Chapter 97
Chapter 97
Returning home with a heavy heart, Bom washed Bom-sik and sat down in front of the laptop she had set out earlier.
As the temperature had dropped significantly lately, she sipped on warm ginger tea, blowing on it to cool it down, while diligently clicking her mouse.
She had finished her lesson prep earlier; she was working on something else now. She opened a browser and logged into a site buried deep within her long list of bookmarks.
Please, let someone be there.
[Teacher Bom, I looked into the personnel transfer situation for next year, and the openings for Ethics and Ideology are exactly the same. Ahem. It doesn't look like the recruitment numbers for the certification exam will increase either.]
Vice Principal Seok Gwan-su had brought her this information a few days ago. He had supposedly pried it out of a contact in the secondary education personnel team at the Office of Education, and according to the supervisor there, there wouldn't be much movement in Ethics positions.
If only she could find an Ethics teacher who wanted to transfer from Gyeongsang-do to Seoul, all these worries would vanish.
Then she could continue to stay here even after her exchange period ended. Furthermore, if her transfer to Gyeongsang-do was finalized, there was a high probability she would be assigned to Shinsu High School. All she needed was just one person who wanted to go up to Seoul.
That was why Bom couldn't let go of her lingering hope and checked the inter-provincial teacher transfer community every day to see if the person she needed had appeared.
Of course, she hadn't told Jae-gyu. She was afraid of getting his hopes up, and she didn't want him to be even more disappointed if things didn't work out.
[I think I’ll have to follow you to Seoul. Just thinking about only seeing you on weekends starting next year makes my eyes sting already.]
[What are you doing cutting a whole bag of onions! Stop cutting them and put them in the pot already.]
[Yeees...]
On the day they made curry at home, he had grown teary-eyed while chopping onions. Whether it was truly because of the onions or something else was unclear, but either way, Jae-gyu seemed to be constantly worried about their upcoming separation.
"...There's no one."
For other subjects and regions, the free bulletin board was flooded with people wanting to transfer to Seoul. But no matter how thoroughly she searched the new posts, there were no Ethics teachers looking to move to the capital.
Another fruitless search. Disappointed, dark circles seemed to deepen under Bom's eyes. Her mind was in such a state of unrest, yet Jae-gyu, who said he was going to wash up earlier, hadn't contacted her since.
"Is he eating a late-night snack?"
He usually made sure to contact her before bed, so the silence suggested he might have fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
Then again, his schedule had sounded grueling even from a distance. Still, it felt empty without the strange sounds Jae-gyu would make over the receiver before bed—scritch-scratch, tap-tap, rub-rub. He had become quite the expert after getting into that ASMR thing. He had reached a level where listening to him for just a few minutes would send her straight to sleep.
Perhaps because she hadn't heard it, sleep eluded her even as her bedtime approached. Eventually, Bom went out to the living room and sat on the sofa with her knees pulled up. Bom-sik hopped up and sat right next to her, pressing his hip against hers.
Right, I have to wake up early tomorrow...
The campus in autumn was atmospheric, thanks to the trees turning vibrant colors. It felt like a waste to just look at a landscape more beautiful than a painting, so she had decided to take autumn photos with her class during lunch. She needed to go in early to borrow a camera from the broadcasting room and prepare props. Photos were memories, after all.
I'll just watch a little bit and then go to bed.
She pulled the remote out from under Bom-sik’s butt, turned on the TV, and flipped through the channels. There were quite a few decent programs on late Sunday nights.
Are there any dramas on?
As she flipped through the channels, QBS’s I Am a K-Trot Singer appeared. Her hand on the remote paused.
<We just watched the 22 participants' joint performance of "Pick Me." Everyone had an individual mission assigned last month, right? Today, those performances begin.>
On the screen, the MC was announcing the participants' current mission as the competition was just getting underway.
Bom stared intensely at the screen with a look of displeasure. That woman would be in there.
Thinking of Jae-gyu and Han-gyeol, who had embraced each other as family with teary eyes, made her feel even more annoyed. What was so great about that damn broadcast?
"It's going to fail."
Her small lips twitched.
Unfortunately, however, this program was breaking viewership records every episode thanks to its provocative editing. It seemed a solid fanbase was forming for the participants as well.
The first participant was just starting their stage when the screen cut to the waiting room.
<Don't be nervous, you'll do great! I know you can do it!>
The face of the woman throwing out scripted-sounding words of encouragement while holding her hands together in prayer was familiar. It was Lee Hee-yeon.
Suddenly feeling nauseous, Bom quickly changed the channel. Her heart was pounding so hard she couldn't even process what was on the screen, but she desperately wanted to focus on something else and forget Hee-yeon.
She shouldn't have watched it. It felt different from when she had caught a glimpse of her face over Han-gyeol’s shoulder while he was watching the video letter on his tablet. Seeing that woman so clearly on a large screen, she looked so much like Han-gyeol.
She’ll be punished. Broadcasting is a scary thing, yet she’s being so reckless with her shallow tricks. Even my mom was so careful about managing her private life...
