“Let’s go for now.”

Maru picked up his bag and stood up. Even though it wasn’t 2 p.m. yet, they got the message to gather as though the schedule was pulled forward. On the way back, Maru observed the group who went ahead of him. The order they walked in seemed to have settled as the woman with sharp eyes took the lead, followed by the earphone man, the one in school uniform, the chatterbox, and then the small girl with a foolish smile on her face. There was no change to the order, and every conversation started from the front and flowed to the back. Not once did it go the other way round. Even a band of marching soldiers would be more free than this. Maru left the group. The woman at the front glared at him slightly. He replied back with a smile.

When they arrived, the only one waiting in the lobby was the woman at the front desk. It seemed that the rest of the applicants had returned. What was different was that the woman was now wearing a baggy t-shirt and jeans instead of a black office suit. There was a large clock drawn in the middle of her t-shirt, and two hands were grabbing the hour hand and the minute hand respectively. It couldn’t be said to be a good design, even as a joke.

“Did you have a good meal?”

Hearing the woman ask, they all replied ‘yes’, ‘well’, ‘it was so so’ and other vague answers. Maru did not reply.

“Shall we go inside?”

The woman at the desk led them to the room where they took the audition in the morning. Other than the fact that there were six chairs inside instead of one, nothing had changed.

“Please sit down in order.”

If the order was the order they entered the room, the woman with sharp eyes should sit at the very right, but she looked around once before sitting in the middle. It seemed that she had done some calculations. Maru went to the seat on the far right which she should have sat on. After everyone sat down. The desk lady sat down at the table in front of them.

“I should introduce myself first, right? My name is Yoo Jayeon and I work for the drama department at YBS.”

Maru nodded. One of the topics they talked about at the café was her identity. As everyone predicted that she had a direct relation to the audition, no one was surprised when she revealed herself to be the producer.

“I was put in charge of a late-night one-act play, and all of you are here in order to participate in it. Some of you might have seen the information about this audition through your acting schools, and perhaps some might have found out through other means. I’ll say this beforehand, but please don’t ask me to take care of you because you’re close to someone. I hate those people.”

Jayeon took out her ID card for the TV station and put it around her neck.

“Everyone here should be in a similar place as me. I have to produce a good work in order to prove my skills, and everyone here has to prove their worth by shooting a good piece. Am I right?”

As it wasn’t a question that was looking for an answer, Maru stayed quiet. Jayeon then stood up and sat on the table.

“You know why you passed the first audition, right?”

“To a certain extent,” replied the woman with sharp eyes.

“Miss Park Minjoo, correct?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“You were reading this acting school’s brochure, right?”

“I was.”

“What did you feel when the man who finished the audition first, left the school looking angry?”

“I thought that he was lacking in both skill and manners.”

“Is the fact that you weren’t disturbed based on your confidence?”

“Yes. I thought that there was no need for me to mind what someone who failed should do.”

“I like that mindset.”

Minjoo replied confidently. It wasn’t just her eyes, her words were razor-sharp as well. She only said what was necessary. It seemed that she knew how to score points.

“Miss Lee Haejung, you were reading a script, right?”

“Yes.”

The small woman, Haejung, replied in a small voice.

“I’ll give you the same question. What did you feel when the man left the place looking angry? Also, what was the reason you kept reading the script without being disturbed? Everyone else, please think about an answer as well. I’ll be asking the same question.”

Haejung, who expressed her nervousness by sucking her lips in, finally spoke.

“Actually, I didn’t know about it. When I raised my head because of the noise, everyone was looking at the entrance nervously. I often get that I’m quite dense.”

“I see. Okay, then. Then what was that script for? Your next audition?”

“Eh? The next audition? N-no, it’s just the script of a film I like.”

“What did you feel when other applicants left the place looking angry just like the ones before them? Did you not notice them too?”

“No, I had found out by then. They left with scary-looking faces, so I was actually really nervous.”

“But you didn’t look nervous to me.”

“Uhm, I kept looking at the script in order to not get nervous. That’s probably why I didn’t look nervous. That’s probably what happened.”

Unlike Minjoo’s clean and confident answer, Haejung’s answer was quite slow and shy in contrast. Jayeon nodded in understanding and then turned her head to the next person. It was the earphone man.

“What about you, Mr. Park Taemin?”

“I usually don’t mind what’s going on around me when I take auditions. I just listen to music and organize in my head what I need to do. When the man left, I just thought ‘okay, cool’. There are people who can’t hold back their emotions wherever you go.”

“Didn’t you feel strange when every single applicant left looking angry?”

“I just thought that there were many weird people. There is no need for me to be assimilated with them and get angry too.”

“Good. I like that attitude. Next is, Mr. Koo Jiyeop?”

It was the man who had his eyes closed. He was also the man who had turned into a chatterbox at the café.

“I was half-asleep so I didn’t quite notice. I did see someone barging out, but I just didn’t mind because it was none of my business. It was the same when other people were staring at the audition room. Rather than being worried about something like that, it’s much better to wait with your eyes closed, don’t you think so?”

He sounded rather cocky, but his conversation style suited his unique expression. Though, he was the type that people would get fed up with after a while.

“You don’t seem to get nervous that often, do you?”

