“I’ll give you a call, so see you then.”

Maru turned around to look at the building as he remembered Jayeon’s words. For someone who bombarded the applicants with ruthless words, her goodbyes were pretty ordinary.

“Then be careful on your way home.”

“Ah, yes. You too.”

Lee Haejung left after saying that with a barely audible voice. Jayeon did not say how many people she was going to pick until the very end. Whether both of them passed or only one of them passed, she did not mention. She did tell Maru that she wanted to work with him, but since words weren't as binding as a fully fleshed-out contract, there was definitely a possibility that he didn’t make it. Rather than experiencing disappointment after having his hopes up, it would hurt less if he considered that slipping up was one of the possibilities.

It was 4 p.m. Maru called Gaeul. He heard that she had lessons on Sunday. Since he was in Seoul already, he wanted to see her before going home.

After the signal sound went on for a long time, it went over to voicemail. It seemed that she had muted her phone and was practicing hard. He didn’t want to disturb her since he thought that she must be trying her hardest. Good luck - he sent a short text. Picturing her practicing while sweating made him subconsciously smile. She was probably practicing under the air conditioner though. Practicing outside in weather like this would probably make her collapse from the heat.

Maru wiped the sweat off his face until he thought that he could no longer do so and entered a nearby convenience store. When hit by the air from the air conditioner, he felt like he was able to breathe a lot more smoothly again. He enjoyed the cold wind as he bought some drinks and stayed inside the store for a long time before leaving. He sipped on his drink under the parasol and watched the people going past. Everyone was frowning due to the heat. The heat was unbearable yet it was only July right now, so Maru wondered what it would be like in August. He threw the drink can in the trash after it became empty very quickly.

“Take a fan.”

This was the first time he was glad to find someone handing out hand fans in the street. The fan had an ad for a telecom company, and in the middle was Suyeon, who was holding a baseball bat. She actually shot a lot of commercials. Maru folded the part where her face was printed and started fanning himself. Hot air blew against him, so it wasn’t that cool, but it was better than nothing.

There was a wide street between the various buildings, but no one walked in the middle. Everyone stuck themselves against the walls in order to hide in the shade provided by those buildings. The people walked in a line like ants carrying food until they came to a stop. Maru, who was in the middle of that line, also had to stop.

“Are they shooting a drama here?”

“Don’t you think it’s for a movie?”

Everyone’s gazes had gathered in the middle of the street, where the sun was blazing down. There was a shooting team right next to the fountain, which was spraying water everywhere. Maru saw reflection panels, cameras, and a boom mic held in midair. There were also line-men, who were protecting the electrical lines, as well as other people from the staff that were moving around busily in order to block the people from approaching. A lot of effort was put into doing that last part because this street was usually a crowded one.

“Sorry. We hope you can take a detour down this road. We apologize for your inconvenience.”

The staff guided the passersby to another road with unlit traffic wands.

Maru stopped and tiptoed. He saw actors behind the reflection panels. He could pinpoint an actor without having to look at the face because there were many people around that person fixing his makeup and turning on the fans for him. Maru then looked at a group of people holding sunshade umbrellas about 10 meters away. White, black, light violet. Many different sunshade umbrellas had filled that area like parasols on beaches during the summer season. From the way they waved towards the shooting location, it seemed that they were fans who had come to watch. There were around 30 from a glance, and including the people standing outside the sunshade umbrellas, it seemed that there were around fifty people. The ladies who were looking at the shooting location all turned their heads in unison. A man walked out of the group of people behind the staff lines. He waved towards the fans before standing in front of the cameras. Maru had a close look at the man’s face after he left the curtain of men. The man with disheveled hair, wearing a t-shirt that had the collars all stretched out was none other than Ahn Sungjae.

“Ahn Sungjae-oppa! I love you!”

“Sungjae-oppa! Please look over here!”

There was another group a little away from the group of people with sunshade umbrellas, and they were screeching their lungs out. They seemed to be a group of middle school girls. The staff quickly went over and asked them to refrain from doing so, but the teenage girls did not easily quiet down. In the end, Sungjae had to go over himself.

“He’s having a hard time.”

Maru looked around to look for another person. Sungjae being here meant that Geunsoo was probably nearby as well. A little away from Sungjae, who was at the center of attention, was a person who was crouching down with a large black umbrella open above him. It was Geunsoo. There were fans who had come to see Sungjae, but no one showed an interest in him.

Maru approached Geunsoo. As it was a little far away from the shooting location, there was no problem going there.

“It’s hot, isn’t it?” he remarked as he kneeled and poked his head under the umbrella.

Geunsoo, who had been staring at Sungjae in a daze, blinked before yawning.

“It is. I’m sweating buckets.”

“Weather like this would probably make people collapse.”

“It would do more than just make people collapse. Look over there. Youth sure is good. They can stand in the scorching sun like that. What incredible stamina.”

Maru crouched down next to Geunsoo.

“Anyway, why are you here?”

“I was on my way home after an audition when I came across this place. I was wondering what was happening so I made a visit.”

“An audition? What audition?”

“It’s an audition Ganghwan hyung-nim recommended to me. It was rather peculiar.”

“Ganghwan did? If it’s his recommendation, of course it’s peculiar. He’s a peculiar guy himself, and he only befriends peculiar people.”

“So you must be one of them?”

“Probably? You are one too.”

“I’m extremely normal. You can’t find anyone more normal than me.”

“Crazy people don’t think of themselves as crazy people. But man, Sungjae’s popularity is through the roof huh.”

“Of course it is. He’s part of TTO, the top idol group in the country. Even if he’s taking a break from his activities, that popularity wouldn’t just vaporize.”