Her mother, who never even dressed casually when going to the supermarket in front of the house, had maintained a good image not just through her appearance, but by keeping a clean private life without a single piece of gossip.
[You saw Woo Hee-jeong hit rock bottom, right? It happened because it came out that her dad was borrowing money in Mokpo using his daughter's name. She acted so smart all by herself, but she’s so stupid.]
Bom had ignored those disparaging words back then because she disliked them, but now she understood her mother’s words, born from years of navigating the entertainment industry. That didn't mean she had fully forgiven her mother for raising her like a doll to be sold off to a chaebol family.
Stopping the remote on a documentary channel, Bom kept her eyes on the screen while her mind wandered, thinking about Hee-yeon and the producer and writer who had instigated this mess. Eventually, she fell asleep without realizing it.
"Phew..."
She woke up at five in the morning. Feeling a warmth in her arms, she saw that Bom-sik had snuggled in and fallen asleep. Staring at the deep blue light filling the living room, she gradually cleared her groggy head.
Should I go back to sleep? After a moment of deliberation, Bom cautiously stood up. Bom-sik’s body twitched at the sudden emptiness beside him, but only for a moment before he fell back into a deep sleep, his breathing steady.
It was early, but starting now would give her a relaxed beginning to her day. She would eat breakfast and go to school early to prepare for the photo shoot with the kids.
She toasted some bread in a frying pan, warmed some milk, and set them on the dining table.
"Ah, my phone."
Bom grabbed her phone from the sofa and sat at the table. She tapped the screen a few times, but it wouldn't turn on.
The battery had definitely been fine before she went to sleep; why was it off? She connected it to the charger and turned it on.
She put a bit of apricot jam on the toast and took a bite while checking her phone. Bom’s face gradually drained of color until she was as white as a plaster statue.
"What is this...?"
The toast fell with a thud.
Dozens of messages and missed calls were floating on the screen.
⋆★⋆
"Alright, alright. Cut! Great job, everyone!"
Nan-hee was still kneeling on the cold stone floor, tears streaming down her face.
"Oh my, Actress Jung. Lean on me."
Her manager, who had been waiting with a handkerchief, ran over like the wind. He dabbed around her eyes and then bent down to support her by the shoulders, helping her up.
"Are you alright?"
"Ugh, sniff... I'm fine. Give me the handkerchief."
"Yes, ma'am."
After meticulously wiping away her tears with the handkerchief, Nan-hee went over to the director to check the cut herself. Her face brightened.
"Oh my, I'm actually good at this."
"It was a difficult scene, so I thought filming would take longer, but you're amazing."
"Right? I did a good job casting her, didn't I, Director Bae?"
It was a project she hadn't intended to do at first. She had hoped her next role would be something sophisticated, like in Operation Winter. This was because her husband, Yoon Jung-gi, looked down on even that.
However, after rediscovering the thrill of acting upon her return, Nan-hee became ambitious. She wanted to take on roles with more artistic merit, roles that allowed for deep emotional acting. Her role as the mother of the Gu family in the drama Obedience was exactly that.
Playing a slow-witted single mother in dire poverty was Nan-hee's first such challenge. She hadn't even told her husband. She knew he would immediately bark at her to quit.
What did he know to be opposing her or not? If she looked into it, the fact that her acting career had been interrupted was his fault anyway, so she only felt resentment toward him. From now on, she intended to do as she pleased, whether that man opposed her or not.
Since returning to work, her feelings of suffocation had vanished, and her self-esteem was overflowing. She decided she would never stop acting, even when she became a white-haired old woman.
"The coffee truck is here! Everyone, come over!"
At the staff member's shout, the exhausted people's eyes lit up. A large coffee truck was visible at the entrance of the filming site.
"Actress Jung, shall I bring you a hot latte? Or would you like to go and choose for yourself? There are desserts too, so it might be better if you go see for yourself."
The manager she had replaced was both competent and warm. She liked him very much because he catered well to her tastes. The person who had introduced her to the new manager was Bom’s boyfriend, Seon Jae-gyu.
"There are desserts? Then I must go see."
In front of the snow-white coffee truck, staff and actors were receiving drinks and snacks. They bowed politely to Nan-hee.
"We'll enjoy this!"
"Wow, I'm so jealous, Actress Jung."
Of what? Nan-hee, feeling puzzled, only realized the reason once she approached the coffee truck.
♡ We passionately support Actress Jung Nan-hee and the drama 'Obedience' team ♡
"Manager Choi, what is this? I never ordered this."
She had only ever watched other actors receive coffee trucks from fans or fellow actors; this was the first time one had come in her name. To the quite flustered Nan-hee, the words beneath the banner caught her eye.
Sent by Actress Jung Nan-hee's Supporters
"I had something like this?"
"I'll tell you who sent it."
As she listened, Nan-hee’s face lit up with joy. I knew it. I liked him from the moment I first saw him, and now he’s doing such lovely things.