“Nervous? Nervousness gets me nowhere. I need to have leisure when I prepare so that I won’t narrow my vision. Isn’t that for the best?”

“You’re entirely right. That attitude of yours is really good.”

Jayeon put her thumb up. Jiyeop’s shoulders jerked up and down as though he was being notified of his passing already.

“How did you feel, Mr. Kang Manjin? I saw that you were reading a book.”

The question was directed to the one in the school uniform.

“Actually, I was quite worried because this is my third audition. I usually don’t get nervous, but I get really nervous whenever I’m waiting for an audition. When the man barged out, I was nervous to the point that I had a hard time calming down. I was wondering what happened inside that made him so angry. Reading a book is something I do to regain my calm. Though, it sometimes doesn’t work.”

“If you were so worried, you must have been concerned about the audition room too. I’m surprised you didn’t look there.”

“I did look, though, it was just once. But everyone kept staring at it and I found that a little bad. Since it had started already, I thought that calming my nervousness was more important than focusing on that room, so that’s why I focused on my book.”

Jayeon nodded without saying anything.

“How about you, Mr. Han Maru?”

Before he answered, he went through his thoughts. This woman intentionally caused an event and personally appeared at the event to observe. She finished the first interview using the trivial actions the applicants took in a given situation. She was proactive, calculative, and had no hesitation in her judgement. This short question-and-answer session should not end with just finding out what the applicant was like. Perhaps this might very well be the 2nd interview. Even the 1st interview was done in secrecy, was it not? He had to be open to possibilities. Considering that this was the 2nd interview, what did producer Jayeon want? What was this producer trying to find out through these questions that made it seem like she was re-confirming what she saw with her eyes?

She’s picking a doll who she can move as she wishes - those words suddenly popped up inside his head. Maru instantly realized the source of those words that appeared regardless of his thought process. It was the man with a weird preference for masks that lived in his body.

“Mr. Han Maru?”

The producer crossed her arms and looked his way. It wasn’t that she was urging him to speak, but a late answer would not score highly with her. He tried talking to the guy that existed inside him, but there was no reply. That fellow was quite rude, just saying what he wanted before disappearing. However, the answer he produced was something very much to his liking. The thing she wanted to find out through the 1st interview was probably concentration ability. The ability to not be shaken by any external forces and continue on with their work. That was different. Maru thought that he should quickly note that he was aware of the situation.

“When the man barged out, I was a little worried. I was also a little curious about what was happening.”

“But you didn’t show it on your face, did you? You looked like you were reading the brochure, before thinking about something very deeply as though you were meditating.”

“I just thought about what could be happening; about why he rushed out and why he looked angry. But nothing came to mind, so I decided to do things I can do.”

“Doing things you can do is definitely good. But why did you not place any interest in the audition room? If you were concerned, don’t you think it’s normal to look that way like the other people? Or was it that you didn’t want to mind?”

“Allow me to give a similar answer, but there are a lot of things I can’t do. Seeing through walls is one of them. I had no way of looking inside a closed door, so I didn’t do it. If I had a way to do so, I would’ve checked. It is true that I wanted to know what was happening.”

“I see. Okay, then. Let me ask you one more thing. You noticed that I was observing people, didn’t you, Mr. Han Maru?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t avoid her eyes and looked at her directly, so it wouldn’t make sense to say that he didn’t notice.

“Then why didn’t you ask anything?” the producer asked as she looked down.

She had also turned her body around as well before touching the paper on the table and writing some things with a pen. Her entire body seemed to be screaming that it was a question she asked without meaning. With that, however, Maru became sure that this was the most important question.

“Because I thought you’d take care of everything. Also, I didn’t know what to ask either.”

He faintly smiled while scratching his eyebrows. Jayeon had her body turned around, but for some reason, Maru felt like she was scanning him from top to bottom.

“I see. Good. Thank you for your answer. Then before we start, let me get some things sorted out.”

Jayeon picked up her paper and turned around.

“Mr. Park Taemin, Mr. Koo Jiyeop.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for your effort. You may go now,” Jayeon said as she pointed at the door with her finger while her eyes were fixed on the paper.

The two men didn’t say anything for a while before realizing that they were given the hot potato and raised their voices. The one who spoke first was Taemin.

“Producer, what do you mean by that?”

“I regret to inform you that you don’t fit with us. I hope we can meet in better circumstances another time. A time that isn’t today.”

“What do you mean by that? We didn’t do anything, so how do you know that we fit or not?”

“I do.”

Jayeon sounded firm as though there was no need to talk about it. Jiyeop’s lips went on rapidfire like a camera shutter during burst mode.

“The reason is not just. You didn’t even watch my acting yet you want me to leave? Are you sure this isn’t a rigged audition?”

“Do you think I have so much time?”

“Then why are you doing this so suddenly?”

“Because you don’t fit with us. I don’t know how great your acting skills are, Mr. Taemin, Mr. Jiyeop, since I haven’t had a look at them. I’m telling you to leave because I am sure that we won’t get along as business partners.”

“That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Then why don’t you be the producer?”

Maru looked at Jayeon, who was speaking with a smile. The words that Ganghwan said to him circled around his mind. Come back alive, come back alive…. It was clear that she was definitely not an ordinary woman.