A Bowl of Food, a Bowl of Trouble
Mr. Deok-su slid his sunglasses up onto his head and said, “Your challenge, Gongja, is admirable. But things like this always come at a price.”
For a second, I nearly dropped my chopsticks. I shot to my feet at once.
“I’m not going to wreck anything,” he said.
Good grief, what was this guy planning? I grabbed the front of Deok-su’s shirt.
“Don’t worry. If Gongja has to suffer, I’ll make sure he suffers just as much.”
As I yanked on his clothes, I noticed a pair of clippers peeking out of his breast pocket. In that instant, I realized exactly what he was about to do.
Is Director Won destined to lose his hair no matter what happens?
Still, I stopped him for now.
“Not yet! If he loses his hair, he might get so heartbroken the movie turns weird!”
Thankfully, Deok-su stopped.
“I see. Well, there’s plenty of time. We can do it after filming ends and it’ll still be fine.”
Ahahaha.
I lowered my head.
I’d better not get hurt.
Whether it was blood from ill intent or a clumsy fall by accident, it felt like my mom and Deok-su would both end up in prison.
I took a deep breath.
Then I remembered something I’d heard before.
So love really does come with responsibility!
I was going to protect this body with my life.
Still, it’s a relief Mother didn’t come wielding a bat.
Thinking about yesterday, I lifted my head again and looked out the window. Wind slipped through the open gap, brushing my still-intact hair across my forehead.
Deok-su asked as he drove, “Are you nervous?”
Hmm. Not really, but I probably should say yes, right?
“A little! But I’m excited too. I didn’t hear who got cast yet!”
I had heard that Han Woo-jin was playing the father in the girl’s role.
Was it really true that he was following the role of my father?
The father was definitely a supporting character, and not a huge one. It was too small a part for someone as big as Han Woo-jin.
And it’s not like he’s close with Director Won Jong-sa either.
Come to think of it, Han Woo-jin really wasn’t the type to take on many projects.
Maybe once every three years, if that…
It was somehow different from the future I knew.
When I think about it, I really have changed a lot.
Just look at Director Rhy-lac getting treatment.
Hmm. Maybe the future I know isn’t the future anymore.
The sky outside the window was an especially vivid blue. I pressed my forehead against the glass. It felt nice, cool against my skin.
If possible, I hope everyone changes for the better.
Of course, that didn’t include the people with problems.
I closed my eyes. The car moved along smoothly. As I listened to Deok-su say we’d arrive soon, I swung my legs lightly.
* * *
It was early, so I thought I’d be the first one there. But the moment I opened the door, I realized I wasn’t.
Huh?
I blinked. A kid was sprawled across the long table, face down.
He must be a child actor?
His long arms and legs stood out immediately. I pulled out a chair and sat beside him.
Who was he?
There were a lot of child actors in Shower.
Still, I’m curious. What role is he playing?
I studied the kid next to me carefully.
A boy, maybe two or three years older than me…
Up to that point, he seemed ordinary enough. But one thing stood out sharply.
What’s he holding?
His thin hand was clutching something. When I peeked closer, I saw a pouch of jelly.
Why would he sleep while holding that?
Was it a snack? Like a kid dozing off with food in his hand?
But he looks older than me…
That was when the boy who’d been lying face-down suddenly lifted his head.
Thwack.
Startled, my shoulders jerked all on their own. Deok-su had come to stand behind me.
Oh?
The child looked at me and blinked.
Well, this is the time to introduce myself, right?
I beamed at him. “Hi! I’m Gongja!”
What’s your name?
The boy kept blinking at me. Then he gave me a faint smile.
“I know. You’re Ma Gongja, aren’t you?”
Oh, was that so? Fair enough. He could know.
Well, I am pretty famous.
Jeok had said I was popular among little kids.
If even regular people know me, child actors would know me even better.
I kept looking at the boy.
So who are you?
Why aren’t you introducing yourself?
“It’s nice to meet you too. This is our first time seeing each other, right? Well, our projects never overlapped.”
So who are you?
“I really liked your acting. Especially Inyeon. The part where you found your father there—it made my heart ache.”
“Mm, thanks for the compliment!”
“I actually watched your music video too, and The Basement. I even watched every variety show you were on.”
Why are you watching so much?
“Well, I couldn’t help it. My parents kept shoving a smartphone in front of my face so I’d lose to you.”
Huh?
The boy smiled brightly. He was pretty cute when he did that.
Come to think of it, he looks familiar…
I examined him more closely.
Even after only a few moments, he was the type who smiled a lot. His skin was pale, his hair black.
Ah!
I clapped once.
“Han Su-yoon?”
“No. Han Su-yoon.”
Ah, right. The genius child actor!
He used to be insanely famous.
He worked everywhere, on television and in films alike. He was hugely popular, and his acting was good enough to deserve it.
But after he became an adult, he quit everything.
What was revealed afterward was shocking.
I heard Han Su-yoon’s parents were addicted to gambling.
Even after all those projects, his home had been buried under debt.
This kid sued them.
The media made noise for a while, then gradually settled down. But I kept searching for articles about Han Su-yoon.
I heard he won in the end.
But unlike the time when it was front-page news, there were only tiny, informational articles after that.
Maybe he got sick of it then, because Han Su-yoon never came back to Chungmuro again.
Directors all said it was a waste. Director Won, especially, used to say it like a habit: Han Su-yoon had a good face and was a strong actor, so he would’ve grown into a great one.
And now I’m working on the same project as Han Su-yoon?
Come to think of it, that made sense.
He was the most famous child actor around at the time.
Han Su-yoon smiled softly at me. I smiled back.
