Chapter 175

Chapter 175
Chapter 175
“Ugh, my back . ”
Long distance driving was as exhausting as always, Suyeon stepped out of her car to take a look around . There was a single villa standing in the middle of nowhere, this was supposedly where Junmin was . The ground was slightly muddy below her, Suyeon frowned as she looked at her suede shoes . She actually liked these shoes, so she couldn’t bring herself to set her foot down on the ground . Just as she started looking around in hesitation…
“Ms . Suyeon?”
Someone appeared before her, it was Geunsoo holding a flashlight .
“Oh? Hello . ”
“So it is you . I was told to step outside since you arrived . The ground is quite the mess, isn’t it? It rained a lot . ”
“Yes . I’m not sure how I should go inside . ”
“I’ll bring you some sneakers . ”
“Can you just carry me instead?”
She made it sound like a joke so as to not pressure him, Geunsoo thought for a bit before stepping towards her .
“Here, get on . ”
“Woww . ”
It was a good start . Up close, Geunsoo had an aura of playfulness about him like a child, to think that someone like this would turn into a madman on the stage . Suyeon was a fan of this aspect of Geunsoo, and even loved him, to an extent . She wanted to add him to her collection .
“Heavy, right?”
“Yes . You should consider losing weight . ”
“Wouldn’t a gentleman tell me I’m light?”
“Sorry, I’m terrible at those things . ”
Geunsoo put Suyeon down in front of the villa . She rubbed her chest against his back pretty hard on purpose during the piggyback ride, but it didn’t elicit much of a reaction from him . As she thought, he was just as difficult to manipulate as the rumors said .
“I was surprised how good Geunseok was at first when it came to acting . I understood right away when I heard your name though . ”
“My brother never learned anything from me . We just watched plays together a few times . ”
“ . . . . . . ”
A hurtful smile, Something was wrong . Did the two not get along well? She should stop talking about Geunseok in that case . Still, she decided to pry a tiny bit further .
“Looks like Geunseok wants to take after his brother . ”
“He doesn’t want to be like me . He just wants the attention I have on stage . I thought he finally found a dream of his own when he went into the acting club at school, but . . . ”
Geunsoo shrugged with a smile .
“Sorry, I shouldn’t bore you with family drama . Just teach him well, please . He’s talented, as you’ve already seen . I’m sure he can turn out to be a good actor as long as he can grasp his strengths . ”
It seemed that she picked the wrong topic to talk about, Suyeon started regretting the amount of time she poured into Geunseok . The two didn’t even get along .
“I’ll do my best . In any case, I didn’t think there’d be such a nice villa in a place like this . No wonder Mr . Junmin was so impressed . ”
She quickly changed the topic from something other than Geunseok, but Geunsoo just walked forward without responding to her . He passed through the front gates and entered the building, the first thing Suyeon saw as she entered was a wooden staircase upstairs . Next to the staircase was the living room, which already had a few people inside .
“Hello . ”
She didn’t know any of them, but there was nothing to be lost from saying hello . There were all sorts of people, ranging from ages 20 to 50 .
“Hello . ”
“It must’ve been a difficult drive here . ”
None of them was surprised, they probably received word of her coming here a long time ago . The carpet on the floor was littered with poker cards, she could spot quite a few bottles of alcohol as well .
“Here, follow me . ”
She went up to the second floor with Geunsoo . There wasn't anyone else inside the villa, they must’ve rented it for the day . Geunsoo knocked on one of the doors located further away from the staircase .
“May we come in?”
“Sure, come inside . ”
She could hear Junmin’s voice inside . Suyeon entered the room with a slight smile, but froze up completely when she saw who else was inside .
“You should say hello . ”
She finally came back to her senses after hearing Junmin’s words and greeted the other man in the room .
“Hello, senior Yoon Moonjoong . ”
“You know me?”
“Of course . I was inspired by your performance at the Myungdong Art Theater . ”
To think someone so influential would be here… Aside from him, there was also someone else in the room, he looked to be in his late 20s . The man was looking at her with his hand on his black horn-rimmed glasses, his gaze didn’t look very kind .
‘Who is it?’
The man couldn’t be someone normal, especially if he was with Junmin and Moonjoong here . Suyeon greeted him with a bright smile .
“Hello, I’m actress Kim Suyeon . ”
The man gave her a silent nod .
“Please understand . He just doesn’t like talking . Or maybe he’s embarrassed about talking to pretty girls . ”
“That’s not the case at all . ”
The man refuted Junmin immediately . Suyeon felt her stomach twist inside at the thought of getting ignored, but she still maintained a smile .
“Do you not like me? We could at least trade names . Are you an actor?”
He’d probably be an incredible rookie if he was an actor .
“I’m not an actor . Just a writer . ”
“Writer? Then a scenario . . . ”
“I just published a single book so far . No more, no less . Is that enough?”
“ . . . Um, did I do something wrong by any chance?”
“You didn’t . I just talk like this, so please don’t take offence . Or just ignore me . It’d be better if you don’t talk to me entirely . Since I don’t like talking . ”
The man ended his sentence with the same expression he started speaking with . Wow, this one will be difficult . She didn’t even want to approach him any further, guys like this were hard to take down with just words . She would’ve just ignored him like he said if he was a normal person, but…
‘He has this vibe . ’
The man took a sip from a can of beer in front of him . Suyeon changed targets and asked Junmin a question .
“So who’s this mysterious writer right next to me?”
