“Why is there no announcement?”

Maru felt like he was hearing a clattering sound. He looked at Sora, who was biting on her thumb’s fingernail. Today was the 19th of July, the 2nd day of the long summer holidays. Today, Sora and Ando came to visit the acting club. It wasn’t that they had some special business for their visit. After all, grumbling could not be categorized as business.

“Why the heck did she come here?”

Maru looked at Ando, who stood next to her.

“I don’t know. I want to ask too. Why am I here?”

Ando yawned as though he was very tired. From the way his face was colored with the desire to sleep, it seemed that he was dragged here against his will.

“But why! Is! There! No announcement?”

“What announcement?”

“The film festival. It’s been two months since we handed it in. The deadline was the end of May. It’s strange that there was no news for two months.”

“Why are you asking me? Ask the organizers.”

“Of course I did.”

“What did they say?”

“They said that they are going to delay the deadline by a month due to internal circumstances.”

“Well, there you have it.”

“But two months have passed. Isn’t it strange? So I asked again, about why there has been no news at all even though an extra month had passed. Apparently, they were supposed to announce a recruitment notice for the judges of the non-competitive sections, but apparently, the employee in charge of that went missing, and the entire festival is being delayed. It didn’t stop at that either. Apparently, the number of volunteer applicants wasn’t going well either, so it might be delayed even further. It’s flabbergasting. They’re adults, but their work speed is really subpar. Even I would do better than that.”

Sora sighed towards the ceiling.

“Is my comprehensibility lacking because it’s the morning? You phoned the organizers and found out about all of the circumstances, yes?”

“I did.”

“So you know why they aren’t giving out notifications, right?”

“Yes!”

“Then why are you venting it out on me?”

Maru thought that Sora would flinch since he attacked the bullseye, but Sora boldly raised her head as though that wasn’t a problem.

“Because it’s frustrating! I was frustrated the entire time I was calling them. They’re adults yet they can’t even work properly.”

“I’m asking you why you came all the way to me to vent.”

“You know, just telling you while I’m here.”

Maru felt like he was looking at a vegetarian holding up a piece of steak with a smile. I am a vegetarian and this steak is delicious. What the heck did that even mean? He was combing through his memories to see whether he did anything that might have gotten on her nerves when Daemyung came inside the hall. He greeted the first year students who were doing stretches before finding Sora and coming over. Maru raised his eyebrow. What was the meaning behind those cheerful footsteps? Sora jumped out as though she was waiting for him. The two met up in the middle of the hall and talked to each other before going to the window.

“What the heck is up with them?”

“I don’t know.”

“Koo Ando, what do you know?”

“I don’t know anything. I’m lacking sleep, and my head isn’t working. She called me at 5 a.m. Not throwing my phone at a wall was the last strand of rationale I had in me.”

“And this Mr. Rationale of yours has left the house?”

Ando nodded before leaning against the wall. His body softened like ice cream under the hot sun. Ando was crossing the line of sleep and awake several times while he was curling up his body, and he looked very miserable like an abandoned dog. He was so pitiful that Maru even felt sorry for him. Maru brought a blanket and covered him with it. Sleeping on the cold floor was not a good thing.

Maru walked towards the duo talking by the window. When did these two get so close? According to his memory, there was no point of contact between these two. At most, it was a couple of conversations as the president of the acting club and the director of the film. After that, they didn’t even have the opportunity to greet each other. Maru suddenly jumped in between the two, who were having a secret talk and looked like Jiyoon would definitely misunderstand.

“That startled me! What the heck was that, seonbae?”

“That’s what I want to say. Don’t you think I’m kinda pitiful when the person venting her frustration on me suddenly disappears without a word like that?”

“There’s Ando-seonbae. I left him by the wall because I thought you might get bored.”

“Ando is an object to you, isn’t he?”

“What the heck are you saying? Do you know how much I like Ando-seonbae? I’d never treat him like an object.”

That smile was very suspicious. Maru turned away from the girl with the deceitful mask. Picking an opponent that could actually communicate through words was an attitude that any intellectual must have after all.

“Now that I think about it, I think you’re the reason she barged into the acting club so early in the morning.”

“Don’t call it barged. I scheduled a meeting beforehand.”

He turned away from the chatterbox Sora and looked at Daemyung. He wanted a quick answer, but Daemyung’s lips were clearly hesitant.

“Seonbae. He’s my guest, you know?”

Sora waved her hand and interrupted.

“Guest?”

“Daemyung-seonbae. Let’s talk over there. It’s no fun to reveal it now, right?”

Sora took Daemyung to a corner. She also took Ando, who was drooping on the ground like seaweed, on the way as well. Maru couldn’t begin to imagine what they were scheming.

A chatterbox girl, a dozing-off guy, and the former president of the acting club were forming a different space within the acting club in the corner. It was natural for the juniors to watch them. Maru clapped to get their attention. He didn’t know what they were up to, but since Daemyung was involved, he didn’t feel like it would become a problem.

“Let’s not mind the three strange people over there. Aram, what should we start with?”

“Let’s do some warmups first.”

Standing in front of the juniors, Aram led the practice without looking awkward. After some light stretches, starting with turning the wrists, she started properly working out. When an ordinary day at the acting club - mixed in with slight groans from time to time - began, the second guest arrived in the hall. Maru forgot to greet that person since he was even more unexpected than Sora showing up and just stared at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You’re making me embarrassed.”

“I thought you were a ghost.”

“So I look healthy?”

“Correct. But, hyung-nim. What brings you here?”