“That’s true. I was deeply impressed when I saw fans renting an entire coach to come all the way to the shooting location in the countryside. Their passion just goes to show how amazing Sungjae is after all.”

“Are you envious?”

“You think I’m not?”

“Why don’t you show off your friendship with Sungjae-hyung at this opportunity? I heard that TTO’s fan café has a member count in the hundreds of thousands. If you get a photo up there, your popularity will rise in an instant, don’t you think?”

“That’s a good idea, but I don’t need to do that. I’m going to become famous anyway, through acting, that is.”

His words which were uttered with a refreshing smile contained faith and confidence in his own skills. It would be rather off-putting if someone who was all talk and no bark said something like that, but Geunsoo saying it made Maru accept that naturally. Someone who would definitely succeed. He sounded as though he was stating that one plus one equals two.

“How’s the shoot?”

“It’s fun. I’m just hoping that the weather could help us out a little, but looks like that isn’t going to happen. Though, the director did say that it’s good to be able to see everything so clearly.”

“Where’s the director? I think I should say hello at least.”

“He went to talk with some people from the shopping complex, along with the location team manager. There was a prior agreement that we would shoot here, but it looks like some problem occurred. Thanks to that, the shoot is on hold.”

“Nothing’s easy, huh.”

“It’s definitely not easy to shoot a film on someone else’s territory.”

Maru moved sideways. A makeup artist had approached Geunsoo in order to fix his makeup. Maru was watching as she wiped the sweat off Geunsoo’s forehead with a makeup cotton and redid his facial tone, when he saw director Lee Jincheol walking over to the shooting location. He met eyes with the director. Maru greeted the director, who came over while waving his hand.

“You here to watch the shoot?”

“I actually had something else to do in Seoul, and I just came across this place by chance. Also, thank you for the videos you lent me. They’ve been very helpful.”

“Was there anything worth studying?”

“Yes. I’ve learned a lot thanks to them.”

“That’s good. We shot them ages ago, so the contents are blurry to me now. I’m glad that you could learn something from them. How was I in my younger days?”

“You haven’t changed.”

“I’m not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment.”

Maru faintly smiled. Jincheol grabbed the walkie-talkie and said that it was 10 minutes until stand-by. The door to the nearby café opened before people came out. They seemed to be the background actors.

“Are you busy?” Jincheol asked.

“No. I finished what I came here to do, so I have plenty of time.”

“Then wanna take a walk since you’re here?”

“Take a walk?”

Jincheol pointed at the fountain. The background actors had gathered there.

“You just need to walk by. I went over the script and thought about what role you could play, but it was hard to insert anything in the middle.”

“Oh, no, please don’t. You’re just giving me pressure. Just call me to an audition when you do your next piece. But do I just need to walk?”

“Yes. Just keep on walking. I’ll capture you in the middle of the frame once.”

“You don’t have to do that. I don’t have a decent face, so you won’t get a good picture if you do that.”

“Hey, you aren’t half-bad, you know?”

Maru looked at his phone once. He didn’t get a reply from Gaeul yet.

“But you are paying me a wage, right?”

“I’ll treat you to some coffee after this.”

“Thank you.”

Maru walked past the camera towards where the other background actors were waiting. He met eyes with Sungjae midway and just nodded lightly to greet him. Sungjae tried to come over, but the wall created by the fans was thick. Maru gestured to him to not come and joined the rest of the background actors.

“Yes, director. Okay.”

After receiving a message, the staff explained to them how they should move. Just as the director said, he just had to walk right past Sungjae, who was sitting by the fountain. Maru grabbed the coffee cup that the staff gave him and waited.

“Actors, please stand by.”

Sungjae, who was calming down the fans, started walking over to the director before turning his direction midway. Maru looked at Sungjae, who stood in front of him and spoke with a smile.

“Hyung, your popularity is through the roof.”

“That’s because the president put this on the official schedule. I’m rather flustered too because it’s been such a long time since this happened. But why are you here?”

Everyone he came across asked why he was here. Maru explained.

“How did the audition go?”

“I think I did okay. If it goes well, I’ll get to appear in a one-act play.”

“Congratulations. I’m sure you’ll do well.”

“Thanks. But hyung, the director’s waving at you to come.”

Sungjae turned around before hurriedly walking over. The fans all became quiet in an instant. It was good to see that they didn’t want to disturb the shoot. Some students who discovered Sungjae while walking by cheered out loud, but it wasn’t bad enough to pause the shoot. An expensive directional mic should be enough to filter that much noise.

“Let’s go, let’s go.”

The man who was called ‘assistant director’ by the others gave the start signal. Maru picked up his coffee cup and walked forward in leisure. Since he was outside of the camera’s focus, he just walked leisurely since there was no pressure when he heard the director giving the cut sign. The director looked very dissatisfied. When Maru followed his gaze and turned around, he saw a woman wearing a sleeveless shirt blinking her eyes multiple times.

“Assistant director, let’s do that again.”

The walkie talkie held by the assistant director made some sounds.

“We’re doing that again.”

Maru lightly dusted off the water droplets that formed on his coffee before returning to his original position.

“Uhm, what is your name?”

“I’m Choi Minae.”

“Miss Minae. Don’t look at the camera, okay?”

“Ah, yes. I won’t.”

“Alright, please focus on that. Also, wipe your sweat off before we do the next scene.”

Maru looked at the sleeveless shirt girl who soaked up the sweat from her head with some tissue. Although she was warned, it didn’t look like she cared. In fact, she met eyes with everyone who looked at her as though she was enjoying the attention. Maru also greeted her lightly. Was she someone who enjoyed something like that? Well, Maru thought that it was at least better than being nervous to death.

“We’re doing that again. Please stand by,” the assistant director shouted.