<Scene & Cut>, a magazine devoted to actors.
Reporter Yoon Seo-jin was checking the cue card for the fifth time.
They usually didn't go this far.
But who was today's interview subject?
“Park Song, hu…….”
They let out the last syllable of his name like a sigh, mingling it with how they felt.
In fact, this wasn't their first interview with Park Song-hu.
About three years ago, after one of his dramas ended, they had interviewed him here.
-How do you usually approach acting?
What on earth did he do to produce such appallingly bad acting every time?
That was what they'd been thinking then, and frankly, the viewers must have wondered too.
-Hmm, let me see.
Back then, Park Song-hu had crossed his legs and gone silent for a while, as though he were some great actor.
For the record, the drama he'd filmed at the time had been a ratings disaster.
Plenty of people said Park Song-hu's terrible acting was the cause…… though Yoon Seo-jin couldn't say for sure.
-I tend to focus only on my own script without paying attention to my scene partner's. That way, my ad-libs come out naturally on the spot.
-So I don't even memorize my partner's lines. No, I don't even read them.
Yoon Seo-jin immediately understood the source of his terrible acting.
Whatever his partner said, he was acting in a world of his own. Of course they couldn't play off each other.
Sure enough, he was widely mocked after the interview aired.
-Pfft……!
The camera operator had burst out laughing before they could stop themselves.
The other staff members had their heads bowed too.
It was understandable. The controversy over Park Song-hu's terrible acting was at its peak.
-Uh……
Yoon Seo-jin was genuinely confused.
Was Park Song-hu trying to make light of the matter?
Surely, with the drama's ratings in ruins and his acting under fire, he wouldn't answer like that in earnest.
-Ah, so that's why every performance feels fresh. Your fellow actors must have been surprised too.
-Why?
-Well, because……
Park Song-hu's expression hardened at once.
The temperature in the interview room plunged below freezing.
The moment Yoon Seo-jin met his gaze, they froze.
‘What if he does that again today?’
“Huff, hah, huff, hah.”
They took a deep breath.
Whatever the case, they believed they'd been at fault for failing to understand what he meant as an interviewer.
‘Should I apologize again today?’
Wouldn't it be strange to bring it up out of nowhere after three years?
What if they brought it up and he went cold again?
For that matter, did he even remember what had happened three years ago?
What if Park Song-hu said coldly, “I don't know what you're talking about”?
One thought led to another, and another.
KNOCK, KNOCK—
“Actor Park Song-hu has arrived.”
The interview room door opened.
“Haha, hello.”
Yoon Seo-jin rose reflexively.
‘Huh?’
But they were a little taken aback.
Park Song-hu had bowed neatly at the waist in greeting.
‘What's going on?’
They'd naturally expected him to give a listless nod and sit down.
Even now, Park Song-hu was exchanging small nods of greeting with the staff around him.
His face was still impossibly handsome, but the air he gave off was completely different.
He seemed…… more docile, perhaps?
The chill had drained away, leaving a gentle impression.
‘Did his demeanor change while he was lying low?’
Setting their puzzlement aside, they sat down across from him.
They opened the notebook containing their questions on their lap, then closed it again.
There was something they needed to say before asking any questions.
“Um, Mr. Song-hu.”
Their eyes met Park Song-hu's.
Even his gaze was markedly different from three years ago.
Before, he'd stared at Yoon Seo-jin rudely, as if to say, ‘What?’ Now, how could they put it…… his eyes were like a herbivore's.
If anything, he even looked ready to avert them first.
“I interviewed you here once, three years ago. Do you happen to remember?”
“…….”
There was no answer.
Had he forgotten, or did he remember and simply refuse to say?
Either way, they needed to say what they'd come to say.
“I was rude to you then. You gave me a serious answer, and I treated it lightly.”
They bowed their head.
“I'm sorry.”
Silence settled over them.
Their heart pounded.
“……I-it's all right.”
Yoon Seo-jin looked up.
Park Song-hu had placed both hands neatly on his knees and lowered his eyes.
“……And I'm sorry too. Obviously, it must have been Park Song-hu's fault…….”
“……?”
“Ah, no. It was my fault.”
