Clink, clink.
From beyond the frame holding the view of the whole restaurant, the sound of dishes being washed could be heard.
Clatter, clatter.
In the restaurant after the lunch rush had passed, the owner was busy clearing away the empty bowls left on each table all by herself.
Jingle.
At the sound of the bell on the door, the owner stopped in the middle of moving dishes and looked toward the entrance.
“Welcome, oh? Isn’t this Wooju. It’s been a while.”
“Hello, ma’am.”
“Yes, yes. Sit over there where I’ve cleaned up. Are you by yourself again today? Is your mom coming a little later?”
At the sight of the regular customer who had come back after a long time, the restaurant owner welcomed the child with a warm smile.
Wooju went to the place the owner pointed to and sat down as if it were familiar.
“Should I give you one serving of cheonggukjang first again today? And then another when your mom comes?”
“Uh, no.”
“Hm?”
She only showed confusion for a moment at the child’s behavior, which was different from usual.
Following Wooju’s gaze as he hesitantly looked toward the front door, the door opened once again.
And there stood Han Jihae holding one child’s hand, and beside her a strange man wearing a bright smile.
“Uh…?”
“No, today I came with Mom… and Dad and hyung, all together.”
“My goodness… The whole family came together?”
The restaurant owner, who had been busily wiping the table, quickly looked at Wooju’s brightly smiling face and asked back.
At that, Wooju placed his order with a face that looked like he was the happiest person in the world.
“Yes, so today please give us four cheonggukjangs!”
At the word cheonggukjang, Ji Haeseong’s expression soured.
For Ji Haeseong, who normally hated beans, cheonggukjang was one of the foods he really did not want to eat.
He did not like the smell either.
“Uh, I… don’t like cheonggukjang.”
It happened to be after he had declared today that he would go along with whatever his younger brother wanted to eat.
He said they were going to the most delicious restaurant in the world… and when they got here, it was a cheonggukjang place.
Seeing her son looking miserable, Wooju spoke firmly.
“This place is famous for cheonggukjang.”
“……I’m not good at eating it.”
Since, before coming, he had even promised he would eat whatever his younger brother ordered for him, his words only came out small.
And sure enough, at his brother’s words, Wooju’s lips were already sticking out in a pout.
Han Jihae, who had been watching the brothers, could not stand it any longer and stepped in.
“Wooju, let hyung order something else.”
“Tch, but this place’s cheonggukjang is the best.”
Wooju fell silent, grumbling, apparently upset that things were not going his way.
The restaurant owner, who had been listening beside them, smiled brightly and spoke.
“Oh dear, it looks like our hyung doesn’t really like the smell of cheonggukjang. Shall I make you some delicious kimchi stew instead?”
“Yes, yes!”
Ji Haeseong answered loudly like he had been saved.
“Alright, then wait just a little.”
After roughly finishing tidying up the inside of the restaurant, the owner brought them water and then busily went back into the kitchen.
Soon after, the sound of dishes clattering came from the kitchen, and a savory smell began to spread.
“So this is Wooju’s regular place?”
“Yes, this is where I met big uncle.”
“Ah, so you met my older brother here?”
At Wooju’s words, Ji Hyeonwoo looked around the shabby little restaurant in surprise.
The way he muttered, how did he even find a place like this made it seem like this neighborhood was very unfamiliar to him.
“That’s right. Back then Hyeonseong-ssi, no, no, not that. My brother-in-law, was really good to him too.”
“My older brother doesn’t really like cheonggukjang either.”
“He ate two bowls that time, though?”
He doesn’t like cheonggukjang?
At those words, surprised, Wooju widened his eyes and said it.
At that, Ji Hyeonwoo and Ji Haeseong were startled.
“Really…?”
“Wow, big uncle is awesome….”
Ji Hyeonwoo was astonished that such a stubborn man had eaten two bowls of something he did not even like.
And beside him, Ji Haeseong was astonished that he had eaten two bowls of something that did not even taste good to him.
“I never thought I’d come here again.”
