<h4>Chapter 462</h4>
“The children may get cold, so pleasee this way.”
“There are nkets here. Please use them and return them after the performance.”
Maru turned his head around when he heard the voice. He saw Sooil handing a nket to a girl wearing a skirt. The two looked at each other and smiled before moving again. It was five minutes before the performance. Maru walked around amongst the people.
After guiding the elderly and the children to the heaters, he went up the temporary stage. Sooil also came back to the stage after handing out all of the nkets.
“Then we’ll begin the performance now. As I said before, those of you that want to participate shoulde up to the stage without hesitation. This is that kind of stage after all.”
Ganghwan’s voice spread throughout the audience through an amplifier. As soon as he saw that there were over four hundred people gathered here, Ganghwan made a call to someone, and not longter, a truck came, carrying various equipment. The man, that installed the amps and the microphones, wished them good luck with the performance and was watching from a corner. It seemed that he worked in a field rted to stage equipment.
“However, it’ll be bad if you get injured while rushing up to the stage, so please take your time. This stage is not going anywhere.”
Ganghwan put the microphone in the holder and took a step back.
“Well then! We shall now begin the performance ‘I want to listen to your story’ right now.”
An even clearer and crisper voice than when he used the microphone spread out to the surroundings. The audience greeted themence of the y with a round of apuse.
Ganghwan and Hanna were wearing doctor gowns, while Maru and Sooil were wearing patient clothes. The flow of the y did not change from their first run. The start was a light skit. After that, Maru and Sooil would talk about their own ‘worries’ and Hanna and Ganghwan would give them consultation in a funny manner. After doing some skits that required the participation of the audience to induce them, they would eventually hand over all control to the audience after a while.
The stories of the audience decided the characteristics of the y, so the performance they heldst Thursday started and ended withughter. A woman in her thirties, who introduced herself as an ountant for apany, came up on stage, and after gaining total control over the stage like a proficient actress, she used her words to entertain everyone as though she was a standupedian. The only thing that Ganghwan and Hanna did that day wasugh their hearts out from the side.
Maru wondered what was going to happen today. Seeing some people in the audience making serious expressions, he felt that today’s stage was going to be a little heavy. Many people here came after reading the blog post. It seemed that the story of the man that they met in the first run touched many people’s hearts. That probably led to these peopleing here for simr reasons as that man from before.
“Let’s enjoy ourselves today too.”
Ganghwan put his hand out with his palm facing the ground. Maru put his hand on top, and Hanna and Sooil followed suit.
“One, two, three.”
“Eoi!”
After a short shout, Maru stood at the center of the stage and embraced the hundreds of gazes being thrown at him with a bright smile.
“There are loads of people today.”
He said his first line.
This was the start of the y.
* * *
<i>She</i> left the theater with a short sigh. It had been a long time since she came to Daehak-ro. The y <i>she</i> just watched was a suspense-mystery y about a murder crime that happened in the neighborhood. <i>She</i> was so tense from beginning to end that she was fidgeting her fingers. Moreover, since the stage was right in front of <i>her</i>, she was startled whenever she heard the bang of the gun. <i>She</i> was so embarrassed that she couldn’t raise her head when one of the actors pointed at her after the y and said that he was also startled because of her.
‘But it was still good.’
<i>She</i> really liked ys after all. <i>She</i> learned that there was a different kind of fun acting in front of the camera thanks to shooting the si, but she still liked ys better since she was able to check the reactions of the audience on the spot. The breathing of the actors, and the murmurs of the audience; such vivid sounds provoked <i>her</i> emotions.
<i>She</i> trembled as she remembered the expressions of the actors at thest part of the y. Today, <i>she</i> decided to take only the big roads when she went home.
“Ah, right.”
After checking the time on <i>her</i> phone, she started walking hastily. <i>She</i> was so absorbed in the y she watched at the theater that she had forgotten her original purpose ining here. <i>She</i> grabbed tightly onto her messenger bag and started running.
“Haa, haa… huh?”
<i>She</i> blinked her eyes several times when she saw the empty performance venue. This ce was definitely the right ce ording to what <i>she</i> saw on the blog. The round stone chairs, the single-story building, and then there was the stage which was slightly elevated above the ground.
“How strange.”
<i>She</i> had heard that there was a performance on Sunday evening. Was <i>she</i> wrong? <i>She</i> looked around before taking out her phone.
<i>She</i> wondered if she should make a call. Actually, <i>she</i> hade here today without telling Maru about it. <i>She</i> couldn’t find the time toe until now since the schedule for her si shoot kept getting dyed to Sunday, but it seemed that the problem was solved as it was moved back to Saturday. <i>She</i> was originally going to tell Maru so they could meet up on Sunday, but she became a little prankful and kept it a secret from him that she wasing here.
“Well, I guess there’s no choice.”
<i>She</i> felt like she was going to get angry if Maru told her that there was no performance today. <i>She</i> pressed the number two on her phone for a long time. Maru’s number, which <i>she</i> had saved on the number two, appeared on the screen and the signal beeps could be heard.
-The person you’re trying to reach is either unavable or…
The stiff announcement came back instead. <i>She</i> turned around with a short sigh when she saw a bunch of couples all heading towards one ce.
“Apparently it’s over there.”
<i>She</i> immediately understood what they meant. The Arts Theater right next to the ticketing office - the clearing in front of that building was filled with a lot of people. Despite the fact that the sun had set and the weather was quite cold, that ce seemed warm from all the people there. <i>She</i> approached the Arts Theater in excitement but was unable to get through the crowd of people.