Yoon Seo-jin stared at him, dumbfounded.
Then the camera operator signaled to them.
Only then did they snap to their senses.
‘R-right. I need to start the interview.’
The red light came on.
The interview began.
“……Yes. That's right.”
Park Song-hu was still a man of few words, and his answers were brief.
But unlike before, they didn't seem brief because he was arrogant. He seemed to think carefully for a long time before choosing even a single word.
As though he meant to take responsibility for every word that left his mouth.
The camera operator pulled away from the viewfinder and glanced over at Yoon Seo-jin.
This was, incidentally, the same operator who had accidentally laughed three years ago. Now they were looking at Park Song-hu with admiration.
His attitude had changed so much that Yoon Seo-jin made a light joke in the middle of the interview.
“Haha, it really is you sitting in front of me, isn't it, Mr. Song-hu? Not someone else?”
“……! Cough! Cough!”
“A-are you all right?!”
Park Song-hu coughed as if he were about to throw up, apparently having swallowed the wrong way.
A staff member handed him some water.
“Was there something that made you decide to return?”
They had already reached the last question.
His answer here would set the tone of the article.
Park Song-hu lowered his eyes.
The shadows of his lashes fell across the apples of his cheeks.
“……I felt I couldn't go on like this.”
“…….”
Yoon Seo-jin paused.
There was a strange weight to those few words.
They felt different from the smooth, seemingly rehearsed lines actors usually delivered in comeback interviews.
“I thought I'd regret it.”
His voice was low.
So low that murmuring was exactly the word for it.
Without the microphone, Yoon Seo-jin might have missed it.
That made it sound all the more sincere.
“Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans?”
Park Song-hu's gaze wandered somewhere into the air.
As if he were remembering something.
“……I'd like to tell them thank you.”
It was an ordinary answer.
The kind of standard response one might expect in a comeback interview.
Yoon Seo-jin was about to nod in agreement.
“For waiting for me.”
He wasn't finished.
Park Song-hu's lips moved again.
They were the lips of someone who kept trying to say more and stopping himself.
“You waited for me, and yet…….”
An intense, desolate sorrow began to spread across Park Song-hu's pale, delicate face.
As Yoon Seo-jin gazed at that picture-perfect face, they found themselves at a loss for words.
Then they felt an ache in a corner of their heart.
“…….”
The public could be harsh in its judgment.
But faced with someone sincerely repenting right before their eyes, they couldn't help being moved.
‘He's…… gained depth.’
“This is the last question. What side of yourself would you like to show from now on?”
“…….”
Silence stretched on.
The audio went empty for five seconds.
Five seconds was a long time in an interview.
Park Song-hu's gaze slowly dropped.
He was looking down at his own hands resting on his knees.
Then, for an instant, his eyelashes trembled.
Something clear gathered at the tips of his lower lashes.
‘……Huh?’
It was a tear.
It clung precariously to the rim of Park Song-hu's eye, not yet fallen.
Under the lights, it gleamed like a fine glass bead.
“…….”
Yoon Seo-jin was stunned.
Park Song-hu, the actor.
Famous for being cold and haughty, he'd only ever shown tears on screen.
And even there, his crying had been painfully awkward.
The tears he'd shed at the climax of the drama had even drawn comments online mocking him: ‘Is somebody pinching his thigh?’
“Um, Mr. Song-hu……?”
“…….”
And now that same man had tears welling in his eyes.
“Perhaps you should wipe your tears with this first…….”
***
“Perhaps you should wipe your tears with this first…….”
I took the tissue Yoon Seo-jin offered.
I dabbed at my eyes in confusion and found it had come away wet.
‘……Huh? I really did cry?’
Honestly, I was a little surprised.
I'd thought, if it didn't work, so be it.
Who knew the chronic dry eyes I'd developed from staring at a monitor alone in my room would come in so handy?
‘Though it wasn't just the tears.’
I'd become so absorbed in my brother's story that at some point, my nose had started to sting.
An occupational hazard of being a novelist, perhaps.
This always happened when I got too caught up in a character.
“……I'm all right.”
I answered while pressing the tissue to the corners of my eyes to soak up the remaining moisture.
