After Story 260

“We do not mind if you hold a big one or a small one, so please take care of that baggage for us.”

“Hey, you can’t just call me bag…”

Maru tried to stand up for himself but stopped when his mother’s eyes were directed his way.

This is not your place to butt in so stay still: she insisted with her eyes.

“Ma’am, do you have a date in mind?” Haneul spoke in a gentle voice.

Her voice was incomparably sweet compared to the rough ‘sweetie’ that she called him with. Her transformation made him feel every time like he was getting scammed a little.

“We’ll leave it all up to you, so you two decide that without minding us. I will agree to everything that our new daughter wants to do.”

“Ma’am, I’m delighted to hear you call me your daughter.”

Haneul smiled while holding his mother’s arms. It seemed that the plans to get her on her side were over.

Maru looked at his own family seated in front of the sofa. His father and his sister — both of them were giving total support to Haneul as well.

“When she came before and asked us to give her Maru, she looked like a general at war, but she is so kind and gentle today. My son has been blessed.”

“Unni is wasted on him. Oppa should really live a devoted life his whole life.”

He was chased out to the kitchen after listening to all sorts of nagging. Maru peeked into the living room while getting some food ready. The four people aside from him were having a total blast talking.

“Maybe I’m really the only one on your side, sweetie.”

His wife came over when he was serving the soup.

“This isn’t the first or the second time.”

“Are you disappointed?”

“I’m grateful instead. I can see that they care for you. Rather than that, why did you come here? You should’ve just stayed seated.”

“You looked lonely serving the food by yourself so I came to your rescue. I rejected your mother’s words to just let you be, so be grateful.”

“I’m so grateful that I’m about to cry. Take out the side dishes from the fridge. You just have to take out the one with the orange lid in the middle compartment.”

“You mean this one?” Haneul asked as she took out the side dish container.

Maru nodded.

They laid out a big table in the living room and moved the side dishes around. Bada helped out.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Trying to score some points with unni, of course.” Bada smiled as she took out a bunch of spoons and chopsticks.

“We decided not to do any of the wedding gifts[1]. We’ll just introduce you to each other before the ceremony,” Maru said as he picked up his chopsticks.

“What about your house?” Bada asked.

His father and mother, who said they would leave everything to them, also seemed to be concerned about housing and stared at him.

“We don’t plan to ask for help when we’re the ones persuading both families to hold the wedding. For the house, the one we’re living in is plenty right now. We also have all the furniture.”

“Do you not need anything?” his father asked.

Maru smiled and replied,

“No, we are not lacking anything right now.”

“Did you get a loan for the house?”

“No, she was very tactful in earning money, you see,” he said as he looked at Haneul’s face.

“I am sorry for our daughter-in-law. I wish I could do something for you.”

“Sir, please don’t say that. I’m grateful that you’re welcoming me like this. Also, everything I’m doing only happened thanks to your son being by my side.”

“Was my son somewhat useful?”

“Of course. He’s your son, so he was very useful.”

His father smiled in satisfaction. After the meal, they decided on a date to introduce their families to each other.

“Yes, yes. Of course. No, not at all. Yes, then see you then.”

His mother, who was talking on the phone in her ‘kind voice,’ put down her phone.

“Your parents are so full of culture.”

His mother laughed while his wife responded in kind.

After drinking some coffee over some fruits, he checked the time. It was about time to get up.

“We’ll get going now.”

“You’re leaving already?”

“We should. We have things to do too.”

“Then go by yourself and leave her here for the night.”

Haneul spoke with a bright smile,

“Shall I, ma’am?”

“You might really end up staying the night here if you say that.”

He opened the door. He tried to hold back his mother from putting on her shoes and following them out, but it was of no use. He walked over to the car he parked in front of the house and started it up. Haneul was talking to his mother on the stairs.

“Ma’am, we’ll be leaving now. We’ll visit again soon, so please welcome me at that time.”

“Alright. Watch out on your way home and come again.”

His father, who had also come out while holding his hands behind his back, also waved his hand left and right next to his mother. His wife looked at his father and giggled.

