Life, Once Again!

After Story 24

Bada stood up. She then raised her head up high and started running on the spot, seemingly to loosen up a little.

Maru leaned against the backrest and looked at his sister with lazy eyes. It would be like this in the audition as well, especially in public auditions with a lot of applicants, as the judges’ fatigue would be at an all-time high. He knew this from numerous experiences as a judge himself.

He drained any energy from his eyes like he was watching a boring movie.

I will not respond no matter what kind of amazing thing you show me — was his attitude as he waited for his sister to start acting.

It didn’t even take a minute for Bada’s confidence to collapse. Had it been a stranger, she would’ve started acting immediately. She was stiff and creaking because she was acting in front of someone she knew.

Bada started acting. She seemed to have gotten into a fight with someone. She quarreled with an invisible opponent and stopped right as she was about to raise her voice.

She was visibly flustered. She was probably panicking because she couldn’t do as well as she wanted.

“Today’s really hot.”

Their mother had returned. Maru took his eyes off the still-shocked Bada and returned the chair to the dining table.

“What were you doing?”

His mother seemed confused since he brought a chair to the living room when it was supposed to be in the kitchen. Maru said that it was nothing. His mother didn’t pry either, as though she was used to seeing him doing useless things.

“I’m going to get some sleep.” Bada went to her room.

His mother was about to say something to her, but he stopped her.

“She looks tired. Just let her be.”

“You’re old enough to look after your sister, huh?”

“Well, I’m old enough, sure,” Maru said as he looked at the door to Bada’s room, which was firmly shut.

His mother said that she should make the most of her son’s visit and took out all the dishes and plates from the cupboard, reorganizing everything from scratch.

After cleaning and organizing, it was time to eat dinner.

“Take out the marinated bulgogi from the fridge.”

Dinner was bulgogi. While his mother cooked rice in the rice cooker, he chopped some onions and mushrooms.

“Do we have any spicy peppers here?”

“There are some in the freezer. You want to put it in the bulgogi?”

“Yeah.”

The rice cooker started making noise, and a savory smell spread around the kitchen. Maru put the ingredients in the frying pan and stir-fried them for a while before handing it to his mother.

“I’ll go wake Bada up.”

He stood in front of the door and knocked. He knocked again when there wasn’t a response as he could hear a presence inside. He opened the door slightly.

“Why aren’t you responding when you aren’t sleeping?”

“I don’t know.”

His sister was laying flat on the bed, with the blanket all the way up to her head. Maru pictured her huffing and puffing in frustration before crying a little.

“You should eat.”

“I’m not going to eat.”

“Even though it’s bulgogi?”

“Forget it, I’m not having any.”

She sounded like she couldn’t be bothered to do anything. He peeked out the door and looked at the table. There were three bowls of rice on the table.

“It’s natural that you can’t do it. Not being able to do it is the norm. If someone who just started acting can do it so nonchalantly, then that person must be a natural. There aren’t many people who can do that.”

Bada didn’t respond at all. He spoke a few more words to his sister, who was squirming under the blanket.

“What’s important is that you tried. Whether you did it well or not, you tried. There are many people who can’t even do that. There are loads of people who freeze up when they’re asked to do it. So don’t feel down. There’s no reason to feel like that.”

He then closed the door.

“What about Bada?”

“I think she’ll eat later.”

“She should eat together since you’re here.”

“We ate separately more than we’ve eaten together.”

Just as he picked up his spoon, the door to Bada’s room opened. Wearing a t-shirt with a stretched-out neck and pajama pants, Bada walked over and sat down at the table. Maru smiled as he watched that.

“You always made jeyuk-bokkeum when only I’m here. Your son is more important to you than your daughter, isn’t it, mom?” Bada grumbled as she picked up her chopsticks.

Their mother raised the spoon she was using to eat and hit Bada’s head with it.

“I bought it because I wanted to eat it. Okay?”

“Mom! Don’t hit with a spoon. It’s dirty.”

“Your t-shirt is even dirtier. Why won’t you let me wash it?”

“This is clean, you know?”

“Then this spoon is clean too.”

The two of them nagged at each other about their hygiene before eating the bulgogi without a word. The table banter hadn’t changed.

If Maru’s father was here, he would’ve focused on eating the bulgogi while the mother and daughter were busy fighting. He was someone who knew when he would benefit after all.

“You two are the same,” he said to the two.

After dinner, Maru stood in front of the sink in order to wash the dishes.

“I’ll do the dishes, so go buy some ziplock bags. I was looking for some so I could pack you some food, but I didn’t see any. Go buy some milk and eggs while you’re there. And also, a big beer.”

Saying that, his mother opened her wallet. He waved his hand in the air, saying that he didn’t need the money. As his mother ran the finances of the house, she didn’t offer twice. Instead, she asked him to buy even more things: ziplock bags, milk, eggs, beer, some meat for soup, and a few snacks.

“Han Bada. Why don’t you come with me for grocery shopping if you don’t have anything to do?”

His mother scoffed, saying that she would never do something like that. Bada went to her room without a word.

“I think she’ll go?” he said. A moment later, Bada changed her shirt and came back out again.

She looked at him as though telling him to hurry before putting on her slippers and leaving the house.

