After Story 273

“Get down a little.”

Maru lowered his head at Haneul’s instruction. His wife’s fingers rustled through his hair.

“This looks better.”

“Done?”

“No, I should let it rise naturally. Go lie down on the sofa. You have weak hair, sweetie, so a hair dryer won’t work.”

He lay down with his neck against the armrest. His head jerked backward and his vision flipped upside down. Meanwhile, his wife put some water in the coffee pot.

“I can get this done at a hair shop.”

“I wanted to do it for today. Why? You don’t like it?”

“Of course I like it. I’d love it if you do my hair. There’s no one who knows me better than you do. It’s just that it’s somewhat uncomfo…”

Maru swallowed the rest of his sentence. His wife was standing in front of him with a pot of boiling water.

“What was that?”

“No, I said it was good. It’s perfect.”

His wife smiled and turned around. The dog and the cat walking around the living room came over to him. They seemed to be concerned about their owner who was lying down with his head upside down and tapped on him.

“That should be good. Now I just have to spray your hair and press down the sides.”

He was dragged by his wife to sit down in front of the makeup desk. After Haneul’s fingers swept past him, his hair styling was finished. Maru turned his head left and right to check his wife’s work. He couldn’t find anything to do to it to make it better.

“This and this, which one do you think is better?”

His wife, whom he could see through the mirror, held a one-piece dress in each hand.

One was a deep indigo dress with bright-colored buttons for contrast and the other one was a white dress with a platinum buckle.

“I like the indigo one.”

“Isn’t it too dark?”

“You’re going as a director as well as an actor. Don’t you think you should look a little more conservative?”

“Is a bright director not charming?”

“Of course you’ll be charming even in the white one. But if this is how you’re going to ask, you don’t really need my opinion, do you?”

His wife shrugged before putting the white one-piece dress back on the hanger. She took off the baggy pajamas before putting on the indigo dress.

After touching her sleeves, which slightly covered her shoulder line, she turned around and spoke,

“Zip it up for me.”

She was flexible enough to reach the zipper and then some, but he smiled and grabbed the zipper tab. He slowly pulled up the teardrop-shaped pull tab before stopping where the shoulder blades faced each other.

“It’s not going up anymore.”

“No way.”

He appreciated his wife’s flustered face which he hadn’t seen in a long time. Haneul shrunk her shoulders inward and let out a short sigh. He slightly poked his head out to see the side of his wife’s face. Her lips were pouting. She seemed to be in disbelief.

“I guess you went too loose with yourself during the shoot.”

“Still, it shouldn’t be bad to the point that I can’t wear this. It doesn’t feel like it’s tight either. Are you sure it’s not going up?”

Let’s see – he muttered before pulling up the tab. Along with a smooth gliding sound, the zipper slid up.

His wife sighed in relief before frowning.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“You thought your body was bloated, but it actually wasn’t. Doesn’t that make you feel good?”

She nodded before poking his flank. Her move contained her emotions. Maru rubbed his aching flank and put on his shirt.

“Go with this for the watch.”

He put on the watch that Haneul gave him. He then put his jacket on and checked the time. It was 2 p.m. About time to depart.

“The others are already there. There seems to be some journalists who have arrived already too.”

“They’re in quite a hurry. There’s plenty of time left.”

He put on his shoes and got his car keys. His wife got her glasses case before leaving the house. It was a pair of non-prescription glasses with just a silver frame. It was one of Haneul’s favorite items.

As soon as he got in the car, he got a call from his manager.

“Yes, hyung. We’re just setting off.”

-Will you be here soon?

“It’ll take about 20 minutes.”

-Then go through the questions with me when you arrive. There are a few changes from the original one, and I’ll have them removed if you don’t like them.

“Okay.”

He hung up and grabbed the driving wheel. His wife, sitting on the passenger seat, was checking her phone with her eyes thinned. She seemed to be going over the questions again.

“How does it feel to go to the production announcement of your debut film?” he asked.

“Slightly nervous. I’ve done it so many times to the point that I don’t remember them all, but it makes me nervous to think that it’s my last one.”

“It’s not bad to slip up a couple times for the journalists to write something. Noise marketing isn’t really a bad thing.”

“I’d rather stay silent than slip up.”

That was a really Haneul-like answer. They soon crossed a bridge and arrived at the movie theater where the production announcement was going to be held. He parked the car in the parking lot and was about to go to the staff-only staircase that they were notified of beforehand when his wife gestured to him.

“Hey, let’s go to the lobby instead.”

“With the elevator?”

His wife nodded. She was someone who disliked being in crowded places, so this was unexpected, but since she had a smile on her face, there was no reason to refuse.

They stood in front of the elevator that led up to the multiplex. People who were using the shopping mall on the first floor and the people going up to the movie theater flocked toward the elevator. At first, they didn’t notice, but thanks to someone’s shout, people started recognizing them.

They waved and said hello to the people before getting into the elevator.

“I’m on my way to the production announcement. I’m a supporter!”

“Me too!”

His wife locked hands with the women standing in front of her and thanked them. Maru also thanked them as well.

“Unni, you should really destroy those TV station cameras. You look awesome in real life.”

“I also lament that the current TV station technology cannot capture my beauty in its entirety.”

As his wife joked around, the elevator opened again. He pulled her behind his back gently.

“Oppa, please look over here!”

“Noona, I love you!”

It was filled with people. It seemed that word had gotten out already. He could see Yeonjin and Haneul’s manager rushing over from a distance.

