“Where’s Maru?” Sungjae asked as he looked back.

Geunsoo, who said he’d bring Maru, came back holding Bitna’s hand. Maru couldn’t be seen with him.

“He says he’ll be eating over there.”

‘There’ - Sungjae looked at the lunchbox vehicle. People were taking lunchboxes from the lunchbox vehicle that had a large logo plastered on the side. Maru could be seen in the middle of that line. He was talking to the people standing in front and behind him. He shouldn’t have had that much time to get along with them, so his ability to get close to strangers was kinda incredible.

“It kinda suits him.”

Maru looked so happy that Sungjae would feel sorry if he called him here. He met eyes with Maru from afar, and Maru just took a bow. He seemed to be apologizing for not being able to take him up on the invitation.

“Looks like we’ll have to eat together next time.”

As unfortunate as that was, he couldn’t force Maru to come. Sungjae grabbed Bitna’s hand and put some strength into his arm. Bitna, who was standing between the two men, jumped high into the air and laughed. That was the only activity she liked. She was kinda hard to approach at the beginning because she was so polite, but playing ‘aeroplane’ and lifting her like that would make her chuckle, so he was at ease with her after that. Maybe she remembers her father doing that for her - Bitna’s mother told him that. Bitna was raised in a single-parent household.

“Isn’t Maru-oppa coming?” Bitna asked.

“You know Maru too, Bitna?”

“Yes, I do. We shot together before.”

“Really? Do you want to eat with Maru-oppa?”

“I don’t have to, but I do have something to say to him.”

“Something to say? What is it?”

Bitna stared at Sungjae when she received that question. Sungjae became awkward and started laughing awkwardly. He even felt that he was being scolded by her. The clear and translucent eyes looked upwards and, at the same time, Bitna’s curved lips turned into a straight line.

“It’s about my sister, so I can’t say it. Sorry.”

“No. It’s my fault for asking. Maru won’t be going home right after eating, so remind me about that later. I’ll call him over for you.”

“Yes.”

Bitna’s face became delicately frozen again after loosening up. The frozen princess had returned. Sungjae sent Geunsoo a signal for help.

“Bitna, hand.”

Geunsoo grabbed Bitna’s hand again. Sungjae also grabbed the other hand again. The two lifted Bitna up at the same time. After swinging back and forth like a swing, the princess’ mouth curved again. Sungjae sighed in relief. The appearance of the frozen princess made him nervous every single time even though it wasn’t like she was throwing a tantrum or something.

“Our Bitna’s not ordinary, isn’t she? She’s much better than most adults. The boy that will wed her in the future will probably have a hard time. He’s going to have to treat her like a queen,” said Bitna’s mother, who had been talking to the director until now. Sungjae could only smile and nod.

* * *

Fried fish, seasoned burdock, stir-fried kimchi, and miso soup. Maru put a ruptured cherry tomato into his mouth. It was probably there as a dessert, but it had already become a side dish after being mixed with the stir-fried kimchi.

“You looked really natural, though?”

“No. I was so nervous that I don’t remember what I did. I couldn’t even hear the cut sound,” said glasses as she put down her chopsticks.

“You even smiled in leisure yet you’re acting embarrassed? Why don’t you take an audition? Who knows, you might actually become an actress. Just take a break from college and try it out. If things go well, hire me as your manager. How about it? Isn’t that perfect?”

“What a dream. Also, I told you it’s not like that. It wasn’t that I was at leisure; I only managed to let it pass because of this guy. I didn’t understand when we were doing the shoot, but it all makes sense when I think about it now. I’m right, aren’t I? You asked me about those fairy tales on purpose, didn’t you?”

“I asked because I was curious.”

Maru ate a piece of fried fish. The fish was very oily because it had been a long time since it was fried. The rice was all soupy and the side dishes were quite salty, but he didn’t have a problem with eating them because he was hungry.

“The man wearing a suit came up to you and talked to you, didn’t he? Isn’t that person the main character of this movie?”

She seemed to be referring to Geunsoo. Maru chewed on his food as he nodded. When he affirmed that, everyone’s attention was gathered on him. Maru smiled awkwardly and picked up the miso soup that he had left to the side. He thought that no one would be listening because they were absorbed in eating, but it seemed that they had been paying attention to them the whole time.

“Why would he talk to you?”

“I just know him personally.”

“Really? What did he tell you? Did you just say hello?”

Before he could say yes, freckles interfered.

“I overheard. He said they should eat together. They seemed to be pretty close.”

Freckles raised her voice and asked ‘am I right?’. Maru took another sip of the miso soup to buy some time to think. He had always been quite uncomfortable with being pushed into the center of attention. There was a need to make up an excuse here. He thought that he should say that it was just out of formality. People would talk about something else once they lost interest.

“There you are.”

A shadow covered him. Maru looked behind. Sleeveless was standing there with two drink cans. He wondered what she wanted, so he stared at her. Sleeveless did not speak and just pointed at a bench, which was pretty far away. Leader was standing around the bench. Her intention was pretty clear.

“If you say we’re close, I guess I can call it that,” Maru said, as he looked at freckles.

Freckles and glasses quickly turned away from sleeveless. They started talking non-stop as though they were fish that had just been fished out. All sorts of questions burst out in the span of one breath. The other background actors also showed interest. Having become the center of attention, Maru looked back at sleeveless who was standing behind him.

“I’m sorry. I’m talking to them right now.”

