Life, Once Again!

Park Hoon said those words before they could even say hello.

“You have a voice recording?”

-Let’s say I do. Geez, you seem to be having a great time. I flinched when I saw your face on a phone commercial. I thought it’d be pretty expensive to write a contract with you.

“I’m not that pricey just yet. The contract fee for the commercial wasn’t that much either.”

-Your face will be plastered on the Q-series commercial of all things, so the contract fee being little isn’t going to change anything. I can already hear your popularity growing. Anyway, how are you these days? Busy, right?

“When I was shooting the commercial, I was thinking that I might not last the year at this rate, but now I can take a breather. But it looks like the president doesn’t plan to let me rest.”

-You got offers?

“Can I brag a little? I think I’ll get more than 10.”

-I knew it. You haven’t stamped anything and set the schedule, have you?

“Nothing’s proceeded that far yet. I’m still at the stage where I’m talking about which one would be good.”

Park Hoon’s sighs could be heard over the phone.

-And there’s something you like?

“Yes. I picked about two.”

-That’s a pain. I can’t ask someone who just got work to push all that work aside.

“You’re saying that so I will push it aside, aren’t you?”

-I was talking to myself. Did you hear that?

Maru smiled and asked,

“Planning your next project?”

-Not just planning. I already got us a slot. Although I’m a little uneasy since the slot isn’t completely set in stone, if nothing goes wrong, we’re going to be airing in late autumn.

“That means that you already have a proposal, huh?”

-We’re already procuring locations for the shoot after getting the script, and there is about 8 episodes’ worth of script as well. It won’t be entirely pre-produced before airing, but we should be able to make about half of the episodes before it airs, so the quality can be guaranteed. The station will be giving us quite a lot of production fees as well.

“And I have a seat in that drama?”

-You do, of course.

Maru looked at Woofie and Bullie walking round and round chasing each other’s tails before speaking,

“Can I have a look at the scenario?”

Park Hoon did not reply. Just as he was about to check whether the call had ended, he heard a car horn sound.

-Phew, a bicycle suddenly cut in front of me so I was startled.

“You’re driving?”

-I just got in the car and departed. The destination is your house.

“You’re coming now?”

-You said you wanted the scenario, didn’t you?

“You can send it through email.”

-I just want to talk to you about some things while having a look at it. There’s also a guest too.

Before he could even ask who that guest was, Park Hoon hung up, saying that they should meet later. Maru looked down at his phone, which was no longer connected.

“Oh, does he know my address though?”

He browsed through his memories, but he found out that he had never told Park Hoon his address. Did he talk to the agency beforehand and find out that way? Maru thought about texting him the address before deciding not to. If there was a problem, he would probably call him first. He lifted the dogs playing around in the kitchen in each of his arms and took them to the smaller room. He needed to isolate the two little devils in order to clean the main bedroom.

It was when he was wiping the top of the closet with a wet wipe that the bell rang twice. Maru got down from the chair and opened the door. He saw Park Hoon and Daemyung standing behind him.

“I’m here too.”

Daemyung waved his hand with a smile. He didn’t expect to see these two together, so he even forgot to greet them as he just stared at them.

“Is there anyone inside? If it’s hard to talk inside, should we go to a nearby café?” Park Hoon asked.

Maru shook his head and welcomed the two inside.

“Looks like you got the address from Daemyung.”

“That’s right. I was really surprised to find out that the two of you were friends. It looks like this country is pretty small.”

Park Hoon sat down on the floor in the living room. Maru offered him the sofa to sit on, but he said he liked the floor better.

“You were quite surprised because we came here so suddenly, weren’t you?”

He went to the kitchen to get some drinks, and Daemyung followed him. Maru took out some juice from the refrigerator and asked,

“You knew the producer?”

“It hasn’t been that long since we got to know each other.”

Maru turned his head around to look at the living room. Park Hoon was calling someone. He heard him call out to a ‘writer Seo.’

“I told you before, right? That I was introduced to a writer working at a TV station through Joon-hyung.”

Maru did hear that Daemyung had met someone through Gwak Joon a few months ago. He was busy back then, so he hadn’t heard the details.

“That’s writer Seo Jihee. It turned out that she was my senior in college as well. At first, I was going to ask her about what happens in a TV program, but somehow, we ended up talking about novels. I had something I was working on, and she was the same. Apparently, she was a story writer for other programs, but she’s been aspiring to get into dramas, so she had written a lot of things.”

“So?”