So this tiny kid is carrying his gambling-addicted family on his back?
Damn it.
Heat surged through me all at once. I mean, seriously.
Didn’t the adults around him know Han Su-yoon was in this kind of situation?
What were they doing, just leaving a child to fend for himself?
Han Su-yoon nibbled on the jelly he’d been holding and said, “Want some? It doesn’t taste great.”
“Why would you eat something that tastes bad?”
“Ahahaha. Yeah, that makes sense. But this is basically my staple food. Maybe this has, what, five calories? It fills my stomach.”
What the hell.
I looked again at the pouch of jelly in Han Su-yoon’s hand. I’d thought it was just a kid’s snack, but looking again, I understood.
That’s konjac jelly.
Once you’ve been in acting, you know these things.
People eat that a lot when they’re controlling their weight.
Still, it was a supplement, not something that could be his staple food.
Han Su-yoon is still a kid.
I looked at his bony wrist. A sigh slipped out before I could stop it.
“Hey. Brother Su-yoon?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t force yourself to eat bad-tasting stuff.”
Han Su-yoon blinked. Then he turned to Deok-su and said, “Sir! I think this brother is hungry!”
“His nutritional state does seem poor.”
Hmm, was there anything to eat? He needed something with real nutrition.
“Sir! Can Gongja’s dinner lunchbox be given to him right now?”
Deok-su nodded.
“There’s still time before the script reading, so it would be better to eat now. If you call home, Madam can make Gongja’s dinner lunchbox right away. By the time it’s reading time, I can stop by the house and pick it up.”
Han Su-yoon hurriedly said, “That’s too much trouble! It’s okay!”
Deok-su shook his head.
“A child shouldn’t worry about that sort of thing. Your complexion looks very bad.”
Deok-su took a lunchbox out of his bag. A thermos lunchbox and side dishes appeared before us.
“N-no, really, it’s fine.”
“Eat. You look hungry.”
I glanced at the jelly pouch in his hand and shook my head.
“Don’t eat stuff like that.”
Honestly, why would anyone give a kid food like that?
That’s child abuse too.
Reporting it wouldn’t do a damn bit of good, though.
This kind of thing keeps happening.
Jeok, too. Why was everybody so pitiful, seriously?
I handed Han Su-yoon a spoon.
“Eat everything, okay, brother?”
“Huh? Oh.”
“Madam made this, and the bulgogi is really good.”
Because it was in a thermos lunchbox, it was still warm. The first bite was awkward for Han Su-yoon, but once he got started, he began eating hungrily.
So the kid who made so much money must have been starving all this time.
It was hard to watch. I used a spare pair of chopsticks to feed him side dishes. Han Su-yoon accepted everything gratefully.
“Eat slowly, brother. You’ll get a stomachache. Have some anchovies too.”
Fortunately, he didn’t seem picky at all and ate enthusiastically. Deok-su even handed him a cold plum drink, and Han Su-yoon finished that too.
Han Su-yoon blinked.
“Ah, I ate it all. That’s no good…”
I tilted my head.
“Why not?”
“Mom said, no—both my parents said I should only eat jelly, because I’ll get fat.”
Oh, now I’m really going to swear. Damn it. Those bastards deserve lightning from the heavens.
“It’s fine.”
“A child needs to eat well.”
“Is, is it okay to eat this much?”
“It is!”
I ground my teeth as I spoke.
“If they yell at you later, just say I forced you to eat it!”
“Uh, huh?”
“Say I’m a nasty, cheap little brat who shoved a spoon at you.”
Han Su-yoon blinked, then covered his mouth and laughed.
“Ahahaha!”
“I’m serious. I’m not lying!”
“What if you get in trouble?”
“Tell them to go ahead and scold me.”
“My mom’s scary, though.”
I gave Deok-su a sidelong glance.
“Scarier than him?”
“Ah, no.”
“Then it’s fine. And if they touch me, they’ll really be in trouble.”
I said it seriously.
“If they hit me, it’ll turn into a whole incident.”
It was true. Honestly. My mom’s bat swung like it could cut the wind in half.
I was dead serious, but Han Su-yoon laughed again.
“Ahahaha! Because you’re Sungjin Group?”
“Hmm, that part doesn’t really matter.”
If anything, it was a nuisance.
Thinking about how I’d had to stop working because of Sungjin Group made my chest feel complicated.
“Still, maybe that sort of thing could be useful here?”
You could use dog poop as medicine if you had to.
I took Han Su-yoon’s hand and said earnestly, “So, brother, just use me as your excuse. If you say Gongja is a bad kid and forced you to eat, they’ll probably let it go.”
“Wouldn’t your reputation get worse?”
“That much is fine. If they criticize me for feeding you, I’ll take it!”
“Director Won might look at it badly and cut you from the role.”
I smiled brightly.
“Mm, me?”
Well, recasting happened all the time in the film industry. But me?
Fine, go ahead.
I patted my chest.
“If I’m going to get cut that easily, Gongja will quit first.”
Still, this was something done between people. My appearance in Shower had happened because of the ties I carried over from my past life.
“Oh, Ma Gongja. You’re pretty confident.”
“Brother, this isn’t confidence. It’s just life wisdom.”
Well, wisdom gained from experience, anyway.
I folded my arms and nodded.
“You can’t tell from up close, but from far away, it’s obvious. Big brother.”
I stretched out both hands and squeezed Han Su-yoon’s hand tightly.
“Pain, joy—it’s all just a moment. This too shall pass.”
So hang in there, Han Su-yoon. I’ll give you as much food as you want!
That was when Han Su-yoon’s back suddenly trembled violently.
“Pfft!”