Chapter 204

Chapter 204

After some time spent on reading, Maru eventually realized that the sound of sobs was gone . He lowered the volume before turning off the TV . The moon outside the window looked oddly small today . After closing his book, Maru looked back . Suyeon was sleeping with messy hair . She looked exhausted after a night of talking and thinking .

“I told her she’d catch a cold if she sleeps outside, too . ”

It was 2am, but he couldn’t sleep because of the alcohol in his system . Maru cleaned up the snacks and the dishes in front of him, Suyeon trembled from the noise of the dishes clacking together . After cleaning up the living room, Maru looked back into the small room and the big room . The girls in the small room were hugging each other in their sleep, they must’ve been cold . Come to think of it, the heater wasn’t on . He grabbed a blanket from the pile in the corner and covered the two with it . He took another one and stepped outside .

“Can’t you act more your age?”

He put a blanket over the woman . She might’ve looked lovely or baby-like to anyone else in this state, but to Maru, she just looked sad . Everyone had their stories, no one was born innately good or evil . It’s their accumulated experiences that would nudge them towards good or evil . What’s funny was that the standards of what was good or evil were subjective, Maru knew that better than anyone else . A role model you looked up to might secretly be someone who stepped on others to get to where they were, on the other end, a person on death row might be someone who could give you a valuable life lesson . That’s why Maru tried his best to judge people based on how they treated him . In that sense, Suyeon was a good person . Her relationships were purely based on profit . So long as she stuck by that, Maru’s opinion of her would be neutral, but he did want to tell her something .

“Are you sleeping?”

No response . The woman breathed like a little baby .

“If you lived happily so far, then don’t have any regrets . But if your actions come back to you in the form of pain, then it’s time to stop . If they don’t, then live as you always have . Don’t try to be ‘good’, you should know better than I do that’s a nigh impossible thing to do . So stay greedy . Live the life you want to live, as long as it’s within the confines of the law . ”

Maru turned the heater on and the lights off, he laid down on the living room carpet and put on a blanket . The living room was quiet now, he started steadying his breath . He could feel sleep slowly approaching from the other side of his consciousness .

* * *

He dreamed of chasing a woman he didn’t know . No, that wasn’t a stranger . He knew that woman for sure .

Maru opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling dumbly, it was colored gray . Ah, right, this was Suyeon’s home . He put a hand over his dry neck and sat up, the dream just now was already fading away deep into his subconscious . All he remembered was that he was chasing after a woman he felt like he knew . The woman was sometimes young, sometimes old, and at other times someone else entirely .

An odd dream indeed, but it faded away quickly enough that he didn’t think much of it . The living room was colored with sunlight, it was 9am . After taking a deep breath of the fresh Sunday air, Maru got up .

“Oh, you’re awake . ”

Suyeon was standing by the kitchen, surprisingly . That tear-stained face of hers from the night before was gone without a trace . Now, she was the actress Kim Suyeon . So this is the end of her storytime from last night, Maru nodded as a small greeting before walking inside himself .

“Want water?”

“Sure . ”

He finished the glass of water in two gulps . He could feel the drowsiness inside him being washed away instantly .

“Thanks for the blanket . I’m glad you at least have some manners . ”

“I’d rather we have a healthy instructor teach us . ”

“Ugh, you aren’t cute at all . ”

“Being treated as ‘cute’ in my age is problematic . ”

“You sound like an old man . ”

“Much better than being an immature adult, wouldn’t you agree? Anyway, should I wake the kids? I think we should go out soon . ”

“No, let them sleep . They were a mess last night . We’ll start our first training after letting them sleep till lunchtime . ”

“Training?”

“I want to check your vocal cords . I want to see how well Ms . Miso did . ”

Suyeon took out a toaster .

“You’re fine with toast for lunch, right?”

“Do you have rice?”

“Can’t you just eat what I give you? You’re not going to be popular if you keep acting this way . ”

“I’ve said this before, but I’m kind to my girlfriend . So there’s no need for you to worry . ”

“You have a girlfriend?”

“Yes, I do . ”

“Whew, that’s unexpected . I thought you hated women . Especially since you never even spared me a glance . ”

“Are you really bored enough to bring up yesterday’s conversation?”

“I can’t stand quiet meals, sorry . ”

“Get your own boyfriend then . ”

“How? The way you told me to last night?”

So she was listening . Maru spread some jam on his toast as he responded .

“Why pretend you were sleeping? Now I feel awkward for no reason . ”

“Because it’s fun . ”

Suyeon poured both of them a glass of orange juice .

“So how’s your girlfriend? Is she pretty? How’s her personality?”

“She’s better than you in every aspect . Face, body, personality . ”

“Boo, there’s no way she has a better body than me . ”

Suyeon crossed her long legs . Maru had to make a correction, Suyeon did indeed have a better body for the time being .

“Just give it time . ”

“How do you know she’ll look better by then?”

“I have good eyes . ”

“Ew, what a pervert . ”

“All men are born perverts . We just restrain it . ”

“That’s just proof that you’re a massive pervert . Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“Not as much as someone who tells their life story alongside tears . Also, haven’t you run into my girlfriend when you visited me in the hospital?”

