Chapter 359
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 359
Chapter Title: The Breadcrumb Script
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Seojun sent out a calming energy to soothe Kim Hanseok’s heart. The other first-years were the same. The kids, who looked like they were about to burst into tears, began to calm down one by one in the warm presence.
Still, their faces were etched with worry, so Seojun spoke in a gentle voice.
“If you don't feel sick anywhere, the results might be wrong.”
“But… I haven’t had an appetite lately…”
At Kim Hanseok’s words, Seojun’s gaze drifted downward. The first-years’ and Kim Hanseok’s gazes also went down. They saw a sparkling clean tray, so empty it didn't need washing. It was Kim Hanseok’s tray.
…Today’s lunch had been particularly delicious.
“Uh… I was also a bit tired today…!”
“…Didn’t you stay up late playing games yesterday…”
Seeing Kim Hanseok flinch at the acting department first-year’s comment, the kids let out a few silly laughs. With the atmosphere a little more relaxed, Seojun patted Kim Hanseok’s back and said.
“How about you contact your parents first?”
Kim Hanseok nodded at Seojun’s words.
‘Good grief.’
Seojun let out a light sigh as he watched the back of Kim Hanseok weakly walking away with his worried friends. He felt sorry for Kim Hanseok, who was clearly going through a lot.
“But I can’t just tell him he’s perfectly fine…”
He probably wouldn't believe me anyway.
He felt like he understood the heart of the protagonist in the fairy tale who shouted, "The king has donkey ears!" into a bamboo forest.
* * *
And Kim Hanseok, who left school early that day, did not come to school for a week.
* * *
“Seojun Hyung!”
As he was putting his bag down on his seat, he heard someone call his name.
Seojun raised his head and looked toward the sound. He saw Kim Hanseok, who hadn’t been to school for a week.
Seojun smiled and spoke.
“You’re here early.”
“You have no idea how much I wanted to come to school!”
Seojun chuckled at the sight of Kim Hanseok, his face bright and rosy as he spoke with a wide smile. Still, he looked like he’d lost a little weight, probably from the stress.
“They said I’m fine! Totally! Completely! Really, perfectly fine!”
Having shaken off all his worries, Kim Hanseok looked happier than ever.
“I know. We talked on the phone yesterday.”
>Kim Hanseok: Seojun Hyung.
>Kim Hanseok: They said I’m totally fine ㅠㅠ
He sent the message and then called right after.
Though it was hard to understand him, since half of it was just crying.
“Hehe. I was scared for a week for nothing.”
Seeing Kim Hanseok smiling from ear to ear, Seojun also smiled warmly.
“I was so incredibly scared for that week. I was wondering what I would do if it was a serious illness. What would I do from now on? Should I keep going to school or not? I even thought about writing a bucket list.”
“Is that why you couldn’t come to school?”
As Seojun gestured for him to sit in the chair in front, Kim Hanseok quickly sat down and answered.
“Yeah. The atmosphere at home was no joke after I got back from the hospital. It was the first time I’d ever seen my mom and dad dote on me like that. They suddenly started giving me health food out of nowhere.”
His mom started watching health shows she never watched before, and his dad brought home medicinal herbs he got through his connections. He even burst into tears when his younger sibling gave him their snack.
“Then my sibling would start crying too.”
It was a story he could now tell with a relieved laugh.
“So we decided it was best not to go to school until the results came out, since I wouldn't be able to focus anyway. If the results were bad… I felt like that time would be too precious. So I went around to different places with my mom and dad.”
Just one week.
But it was a week that felt like a year, no, ten years.
Amidst that heavy time, Kim Hanseok’s family could only wait and hope for good results.
“We had a party yesterday after the results came in. A Korean beef party! After eating nothing but herbs and vegetables for a week, the meat was so delicious.”
The whole family ate while sniffling.
They were tears of relief.
“After an experience like that, the world looks different, you know?”
“Really?”
“I have to watch season 2 of Marine Company coming out next month, and I have to see how the drama I’m watching now ends. There are so many comics and games I haven’t gotten to yet.”
Kim Hanseok, who had been speaking excitedly, smiled maturely and said.
“And… I haven’t even played a main character yet.”
Is every actor’s regret the same?
The words, which reminded him of someone, made Seojun’s eyes widen before he broke into a smile.
‘This kid’s a born actor, too.’
“That was my biggest regret. So I’m planning to put on a play for the year-end performance next year. They said it’s too late for this year since registration is already closed. I’m a little worried since I’ve never done anything like this before… but I’m going to give it a try.”
Seojun smiled and ruffled Kim Hanseok’s hair roughly.
“You seem to have matured a lot in just a week.”
“Ahahaha.”
Kim Hanseok burst out laughing. It was a happy laugh, without a single trace of worry or concern.
Just then, the classroom door opened.
Kim Hanseok, thinking it might be a second-year senior, shot up from his chair, only to see familiar faces.
“Kim Hanseok!”
“Hey!!”
“Knew you’d be here!”
Kim Hanseok’s friends came rushing in. "Hello! Good morning!" They bowed to Seojun before immediately swarming around Kim Hanseok.
“Why are you here so early?”
Kim Hanseok asked with a bewildered look, seeing his friends who normally wouldn’t have even arrived by this time.
“It’s because of you!”
“Was it nice not coming to school for a week?”
“Making people worry like that!”
Amidst the boisterous atmosphere.
Seojun smiled warmly at the sound of the kids’ relieved voices.
* * *
Saturday.
Han River Park.
