After some time spent on reading, Maru eventually realized that the sound of sobs was gone. He lowered the volume before turning off the TV. The moon outside the window looked oddly small today. After closing his book, Maru looked back. Suyeon was sleeping with messy hair. She looked exhausted after a night of talking and thinking.

“I told her she’d catch a cold if she sleeps outside, too.”

It was 2am, but he couldn’t sleep because of the alcohol in his system. Maru cleaned up the snacks and the dishes in front of him, Suyeon trembled from the noise of the dishes clacking together. After cleaning up the living room, Maru looked back into the small room and the big room. The girls in the small room were hugging each other in their sleep, they must’ve been cold. Come to think of it, the heater wasn’t on. He grabbed a blanket from the pile in the corner and covered the two with it. He took another one and stepped outside.

“Can’t you act more your age?”

He put a blanket over the woman. She might’ve looked lovely or baby-like to anyone else in this state, but to Maru, she just looked sad. Everyone had their stories, no one was born innately good or evil. It’s their accumulated experiences that would nudge them towards good or evil. What’s funny was that the standards of what was good or evil were subjective, Maru knew that better than anyone else. A role model you looked up to might secretly be someone who stepped on others to get to where they were, on the other end, a person on death row might be someone who could give you a valuable life lesson. That’s why Maru tried his best to judge people based on how they treated him. In that sense, Suyeon was a good person. Her relationships were purely based on profit. So long as she stuck by that, Maru’s opinion of her would be neutral, but he did want to tell her something.

“Are you sleeping?”

No response. The woman breathed like a little baby.

“If you lived happily so far, then don’t have any regrets. But if your actions come back to you in the form of pain, then it’s time to stop. If they don’t, then live as you always have. Don’t try to be ‘good’, you should know better than I do that’s a nigh impossible thing to do. So stay greedy. Live the life you want to live, as long as it’s within the confines of the law.”

Maru turned the heater on and the lights off, he laid down on the living room carpet and put on a blanket. The living room was quiet now, he started steadying his breath. He could feel sleep slowly approaching from the other side of his consciousness.

* * *

He dreamed of chasing a woman he didn’t know. No, that wasn’t a stranger. He knew that woman for sure.

Maru opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling dumbly, it was colored gray. Ah, right, this was Suyeon’s home. He put a hand over his dry neck and sat up, the dream just now was already fading away deep into his subconscious. All he remembered was that he was chasing after a woman he felt like he knew. The woman was sometimes young, sometimes old, and at other times someone else entirely.

An odd dream indeed, but it faded away quickly enough that he didn’t think much of it. The living room was colored with sunlight, it was 9am. After taking a deep breath of the fresh Sunday air, Maru got up.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Suyeon was standing by the kitchen, surprisingly. That tear-stained face of hers from the night before was gone without a trace. Now, she was the actress Kim Suyeon. So this is the end of her storytime from last night, Maru nodded as a small greeting before walking inside himself.

“Want water?”

“Sure.”

He finished the glass of water in two gulps. He could feel the drowsiness inside him being washed away instantly.

“Thanks for the blanket. I’m glad you at least have some manners.”

“I’d rather we have a healthy instructor teach us.”

“Ugh, you aren’t cute at all.”

“Being treated as ‘cute’ in my age is problematic.”

“You sound like an old man.”

“Much better than being an immature adult, wouldn’t you agree? Anyway, should I wake the kids? I think we should go out soon.”

“No, let them sleep. They were a mess last night. We’ll start our first training after letting them sleep till lunchtime.”

“Training?”

“I want to check your vocal cords. I want to see how well Ms. Miso did.”

Suyeon took out a toaster.

“You’re fine with toast for lunch, right?”

“Do you have rice?”

“Can’t you just eat what I give you? You’re not going to be popular if you keep acting this way.”

“I’ve said this before, but I’m kind to my girlfriend. So there’s no need for you to worry.”

“You have a girlfriend?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Whew, that’s unexpected. I thought you hated women. Especially since you never even spared me a glance.”

“Are you really bored enough to bring up yesterday’s conversation?”

“I can’t stand quiet meals, sorry.”

“Get your own boyfriend then.”

“How? The way you told me to last night?”

So she was listening. Maru spread some jam on his toast as he responded.

“Why pretend you were sleeping? Now I feel awkward for no reason.”

“Because it’s fun.”

Suyeon poured both of them a glass of orange juice.

“So how’s your girlfriend? Is she pretty? How’s her personality?”

“She’s better than you in every aspect. Face, body, personality.”

“Boo, there’s no way she has a better body than me.”

Suyeon crossed her long legs. Maru had to make a correction, Suyeon did indeed have a better body for the time being.

“Just give it time.”

“How do you know she’ll look better by then?”

“I have good eyes.”

“Ew, what a pervert.”

“All men are born perverts. We just restrain it.”

“That’s just proof that you’re a massive pervert. Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“Not as much as someone who tells their life story alongside tears. Also, haven’t you run into my girlfriend when you visited me in the hospital?”

