“Hello, senior!”

She greeted with a 90 degrees bow. The senior actor, who was greeted, waved back at her with a short reply. When she arrived at the set, the first thing she did was to greet all the actors and the staff members. Since she was initially nitpicked on because of her greeting, she always approached a senior actor whenever she saw one and greeted that person.

As there was no one that didn’t like a greeting from a junior actress, she was able to go around greeting everyone energetically.

“Hello, senior.”

She greeted the woman with a smile. Lee Miyoon. That woman had a faint smell of cigarettes and she just nodded before going away.

“She doesn’t touch you these days, huh,” Jiseok approached her and spoke.

“I can see that she hates me, but it’s not like she’s going to do something to me based on something I didn’t do. I took the initiative today as well.”

“What a tiring relationship.”

“I’m used to it now. Rather than that, tomorrow is the first episode right?”

“Yeah, it’s finally here.”

“I guess I have to wait until the week after next if I want to see myself on TV.”

“Why don’t you do some monitoring for me while you wait?”

“I’ll do it if I have time.”

She stuck out her tongue slightly and smiled at him. Jiseok told her that she was being unfair while drinking a sip of water from the cup in his hands before snapping his fingers as though he had remembered something.

“Oh yeah, have you seen that?”

“Seen what?”

“The touching street performance of Daehak-ro.”

“The touching street performance of Daehak-ro?”

“So you don’t know about it. It’s quite popular these days, you know?”

“What is it about?”

“You really don’t know anything about it? Doesn’t your boyfriend talk to you about it?”

“Maru? Ah! I did hear from him that he was preparing for a street performance.”

“So he didn’t tell you because it’s not official yet. After the shoot, try going on ‘Acting Street’. It’s a blog that talks about issues in Daehak-ro and….”

“I know ‘Acting Street’. Though, I haven’t been able to go on it a lot recently because I’m busy.”

“Really? Anyway, try going on it and look at the popular posts from recent days. There are a few posts that have low-quality videos, but the reactions are great. I also had a look at it, and it’s worth seeing, especially if you’re aspiring to become an actor.”

Jiseok wished her luck with the shoot before going over to his own set. She wrote down Acting Street in a memo in her mind before turning around.

* * *

“Acting street, recent posts… here it is.”

After the shoot, she didn’t go home immediately and went to the nearby PC-bang because she couldn’t wait. She grabbed a seat, opened a browser, and went to a web portal. She logged in with her account and went to ‘Acting Street’, which she designated as a neighbor[1].

Acting Street was a blog that had many events and issues that occurred in Daehak-ro, and there was a lot of content, such as information about various plays, events, and even interviews of some actors neatly organized into various sub-categories. It was a blog that was visited by tens of thousands of people every day. Although it started off as a personal blog, it recently switched its format to a multiple-reporter administration, and thanks to that, the number of posts went up. Right now, it was a must-visit website for someone that was going to Daehak-ro for the first time. The first place she added as a neighbor when she started her own blog was Acting Street as well.

“Skilled actor Yang Ganghwan of Daehak-ro creates a unique sensational stage.”

She read the title in a small voice.

The photo right below the title contained a scene where many people were holding their phone cameras up in the air in the dark night. It looked like a small theater. The people that were colored in lights from phone flashlights, as well as a man wearing a guitar. Then, there were the actors. Just watching them made her smile. It felt as though the livelihood of the scene was transferred right into her.

“A stage where the audience becomes the actors. We are all the main characters of the play that is our life.”

She scrolled down and read the post. Late at night, heaters placed throughout, the sound of a guitar, the chatting of the people, and finally, there was the story.

The photo was switched to a much more serious one than the joy-filled one from before in the next paragraph. The photo contained people looking very sad, and perhaps serious. In the middle of what seemed like a stage, there was a man in his forties, and next to that man was instructor Yang Ganghwan looking at the man while wearing a white gown.

“But the stage called life sometimes cruelly pushes the person that’s supposed to be the main character out of the spotlight.”

After reading a rather ominous sentence, she watched the video right below it. It was the video that Jiseok talked about before. She could hear the man’s voice through the speaker. Although the quality of the video wasn’t that good, the voice could be heard clearly.

She collapsed her hands and stared at the monitor in silence. The man’s words flew into her ears. Twenty minutes could be considered long, and it could be considered short. She watched the video without budging for twenty minutes, and when she realized that the video had ended, she sniffed.

It was a fearful story. It was a very frequent occurrence for people that aspired to become actors, so it was all the more fearful for her. She felt complex since she could neither cheer for the man nor sympathize with him. She just stared at the blacked-out screen for a long time.

She calmed herself down after taking a deep breath before scrolling down a bit further. There was a short evaluation from the blog reporter, who watched everything from beginning to end.

‘This was a play, yet not a play. I felt uncomfortable, yet I could only keep watching; I felt hurt, yet I could not cry. A lot of people cried, but I did not. The one that uttered out the pain wasn’t crying, so I couldn’t cry either. Rather than tears, I sent a passionate round of applause. That applause contained my jealousy of the man who focused on acting his whole life, as well as a compliment towards myself who didn’t live such a life. I did not have the confidence to live like that, yet he did. In a popular sense of the word, he wasn’t the ‘main character’, but in that place, he clearly was. I cheered for such a foolish man.’

Beneath that comment was another video. It was a 3-minute one. It contained what happened after the man’s story ended.

The man thanked everyone for listening to his story and tried to leave, but Ganghwan held him back.

-You’re going to continue acting, aren’t you?