It was the weekend and the weather was nice, so people were coming out one by one. Some walked along the promenade with family or lovers, while others laid out mats on the grass to enjoy the sunshine. Among these ordinary people, there was a group that stood out.
“Costumes! Where are the costumes?”
“Senior! We’re shooting this scene first, right?”
“Where did we put the props?”
Students from Mirinae Arts High, who were planning to present a short film for the graduation performance, were running around everywhere. In the spirit of gaining diverse experience, there were not only acting majors but also first and second-years from the art and music departments.
“Shadow in the back!”
At the director’s shout, a kid holding a light slowly backed away.
Seojun, wearing a black cap, watched the director with fascination. The student director, holding the camera and checking the angle, was a third-year from the art department who had become interested in video directing while studying art.
“I wonder what the world looks like through the eyes of a third-year art major.”
Having seen a painting the director had done in his second year, Seojun was already looking forward to seeing what kind of film would emerge.
Tearing his gaze away from the director who was scanning the background, Seojun turned his head. On the opposite side from the kids preparing to shoot, second and third-year acting majors, along with Kang Jaehan and Han Jiho, were running lines.
Seojun scratched his cheek.
He’d come to watch because he was curious about the small-scale shoot, but it seemed like it would take some time before filming actually started.
‘Even this kind of trial and error will be good experience for them.’
He could see the kids working hard to prepare for the shoot.
He had said he would help if they were struggling, but,
“I think they’ve forgotten I’m even here…”
He must have suppressed his presence too much.
Seojun chuckled and turned his head toward the Han River.
A cool breeze and warm sunlight.
On a perfect day for a walk, he could see people strolling along the river. There were people jogging at a steady pace for their health, families out for a walk, and happy-looking couples.
“Choco!”
A child holding a leash was giggling and running with a chocolate-colored puppy. Seeing its tail wagging furiously, the puppy seemed incredibly excited too. The excitedly running puppy, Choco, left a paw print on a pure white piece of paper.
“…Paper?”
Seojun blinked.
Once he noticed it, other things came into view.
Pieces of paper that looked like flyers were scattered sparsely along the path. They were strewn about here and there, but they formed a long trail in one direction, like the breadcrumbs from Hansel and Gretel.
Some people stepped on the papers, thinking they were trash, while others avoided them, thinking they were something someone had dropped.
Blinking a few times, Seojun stood up. It was to pick up trash, as a good teenager should. It was definitely not because what was written on the white paper looked like a script.
“It’s a real script?”
Picking up the paper that had fallen furthest away, Seojun broke into a bright smile without realizing it. The paper had familiar script symbols written on it, like S# (scene number) and NAR (narration).
The sight of a boy in a black cap crouching in the middle of the path caught the attention of passersby. But they soon saw the group of students preparing to film nearby and assumed he was with them, paying him no further mind as they passed.
Meanwhile, Seojun was reading the contents of the paper. A character’s name and lines were written on it, but he couldn’t understand the story from just one page.
“Hmm. I can’t tell from just one page…”
Seojun, who had been seriously reading every letter on the page, lifted his head. Like pieces of cheese, the white papers were scattered here and there along the path.
He suddenly remembered Uncle Chan’s words, telling him not to follow strangers even if they offered to show him a script.
“…There’s no person, just the script, so it should be fine, right?”
It seemed too trivial a matter to call Daho Hyung over.
What should I do?
After a moment of hesitation, looking back and forth between the paper in his hand and the papers on the ground, Seojun shot up and shouted.
“Just a moment!”
A man who was about to step on what he thought was a discarded flyer flinched at Seojun’s voice. And he put his foot down, avoiding the paper. Seojun quickly ran over and picked up the script page that had almost been stepped on.
“Sorry! Thank you!”
“Ah, sure.”
The man glanced once at the boy in the black cap who was carefully picking up the paper and giving a spirited greeting, and once at the group filming over there, before saying to his girlfriend.
“Looks like their script blew away.”
“Yeah. There are pages all the way over there. It’s going to be tough to pick them all up.”
The two of them had no idea that the boy they had just met was the actor Lee Seojun.
* * *
His body had moved before he could think.
Seojun, who was naturally reading the second script page he’d picked up, decided that since he’d already started, he might as well pick up the rest.
Like a hamster gathering sunflower seeds on the floor, Seojun collected the fallen papers one by one. He looked happy to have found a script in such an unexpected place.
Seojun brushed off the part with a dark shoe print and smoothed out the crumpled paper. As he carefully organized them one by one, Seojun looked down at the script with regretful eyes.
“The order is a mess.”
He was trying to arrange them by scene number, but he couldn’t make sense of the plot at all. Still, the dialogue of the characters in the script captivated Seojun’s attention.
Seojun would pick up a page, read it, then pick up another, his eyes alternating between the script and the ground as he walked. He saw another page of the script lying on the ground. As he bent down to pick up the script from the ground, another hand appeared over the white paper.
His eyes widening at the sight of a hand that wasn’t his, Seojun looked up at the person in front of him. The person in front of him also looked up, saw the papers in Seojun’s hand, and spoke in a small voice that was almost a sigh.
“…Thank you for picking these up. I was walking without even realizing my bag was open…”
Hmm.
A stranger appeared.
‘Seojun. Don't follow a stranger even if they offer to show you a script, okay?’
Seo Eunchan’s voice once again echoed in Seojun’s mind.
Seojun’s eyes darted back and forth between the script in his hand and the one held by the woman with dark circles under her eyes. He wanted to see the script, properly arranged in order.
‘…I’m not following her, so it should be fine, right?’
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