“Being a housewife is hard, you know? Isn’t that right?”
“Right!”
<i>She</i> could hear the voice of a middle-aged woman through a speaker which was installed on a tform that seemed to be the stage. <i>She</i> tip-toed. <i>She</i> walked around a lot until she found a ce where she could see the whole stage.
“Wow.”
<i>She</i> could see Maru standing on the stage from afar. He was wearing a patient outfit and was nodding as he listened to the woman’s words. <i>She</i> wanted to watch from a little closer. <i>She</i> frowned and started to make her way through the crowd but was pushed back after being hit by a sturdy man’s shoulder on her forehead.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, yes. I’m fine. Hahaha.”
<i>She</i> rubbed her forehead and smiled. The man looked at <i>he</i>r with pity and with a strange smile. <i>She</i> was embarrassed and felt awkward so she left immediately.
The voice from the woman on stage, the woman herself, and theughter of the audience made <i>her</i> want to watch the stage even more.
<i>She</i> tiptoed and started walking around again.
* * *
‘That’s….’
The figure that Maru caught when he squinted his eyes was the figure of a girl whose head poked out at the back of the audience from time to time like whack-a-mole. Sometimes, the figure jumped like a rabbit. <i>She</i> could be seen on the left at times, and a whileter, she peeked over the audience from the right before disappearing again.
Maru chuckled.
“Sooil, I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?”
“I found a strange guest.”
“A strange guest?”
“Anyway, I’m off.”
“Alright.”
Thanks to the housewife ranting about her hardships on stage, it wasn’t necessary for him to stand on the stage. Ganghwan was fanning the woman to talk more about herself from the side. The man who presumably came with the woman, in other words, her husband, was lowering his head right underneath the stage. He could hear him say ‘Minsoo’s mom, please stop already.’
Maru smiled at the little child who waved at him before walking around to the back of the audience. He could see the figure of a girl busily moving around amongst the crowd which kept increasing in number. Actually, as <i>she</i> had done dancing since young, she had a good figure and her stature wasn’t that small either, but thanks to her cute face and the thick coat she was wearing, she looked quite small.
Maru watched <i>her</i>, who was tiptoeing and hopping on the ground, for a while before taking out his phone. He made a call before waiting. <i>She</i> stopped her steps and picked up her phone.
“You called?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
For some reason, <i>she</i> crouched on the ground. Was she trying to hide?
“Why?”
“No reason. I just wanted to call you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But what are you doing right now?”
“Right now? I’m doing the y. The one I told you about before.”
“Oh, that.”
<i>She</i> moved her phone away from her mouth before smiling a little. After taking a deep breath, <i>she</i> spoke,
“Is it going well?”
“It is. What are you doing?”
“Me? Resting at home. I’m tired.”
“Oh, you’re resting at home? What about the shoot?”
“Right, I didn’t tell you about it, huh? It changed to Saturday. Yesterday was the shoot and today I’m resting.”
“That’s good.”
“What’s good?”
“Resting on a Sunday. You hate waking up early on red days more than anything, don’t you?”
“It’s not that bad you know?”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
Maru slowly walked up to <i>her</i>. The murmurs of the crowd hid Maru’s presence.
“How’s the performance, is it fun?”
“It is. Though, the audience likes it more than we do.”
“That’s a good performance. What a pity, I wanted to watch as well. It’s far away so it would be toote to go now. I should just rest at home.”
“You aren’ting to see me?”
When he asked that question, <i>she</i> covered her mouth and smiled.
“Me? See you? Forget about it. I’m going to rest easy at home. I’m going to watch a movie on the sofa in the warmth of my home.”
“Wearing what?”
“Clothes? What kind of perverted things are you going to say now? I’m going to be fully covered, so don’t think about anything strange.”
Hearing that, Maru killed his footsteps and went right behind <i>her</i>. Then he lowered his phone and stood still.
“Hey, hey. Han Maru. Hey.”
<i>She</i> called out into her phone a couple of times before standing up abruptly. <i>She</i> watched the stage while tip-toeing before closing her phone with a sigh.
“You definitely are fully covered.”
Maru spoke into <i>her</i> ears in a small voice. <i>She</i> was startled and turned around. Maru could see <i>her</i> reddened cheeks and nose due to the cold. He sighed a little before covering <i>her</i> cheeks with his hands.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“Huh? Yeah. No, wait, how are you here?”
“You’re an idiot aren’t you? Think about the height of the stage. Then tell me whether I’ll be bothered about someone hopping at the back of the crowd or not.”
<i>She</i> said ‘aha’ in a small voice before making a sour expression.
“So you called me on purpose, huh?”
“I could clearly see that you were lying, so there’s no way I wouldn’t start teasing you for it.”
“You are such a…”
<i>Her</i> curled hands immediately jabbed into his waist. It was a rather urate recreation of a right hook. <i>She</i> smiled in joy for some reason after hitting him.
“Wow, didn’t that look good just now?”
Maru immediately covered his aching waist and nodded his head. This was why he had originally held his wife back from trying to learn boxing after they married. He didn’t want to be cornered in a marital fight after all. Since <i>she</i> was a woman with good reflexes, her fists would be quite fierce if she learned.
“Hey.”
Maru grabbed <i>her</i> hand.
“What?”
“I’ll bring you to a VIP seat, so be obedient.”
<i>She</i> smiled with a bright smile.