-I think it’s too late for me now. I’m past forty after all.

-Is there a suitable age for acting in the first place?

After that, the man didn’t say anything, and the video ended with the man sitting back down again.

After reading the whole post, she checked the comments section. The post was from two weeks ago, and right now, the number of comments reached over four thousand. Every comment she saw cheered on for the man. Sometimes, there were comments that made cynical remarks about his foolishness, but those numbered extremely little.

It was a surprising thing. Although Acting Street was a popular blog amongst people who liked Daehak-ro, it lacked views compared to hugely popular blogs. Yet here, just one post had more than four thousand comments.

Just in case, she did an internet search about it as well.

Emotional stage of Daehak-ro.

There were numerous news articles about it.

* * *

“You really never know what will happen,” said Maru as he looked at the people in front of him.

After their first run, they did one more performance last Thursday in the afternoon. There weren’t as many people though since it was during a weekday. Despite that, they were able to wrap up the play well thanks to the fifty-or-so people that stuck around to the end. The participation rate of the audience was similar to their first run, but there was no one that talked about himself or herself in detail.

Then, last weekend, they held another performance.

The number of people increased. While they were handing out coffee cans by the entrance of the train station, they came across some people who asked them if they were the street performance guys. Thanks to a man who gave them two boxes of hot packs[2] as a gift, the performance that night was a lot warmer than before. Furthermore, thanks to the people that gathered that day, he found out that their first run was posted on a blog named Acting Street. He thought that it might have little effect in advertising their agenda but…

“This was outside of my expectations.”

Maru laughed as he looked at Sooil next to him. Sooil was the same. One more week had passed, and it was now 6 p.m. on a Saturday. They had finished their rehearsal and printed leaflets to hand out along with coffee, but the moment he arrived at the train station, Maru was overwhelmed by people. He felt overwhelmed because everyone was telling him that they were here to see the play.

When he returned to Marronnier Park like the Pied Piper of Hamelin and his group of rats, he came across Sooil and Hanna who were in a similar situation. People were lined up behind them like little ducklings.

There were at least four hundred people at a glance. They were at a point where some people wouldn’t be able to watch the performance because of the sheer number of people.

The problem was that that wasn’t the end of it.

It was early November. The sun set quickly, and the winds were cold. However, a wall of people surrounded the performance venue to the point that such cold winds could not pass through between the people.

In a situation where he was receiving the gazes of hundreds of people, Maru couldn’t do anything but smile awkwardly.

“Excuse me! Coming through!”

One part of the human wall suddenly split in two before Ganghwan and Hanna pushed through. The two went out to get their props and stage costumes and looked like they had just been through a war.

“There are clearly too many people here,” said Maru as he looked around.

They needed to come up with something. If an accident happened, it would be detrimental for them.

The audience stared at the four who got into a circle to have a discussion. Maru looked at Ganghwan.

“I’m insanely excited, but it’s gonna be chaos if we just went on like this, right?”

“More people are gathering around. But what’s happening? There’s no way so many people saw Acting Street.”

The answer came from Sooil.

“We’re on the media.”

“The media?”

“I saw on the internet. We’re now a hot topic in all sorts of communities thanks to that man in the first run,” Sooil said with a grin.

“Now that’s what I call advertisement.”

At that time, some people in the audience asked them when they were going to start. The sheer crowd of people was attracting even more people. Ganghwan took a deep breath before climbing on top of a chair he brought to use as a prop.

“Everyone!”

The loud voice that came out from the bottom of his stomach made everyone around go silent.

“Thank you all for coming! But I didn’t know so many of you would be coming today. We have only four people, so we can’t control all of you. That’s why I propose that we switch places!”

“To where?”

Ganghwan raised his finger and spoke.

“In front of the Arts Theater!”

The people all looked at one of the landmarks in Daehak-ro, the red building. Everyone started moving after Ganghwan asked them to move over slowly. It was Saturday evening. There were many people that just came out on a date or for a family picnic without knowing anything about the play. They were mixed in with the hundreds of people moving in unison. Maru could predict what kind of results such a phenomenon would bring.

“What an advertisement,” said Ganghwan.

The Arts Theater had a huge clearing in front of it after the street was finished being reconstructed. It was capable of holding hundreds of people. It was a splendid choice for a stage.

Maru, who walked at the front, tried looking behind him. There seemed to be around four hundred, no, five hundred people here. The number four hundred did not sound like a lot, but actually standing in front of such a crowd felt completely different. People of all sorts of ages and heights rushed across Daehak-ro. The sheer movement of such a crowd was an eye-catching performance in itself, and it caused the effect of attracting even more people.

After arriving at the Arts Theater, Maru climbed up the temporary stage installed in front of it. From where he was, all he could see was a wave of people. He could see people holding large cameras scattered throughout. Someone came out of the ticketing office for the Arts Theater in confusion.

Maru smiled. The numerous gazes of the crowd felt nice to him. Ganghwan, Hanna, and Sooil were making similar expressions. They now had a bigger stage. Which actor would hate such a thing?

“Thank you all for coming!” Ganghwan suddenly shouted.

After a moment of silence, a loud cheer erupted from the audience.

Maru felt his palms sweating.

‘This is just great.’

It was an incredible way to start.

[1] A feature in Korean blogging. You can designate other accounts as ‘neighbors’ and visit their blog. It’s similar to ‘follow’ in recent social media.

[2] A small bag that contains chemicals which react to produce heat when it’s exposed to the air. It’s an essential item for winter training sessions in the military.