Chapter 179

Chapter 179

He felt humiliated . He wouldn’t be this embarrassed if this happened just between him and Maru, the problem was that their junior was standing behind him . Thinking of how he was humiliated in front of something he was actively looking down on angered him to no end . He kicked a trashcan next to the bus station, looking at the trash spill out made him feel a little bit better .

“Hey, you bastard!”

Just before he could leave, he heard a deep voice from behind him . It was a scary-looking old man, Geunseok glanced a few times before picking the trash up .

“It was a mistake . Just a mistake . ”

“Really?”

Geunseok smiled awkwardly as the man scanned him . He was swearing as much as he could inside, but he couldn’t show this on the outside; today was an unlucky day . Once he came back home, Geunseok opened the door with a frown, he kicked his shoes off and tried to get in . Once he saw his father reading the newspaper in the living room, he straightened his shoes carefully .

“You came back early . ”

“Ah, yes . ”

“Studying?”

“I was going to pick up a notebook from home . ”

His father gave him a nod, the man was still looking at the newspaper .

“Geunseok . ”

“Yes . ”

“I enrolled you in an academy . Go there . ”

“What?”

“It’s a Chinese language academy, English isn’t enough nowadays . You need English as a base and Chinese as a secondary language . ”

“ . . . Um, father . ”

Geunseok was about to say self-study was enough, his father slowly closed his newspaper and looked straight forward . The man’s eyes, shining behind his gold-rimmed glasses, was full of disappointment . Geunseok closed his mouth straight away .

“You made a face very similar to ‘that guy’ just now . ”

‘That guy’ . There were many people his father referred to as ‘guy’, but there was only ever one ‘that guy’ . Geunseok’s brother .

“What, you want to rebel against everything I say and leave the house, just like him?”

“N-no . ”

“Then what should your answer be?”

“I’ll go to the academy . ”

“Of course you will . ”

Only then did his father looked away, his father folded the newspaper and took out a wallet .

“Here . Take this . A reward for taking first place amongst all of the first years . ”

His dad was giving him a card . A black card .

“You’ll need a lot of money if you want to hang out with the smarter kids . Don’t make them pay for anything, always offer to pay . That’s how you start differentiating yourself from them . You can only make real friends once you get out in society . School friends? Such things don’t exist . The only people you can find in school are competitors, people you need to beat . Rise in the society that the winners have built and make your mark in it, only then can you make friends . Don’t waste your time on emotions, not if you don’t want to end up like him . ”

Geunseok took the card with both of his hands . The card only granted him more freedom, so why did it feel more like chains?

‘But I can’t do anything about it . So be it . I’ll keep on living like this . ’

He bowed and walked back to his room . Once he put down his bag, he let out a deep sigh .

“Fuck . ”

What a shitty day . It felt like his dad was mad because of Han Maru . If only the boy didn’t get in his way… Geunseok chewed on his fingertips as he took out his phone, he punched in Suyeon’s phone number and started a call . Suyeon delayed their lesson for two days and went radio silent . He thought he’d be able to meet her just the next day, but she didn’t send him anything .

- Excuse me?

“Um, coach?”

- Yeah . What?

Suyeon was breathing incredibly heavily . Geunseok rolled his eyes as he spoke .

“When can I get my lesson?”

He was annoyed at everything, he felt like meeting Suyeon was the only way to rid himself of this annoyance . Suyeon would use her maturity to console him well, like always . But…

- I’m not planning on doing any lessons for a while . You’re talented, so learn by yourself for a bit .

“What? What do you . . . ”

- I’m busy . Bye .

With that, she hung up . Geunseok caught an old man’s voice from the other side just before the call ended . Bang . Geunseok punched his table angrily . He flinched in surprise and looked at his door . His father didn’t hear, did he? He put his ear against his door nervously . Thankfully, all he could hear was the sound of classical music . A sigh of relief slipped out of his mouth before he sat down on the bed . Everything had wrong today . Today was easily one of the worst days of his life .

‘Han Maru, that bastard… He’s not going to tell on me, is he?’

If his father finds out about him acting… He didn’t even want to imagine the consequences . He still remembered his father from back then, the man delivered an incredibly hard slap to his brother’s face when he came back during college . Geunseok felt like his heart was going to stop whenever he remembered the pair of blood-shot eyes that his father used to glare at Geunsoo at the time .