Ganghwan had brought some paper bags in both of his hands. The first year students, who were working out, all stopped and looked at the door. It seemed that they were curious about who this man with a stubble was.

“Keep going. It’s not good to stop practicing just because someone is visiting,” Ganghwan said.

Maru signalled Aram with his eyes. As someone who was quick to take a hint, she quickly gathered their attention and continued the exercises. Seeing her take control of them instantly, Maru quietly uttered ‘good’.

“Have you been doing well?” Ganghwan asked as he put the paper bags on the ground.

“I have. When did you come back hyung-nim? This is more surprising than when you said you’re going overseas through text.”

“It hasn’t been that long since I came back. You can be touched. Be impressed by the love of your teacher who came to visit his student as soon as possible since he came back into the country.”

Maru ignored those words. He was perhaps a teacher the first time they met two years ago, but right now, he was nothing more than a hopeless big brother. Well, hopeless was going a little far, so slightly lacking?

“Do you want a hug and a deep kiss or something?”

“Come on then!”

“I do it when I say I will.”

Maru jumped towards Ganghwan without hesitation. Before he could hug Ganghwan with all of his might, Ganghwan groaned and took a step back. He looked like a caterpillar had landed on the back of his neck.

“You’re creepy.”

“You’re even more creepy for asking me to do it. Anyways, what’re all these?”

“Your group uniform. I went to meet Miso yesterday and she gave me two options: either die or deliver these to the school.”

“You should be thankful that you didn’t die. Someone who sends congratulatory gift money through bank transfer with a single text that he’s going overseas is definitely more than death-worthy. She’s a close friend of yours too.”

“I couldn’t bear to look at her in a wedding dress. Wasn’t that dude a man? I’m sure there’s something between the crotch.”

“I’m surprised you’re still alive. Miso-noonim should have chased you with a sushi knife in hand a long time ago.”

“I finally feel like I’m home after hearing you say things like that.”

Ganghwan suddenly reached out his hand. Maru responded to the handshake.

“I’m glad that you’re back safely. I was kinda worried because you said you wanted to try wrestling with a Russian brown bear. I know you’d definitely do it.”

“I did see some bears, but man, they were freakishly huge. It’s unthinkable to go against them as a human. I’d rather jump off a bungee without a rope instead.”

While Ganghwan clicked his tongue, Maru picked up the paper bags and went to the first year students. Inside the heavy bags were hoodies with the hanja characters for Blue Sky stitched on them in blue.

“Miso-noonim is quite caring when it comes to stuff like this. Everyone, take one.”

There was a nametag on the neck of the hoodie. Everyone soon found their hoodie thanks to that. Although these free-size hoodies were generally large so anyone could wear any one of them, Miso went through the lengths to match the sizes to each person. She won’t have a problem doing household chores at least - that suddenly came to Maru’s mind.

“How was Russia?”

“Cold.”

“And?”

“The women are pretty. Oh, they also drink vodka like water.”

“That sounds very educational.”

“Educational indeed.”

Maru asked Aram to take care of the rest before leaving the hall.

“So what was the real reason you went there?”

“Of course, I went there to study. The history of acting over there is quite solid.”

“Was it helpful?”

“I was only there for two months. I wish I could stay there for a few years and learn various things, but you know that our president despises playing around without working.”

“That I do. So you’re going to start working again now?”

“He got me some work already. I guess I have to start earning my expenses now.”

“There goes your good days then.”

“Indeed.”

“What’s going to happen to the street performance?”

“It’s too late for that. There’s a right time for everything. Unfortunately, once it went on the media, we got a lot of people coming to us with fake stories, didn’t we? It was practically over from that point. There’s no need to continue a stage that has lost its purity.”

“I was planning to get famous through that, but I guess it isn’t happening, huh?”

“Of course not. Rather than that, you’re already famous, aren’t you? You’re in a TV drama.”

“I’ve been getting a lot less screen time recently. Ever since the story started focusing on the love story between the main cast, I only appear biweekly. I might lose my means of earning money at this rate.”

“When I looked at the news articles, the drama itself was doing well though.”

“The next door neighbor becoming successful doesn’t mean that my food plate will be filled. I want to try other pieces too, but I’m not finding anything suitable. In an era where fully grown adults are acting high school students, there’s practically no one who’s willing to use a less-grown-up kid. I only managed to get into this drama since it’s a youth drama, otherwise, they would have used an adult actor instead.”

“You haven’t changed that pessimistically realistic view, huh. I’m glad that you haven’t changed.”

“You came here to tease me, didn’t you?”

“Hey, don’t say that to the mother bird who brought an insect for the little bird. Or wait, am I the father bird?”

Maru’s ears perked when he heard those words. Associating the word food with Ganghwan’s suspicious smile brought him to one conclusion. Work, or an audition.

“Let’s do a one-act play. A refreshing one.”

“I like refreshing.”

“You can make the time for it, right?”

“I can.”

“Good. Then do you have a shoot this weekend?”

“No, I will be a splendid unemployed man.”

“That’s good then. There’s an assistant director that I’m close to, and he’s shooting his first main piece. A late-night piece on YBS. You know, that one that numerous stars went on.”

“I know that one.”

“I said that I’d introduce a young face, so do your best. Okay?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

Opportunity landed at his feet so he couldn’t miss it. Even an idiot would swallow if someone put porridge in their mouth.

“But he’s quite picky.”

“Is anyone not picky working in that field?”

“I guess that’s true. Good, that’s the attitude. Please come back alive.”

Those last words were questionable - Maru made a stiff smile.