Chapter 481

‘I know that person’ was a play about the interactions between a normal person, who was hospitalized due to a mistake, and the patients. At first, the man distanced himself from the rest and told everyone else that he was different. He eventually found out that the people living there are just people just like him, and the story ended after the man talked about his escape plans from the hospital.

“Don’t come close to me. I’m different from you people. You know? I'm normal, not a freak.”

Daemyung pushed his hands out in wariness. The club members around him stared at him for a moment before laughing all at once.

“He says he’s normal.”

“Everyone says that at first when they come here.”

“I never get tired of it.”

“Fine, normal guy. You’re the best, okay? So you came here because your head was normal?”

Everyone stood in a circle around Daemyung, held each other’s hands, and started spinning around Daemyung. Daemyung got angry and waved his hand outwards, but Aram quickly dodged while Daemyung just fell over like that.

“He’s a crazy guy just from a glance.”

“Right.”

This was going well. Maru coughed and pretended to open an imaginary door. When he did, Daemyung immediately ran up to him.

“D-doctor! I’m not crazy!”

“Yes, yes, Mr. Patient. You are not crazy. You’re just a little sick. But don’t worry, I’ll make you better soon.”

“Doctor!”

Maru walked between the four people, who were lying down neatly on their beds while Daemyung followed him on his knees. When Maru pretended to watch over Dowook, Aram abruptly stood up and started tickling Daemyung. Maru turned around after hearing Daemyung’s laughter.

“Mr. Patient. Something good happen?”

“N-no. That woman just!”

“Yes, yes, I know. You must be seeing women from time to time. I’ll give you some medicine so don’t worry.”

“It’s not that, that woman tickled me.”

Aram stood up and answered ‘yes’ like a child.

“Did you tickle this person?”

“No.”

She replied brightly like a preschooler before lying down again. Daemyung jumped around in frustration.

“Mr. Patient. If you keep acting like that, I’ll move you from the group ward to the solitary ward. Okay?”

“But I’m saying I’m normal.”

“Everyone here says that at first.”

Maru smiled and left the ward.

“See that? I knew he was a crazy guy.”

Dowook and Jiyoon commented. At that moment, Bangjoo, who had been still this whole time, started laughing in a loud voice while grabbing his stomach. After rolling around sideways for a while, he turned serious and stood up before glaring at Daemyung.

“Am I funny to you?”

After saying that, Daemyung lied on the floor again, where the bed was supposed to be. After that was Daemyung’s monodrama. He utilized the stage to the fullest and talked about the events that happened to him. Maru held the script in front of him and compared Daemyung’s acting to the script. At the same time, he looked at the other members who brought out the characteristics of each character.

“Why do I need to come here? Huh? Huh? What did I do wrong? Just who reported me? My wife? She’s been looking at me suspiciously these days. No, wait, was it my son? Did he send me in here because I didn’t pay his tuition? No, there’s no way that’s true. Then is it mom? Ah, wait, she passed away.”

Maru subconsciously snapped his fingers as he looked at Daemyung who blankly stared into the sky as he said ‘passed away’. The rather dazed expression was a laughing point here, and Daemyung brought it out really well. Bangjoo, who had to start laughing out of nowhere while lying down, was doing so at the right time - when Daemyung’s lines had a break.

“Uhm, wait,” Maru said as he entered the stage. Daemyung, who just finished his acting, spat out a short breath.

“What is it? Is something awkward?”

“It’s good, but, Jiyoon.”

Jiyoon, who was crouching down with her knees together, raised her head.

“Should I do it like this then?”

Jiyoon then pretended to wipe her tears off with the handkerchief she was holding.

“Do you think you can show your face a little more? I get that showing your teary sniffing face is something embarrassing, but if you’re too shy about it, the audience wouldn’t be able to understand what you’re doing with the handkerchief.”

Jiyoon nodded before distorting her face a lot and stamping down on her eyes with the handkerchief. Since she was at it, she even blew her nose. She really did have the courage to accept and try when someone gave her advice.

“How cute. Let’s do it just like that. Daemyung, what do you think?”

“I think that she should definitely exaggerate her actions like she is now.”

“No, I asked if you think she’s cute.”

“Huh? Uh, yeah.”

Seeing the two laugh shyly at each other, Maru clapped before leaving the imaginary stage again.

“But I can’t really make a sound, you know? It’ll interrupt everyone else’s lines. Hm, should I try flailing my legs in the air?”

“That sounds good. Try it.”

“Right now?”

“You can’t exactly do that at home. Okay, try.”

“God dammit.”

Dowook, who didn’t want to do it in front of his juniors, just gave up and lied down before flailing his legs in the air.

“Dowook-seonbae. You look like some fish,” Aram said.

Everyone laughed.

“That looks good. Let’s try that during practice. It should be fine as long as it doesn’t look too disorderly. Also, Aram, your s.e.xy eyes are good and all, but you should look at Daemyung, not me. Looking at the audience is good as well, but you should try it with your fellow actors first, don’t you think?”

“Then I won’t. Well, then. Let’s keep that there and….”

Maru looked at Daemyung. Daemyung looked around before speaking,

“Let’s continue where we left off. We didn’t make a mistake until now.”

“Alright. Then let’s start from where your lines end.”

Maru took a step to the side and waited for Daemyung to get into his character’s emotions.

The play continued along with Daemyung’s slow breathing.

* * *

“So? What do you suppose we do? Quit? Give everything up just like that?”

“Who said that?”

“How is it different from giving up when you’re saying that we should switch roles at this point?”

“Hey, isn’t it your fault in the first place for letting someone bad take that role? I’m saying that we should set that straight now. Why are you picking on me now? Oho, you’re taking her side because you’re close to her, aren’t you?”

