After Story 207

After Story 207

“One-two-three, two-two-three. One beat rest, now once again.”

Sinhye wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Her eyes were feeling prickly because sweat got into them.

“Sinhye, you’ve gotten slower.”

“Do you have eyes on your back!?”

“Get in line with the beat if you have time to respond.”

She was like a spirit that watched your every move. Two days into the practice, Haneul was given the nickname of the Human CCTV. She was in the middle of the practice room, yet how she managed to precisely check the movements of people she couldn’t even see was such a mystery.

“Jungah, you’re slowing down as well. Haejung, you keep up too.”

One-two-three, two-two-three. At this point, she felt like she would wake up in the middle of the night if she heard those phrases. Everyone, who was running around Haneul in a circle, stopped simultaneously. Haneul’s index finger was pointing at the ceiling.

“Fish,” she said.

As soon as she heard that, Sinhye got on the floor, stretched her arms forward, and put her legs together. Then she started moving her body from side to side. She checked what the others were doing as well. They were all similar. They were all doing their best to become a fish.

“Sinhye.”

“Yes?”

She always felt uneasy when Haneul talked to her.

“Put it down more.”

“Put what down more? I’m really a fish now.”

“No, you can do better.”

In practices led by Haneul, compliments were just another word for a whip. Sinhye hesitated before going down again. She did her utmost best to become a salmon swimming in the deep seas.

“If you thought about it, then don’t hesitate. What if it’s strange? What if it’s different? What if I look funny? Don’t think about any of those and focus on the word and the object.”

Haneul flicked her finger. The fish swimming on top of the floor stood up all at once. Sinhye moved again without having any time to touch her hair which had become messy.

One-two-three, two-two-three. The human metronome started again.

“Let’s take a ten-minute break. Don’t forget to drink water and go to the bathroom,” Haneul said as she sat down on a chair.

Everyone else lay strewn across the floor and gasping heavily.

“I didn’t know I’d do something I only did when I first learned acting.”

“But it is pretty fun after a while.”

“It is fun, sure. But it’s exhausting.”

Sinhye looked at the camera installed in front of the practice room. There wasn’t just one. There were three along the walls of the practice room.

Like yesterday, they would probably have to watch the footage recorded by those machines at the end of practice. They would talk a lot over it too.

“But is it okay that we don’t rehearse? We haven’t practiced with the script even once,” Haejung said.

“We decided to follow her for now, so we should focus without thinking about anything else,” Sinhye said after taking a sip of water.

Even if there were parts that felt uneasy, they started now, so they had to leave it up to Haneul.

“Hey, press on my waist.”

If they fooled around just because it was break time, they would suffer in the next lesson.

“Let’s pair up like yesterday to do some light leg splits and warm-ups.”

Haneul said those words ten minutes later. Just who on earth does ‘light’ ‘leg splits,’ they did not know, but Sinhye pressed down on all her muscles with her mouth firmly shut. She was given a moment of relaxation when her legs started feeling numb. It was the only time her body became relaxed.

“Your posture doesn’t matter. You can lie down or stay seated.”

Sinhye sat down against the wall. She stretched her legs forward and lowered her head slightly.

Haneul continued speaking, “You can close your eyes or open them. You can focus on my voice or focus on your breathing. However, don’t think that you have to stop thinking.”

Sinhye focused on her breathing. Her heated body let out rough breaths.

“This time, we’re going to focus on the body. Find what part hurts and what part is relaxed. Put your consciousness to one side and listen to what your body is telling you. Oh, my neck is sore, my legs are aching, my heart is beating fast. Don’t block your thinking, just let it go naturally.”

It was not a meditation session to forget the self but to sense the self. The important thing was to not add any analysis to those feelings. She just let herself feel and just let her thoughts go wherever they wanted.

Haneul’s voice stopped. Time passed by very slowly. The stimulus on her body became a lot clearer.

The pressure exerted on her butt by the floor, the cold energy from it, the occasionally spasming arm muscles, and eyes that moved around behind the eyelids.

“Slowly calm your breathing.”