“He can’t know . ”

Geunseok had a plan, Junmin promised a reward if he brought in results by his third year . A full scholarship was one thing, but he was also promised a network of actors and even a chance to act on a big project . Geunseok saw his future in that promise, he would be a star outshining all else . Money, women, and fame would follow him on this path .

His father didn’t suggest any particular path to follow in life, all the man wanted out of him was ‘success’ . To his father, the easiest path to success was in studying . Even after Geunseok’s brother left home in rebellion to this philosophy, his father didn’t even bat an eye . In fact, the man said that his brother would come crawling back in just a few days . Ten years passed by like that and his brother was still a no-name actor .

His father was correct, foolish challenges held no meaning . Perhaps things could be different if success was guaranteed, that’s why he thought he’d be able to persuade his father with Junmin’s contract . Junmin was well known within the entertainment industry, someone who had connections with many huge companies . His father should be accepting of his actions if Junmin was backing him .

But now was not the time . Right now, Geunseok had nothing to show . If his father found out about him doing acting at this moment, the man would say ‘use that time to study’ . Of course, Geunseok didn’t have much affection for acting . It didn’t really matter if he went into acting professionally or if he just studied, but if he took the latter route, he wouldn’t be able to get in the spotlight . He wanted recognition, rather than just to earn a lot of money . Just look, even at his position right now, he was able to be with a beautiful, charming woman like Suyeon . There were just too many things to lose if he left a field like this .

‘I just have to stay quiet just this once . ’

If he lay low a bit, then Maru would cool off as well . He could use the juniors then to attack Maru, the idiot would explode just like last time, because he was a ‘guardian of justice’ or whatever .

“Alright, I just have to endure just this once . That’s all I need to do . ”

Maru and the girl who was hiding behind him… He could just expel them to the stage manager roles . Honestly, he was more pissed at the girl . He wouldn’t even have gotten into a fight with Maru if she stayed silent . Right then, he heard the front door open . There was no way his mother was back already . Did his father order delivery food? Just as curiosity seeped into his head, he heard a voice .

“Father! It’s been too long . ”

A bright and jovial voice, it was his brother . A frown instantly formed on Geunseok’s face . How dare his brother sounded so happy, especially when he was practically kicked out of the house? Was he just trying to show off? How pitiful . His dad should shout soon enough . Or perhaps his brother would get slapped again .

But all he heard was silence . What was going on? His dad wasn’t someone who could endure an occurrence like this for very long .

“Let me introduce you . This is senior Lee Junmin, someone who I greatly respect . I believe he’s around your age?”

“Hey, watch your language, Geunsoo . ”

“It’s fine, senior . I was practically born like this from the start, so my father should understand . Isn’t that right?”

Geunseok widened his eyes . Junmin? He slowly opened his door and peeked out through a small crack, it really was Junmin . He was holding tomato juice, a long-time favorite of their father .

“Who are you?” his dad asked stiffly .

Then again, there was no way his dad would look too kindly on an acquaintance of his brother .

“My name is Lee Junmin . I work in the entertainment industry . Geunsoo kept begging me to come, and I acquiesced . Pardon my intrusion . ”

His father looked at Junmin for a second before letting him take a seat . As soon as they sat down, Junmin took out a piece of paper from his bag .

“This guy was saying some odd things about how he needed to show you this contract . ”

“What is this?”

“Please read it . ”

Geunseok could see his father read the contract slowly . What was it about? After what felt like forever, his father slowly put the paper down on the table .

“You must’ve suffered quite a bit because of my foolish son . ”

“You’re right . He’s very childish even at this age . ”

Geunseok was shocked, his father was smiling, brightly at that . His father took off his glasses before continuing .

“You see, I’m someone who absolutely despises failure . I was born in what seemed worse than even the city sewers and grew up selling gum and cleaning shoes on the streets . Back then, I only thought of one thing . Success . Money . ”

Father looked at the contract again, the smile on his face only deepened .