“Father-in-law is so cute.”

“Father definitely can be quite cute.”

He pressed on the gas pedal. The car left the residential area and got on the road.

“What were you talking about just now?”

“What do you mean?”

“With my mother. You seemed to be talking on the stairs.”

“Oh, that?” His wife loosened the hair band that tied up her hair neatly. “She told me to tell her our bank account. I saw it coming, so I tried to leave as soon as possible, but your mother’s grip strength is something else.”

“My mother’s hand definitely can be quite spicy.”

Just then, an alarm notification sounded from his wife’s bag. She took out her phone and looked intently at the screen.

“She sent it already.”

Haneul showed him her phone when the car was stopped by traffic lights. 50 million won had entered the bank account.

“Just leave it there for now. If you return it to her, she’ll probably withdraw that money and come visit us. Is mother-in-law’s money in that account as well?”

“Yes. Combined, it’s exactly 100 million won.”

“Let’s buy some decent government bonds or stocks with dividends and return it to them a few years later. That way, they’ll have no choice but to accept it.”

“Or, it’s not a bad idea to apply for a pension for both of them.”

Maru nodded.

“Maybe it’s the nature of parents not being able to send their children off empty-handed no matter how well their children do.”

“You know that feeling too, don’t you, sweetie? How would you feel if Gaeul told you ‘I’m okay, so you can use that money’?”

“I’ll be extremely grateful and extremely sorry.”

Haneul fidgeted on her phone.

“Where should we go for our honeymoon?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I asked you first.”

Maru gave his wife a glance before speaking,

“Then shall we say it together after a count of three?”

“Okay.”

“Three, two, one.”

He said home, and his wife also said home.

“Are there any places we haven’t been to?”

“We’ve even been a part of war relief as a part of Doctors Without Borders.”

“Right, we’ve been to those places too,” his wife said with a smile.

Right now, they could say it with a smile, but back when it happened, things were really precarious.

“But we can’t exactly spend our honeymoon at home, so we need to go somewhere.”

“Sweetie, what do you think about doing that again? Going to Busan and back on a bike.”

“You want to do that again? Riding the whole day and passing out at a jjimjilbang at night looking all messy?”

“I had fun though. It’ll be really funny if we put action cams on the front and back and watch it later.”

“Obviously, you’re going to depart on the day of the wedding right after the wedding, right?”

“Of course. I’m looking forward to it already.”

“Don’t you come whining to me that you want to rest or that you want to go to a hotel. If we start it, we’ll see it through to the end.”

“Who’s telling that to whom?”

His wife hummed and started looking into bicycles.

* * *

“Senior, over here.” Bangjoo raised his hand from the inside of the store.

Maru walked over to the table while waving his hand.

“Our big star’s here, so make some room for him,” Seokjin, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, said as he made some space for him.

“Yes, yes. I’m the big star and also the one paying for all the food that you’ve been waiting for,” Maru said as he sat down.

The main actors and staff had gathered nearly half a year after the last shoot for the film. Everyone seemed to be doing well as their expressions were good.

“Are you doing anything these days, hyung-nim?” Maru asked Seokjin.

“I was lucky enough to get a supporting role in a morning drama. It’s thanks to the film.”

“Then shouldn’t you be the one buying today?”

“Do I have to after all?”

“I was just joking. But if you get your pay, you have to treat us out.”

“Naturally. If I get my payment, I’ll gather everyone here today and treat all of you out.”

Moon-Seok-jin! Moon-Seok-jin! People started shouting his name. No one would refuse when he said he would buy food.

“Alright then, please take out your phones.” Yoonseok stood up from his seat.

Maru took out his phone and held it in his hand.

“Please look up the film and have a look at the number of viewers.”

When he looked it up on the web portal, he saw the movie poster and some information about it. Below that was the number of ticket sales in blue.

“As of yesterday, all the movie theaters in the country took down the film, and the number you’re seeing now is the final number. 150 thousand. It’s an unbelievable number.”