She opened her eyes as she listened to Haneul’s words. She thought that at least three or four hours had passed, but it had only been twenty minutes.

This was something she thought every time she did this, but in complete solitude, a human would probably go crazy in just one day.

She started practice again with a body and mind that had relaxed somewhat. If they moved to the point of sweating bullets in the morning, they moved slower than a sloth in the afternoon.

However, it was just as hard. Walking slowly was a splendid torture method on the muscles.

“Keep in pace, and you’re going to control every muscle perfectly from the back of your feet all the way to the top of your head. You’ve done this before, so you know what it feels like, right?”

Just as she stepped off while looking at the back of the friend in front of her, the door to the practice room opened. Sinhye reflexively turned her head around to the door. There, she saw Maru holding plastic bags in each hand.

“Sinhye.” Haneul frowned and looked at her.

Sinhye quickly turned around and focused on walking.

Seriously, Haneul must have eyes hidden behind her head covered by hair.

* * *

“Can you give me a cup?”

“Me too.”

Food was laid out on the floor of the practice room. It was jokbal[1] that Maru bought. On one side, they mixed up the mak-guksu[2], and on the other side, they split up the jokbal and the bossam[3].

“Senior, come over and eat.”

“You guys can eat first. I’ll have a talk with Haneul.”

Maru and Haneul left the practice room.

“Let’s eat. I’m exhausted.”

“Give me some ssamjang[4]. And some salted shrimp.”

Everyone jumped in with their chopsticks. Jungah stepped out to the side after getting some noodles and jokbal on her plate.

“I think I’ll get my palate back in just two days if I stay here even if I don’t have any appetite,” Sinhye said as she sat down in front of her.

Jungah nodded with a smile.

“Jungah, didn’t senior Haneul say anything about practicing with the script?”

“I haven’t heard anything either.”

“The performance is in two days. Is she planning not to do it?”

“It seems she thinks that getting our foundations down is more important than practicing with the script.”

“It sure feels weird to do the things we did back in freshman year. Expressing objects was something I only briefly did for tests.”

“Yeah. I can’t remember the last time I did it.”

Ball, tree, kettle, deer, et cetera. They did all sorts of things for the past few days. In college, they had some time to prepare, but here, they had to improvise on the spot.

Sinhye stopped eating for a moment and spoke,

“Just yesterday, I was wondering how this was of any help, right? I was wondering what we could do in just three days. But looking at their faces, I feel like it’s going to go well.”

Sinhye looked at everyone chatting and laughing as she spoke. Jungah felt like she knew what Sinhye wanted to say.

“Do you remember back when we first started practicing?” Jungah asked.

“I do. We were just like this. We would argue with each other about who was right, then laugh together when we’re eating.”

“Do you remember what happened just a month after that?”

Sinhye nodded softly. “It became quiet. Everyone came to practice after work. The ones going to work were scolded by their superiors and the ones preparing for employment were devastated at the news that they didn’t make it… in that situation, the only practice we did was reading the script and checking for mistakes, wasn’t it?”

“I thought that was enough back then. I couldn’t ask them for more. It was tiring too.”

“I felt sorry. You, I and Joohwan are going to do this for our jobs. We wouldn’t hesitate to make the time, but the others aren’t like that. That was why I couldn’t say that we should try to do better or focus more. It felt like a shameful thing to do.”

“You know something like shame?” Jungah said in teasing.

Sinhye glared at her before chuckling.

“But look at things now. It’s hard, but it’s fun. I’m still worried if it’s okay to be like this though.”

“I’m sure it’ll go well. I believe senior Haneul has that amount of skill. Senior Maru is giving us support as well.”

Both yesterday and today, Maru kept visiting the practice room and watching over them. That alone gave them a sense of tension, allowing them to focus.

“But why do you think senior Haneul is helping us so much?” Sinhye asked.

“I was curious about that, so I asked her about it.”

“What was her answer?”

“You see, it’s a bit suspicious.”

“What was it?”

“Her answer was that… it was because that’s what senior Maru wanted.”