“Why are you coming this way, you’re going to run into an accident,” Yeonjin said in a small voice right against his ears.

Maru just smiled faintly.

“Let’s go inside for now. There are too many people here.”

“Wait a moment.”

He looked at Haneul. There should be a reason why she said they should come to the lobby. His wife took off. The people around them moved out of the way for them.

“Cute, isn’t it?” his wife said when she stopped.

There was a photo, a large congratulatory wreath, and a bag of rice. Next to those was a congratulatory wreathe under Han Maru’s name as well. These were things that the two fan cafes prepared.

“This will be the first and last time, so I wanted to see it for myself,” said Haneul as she stroked the flower wreathe.

“They seemed to have tried hard to prepare this, so we should take a commemorative photo at least. Here, stand next to me, sweetie.”

When he hooked arms with her and stood in front of the wreathe, the fans surrounding them booed at first until they started cheering.

“Please take photos and upload them on the internet. I’ll download them as well. I’d be even more grateful if you could photoshop me a little.”

“You’re pretty without it!”

“But I’ll look better with it.”

After taking a photo with the flower wreaths and the bag of rice as the background, they went to the event venue. The seats prepared for various media outlets were already full.

He was guided by Yeonjin and moved to the waiting room. He said hello to the emcee who was in charge of the processions and sat down.

“It’ll start in twenty minutes, so go through the questions and tell me if you need anything.”

Yeonjin gave him the question paper before leaving the waiting room. The two of them were left by themselves in the quiet waiting room.

“We’re here again,” he said.

“I thought we would be taking a longer path or a different path entirely, but as you said, we’re here again. It was quicker than we expected, right?”

“I thought I’d be lucky to get a lead role in my thirties. Things went too well.”

His wife agreed before smiling.

“But I’m a little worried after achieving our short-term objective so quickly,” she said as she raised her head a little.

“What are you worried about?”

“I’m worried that things are going too well. It doesn’t make sense for life to only have ups and no downs, so there should be a crisis, but a crisis after things turn out so well like this is bound to be a hard one to deal with.”

He wordlessly grabbed her hand. His wife tickled the back of his hand before chuckling.

“We overcame all that time, so there shouldn’t be anything that we can’t overcome now, right?”

“At least we won’t have to worry about money, so I’m grateful for that. If a problem arises because of something other than money, then I’ll just tank a few hits. I mean, both of us have tenacious lives, don’t we?”

“It’s definitely not ordinary.”

As she replied, the door opened. Yeonjin, who came inside, flinched before pointing at the door.

“Should I have knocked? Or should I come again ten minutes later?”

He grabbed Haneul’s hand even tighter, as though to show off. Yeonjin frowned.

“You know, what you two are doing is violence. To a lonely person like me, that’s no different from stabbing me and shooting me in the heart.”

Yeonjin rolled his eyes left and right before loosening up.

“Mr. Gyungho arrived. It’s now time to go up. Are there any questions that I should get removed?”

“No, it’s okay to proceed like this.”

“You know you two are under a ton of attention right? Whether you like it or not, there will be journalists asking unrelated questions. Don’t get caught up in their pace and calm down, okay?”

“This isn’t the first or second time that’s happening. Also, a question that can catch Haneul in their pace is amazing in its own way.”

“True, what problems could you two possibly have? Go and break a leg.”

Yeonjin opened the door and gestured them outside. He stood up first and held his hand out to Haneul.

“Since someone took photos of us already, should we just show them everything?”

“There are already people that don’t like a young girl like me holding the megaphone, and you want to pour oil on top of that?”

“Wouldn’t that make things hotter and better?”

“Who do you take after to come up with childish things like this?”

While she said that, she grabbed his hand. He left the waiting room with his wife. After walking through a short hallway leading to the venue, he saw people waiting for him.

“Congratulations once again on your debut, director Han.”

“It’s all thanks to you, actor Han.”

The two of them went up to the platform while holding hands.

* * *

-You two are pretty amazing.

“What’s amazing now?”

-You are definitely amazing. I honestly thought you were joking, but I realized the moment I saw the two bikes outside the building. These guys are really gonna do it.

Ganghwan chuckled, finding it rather ridiculous.

-So where are you two now?

“Us? We just entered Choongjoo.”

-I swear that you are the only ones who change into riding suits on your wedding day and start riding. It’s in the middle of November too. I’m surprised both of your parents permitted that.

“There aren’t any parents who can win against their children. Oh, and how’s Suyeon-noona?”

-I think she’s due soon. I’m all nervous.

“Stay around her. It’s common for the estimated due date to be off.”

-You know all sorts of stuff huh?

“I guess you’ll have a new family member by the time we’re back from Busan.”

-Yeah. There’ll be a smart one just like me.

“That’s a bit of a pity. I want the baby to take after more of the mother.”

-Actually, I wish for that too. Anyway, don’t push yourselves too hard, and just come back in a car if you’re exhausted.

Maru hung up and looked next to him. His wife was putting on her helmet. She seemed to be getting ready to depart now that she had enough rest.

“Who was it?”

“Ganghwan hyung-nim.”

“Is senior Suyeon okay?”

“He said she’s almost due.”

“We should visit them right after we return. I’m sure the baby’s unimaginably cute.”

His wife pedaled off on the bike. Watching her go off into the distance, he also got on his bike.

“Missus, wait for me!”

“Hurry up!”

She shouted as she pedaled with glee.