Across from me, Yoon Seo-jin looked as though they might burst into tears too.
“……I'm sorry. That was sudden of me.”
“…….”
“Then we'll wrap up today's interview here. Thank you for your hard work.”
Their voice sounded choked as the camera's red light went off.
When I stepped into the corridor, my manager came striding toward me with a strangely excited spring in his step…….
‘Eek!’
I nearly stepped backward by reflex, but I came to my senses and barely managed to stop myself.
Park Song-hu had surely never taken a step backward in his life.
No matter what anyone said, he never so much as blinked, and when reporters' flashes went off, he'd raised his chin even higher.
My hazy memories from when I was six were the same.
When the scary older boys in the neighborhood had picked a fight with us at the playground, I'd cried behind him, but Park Song-hu hadn't given an inch.
“Brother! Song-hu! That was insane!”
“……Why?”
At least I was getting used to speaking casually now.
What a relief…… No, wait.
I wouldn't be seeing my manager again anyway.
Today was the last day.
“I was watching the interview on the monitor, and wow. I nearly cried myself. Brother, that wistful look in your eyes at the end, wow…….”
All the way down to the broadcast station parking lot, my manager couldn't stop praising me.
‘My poor manager…… He has it rough.’
Having to keep Park Song-hu happy.
I climbed into the van and leaned back against the rear seat. I felt the tension drain from my whole body.
After standing in front of people for two days in a row, I felt as though my battery had run completely flat.
‘It's really over now.’
The variety show shoot. The interview.
My brief, deranged two-day, one-night experience as a top star was finally over.
Now I could return to my own quiet, peaceful, safe space.
‘Louie, I'm coming!’
BUZZ—
Something vibrated in my pocket.
Ah, this was the phone with my brother's number.
Last night, right before I left the hospital room, Park Song-hu had suddenly held out a phone to me.
-This phone has my number. Keep it, just in case.
-W-why?
-If someone calls, you'll have to answer it yourself on location, won't you? Should I answer it from the hospital room?
This was the result.
But no one had actually called, so I'd thought I was in the clear…….
[Director Han]
‘Who is this?’
More to the point, what was I supposed to do here?
Speak politely? Or casually?
Park Song-hu had never taught me that!
My mind raced.
‘Ah, wait a second.’
In the saved contacts, Manager Jo Yong-gi's name didn't have an honorific attached.
It just said ‘Manager Jo Yong-gi.’
‘And isn't a director usually above a road manager?’
Those two clues weren't much to go on, but I couldn't stall any longer.
I cleared my throat with a cough and pressed the answer button.
-Hey, Song-hu. It's me.
“……Yes.”
-Right. I heard your interview just ended?
“……Yes.”
Thank goodness.
The caller didn't say anything about it.
-Oh, and I heard from Yong-gi. Apparently…… you've spent a lot of time thinking things over on your own.
……Had I said that?
Jo Yong-gi seemed to have taken it upon himself to say so.
“Ah…… yes.”
-Right. Well, people can change. Yes.
The way the caller's voice trailed off didn't sit right with me.
There was a note of doubt in it, as if Director Han were thinking, ‘You've turned over a new leaf? You expect me to believe that?’
Of course, now that my top-star experience was over, it was none of my concern.
“Yes. Thank you.”
-Huh? Uh, right. Get plenty of rest.
Director Han sounded flustered as the call ended.
I looked out the window. We'd already arrived at Park Song-hu's apartment building.
Once we reached the parking garage, my manager sprang out and opened the door for me.
RATTLE—
Feeling needlessly awkward, I said something.
“Good work.”
“Brother, you're even telling me I did a good job now…….”
“……Be quiet.”
I wasn't acting like Park Song-hu this time. I meant it.
Please, just stop already!
“I'll be going, then! Rest up!”
“…….”
The van headed toward the parking garage exit.
I waited for it to disappear completely from sight.
BUZZ—
My phone vibrated.
It was a KakaoTalk notification, and this time it was my own phone.
[Park Song-hu : Hey]
[Park Song-hu : Come to the hospital room, quick]
[Park Song-hu : It's urgent]