byungchan stood up and left.

“What an urgent person.”

“He’s not like that usually. What would you like for a drink?”

“Sorry?”

“The main character isn’t here yet, so we can’t exactly start by ourselves, and since the weather has gotten quite cold, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to wait with some tea.”

Miyeon covered her mouth and laughed before speaking,

“You put me in an awkward position, saying everything that I have to say. You really are a peculiar actor like I’ve heard.”

“Like you’ve heard?”

“Ah, I guess you don’t know about it yet. Do you know journalist Kim Dongwook?”

“If it’s not someone else with the same name, then indeed, I do know him.”

“He’s a senior of mine. When he was a journalist for a TV station, and when I was a journalist for a newspaper company, we met a few times. I’ve been meeting him recently due to a few things, and somehow, things lead to one another and we talked about you.”

“Did he talk bad about me by any chance?”

“I wonder, did he?”

Miyeon stood up with a faint smile.

“Would you like coffee, then?”

“Yes.”

“I wonder what the other two like.”

“I’ll pick for them.”

“Can you do that?”

They walked to the counter and gave an order. Maru ordered a caramel macchiato for Sooil, who liked sweet things, and plain black coffee for Byungchan since he enjoyed those usually.

They got the buzzer and returned to their seats.

“Should I call them?”

“No, don’t do that. It’s not good to put the interviewee at unease. Also, it’s my fault in the first place for scheduling such a vague appointment.”

“Alright then.”

“Rather than that, though. You’re quite a good talker. Is this not your first interview?”

“No, it is my first interview.”

“I see. How is it? What did you feel when you heard that you were doing an interview?”

“I thought that I must be a sidekick bundled with someone else. After all, there’s not that much to interview about me.”

Hearing the word ‘bundle’, Miyeon faintly smiled as she opened her notebook.

“You really like being direct with your words as I heard before.”

“It depends on the occasion. Isn’t everything off-the-record right now?”

“I want to use it as my first impression of you, can’t I?”

“Of course you can. In fact, I would want you to do so. I have to put as much of myself in the interview so people get to know more about me.”

Miyeon opened her notebook and picked up her pen. Maru looked at Miyeon and thought that she was really proficient. She was someone who knew how to make a comfortable environment to speak. She also had the conversational skills to continue asking questions so that there was no gap while talking.

“Have you ever seen our magazine?”

“No, I don’t really have any interest in magazines.”

“Then do you not have any magazines that you subscribed to, or buy at irregular intervals?”

“I don’t. I usually read novels. I never picked up any other kind of reading.”

“Ah, novels. I also like novels. Since we’re at it, can I ask you one of the questions I’ve prepared? Though, I do have to ask for your permission before the interview.”

“I’m okay with it. I’m not going to answer if I can’t answer the question.”

“Very well. Twilight Struggles. You’ve read it, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I have.”

“You were in the movie as well.”

Maru was a little surprised at that remark.

“Is it strange that I know?”

“Yes, it was a little unexpected.”

“I actually watched the movie a while ago. It was a good… movie.”

“It is a good movie. Though, it’s not something comfortable to watch.”

Miyeon nodded in agreement.

“Indeed. It wasn’t that comfortable to watch. The other actors really put their skills on full display, but your acting left a deep impression as well.”

“It was only for a short moment though.”

“A big impact only happens within short moments.”

“You might stump me if you flatter me too much. I don’t have any immunity for things like that.”

“You’re quite good even now though.”

At that moment, the buzzer rang.

“Should we get the drinks first then?”

“Alright.”

Miyeon put down her pen and stood up. Maru also followed her. When they returned to their seats with the coffee, the sound of the automatic door opening could be heard. Sooil and Byungchan had returned while shivering.