“We talked a little and realized that we were pretty similar in what we aspire to create, whether it was the subject or the story itself. That was when writer Seo said she wanted to read the novel I wrote, and although it was slightly embarrassing, I showed it to her. She then showed me the script she was working on after reading mine, saying that she’ll help me however possible and asked if I could help with completing the script.”

Daemyung added that at first, he was going to refuse because of the pressure, but he accepted the position as an assistant writer when writer Seo urged him sincerely and said that she could pay him.

“You were acknowledged for your skills, huh.”

“I’m not sure about that yet. I’ll just offer a few suggestions during idea meetings and research materials in the meantime. It’s something I did before, so it’s not that hard.”

“Not anyone can do that. Anyway, congratulations. If this works out and goes on air, this will be your first piece, huh?”

“It doesn’t even have my name on it. Though, it will feel rather exciting if a piece that contains my writing and effort becomes a video,” Deamyung said with clear, upright eyes.

He was someone who was clear of the path he had to take. Maru wanted to cheer him on and support him even if he didn’t want it.

“But I was really surprised. The producer said to writer Seo that there’s an actor he really wanted to cast, but I never imagined that it would be you until he mentioned it.”

“It’s somewhat weird of me to say this with my own mouth, but I’m doing pretty well recently.”

Daemyung smiled and said that he watched the commercial. Maru brought the cups to the living room. Park Hoon finished his call and accepted the cup.

“Heard the gist of it from writer Park?”

“You call him writer Park, director?” he asked as he looked at Daemyung.

Daemyung was shivering and showing his rejection with his whole body. It seemed like Park Hoon was teasing Daemyung.

“I’m calling him that because that kind of reaction from him is pretty intriguing, but it’s also to give him the proper respect for his skills. I saw his writing. If he becomes a drama writer who can write scripts, I’d love to work on it.”

“You should get close to him now. Daemyung’s pretty skillful after all. Many writers said that he has a talent for writing.”

“As expected of writer Park. You’re amazing.”

When Park Hoon flattered him, Daemyung blocked his ears and took a step back. He looked like he was going to rush out of the house if he was teased anymore.

“You should read that for now. Writer Seo is practically a newbie in the drama industry who never wrote one before, but she had been living off of her writing for nearly a decade. She had made a lot of preparations too. I first thought that it would be some random self-consolation writing, but it was really good.”

Maru received the scenario. It was a 16-episode drama. He read the writing more seriously than ever. After flipping the last page, he let out a heavy breath.

“If I participate in this, what role would I be playing?”

“The role I marked in red.”

“I can’t say I’m knowledgeable when it comes to dramas, but I believe that there should be quite a lot of people wanting to play that role, especially if the producer is someone who has created multiple hits continuously.”

“We have yet to spread the scenario around. You’re the first actor to have a look at it. When I first looked at the writing, I had my dibs on you for that role. Of course, if you can’t do it, I’ll have to ask someone else.”

Park Hoon wrapped his chin with his palm and waited. Maru had one last look at the cover of the scenario before picking up his phone.

“Byungchan-hyung. There’s something I really want to do. Can you tell this to the president? Yes, yes, I’ll send it to you by email right away.”

After the call, Maru looked back and forth between Park Hoon and Daemyung.

“I want to do it too. I believe that it’s an incredibly charming role. But I can’t give you a clear answer here. I’m still just an ordinary salaryman who doesn’t have much trust, so I need the president’s approval. But I will make sure I’ll appeal for it strongly.”

“That’s enough for me. Also, I’m not that worried because I have confidence in the story. I’m sure president Lee Junmin will recognize its value.”

Park Hoon leaned on the sofa, saying that he was relieved. Maru looked at Daemyung, who was sitting next to him.

“You aren’t the producer, but I guess this is our first cooperation on a commercial product.”

“To be precise, it’s the second. I was one of the researchers in Apgu.”

“Right. It was fun during Apgu too, so I’m sure it’ll be fun this time too.”

“I’ll try to tell writer Seo to increase your screen time.”

“Looks like you’re the one I should be fawning over, not the director.”

Daemyung laughed out loud.

At this point, Maru was running on a smooth road without a single obstacle in sight. It even made him wonder if this was really okay.

Park Hoon said he’ll treat them to some meat to commemorate the deal coming together, albeit verbally. Maru replied that he would go and stood up, but it was then that he saw a small doll sitting down on the corner of the sofa. It was a doll wearing a red military uniform, reminiscent of British Royal Guards, and a mask.

“You should go on first. I’ll catch up to you once I clean some things here.”

He sent the two out first. The doll moved when the door closed.

“Shall we have a talk?”

What entered his ears was ‘Han Maru’s’ voice. Maru nodded.