“The original writer of the movie we’ll be producing . Did you hear of a novel called ‘Twilight Struggles’?”
“I didn’t, unfortunately . ”
Junmin took out a book from his bag . The cover was decorated with black and grey .
“You like books, right?”
“Well, now I do . Should I read it?”
She was getting greedy to read it already, Junmin definitely didn’t call her here for nothing . Perhaps he was thinking of casting her in this film?
“Finish it by tomorrow morning . ”
“You’re too much . It’s 1am, you know?”
“So you aren’t going to read it?”
Suyeon grinned and waved the book in front of her face a little . She didn’t enjoy reading very much, but she still read during her spare time . There were no better tools for self-improvement than books, after all .
“So she’ll be taking on that role?” Moonjoong said .
“No, sir . I’m just taking her out for a test run . You’re going to have a huge say in terms of casting, sir, so please tell me if you happen to have anyone in mind for a role . ”
Suyeon smiled, making sure no one saw her doing it . A movie Moonjoong was starring in, with Junmin as the casting director… This was going to be big . It didn’t even take her a second for her to realize that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance .
“Please take care of me from now on, sir . ”
“I’d have to ask the same of you if we work together from now on, miss . ”
“Please drop the formalities . I want to be adored, too . ”
“Haha . ”
Suyeon bowed at the two teachers and nodded at the young author, the author didn’t even spare her a glance as he continued sipping on his drink . Ah well . It was a shame, but it was about time she left . She closed the door as she exited .
“That guy’s a bit sensitive around people . He’ll at least greet you if you get close with him . ”
“Are you close with that author?”
“I don’t really know . He isn’t very expressive . ”
“I see . Are you participating in this project as well, by the way?”
“I’m not sure . I’ll consider it when the auditions begin . ”
“So you really came here for a leisurely drive today?”
“I told you from the start . It must’ve sounded like a lie to you, Ms . Suyeon . ”
Suyeon felt thorns coming off of Geunsoo’s voice, he clearly didn’t have a very good impression of her .
‘Maybe he heard rumors about me . ’
She knew she was being called a queen bee behind her back, she didn’t deny it, it was true . Yet the men who knew fell when she approached them, Men were all foolish like that .
“You’re not mad because of it, are you?”
“Of course not . ”
Geunsoo let it pass smoothly, he was going to be a hard one to tackle . Suyeon followed the man into an empty room .
“There’s not much that’s going to happen till 1 o’clock tomorrow, so please rest . ”
“Doesn’t look like I can even if I want to, because of this . ”
Suyeon lifted her book, garnering a nod from Geunsoo .
“It won’t be boring, at least . ”
Geunsoo slowly closed the door, Suyeon turned on the bedlight and lay down on the bed .
“Alright, let’s take a look,” she said, as she flipped open to the first page .
* * *
Daemyung looked at the clock nervously, it was almost lunch . The teacher was looking at his wristwatch from the front of the classroom .
“I’ll let you go five minutes early today, so don’t run . Alright?”
“Yes!”
The students in the classroom pushed their chair back, getting ready to run . The math teacher organized his textbooks and gestured to the class rep . The class rep got up and shouted “stand”, which signalled for each chair in the room to scrape against the floor all at once . The math teacher waved at the students with a wry smile .
“Thank you . ”
“No problem . Enjoy your meals . ”
With that, the students ran out of the room . Daemyung immediately turned to look at Maru .
“Let’s go!”
Maru grabbed a large bag next to him and ran out at full speed, Daemyung had to hold his breath as he followed after the boy .
‘Why’s he so fast?!’
Maru zoomed right through the empty hallway, he was so fast that Daemyung immediately lost hope in trying to follow him . He huffed his way down the central stairs as he watched a smaller kid catch up to Maru .
“Let’s go, senior!”
The boy had a massive voice . Maru and the small kid ran together, so Daemyung tried to follow behind as much as possible . He heard someone shout ‘don’t run!’ behind them, but Daemyung couldn’t, at least not today . Before they knew it, they were the first students in the cafeteria .
“Alright . Just an hour, Daemyung . ”
“Got it . ”
Maru took out a sign from his bag, the type that you could hang over your neck .
- Acting club . Looking for members . Please take a sheet! First years welcome!
Daemyung stepped forward after hanging it over his neck .
“Senior! My name is Ahn Bangjoo! Please take care of me!”
“Ah, yeah, sure . ”
This must be the junior Maru mentioned this morning, the boy was wearing the same sign as well . Instead of standing like Daemyung, the boy was posed as if he was running somewhere . It seemed hard to maintain balance, but Bangjoo looked confident .
“Alright, then . ”
Maru posed as well . He put the box of paper down in front and reached as if he was picking up money .
“Won’t it be hard, Maru?”
“I can just change my pose a little every once in a while . ”
“Why can’t you just stand…?”
“It’s not impactful that way . But anyway, you guys both remember your actions, right? Do them whenever someone takes one of these . Remember, this is a battle of patience . Try not to move as much as possible . ”
“Got it . ”
“Yessir!”
Daemyung sighed and looked forward, he could see the two goalposts outside the building in front of him . A few minutes later, he started hearing noises coming from his left . There were students running their way .
“They’re coming . Let’s try to get as much attention as possible . Don’t smile . ”
“Y-yeah . ”
He was nervous despite this not being a stage . Daemyung tried to cheer himself up as he told himself that stillness could be more stressful than just moving as Maru told him . Finally…
“Hey! Get my plate too!”
“Got it!”
“First place!”
The others have arrived .