“No matter what other people may say, money comes before all else . After all, you’re worthless without it . ”

“You are correct . ”

“I succeeded, at least to a degree . I studied in that pool of mud, using a piece of charcoal as my writing utensil . I used my first pencil until it literally crumbled in my hand . I studied and studied to get where I am today . To me, studying is the easiest way to success . That’s why I was furious when that guy told me he’d succeed through acting, because I knew he wasn’t stupid . He just wouldn’t listen no matter how many times I told him to study . ”

“So he was stubborn since back then . ”

“Right . That’s the sort of boy he was . I still remember when he ran out of the house . He told me he’d succeed with acting back then . I felt like he was rejecting my entire life right then . Ridiculous . Was success through acting easy? Not at all . The way I see it, succeeding through art in this country takes a ridiculous amount of work and luck . Don’t you think so?”

“Very correct . ”

“That’s why I waited until he would come crawling back to my house . I trusted that he would come back to study . But he didn’t . Not even after ten years . ”

Geunseok’s brother smiled brightly .

“Twelve, to be exact . I’m thirty one now . ”

“You’re already that old?”

“Of course, father . I’m already starting to get wrinkles just like you . ”

An unthinkable number of jokes were being exchanged between the two . Their father, who should’ve stood up flaming with rage at any other point in time, smiled brightly . Because Junmin was here? No . Geunseok’s father wasn’t one to care about who was watching when he got mad .

“Twelve years . After all those years, he finally brings home success . ”

“How is it? Don’t you think he’s lived a worthwhile life, with this? Well, while money isn’t the sole metric for a person’s entire life, it is a decent metric, after all . ”

“You are right . Not many people can score something like this in their early thirties . This is a success, for sure . Indeed . ”

Father pushed the contract back towards Junmin . Geunsoo was the one to retrieve it .

“We’ll take off, then . ”

His brother stood up from his spot, Junmin seemed a bit confused .

“Leaving already?”

“Of course we are . Father, I can go, right?”

His father put on his glasses again before replying, the smile from before was wiped off from his face .

“Leave . I don’t want to see you ever again . ”

“At least I didn’t get slapped today . That’s a success in my book . ”

His brother turned around with a grin . Right then, Geunseok’s eyes met with his brother’s . His brother shrugged before stepping outside .

“Please take good care of him from now on . ”

His father bowed towards Junmin once his brother went outside . His father, bowing? Geunseok felt his head turn blank, he’s never once seen this in his life .

“You don’t even have to ask . Geunsoo has a very good head on his shoulders . ”

“I see . He was very free from a young age for sure . He did everything by himself . That’s why I disapproved of him . Because it felt like he was constantly trying to escape my grasp . ”

“Even so, don’t you feel proud now watching him succeed like this?”

“There’s no parent who would feel anguish at their children’s success . However, I do feel a little annoyed that he succeeded without my help . It feels like he’s completely escaped me at this point . ”

“Boys only miss their parents once they leave their homes . I tried to send him over by himself today as well, but he was very embarrassed . ”

“Haha, embarrassed, after hurting me like so all those years ago? What a bad child he is . ”

“Probably because he takes after you . ”

“He takes after me, you say?”

“Where do you think that stubbornness and strength from your younger years went? He probably knew himself that studying was a safe route to success . He would’ve just found it boring . ”

Junmin stood up from his seat, prompting Geunseok’s father to follow .

“Here is my business card . Let’s go for a drink sometime . I feel like we’ll get along . ”

“This is the first time I’ve gotten a business card from someone in the entertainment business . ”

“What an honor . ”

The two men walked to the front door, smiling like they were very old friends . Geunseok closed the door with a trembling hand . This wasn’t right, his brother shouldn’t be the one to get recognized by his father .

“Ah, your second son, by the way . ”

He could faintly hear Junmin’s voice . Geunseok felt a bolt of lightning strike his head right then .

“Geunseok?”

“Yes . ”

“How do you . . . ”

“You didn’t hear? The boy’s under my tutelage for acting at the moment . ”

“Aha, I see . ”

“Please come to my theater together with him when you get the time . I’m sure you’ll enjoy it . ”

“I understand . I’ll try to make time . ”

“Farewell, then . ”

Geunseok heard the front door close, he gripped the door handle of his room with trembling arms . Right then, the door barged open . His dad was staring at him with a cold expression .

“You lied to me . ”

“U-u-um, father . ”

“Your brother rebelled against me, but at least he didn’t lie . ”

“Father! Father!”

Geunseok kneeled . His father quietly entered the room and closed the door slowly behind him .

“We should talk . ”

Click . The door closed behind them .