“Are you for real?”

Seeing the two girls - juniors - that looked like they were about to start tearing each other’s hair out, Heewon thought that the mood was seriously hostile.

“Aren’t they going to get into a fight at this rate?”

He could feel Inho staring at him. Heewon asked ‘what’ in a small voice.

“It’s funny when you say it.”

“What’s so funny?”

“At least they look like they’re acting at least. Meanwhile, you’re just….”

Inho closed his mouth and shook his head.

“Seonbae-nim, how was it?”

“I think it’s better than before. But you know what the instructor said. You shouldn’t act realistically, be actually real. Of course, I can’t really give you any advice on that because I can’t do it either, but I think you should make it more realistic.”

Hearing Inho’s words, the two girls looked at each other and wondered if they should actually get into a fight.

“But you can’t actually get into a fight because of that.”

“This is hard. I thought it was okay, too.”

“I’m not saying that it was bad. I’m just saying that there’s room for improvement. You remember the play we all watched together last time, right?”

The club members sitting in a circle all nodded at once. Heewon wondered for a moment when he heard the word ‘play’. He couldn’t exactly remember the contents properly. He nodded and pretended to know about it since everyone else seemed to. However, it seemed that he couldn’t fool Inho’s eyes.

“Hey, Lee Heewon. You don’t remember it, do you?”

“Why are you saying that? I do remember. I’m not a fish.”

“You are a fish. Then talk us through what it was about.”

“He’s right, seonbae. Tell us what it was about.”

His juniors and friends looked at him with a sharp stare. Heewon sniffed.

“Why does everyone hate me?”

Muttering in a small voice, he looked at everyone else. At that moment, a light bulb lit up inside his head and he remembered what it was about.

“Ah! The story is about a policeman! I remember it now, I mean it.”

He laughed and scratched the back of his head. The club members booed him before smiling.

“But seonbae. How was it in your eyes? Were we good?” One of the girls that acted just now asked him.

Heewon just said what was on his mind.

“Hm? I liked it though. I almost thought that you were fighting for real.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean it.”

Hearing that, another junior spoke,

“I don’t get what’s good and what’s bad since you say it’s good all the time, Heewon-seonbae.”

“I’m saying it’s good because it is. If you still don’t like it… you make me want to cry.”

He couldn’t say something was bad when it was good, could he? Heewon truly thought that the acting of the people here was really good, each had their own unique traits.

“Also, I don’t have the skills to evaluate someone else.”

“You? No way. That’s not true.”

“What do I know?”

Hearing that, one of his friends sitting opposite of him rested his chin on his hands and spoke,

“Honestly, there’s no one here who knows better than you. That’s why we’re asking. The instructor also told us to ask you if we’re stuck on something.”

Heewon made a disinterested face. The instructor definitely said such a thing - to help the others out. However, he didn’t know how he could help someone else. He had a headache just thinking about how he should teach others.

“Then just show it to us.”

“Show what?”

“That scene. Do it in your style and show it to us.”

Inho pushed his back. He almost blurted out not to annoy him, but he had to stand in the middle of everyone else when the juniors dragged him with an evil grin. These people had no respect for him at all.

“Your acting was really good, you know?”

“Okay, we get it so show us yours? Show us how you interpret it.”

“I’m really bad with things like this, you know?”

“We’ll be the ones making that judgement.”

“Tell me honestly. You don’t consider me a senior, do you? You just consider me some servant that you can use as you wish, don’t you?”

He grumbled and tried to sit down, but Inho placed his foot there so he couldn’t. He heard that ‘friend’ was another name for ‘enemy’, and it really seemed to be the case here. Heewon scratched his head and sighed.

“You won’t get anything out of it even if you do see it. It should be similar to you two’s. No, I should be worse than you two’s.”

“We get it, so get into the mood and try.”

Heewon took a deep breath. Let’s see. It was a fight between friends, was it? He narrowed his eyes and looked at Inho in front of him. How would it be if he fought Inho for real? It would probably make him sad. He would feel depressed at first and lack energy.

Heewon loosened his shoulders. Then, he focused on his breathing and listened to the story he made up. A ticklish feeling welled up inside him. He also felt a lump in his throat, and it was a bit hot. Hot? Hot means red, right?

* * *

“I told you not to do it!”

Heewon waved his hand outward violently before pulling his body back. He then shouted, causing his voice to reverberate in the hall. He stomped on the ground like a grumbling child before flipping his eyes over and saying his lines. His lips were stretched to either side and looked somewhat indescribable. Inho thought that Heewon went through three unjust events just now to be like that.

“It’s quite funny whenever Heewon-seonbae says he can’t explain his acting. He’s so good at it. No, he’s scarily good. I think he’s much better than the actors on TV. Also, I think that’s way beyond the point where he can’t explain things to us, but he always says that he doesn’t know.”

Inho smiled bitterly hearing the junior’s words.

“He doesn’t know.”

“What?”

“He really doesn’t know how to explain his own acting rationally. I guess you can say that he can’t conceptualize it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hey. Do you know what it means to see pink light from a smile?”

“What do you mean, pink light?”

“That’s what his acting is like. He says that he can see color from emotions.”

“Color?”

“I asked him once before about how I could bring out a depressed emotion from within me. Do you know what his reply was?”

“What did he say?”

“He said: gather the yellowish stuff and slap it like this.”

Inho tapped on his c.h.e.s.t. Seeing that, the junior frowned.

“You don’t get what it is at all, right? I don’t either.”

He smiled and shrugged. Inho crossed his arms and looked at Heewon who was in front of him.

“He’s a little different from all of us.”