“Oho, that’s an answer that doesn’t leave room for doubt.”

Jungah lowered her voice a little. “It’s for sure that the two don't have an ordinary relationship.”

“Even if they were dating, they wouldn’t say that so easily. Those are the kind of words only spoken by lovers that have gone beyond the heated passionate love. In my estimates, I think they introduced each other’s parents and are about to send out wedding invitations.”

“Maybe.”

Sinhye sighed. “I had my dibs on him, but man, the competitor is too powerful, so I just have to humbly give up.”

“Excuse me, competitor? That’s a strange choice of words. Isn’t competing done between two people of similar levels?”

“Don’t you take it seriously when a friend makes a joke. That is why Park Joohwan is your only friend.”

“I almost felt sad when you said Park Joohwan is my only friend. Apologize.”

“Sorry. I went too far. Anyway, I guess we profited off senior Maru.”

“True. But Miss Haneul seems like such an innocent person too. There’s nothing that she has to gain from this, but she’s still helping out.”

“It just goes to show how deeply she fell in love with senior Maru. This is why love is scary. A friend also got into trouble with her parents when she said that she wanted to handle her boyfriend’s debt.”

“It looks like senior Haneul doesn’t care about profits when it comes to what senior Maru does.”

“That’s the power of love. A great power I have yet to taste.”

The two chuckled before standing up. If they kept chatting, the food would disappear in no time.

* * *

“How are things?” Maru asked Haneul.

Seeing her face filled with vitality, though, it felt like a needless question.

“They’re all good. They’ve learned step by step, so they’ll become much better with some urging. But rather than that, you’re sure that Joohwan doesn’t have an agency, right?”

“Yeah. There should’ve been a problem with the agency he signed a contract with before, which meant the contract should’ve also been annulled. He seems to get contacts from here and there, but I think he’ll be by himself for a while. He’s not a guy who’s hung up on doing work, so I’m sure he’ll find one if he feels it’s necessary.”

“Then that’s fine. Have you notified them of the date?”

“Yeah. Both of them said they had time that day and will be coming to watch.”

Haneul clapped and smiled.

“I guess the only thing left then is to nurture them well and show them off.”

“The performance is the day after tomorrow. Can you bring them up to that level?”

“It’s a casual play. I won’t have a problem.”

Haneul stretched.

“Joohwan was quite something alright. I hit a huge jackpot considering I managed to grab him for 500 thousand. Jungah was decent too. She’s better suited for acting than producing. I like faces like hers.”

“You put dibs on some of them already?”

“Who knows? One of them might become my persona in the future.”

Maru looked at Haneul and asked, “I think director Han Haneul is doing well, but how about the actress Han Haneul?”

“Just you wait. I’m going to be in some rumors after this play.”

“You sound confident.”

“It’s a performance that has no editing. Although not as much as you, I’m a pretty decent stage actor too.”

“And you’ll catch the eyes of people coming that day?”

Haneul shrugged before speaking, “Let’s go inside. I’m sure they’re waiting.”

Maru thought as he looked at Haneul’s back.

The juniors seemed to be misunderstanding something as they looked at Haneul. They seemed to think that his wife was sacrificing herself for a stage that she doesn’t have anything to gain from. However, that was wrong. His wife may be a kind person, but she was also a businesswoman.

She knew how to gain her profits without showing it off. There was nothing wrong with this since she wasn’t scamming anyone, but he couldn’t help but smile when he saw that the juniors were treating her like an innocent, good person.

She was only doing this because she had things to gain from them, just as they did from her.

“Oh yeah, sweetie.”

“Yeah?”

“Go buy some water.”

“You’re using me again?”

“You know how it is.”

His wife winked before going into the practice room. Maru faintly smiled and turned around.

[1] Pig’s foot.

[2] Buckwheat noodles, commonly eaten with jokbal.

[3] Boiled pork.

[4] A mixture of gochujang(spicy pepper paste) and doenjang (and optionally, sesame oil). Commonly eaten as a condiment with pig’s foot and boiled pork.