Han Jihae, who had come to a regular place she used to visit often when she went to the hospital in Seoul, said it while lost in memories.
Seeing her like that, Ji Hyeonwoo’s eyes narrowed.
“What, coming back here now that you’re in Seoul is making you think of old times or something?”
“Are you jealous?”
“J, jealous of what……!”
At the sight of Ji Hyeonwoo jumping at once, the two sons found it funny and covered their mouths as they snickered.
“No, I was just thinking. Maybe you were jealous.”
“Uh, uh……? Ahem, no. Though maybe I am a little.”
As their parents suddenly looked like they were trying to enter a world of their own, Ji Haeseong secretly signaled to Wooju with his eyes and said,
“There was a prize machine in front.”
Wooju peeked toward the kitchen, confirmed that it would still take some time for the food to come out, and stood up from his seat.
“Let’s go!”
“Okay.”
The two brothers tactfully slipped outside the restaurant.
“You’re pretty good too, hyung.”
“I can do it when I need to.”
The two of them snickered and went outside, looking up at the sky.
But Wooju’s eyes, as he looked up at the sky, were slightly wet with moisture.
Under the eaves outside the restaurant, the cacti the owner was raising were gathered together in a neat little row.
“Look at this, Wooju.”
“Hm? Wow.”
At his brother’s call, Wooju quickly went over beside him and looked at the cacti gathered there in the sunlight.
On one of the cacti, a single small red flower had bloomed.
“So cacti bloom too.”
“They do. It’s really pretty.”
A bright afternoon.
The two brothers looked at each other and smiled brightly.
“Cut! Okay!”
I was smiling brightly as I looked at Nam Yeonsu, and then Cha Ilnam cheerfully called out the okay sign.
I sprang to my feet and wiped at the corners of my eyes with my sleeve.
“Siwoo… why are you crying?”
“I-I’m not crying!”
I snapped at Nam Yeonsu, who asked worriedly.
I do not know either.
Originally, there was no need to cry in this scene, and it was not even a sad scene, but tears came out.
From the moment I left the restaurant behind Kang Sujeong and Choi Taewoo, tears had already welled in my eyes.
It felt like they would stream down if this kept up, so I looked up at the sky and stubbornly refused to blink.
Was it because I thought this was the last scene.
Or was it because of the relief that my eventful Wooju had met a happy ending.
“You two did very well. Even at the very end, the scene came out beautifully.”
“Really?”
“Director, you worked hard for us. Thank you.”
I bowed my head deeply to Cha Ilnam, who came up to us and praised us.
“Haha, I should be the grateful one. Thank you so much for going along so well with our stubbornness in insisting on putting the two child actors in the lead roles.”
Cha Ilnam, who had quietly gone through a lot of worries from the moment production was decided, smiled broadly as he looked at us.
Maybe because the drama he had made with difficulty was becoming a hit, the faces of the Cactus team were getting brighter by the day.
“Hehe, I was really happy too, filming with Siwoo.”
“I had fun acting with you too, hyung.”
“Really?! Huu, thank you, Siwooo….”
W-what?
My words must have been too touching.
Nam Yeonsu suddenly burst into tears, called my name, and started crying.
“Uh, uh? Hy-hyung! What’s wrong? Don’t cry…”
Startled, I glanced slyly at Cha Ilnam.
Then Cha Ilnam only chuckled and quietly slipped away from the spot.
No! How can you just leave a crying child and go!
As I floundered helplessly, even the staff all just smiled and walked past while looking at the two of us.
…I must have been acting too adult-like.
Even though I am going through these trials and hardships, not one person is helping me.
“Don’t cry, Yeonsu-hyung… There, there!”
“Sniff, sob, sob.”
In the end, I had no choice but to hug Nam Yeonsu, who was bigger than me, and pat him.
Only later, after Kang Sujeong and Choi Taewoo came out of the restaurant, laughed and even took a picture of the two of us because it was funny, did Nam Yeonsu stop crying.
“Siwooo, does that mean we can’t see each other anymore now?”