“Did I? Sorry, I’m not the type to remember people unrelated to me . ”

“Not surprised . ”

The toast crunched inside his mouth, the strawberry jam was pretty tasty . Where was it from? He turned the bottle around to look at the label, all that English made it hard to read .

“Tasty, right? I got it as a gift . It was like 150 thou per bottle?”

“So that’s why it’s tasty . ”

“Want a bottle?”

“I’d rather not . I don’t like accepting gifts without reason . ”

“Consider it a gift for our future relationship . Though it doesn’t look like we’ll be friends . ”

“Agreed . ”

“Why do you dislike me so much?”

Maru responded as he chewed on the toast .

“I don’t dislike you that much . There’s just no reason for me to be friends with you . Ah, if it looked like I was avoiding you, that’s because I consider you a scary person . I dislike scary women . ”

“Me? Scary? Why? Because I screw with men?”

Maru responded as he looked directly into her eyes .

“If you’re that conscious of your behavior, then I’d recommend that it’s best just stop . I don’t care about what you do . If you’re talking about it to me on purpose, then I’d like to ask why you keep doing this . I said you’re scary because you’re terrifyingly good at controlling your emotions . I like women with weak spots . ”

Suyeon let out a little “hmm” as she looked at Maru . Her smile and erotic gaze didn’t change, but Maru noticed that her eyes looked very cold inside .

“You’re too cold, but also gentle . It sounds hypocritical, but it’s true . I get why I told you everything last night . You’re not the type to console me . But you still listen . You don’t try to relate, but you understand . I can’t ask you for forgiveness, but I can at least confess . You even scolded me when I needed it . ”

“Do you feel good after getting scolded by a child?”

“Yes, very . I was feeling pretty complicated recently, but that’s all gone now . People need to live their lives in a way that fits them . It’s impossible to return to how I was in the past . No matter what I do, I can’t fix my old scars . So I might as well live like this . ”

Suyeon finished her orange juice in one gulp .

“If you keep planning on touching people like that, then please don’t approach minors . Especially the kids in the acting club . ” “I have standards, you know? Pretty high ones . You think I do this to anyone?”

“Mm, that sort of sounds like a compliment . Thank you . ”

“Hah . ”

Suyeon put another piece of bread in the toaster .

“Care for another?”

* * *

Jiyoon couldn’t open the door in front of her . She woke up a while ago, but she couldn’t step outside . Suyeon and Maru were talking outside . She couldn’t hear the conversation, but she knew things would get awkward quick if she stepped out now .

‘What do I do?’

The worst part was how much she remembered everything from last night, she felt her face redden just thinking about what she said to Maru . She won’t drink ever again from now .

“Bathroom . ”

“Oh my god, you surprised me . ”

Aram was grabbing the doorknob with a sleepy expression . Jiyoon stopped the girl .

“Things are bad outside . ”

“Really?” “Yeah, Senior and Instructor . . . ”

“Reaaaally?”

Jiyoon closed her mouth with a shocked face, Aram’s face was grinning with a teasing look . Right . This person was different from her . The girl opened the door, clearly expecting to run into some trouble . Unfortunately, all she ran into was Maru standing in front of her .

“Oh, Senior! I heard something interesting was happening outside . ”

“Nope . Go wash your face . You look like a mess . ”

“Really?”

Aram walked to the bathroom as if nothing had happened, Jiyoon looked at Maru with an awkward smile .

“You . ”

“Y-yes?”

“Never drink more than three glasses of beer . ”

“ . . . Okay . ”

Right then, loud music started playing in the living room . The noise only got louder every time Suyeon tapped on the remote .

“Wake up, kids! It’s lunchtime!”

* * *

Dowook breathed lightly into his hand, his breath still smelled slightly of soju . He learned how to drink from delinquents early into high school, but yesterday was the first time he had so many soju bombs . He regretted having thought lightly of drinking just because he sipped a little in the past . He immediately lost himself after a few glasses and before he knew it, he was in the bathroom . The next time he came to was an unconscious Daemyung lying down next to him, he felt a chill run down his back whenever the boy gagged with a pale face . Thankfully, Daemyung didn’t throw up during the night .

“That instructor is weird . ”

They went to the top of the building after lunch and shouted their lungs out . Suyeon just laughed at him when he said he was trying to be a support member, he ended up having to shout to the sky as a result . He did feel a lot better after doing it though, so it was a plus .

Afterwards, Suyeon asked the club to make sounds with their hands over their stomach . She made them talk normally and even shout, she also taught them how to do abdominal breathing . Daemyung laughed when she said it’d make them run out of their breaths, he was shocked when he actually did .

- We’ll stop here today . We can pick out a play tomorrow and practice more . I’m not very good at teaching, so you guys should prepare as well .

She sounded irresponsible, but that fitted her image well . Suyeon was an odd woman, but she was very serious when she taught . Trustworthy for sure .

“I’m supposed to make props though . ”

Dowook clicked his tongue as he got on the bus . He hated annoying things and he had a feeling things were only going to get more annoying from now .