He made an expression that said ‘as much as I want to talk to you, I’m tied up here’. It was a soft way to refuse. Someone who was quick witted would turn around and come back at a later time.

“Save that for later.”

Unfortunately though, sleeveless wasn’t quick witted. Maru wondered if he should tell her to get lost. The other background actors also looked at sleeveless with displeasure. There was no one here who would accept her kindly after she intentionally caused NGs to attract attention. Receiving the attention, sleeveless just crossed her arms and pulled her chin inwards as though she didn’t care. Maru clicked his tongue inwardly. She was way too egoistic. At the same time, she also was someone who enjoyed other people looking at her. No matter how much people glared at her, she probably thought that they were jealous of her. Maru scraped the remaining side dishes and finished them at once.

“I’ll be right back.”

He followed sleeveless to the bench. Leader, who had been watching until now, turned around. If sleeveless was acting like that by herself, Maru would have ignored her and kept on eating, but he decided to follow her obediently after seeing leader standing behind her back. Sleeveless and leader. There was nothing for him to lose even if he earned the ire of these two, but he was rather concerned about the other background actors. Since she was capable of openly causing an NG in the middle of a shoot, it was clear that she would tell everything she didn’t like to the leader. The shoot would probably continue into the night, so if the leader got pissed off, the people remaining here would have a hard time. Sleeveless looked like she was more than capable of asking the leader to do something like that.

Moving for other people’s sake, it’s really good to see you do that - the man within him said. Maru also replied - is that a compliment or are you mocking me? The man did not reply.

“What is it?”

Maru asked as he received the canned drink. He didn’t know what she wanted, but he wanted to get this done quickly. Talking to a woman who considered other people as her foothold was not going to be constructive in any way.

“Are you pissed because of what I said earlier?”

“Of course not. I just want to take a break quickly. Is there something you want to know?”

“There is something I want to know. You looked pretty close to Hong Geunsoo back there. You know the director, you know Ahn Sungjae too. I heard that you were in a drama too?”

“That I do.”

“Why are you still standing. Come sit. Why don’t you have a talk with this noona? We should stay close to each other since we’re both aiming to be actors.”

Maru curved his lips upwards as he sat down.

“There, I sat.”

“Good boy.”

“What do you want to say?”

“Nothing much. I just want to be close to you. And if possible, introduce them to me.”

“Introduce who?”

“Who else? I mean the actors of course.”

Sleeveless turned around slightly.

“Actually, I have the skill, but I just haven’t come across a good opportunity. You should know too that auditions are rigged, don’t you?”

She looked around her foot. There were ants underneath the bench. A cicada, which had died after crying its lungs out for all of summer, was being disintegrated by the ants. Sleeveless lifted her foot before cutting the line that the ants were following. Tsk - she shook her foot in displeasure.

“No amount of effort is enough. The one who’ll get picked is set in stone after all. Trying hard was only for the fools. The people who used their connections are laughing at the people who are trying their best. I should’ve realized that earlier….”

“And so?”

Maru looked at the line of ants. The other ants were carrying the ants that were squashed. They acted as though the disaster didn’t happen at all. They continued moving their six legs and returned turned the world into its original state.

“Let’s help each other out. I’ll also give you an opportunity. Don’t you think it’s not a bad idea?”

“What kind of opportunity exactly?”

“Meetings with other actors. Or maybe writers and producers. Of course, I won’t be able to set up ones with top-tier ones, but you aren’t exactly top-tier either. First, you start by meeting with the lower people. Then, you make your connections. You just need to grab those and slowly climb up, then you’ll be up there eventually.”

Sleeveless pointed at the sky. The red in the sky was slowly being pushed away. It was turning dark now.

“Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?”

“It’s okay.”

“Right? I thought I could get through to you. Honestly, it’s not anything hard, is it? We should just eat together and get to know each other. Right?”

“It’s not hard.”

Maru looked at sleeveless.

“How old are you this year?”

“Huh? Why do you ask?”

“No particular reason.”

“Twenty-four.”

“Good times.”

He looked into her eyes. He tried to read what was on her mind, but he couldn’t see the speech bubble pop up. It was rather strange. He tried again to no avail.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

Did his ability disappear just like his memories? It didn’t matter that much since it wasn’t an ability that he used frequently. It was a pity that he had lost an advantage, but it was something he could replace with his experience. Though, he might miss that ability when he had to face a real veteran.

Maru straightened out the crease on his knees before standing up. Sleeveless’ story was so bland that her words disappeared into the abyss of his mind the moment he heard them. It should be fine if he hung out with her this much, right? She didn’t look stupid enough to throw a tantrum just because he didn’t comply with her.

“But I’m the tortoise style. I’ll just take things slow.”

“You’ll never get anywhere like that. We’re in a world where you can only climb up using your connections.”

“Rather than trying to climb a rotten rope, it’s much better to walk even if it’s slow.”

“Rotten? That’s a strange way of putting it.”

“I’m just not that good at making analogies. Anyway, you get my point, right?”

“Hey. You just have to tell them that we should hang out. Men fall for it easily.”

“Probably not, I don’t think. Especially for those two. One of them has been haunted by female fans for the recent part of his life, and the other one is being chased by a stalker right now.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, what could it mean?”

Maru shrugged before turning around. Sleeveless called out to him from behind, but he didn’t look back.

“You seem to not know your stuff since you’re still young, but-!”

Those words pierced his ears, but Maru just sighed it off. It’d be great if he was young and didn’t know better. How old was he now? He left behind sleeveless and returned to where the rest of the background actors were.