“I’m really going to miss your acting, Siwoo.”
After that too, there were many staff members who looked at me and cried.
The final set of the first drama of my life turned into a sea of tears.
My own heart naturally became soft and warm too.
I do not think I will be able to forget these people for a long time.
The memories of this drama feel like they will probably keep me going for quite a long time.
Tap, tap, tap.
In one corner of the quiet office, the loud clatter of typing, as if someone were striking the keyboard with all their might, did not stop.
This was the office of the variety department at LSB, Life Style Broadcasting.
LSB was a broadcasting station that had not been launched very long ago as a cable TV network.
Though it was a cable station, LSB had started putting out its own comprehensive content, and though it went through some early ups and downs, recently it had been building itself up internally by putting out some fairly decent programs.
“What are you doing now that’s so noisy again?”
Behind the man noisily pounding away at the keyboard in front of the computer, Park Haesu, the creative producer of LSB’s variety department, came up and asked.
At those words, PD Kim Sanho, who had been hammering at the keyboard, paid no attention and just kept doing what he was doing.
Even faced with that attitude, Park Haesu, as though he was used to it, came right up behind him and looked at the monitor he was staring at.
“An observational travel variety show? What kind of scheme is this again, you punk.”
“Be quiet please. It is an idea I am into these days.”
At LSB, people said that everyone else could be stopped, but Kim Sanho could not.
Since he knew Kim Sanho was the type who absolutely had to do whatever he got hooked on before he could rest, Park Haesu let out a deep sigh, thinking that was going to end up on his desk as an approval document soon enough.
“You’re not listening to the higher ups again, are you?”
“Of course. Sure.”
As of 2007, the variety industry was currently overflowing with things like “extreme realism” and “real variety.”
As viewers grew tired of the continuation of repetitive plots, it became an era in which variety shows that broke the established mold and presented spontaneous comedy were becoming popular.
Even at LSB, pressure kept pouring in nonstop to make programs that matched that trendy kind of plot.
“How many times do I have to tell you? Don’t you know the saying that imitation is the mother of creation, Sanho?”
But looking at what Kim Sanho was pounding away at as though he wanted to break the keyboard, it seemed he was once again just hammering out whatever he personally wanted to make.
“Then all I have to do is create something amazing without imitation, right? No problem.”
“Hey, even so, you’re an employee. If they tell you to do something, you should do it, what is this…”
As expected, Kim Sanho did not agree right away.
Then again, the docudrama he had made just before this had become the first program on LSB to surpass a 1% viewership rating.
Back when he had first planned that program too, Kim Sanho had received countless objections and scoldings.
“Hey, hyung. What was the name of the PD who got the highest ratings last quarter?”
“…So you’re really going to make this observational program or whatever it is?”
“Yes. It is going to be a hit. The next trend is going to be observation. What is the point of doing what the higher ups say over and over forever? If you make the same thing as everyone else, how can you ever become the best?”
“I am one of your higher ups too, you know…? Do whatever you want. It’s not like you’ve ever listened to me.”
At Kim Sanho’s utterly confident words, Park Haesu could only sigh more.
If it were travel, he could understand.
There was no material that worked as reliably in every season as travel.
But what? Observation?
People were definitely going to say it was voyeurism and tell him to go to the hospital.
“I don’t know, I really don’t. Be sure to say it later. I definitely told you no at the start. More importantly, who are you planning to observe? Is the travel domestic or overseas?”
“Please be a little quiet. I cannot concentrate, cannot concentrate.”
In the end, after getting a word back from Kim Sanho, Park Haesu grumbled and started rummaging around Kim Sanho’s desk this way and that.
Even while being treated like a nuisance, he did not seem to have any intention of leaving.
Maybe because he intended to finish the proposal by today, Kim Sanho’s fingers showed no sign of resting.
“Oh, oh…?”
Then Park Haesu found a Post-it on Kim Sanho’s desk.
He could not help but be shocked when he saw the note.
And that was because, written there side by side, were the names of the two actors said to be the hottest right now.
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