“Did I? Sorry, I’m not the type to remember people unrelated to me.”

“Not surprised.”

The toast crunched inside his mouth, the strawberry jam was pretty tasty. Where was it from? He turned the bottle around to look at the label, all that English made it hard to read.

“Tasty, right? I got it as a gift. It was like 150 thou per bottle?”

“So that’s why it’s tasty.”

“Want a bottle?”

“I’d rather not. I don’t like accepting gifts without reason.”

“Consider it a gift for our future relationship. Though it doesn’t look like we’ll be friends.”

“Agreed.”

“Why do you dislike me so much?”

Maru responded as he chewed on the toast.

“I don’t dislike you that much. There’s just no reason for me to be friends with you. Ah, if it looked like I was avoiding you, that’s because I consider you a scary person. I dislike scary women.”

“Me? Scary? Why? Because I screw with men?”

Maru responded as he looked directly into her eyes.

“If you’re that conscious of your behavior, then I’d recommend that it’s best to just stop. I don’t care about what you do. If you’re talking about it to me on purpose, then I’d like to ask why you keep doing this. I said you’re scary because you’re terrifyingly good at controlling your emotions. I like women with weak spots.”

Suyeon let out a little “hmm” as she looked at Maru. Her smile and erotic gaze didn’t change, but Maru noticed that her eyes looked very cold inside.

“You’re too cold, but also gentle. It sounds hypocritical, but it’s true. I get why I told you everything last night. You’re not the type to console me. But you still listen. You don’t try to relate, but you understand. I can’t ask you for forgiveness, but I can at least confess. You even scolded me when I needed it.”

“Do you feel good after getting scolded by a child?”

“Yes, very. I was feeling pretty complicated recently, but that’s all gone now. People need to live their lives in a way that fits them. It’s impossible to return to how I was in the past. No matter what I do, I can’t fix my old scars. So I might as well live like this.”

Suyeon finished her orange juice in one gulp.

“If you keep planning on touching people like that, then please don’t approach minors. Especially the kids in the acting club.” “I have standards, you know? Pretty high ones. You think I do this to anyone?”

“Mm, that sort of sounds like a compliment. Thank you.”

“Hah.”

Suyeon put another piece of bread in the toaster.

“Care for another?”

* * *

Jiyoon couldn’t open the door in front of her. She woke up a while ago, but she couldn’t step outside. Suyeon and Maru were talking outside. She couldn’t hear the conversation, but she knew things would get awkward quick if she stepped out now.

‘What do I do?’

The worst part was how much she remembered everything from last night, she felt her face redden just thinking about what she said to Maru. She won’t drink ever again from now.

“Bathroom.”

“Oh my god, you surprised me.”

Aram was grabbing the doorknob with a sleepy expression. Jiyoon stopped the girl.

“Things are bad outside.”

“Really?” “Yeah, Senior and Instructor...”

“Reaaaally?”

Jiyoon closed her mouth with a shocked face, Aram’s face was grinning with a teasing look. Right. This person was different from her. The girl opened the door, clearly expecting to run into some trouble. Unfortunately, all she ran into was Maru standing in front of her.

“Oh, Senior! I heard something interesting was happening outside.”

“Nope. Go wash your face. You look like a mess.”

“Really?”

Aram walked to the bathroom as if nothing had happened, Jiyoon looked at Maru with an awkward smile.

“You.”

“Y-yes?”

“Never drink more than three glasses of beer.”

“...Okay.”

Right then, loud music started playing in the living room. The noise only got louder every time Suyeon tapped on the remote.

“Wake up, kids! It’s lunchtime!”

* * *

Dowook breathed lightly into his hand, his breath still smelled slightly of soju. He learned how to drink from delinquents early into high school, but yesterday was the first time he had so many soju bombs. He regretted having thought lightly of drinking just because he sipped a little in the past. He immediately lost himself after a few glasses and before he knew it, he was in the bathroom. The next time he came to was an unconscious Daemyung lying down next to him, he felt a chill run down his back whenever the boy gagged with a pale face. Thankfully, Daemyung didn’t throw up during the night.

“That instructor is weird.”

They went to the top of the building after lunch and shouted their lungs out. Suyeon just laughed at him when he said he was trying to be a support member, he ended up having to shout to the sky as a result. He did feel a lot better after doing it though, so it was a plus.

Afterwards, Suyeon asked the club to make sounds with their hands over their stomach. She made them talk normally and even shout, she also taught them how to do abdominal breathing. Daemyung laughed when she said it’d make them run out of their breaths, he was shocked when he actually did.

- We’ll stop here today. We can pick out a play tomorrow and practice more. I’m not very good at teaching, so you guys should prepare as well.

She sounded irresponsible, but that fitted her image well. Suyeon was an odd woman, but she was very serious when she taught. Trustworthy for sure.

“I’m supposed to make props though.”

Dowook clicked his tongue as he got on the bus. He hated annoying things and he had a feeling things were only going to get more annoying from now.