Life, Once Again!

ld get some rest too.
You must be tired.”

Byungchan crossed his arms and sighed.
He leaned back against the plastic chair and stared at the float that was floating around in the water.
It seemed that Sooil had taken an interest in fishing as he was holding with the fishing rod without any movement.

‘Should I sleep for around thirty minutes?’

Perhaps thanks to the warm ramyun stock, sleep suddenly overwhelmed him.
He felt that he should be fine if he got a short nap.
Splash – he heard water noise somewhere as he closed his eyes.

* * *

Byungchan was startled and drowsy as he woke up.
He immediately checked the time.
The hour hand was moving past the number eleven.

When he turned around, he couldn’t see the man or Sooil.
Just as he stood up in a rush of panic, he heard some voices.

“Wow, that looks good.”

People were grilling meat on a grill on top of a drum barrel.
It seemed that all the fishermen from around had gathered.
Behind them, he could see a tent.
The kids were sleeping inside.

After watching that scenery, that seemed so distant from real life, in a daze, Byungchan sighed and walked up to Sooil.

“Oh, hyung.
You’re awake.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up? It’s 11 o’clock already.”

“Who cares? For now, come here and try this.
This ahjussi is treating us all.”

A man in his fifties, wearing a hat, waved his hand and smiled at him.
On his hat were the words ‘Mansunho[1]’.

“You have a shoot tomorrow.
If you go home now, it will be past midnight, and you have to get up early tomorrow as well.
You’ll only get some sleep if you go now.”

“Hyung, I have good stamina.
Rather than that, say ah.”

Sooil gave him a big lettuce ssam[2].
Byungchan momentarily became angry when he saw Sooil being so complacent.

Sooil was an actor who was acknowledged for his talents.
He was the only underage actor that was introduced on the JA Production homepage.
It meant that he had gained the president’s approval.
Although Byungchan was managing the child actors, Sooil was always at the top of his priority list.
When child actors needed to be driven somewhere, he always prioritized Sooil if his schedule clashed with someone else.
He also heard from the president that he should focus on Sooil.

Once Sooil grew up a little more and he could take a role from a more diverse variety, he would become the face of JA that represents them.
He had the acting skills, personality, and even the looks that went with it, so he would become successful no matter what.

Yet, why did he not look after himself when he had all those qualities and conditions?

Byungchan had tried to become an actor since young, but he had failed every time.
He admired actors on screens, but he had never reached them.
Although he was still giving his all right now, he didn’t know how long he could keep that up.
Actually, he started thinking that it might be better to focus on his job as a manager starting a while ago.
He had the thought that it would be wiser for him to tell himself that he had done well and that he should start facing reality.

Since he had such worries, he became angry when he saw Sooil act complacent.
In recent days, there were scary new actors rising day after day.
Those kids, who had undergone a systemized academy system showed acting skills that even he had to marvel at.

Sooil’s competition was those people.
He had to get some sleep if he had time to loiter around in this place, and he was at the age where he should focus on researching into his own acting to make it better.

Laughing and talking could be done after achieving success.

Byungchan put the lettuce ssam on the grill.
He tensed his eyes and glared at Sooil.

“Let’s go.
You need to rest.”

“…Alright.
But you should eat that.
You’ll get punished if you throw food away.”

Sooil smiled until the very end.
Byungchan stuffed the lettuce ssam into his mouth.
Sooil put down his chopsticks and said goodbye to everyone around.

Seeing Sooil walk towards the car, Byungchan sighed.
He wondered when Sooil would become serious about his work.
He even wanted to tell him about his own life and how regretting after failing was absolutely worthless.

“Uhm, you shouldn’t be so stuck-up.”

Just as he was about to follow Sooil, the man that lent them the fishing rod said to him.

“Me?”

“Who else is here? That boy did try to wake you up.
But you kept on sleeping without a care in the world.
You wouldn’t know how much he hesitated as he saw his big brother sleep.
I told him that I can wake you up in his stead, but he stopped me, saying that there was nothing urgent and he could afford to take it slow.”

Byungchan closed his eyes and lowered his head.
At that moment, he saw a piece of paper on the ground.
He bent down and picked it up.
There was a line from the drama that Sooil was going to shoot on that piece of paper.
It was written by hand.
There were questions and answers about those lines right next to them as well.

“From what I saw, that boy was mumbling to himself as he stared at that.
I don’t know what it is, but he seemed very obsessed with it.
Isn’t it important?”

“Ah, yes.
It’s very important.”

Sooil wasn’t playing around.
Byungchan felt embarrassed.
He was trying to give him a word of advice as a ‘senior’ in life, when this was what was going on.

Byungchan said goodbye to the people around before walking towards the car.
He opened the driver’s seat and got in.
He looked at Sooil next to him while resolving that he should apologize.
Sooil was eating some food out of a plastic bag.

“You need to save up whenever you can.
I received them since they told me that they won’t be able to finish it.
There’s quite a lot, isn’t there?”

“Uhm, Sooil….”

“Do you want one as well? It’s good.”

Before he could even say sorry.
Sooil gave him a chocolate cookie.
Byungchan bitterly smiled and accepted the cookie.

“Fishing is fun.
We should come here again next time.”

“…Alright.
Let’s come here again.”

“I feel sleepy now that I’m full.
Hyung, I’m getting some sleep.
Wake me up if you feel lonely on the way.”

Then, Sooil soon fell asleep.
Byungchan shook his head as he started driving.
Just as he entered the highway, he suddenly had a thought: he wanted to become this boy’s manager if he actually decided to continue working as a manager.

Byungchan smiled faintly as he stepped on the gas pedal.

[1] This probably means ‘full fish ship’.
It’s also being used as a brand according to research.

[2] Wrap, usually with vegetables. Wikipedia for more info.