“What’s gotten into her?”

“Maybe she’s really bored. I’m going now.”

He left his house with the grocery bag in hand. Bada was walking ahead while looking at her phone. Maru walked faster and stood next to Bada.

“I’ve seen many people get hurt while walking looking at that.”

Bada glanced at him before turning off the screen.

They walked for a while without talking. Bada seemed to have something to say, but she did not speak. Maru decided to wait rather than urge her.

After walking for a while, they saw a bunch of children laughing and running around in the neighborhood playground. They seemed to be heading to the nearby PC bang. These days, kids preferred the mouse and keyboard over slides and swings.

It was when Maru was looking at the kids becoming distant,

“Was I that strange before?”

She seemed to be referring to her acting, which she stopped midway.

“It wasn’t strange. It was just purely bad.”

Bada’s slightly drooping eyes became taunt again as though they were about to reach her temples. She seemed like she was about to snap out at any moment.

Maru did not avoid her gaze. He looked straight back at her as though to have a staring contest. His sister’s angry eyes slowly sank back down again. A mixture of regret and disappointment was reflected in her eyes.

“Was I that bad?”

“You stopped midway. If you’ve decided to act out something, then do it until the end. You have to continue even if your head blanks out midway and you can’t think of anything. That’s what practice is for. Just like how you would reflexively pull back your hand if you touch hot water, it’s not bad to have a mechanical side to you if it’s your first audition. The sensation of finishing the act you’ve prepared is pretty important.”

Bada suddenly stopped. She glanced at him with eyes full of suspicion.

“What the hell?”

“What?”

“That doesn’t sound like you heard it from people around you. You sound like you’ve experienced it yourself?”

“Is that how it sounded?”

Maru did not resolve her curiosities and started walking. Bada quickly caught up after the distance widened.

“It’s strange.”

“What’s strange.”

“You, everything. Did you hurt your head? Why do you look like you’re a different person?”

“Do you wish for something to be wrong with my head? You’re my only sibling, but you’re being way too cruel.”

“That’s clearly not what I mean. But look. Have we ever talked to each other like this? No. Consultation? That’s just absurd, but….”

After smacking her lips, Bada swallowed her words without speaking them. She seemed weirded out to death. Her steps quickened. She walked ahead as though to racewalk.

“Wait for me.”

He ran lightly. As soon as they left the residential area, they saw a large mall.

Bada pushed the cart while exuding a ‘don’t talk to me’ aura. Even when they were young, Bada was always in charge of pushing the cart in the family. Maru could remember her huffing and puffing whenever one of them tried to take it away from her.

He first looked for items his mother ordered. As they walked past the meat corner and the instant-foods corner, Bada picked up an item and put it in the cart. It was fried chicken.

“If you want to become an actress, you should watch out for your weight.”

“You’re even nagging me.”

Bada glared at him as though she had enough of it, but she did not return the chicken. After paying for the items, they left the mall. His sister picked up the paper bucket with the chicken in it. She looked like she wasn’t going to touch anything else.

With bags in each hand, Maru quickly followed Bada, who walked ahead.

“Eat that and practice hard.”

“Gosh, you.”

“You said you wanted to become an actress. It doesn’t sound like you said that as a form of escape so try hard. Practice in front of the mirror and show it to mom. At first, you might feel awkward and not able to do it properly, but you’ll get used to it. Once you get used to it, you should be able to tell what kind of acting you were doing objectively.”

Bada didn’t say anything, but she didn’t express her dissatisfaction either. She walked side by side with him and listened to him.

“As for acting schools, you should do some research. It’s good to find good acting schools, but it should be more important to find acting schools that you should never go to. There should be internet communities for aspiring entertainers around so refer to those. You should watch out for the tuition fees, but the places with good instructors are pretty costly. That’s for you to decide, so I can’t help you much with that. But since mother said she will support you….”

“Mother?”

She was weirdly fixated on something strange after listening obediently for a while.

Maru turned his head away and continued, “If you keep going for a while, you should be able to see how you should polish yourself. Well, if you pass the audition for an agency that you talked about, the agency will teach you about this themselves, so I wouldn’t need to worry, but that’s not likely.”

“You never know. I might pass.”

“I don’t think so.”

Bada’s lips twitched before she sighed. “Oppa.”

“What?”

“You’re really weird right now.”

“Get used to it. I’m going to be like this in the future. I want to talk about various things with you, and if you want, listen to your worries. I’m sure you don’t find me that reliable, but you never know, so if you get stuck on something, tell me about it.”

“I’m getting goosebumps.”

“Turn that into acting that gives other people goosebumps. You’ll get good scores that way.”

Bada stared at him for a while before smiling for the first time today. Though, it was more of a flabbergasted smile rather than a happy one.

“Even if my future looks bleak, I’m never going to you for consultation. I’ll be creeped out and won’t be able to stand it.”

“Do what you want. It’s not like I really want to help you either.”

Maru bumped Bada’s shoulder before walking ahead.

Bada immediately shouted ‘hey’ before running up to him.

Until they arrived, she neither walked ahead nor behind and stayed by his side. It was just like the old days, when they ran to the dalgona seller, hand in hand.