“150 thousand,” Bangjoo quietly repeated to himself.

“When I first started, my greatest wish was to have one thousand viewers, but so many people have watched it. It’s all thanks to you. Here, please raise your glasses!”

Yoonseok swung his glass in the air.

“Then how much did you earn?” asked one of Yoonseok’s friends, who worked in the production crew.

Everyone’s attention gathered on Yonseok’s mouth.

Before Yoonseok replied he looked towards Maru. He seemed to be asking if it was okay to reveal it. Maru nodded.

“I’m not entirely sure because the payment hasn’t happened yet… but even if we take out all the fees to the distributors, movie theaters, the Korean Film Council, and all sorts of expenses, we earned more than the investment. That’s a great relief since I can pay back to our investor.”

Everyone’s eyes shifted to Maru at the word ‘investor.’

“I managed to profit off of something I started off thinking that it was natural to lose money. I’m very grateful.”

“Don’t say that. If things didn’t go well, then you would be the only one making a loss. Investment is about getting just as much as you risk, isn’t it? But hey… if you earned back all the investment, shouldn’t you be treating us to something much bigger?” one of the juniors said with an awkward cough.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Don’t worry about that. This occasion is just to check the final score and report it to everyone, so you just need to enjoy it. I’ll be treating everyone out to something more expensive next time.”

“Geez, if we get treated once by Seokjin hyung-nim once, and then once by you, senior Maru, our stomachs will explode.”

“I’ll buy enough for it to happen, so don’t forget to bring digestive medicine.”

People cheered and applauded. Everyone had come this far for the sake of the film alone. It wasn’t a waste to use all of the money he earned to hold a party. In the first place, he started off this film to fuel his career experience. He didn’t even wish for monetary benefits, but thanks to riding the trend, he managed to get profits.

When the film was first released, the film’s responses weren’t all that good. However, after the news that it got awards from global film festivals spread around, as well as the mouth-to-mouth rumors between indie film fans, the number of movie theaters it was screened in increased over time.

The result of that was 150 thousand tickets being sold. This was the eighth independent film in Korean film history to sell over 100 thousand.

The responses seemed to be good on the IPTV side as well, so there were secondary profits to look forward to.

“Uhm, hello.”

Maru turned around. Some people from another table had come over.

“Could you take a photo with us? We’re huge fans of yours. We watched the film yesterday too.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I heard it was a really unique film so our friend group watched it together.”

“How was it?” he asked.

The noisy people at the table all became quiet. Everyone’s focus shifted to the woman who said she watched the film.

“Honestly speaking, I don’t know what it was trying to say. The ending was stuffy too. Was that too honest?”

“No, not at all. Rather than that, you should take the photo.”

Maru stood up and took photos with the fans. The fans then left after a handshake.

He looked at the table which had become quiet.

“It wasn’t exactly an entertainment movie.”

“That’s true.”

“Director Lee. Let’s go with something more cheerful next time so that the people watching it like what they’re seeing.”

“His ideologies are pretty depressing so I don’t think it’ll happen.”

Yoonseok, who had been listening this whole time, spoke,

“I’ll shoot a really hot-blooded entertainment film. If I have the opportunity to.”

“I don’t think you can, you know?” he said with a laugh.

The meat sizzled and drinks went around. While all sorts of conversations were going around, someone spoke,

“But senior Maru. Are you really dating Miss Han Haneul?”

“You don’t think I am?”

“Can you bring her here? I’m a huge fan of hers.”

“I’m not sure. She should be sleeping around this time. She was sleeping when I left too.”

“...What?”

Maru poured some drinks for the junior who kept blinking.

“I’ll ask the next time we meet up so just drink up for today.”

“That’s not the important part, you just said when you left…”

“The glass is overflowing. Drink it quickly.”

Maru laughed and tilted the bottle.

[1]?In Korea, gifts are given to the families of each side as a ‘thank you’ for giving them their son/daughter. Over time, people started comparing these ‘gifts’ and using them as a measure of financial success, so there are many people who refuse to give gifts in this form.