Life, Once Again!

ppy that the actors she picked are doing their jobs properly.”

“How about when things are not going well?”

“I told you, she’s an angel when things are going well.”

Maru stopped asking.
Dramas were the work of many people working together, but for the shoot alone, the responsibility would lie with the actor.
It was something very difficult and solitary.
It was especially worse when the actor caused a series of NGs and people around started looking at the actor with displeased eyes.
By then, the shooting set would become hell on Earth for a new actor.

“But don’t worry too much.
This is something that has Yoo Jayeon’s name on it.
She might not show it, but she should be feeling very responsible.
It’s not that surprising since the number of digits of money that’s being moved around is different, and there are a lot of people putting their effort into this.
If she doesn’t feel the pressure, that’s also a problem.”

After listening to Ganghwan’s words, Maru looked at Jayeon’s face from the side.
She was explaining to Yuna her movements and she definitely looked confident, but after what Ganghwan said, Maru felt that she seemed somewhat nervous.

Ganghwan made a rectangle with the thumbs and index fingers.
He captured the two women in the rectangle like he was taking a photo.

“I’m saying that strictly speaking, this is the first time for both of them.
It’ll be a debut piece for both of them.
They should be just about as nervous as each other.”

“Why didn’t you give them some advice?”

“I will if they reach out to me.
If they come to me, then I’ll help out at that time.
Director Yoo is someone who would growl at me, telling me not to pity her if I tried to do that.
I’m not sure about the details, but apparently, it’s not an easy thing for a female producer to survive in the drama field.
She climbed up all the way here after going through all of that hardships.
I can’t help her out so easily.
There’s her pride on the line.”

Ganghwan crossed his arms.

“She tells me in passing to help her out, but that shouldn’t be what’s really on her mind.
I know a little about her.
She’s an unrelenting general.
She’s the kind of tree who would manage to take root even in the desert.
If I stick my head around trying to be gentle to her, I’ll get hated instead.
….
Yeah, no matter how much I think about it.”

This will be the best piece ever! – Maru remembered Jayeon saying those words during the get-together.
The shadow from that high self-confidence of hers should be that stifling nervousness.
If things went well, she would gain momentum and climb the ranks, but the moment she looks back, she might fall in despair because of the drastic difference between her ideals and reality.
It was at those times that Ganghwan would reach out.
 After all, he was a veteran among veterans.
As Ganghwan had experience both directing and acting in a piece, he was probably well aware of what Jayeon was going through.
The fact that there was someone to support her would relieve her a lot, just with him being here.
Even if she did not rely on him, she would be a lot more relieved knowing that he was here and could proceed onwards.

Maru had a look at Yuna.
He was the only one who could be considered her ‘peer’ in this wide set area.
If Yuna felt pressure and reached out to him for help, what could he do for her?

“I wish I had confidence like you, hyung-nim.
If I had the ability to solve everything that people ask me to do, then I would feel confident too.”

“The fact that you’re thinking about such a thing means that you are a good man.
There are kids who need a friend’s encouragement more than an adult’s advice, so you should try to do that.
From the way I saw it, she seemed to follow you a lot?”

“I’m the only one around her age here after all.”

“Well, to my eyes, she looks like a girl who’s acting embarrassed in front of the oppa she likes though?”

“No way,” Maru said as he looked away.

He couldn’t be sure that Yuna had resolved all of her feelings towards him.
However, it was impossible for him to date her when he already had a lover.
People betraying each other wasn’t something that happened frequently, and he did not experience that a lot, but for some reason, when he thought about that word, rage boiled up inside him.
As such, he did not plan on accepting other people’s feelings towards him as long as he maintained a good relationship with Gaeul.
It was a student romance that would end one day, but as long as that romance existed, he wanted to give her the best memories possible.

“Just think of her as a cute junior and listen to her a lot.
An actor is a solitary job after all.”

“Okay.”

“Also, I saw that your acting has improved quite a lot.
I also feel like the way you do it has changed somewhat.”

“The way I do it?”

“Until last winter, you felt like a machine.
You were good.
You were good, but it somehow felt artificial.
But right now, a lot of that has dissipated.
I feel like you’re finally acting like a person of your age.”

Maru smiled inwardly.
I’m actually thirty-one – if he told him that, he wondered what Ganghwan would say about it.
Since he was at it, he thought about how he acted before.
He couldn’t understand before he heard about it, but now that he looked back, he did somewhat understand.
The way he acted was similar to now, but back then, he just had no leisure.

‘Rather than leisure… I might have thought that I had to do it that way.’

It was a strange feeling.
There was a sense of disparity between the current him and the past him.
Was it happening because the memories had been fading this past half a year? He felt like the naturally mature child had now become a natural youth.
Mature… naturally mature, huh.

As he was thinking deeply about it, the shoot started and the first cut sign fell.
He saw Jayeon standing up in front of the monitor.
Her expression didn’t look that good.
She started moving.
Thud, thud.
The sound was heavy like an elephant’s footsteps.
It seemed to be representative of her heavy heart.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

It's been a couple days since I last translated and I come back to this…

Editor's Note:
Am I the only one who imagined pole dancing even tho there was no pole…..
I'll excuse myself now.