Pen and Paper Translations

“Tomorrow… you know, right? Your first commercial shoot is tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

At Kim Sangcheol’s words, I nodded firmly.

Of course I knew.

I had marked the day on every calendar in the house and kept reminding myself so I would not forget.

The day I would receive the full twenty million won!

I could not even say how long I had been waiting for this so I could hurry up and buy Mother a new car.

“As I told you before, it’s a cereal commercial, and the proposal hasn’t changed from what we checked together last time. It shouldn’t be too difficult for you, Siwoo.”

“Mhm, I looked over the storyboard.”

Kim Sangcheol had received the proposal and rough storyboard ahead of time and passed them to Uncle.

I had read them bit by bit while watching TV, so I did not think there would be any major difficulty.

It even seemed much simpler than filming a drama.

“Haha, you memorize whole scripts in a flash, so this much should be easy.”

Since Kim Sangcheol knew very well how good I was at memorizing scripts, he laughed heartily and said that.

When I nodded as if to tell him not to worry, Kim Sangcheol flipped over one of the papers he was holding and continued.

That was my schedule, which Uncle had been working on until late last night.

Kim Sangcheol received casting calls for me from here and there, screened them first, and sent them along. Then Mother and Uncle looked over the proposals and plans that were worth showing me.

Of course, since they did that work at home, I also got to peek over their shoulders.

Then Kim Sangcheol reviewed what had passed the second round of filtering, checked the company or outside influence behind it, and made the final contact.

What was organized on that schedule was only what had remained at the very end.

“Also, PD Kim Sanho’s variety show is planned for filming at the end of the year. Did you look at the list of projects that came in?”

“Yes. There were a lot.”

“Haha, and that was after cutting it down to one-third.”

“Wow…”

Even just looking at the list, the number of projects was nothing to scoff at. It seemed this era had all kinds of scripts.

It was not just the number either. The genres alone were enough to make my head spin.

“Now, choose the ones you want from this list and tell me. Then I’ll try contacting them.”

“Yes!”

Kim Sangcheol placed a chart beside me that organized the rough stories and expected filming periods.

He said that if there was anything I liked among them, he would give me the scenario as well.

I felt as though I were going on a treasure hunt.

Would there be a project in here that I would end up appearing in?

“More than that, I was surprised. I thought you were just saying you were suited to being a manager, but Donguk, the way you organized this is no ordinary thing. I’m impressed. It’s clean.”

“W-wow, really? Thank you. Since it’s my first time, I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. But Siwoo’s recognition shot up so suddenly that there was just so much of it…”

Uncle let out a breath as if he was truly relieved.

Seeing that, I grinned and scooted over to sit right against him.

“What is it? Siwoo, why are you doing that?”

“Hehe, Uncle. Thank you.”

“Haha…. Of course! If Uncle doesn’t do it for you, who will?”

These days, he had been sitting in front of his laptop every night without sleeping, and it seemed this was what he had been doing.

When I suddenly thanked him, Uncle seemed embarrassed. His ears turned red, and he scratched his head.

“Mm, but Siwoo. Now that you have name recognition, projects are coming in rather indiscriminately. This time, I think it might be better for you to rest a little before entering another project. Film shoots have longer gaps, and… you can focus more on the acting itself, you know? What do you think about these kinds of projects?”

Kim Sangcheol pointed to one section of the list he had handed me and said that.

I looked closely at the part he was pointing to.

They were projects that would begin filming as early as the beginning of this year, or otherwise early next year.

Since this came from Kim Sangcheol, who had acted in every field, from theater to dramas to films, it carried credibility.

I nodded and said I would think about it.

In my previous life, I had only done theater my whole life, so I figured Kim Sangcheol had more years and experience than I did in this world’s industry.

Good. Today, when I went home, I would start by reading through the scenarios for those projects.

The moment I made that decision,

Bzzzz.

A call came in from an unfamiliar number.

But the first digits of the number were a little unusual.

“Huh? What is this? Uncle, look at this.”

“Ah… I think this is an international call?”

An international call?

Then was it Jessica?

Hm? But this number was different from the ones that came from Japan or the United States.

While the two of us were tilting our heads, Kim Sangcheol spoke as if it was urgent.

“If it really is Jessica, you should answer quickly!”

“Uh, okay… Then I’ll take this for a moment, Troupe Director.”

“Yes, yes. Hurry and answer it.”

Kim Sangcheol also looked curious as to whether it really was from Jessica.

I quickly opened the phone and answered.

“Hello? Jessica?”

Surprisingly, the person who had called really was Jessica.

I looked at Kim Sangcheol and Uncle and nodded.

It was Jessica.

The two of them immediately made frantic gestures and nodded at me, telling me to focus on the call.

Seeing that, I comfortably answered the call in English.

“What’s going on?”

-Ah, um… I heard that your first drama ended, Siwoo! Did filming go well?

“Yes, yes. That’s right. Filming for the drama finished recently.”

-Oh. I heard that project did very well. What’s your next schedule like, Mr. Superstar?

“I do have a commercial shoot tomorrow…”

-Mm… Really?

When I quickly took the call in English, the two men blinked and waited for my call with Jessica to end.

Since it had been a while since I had spoken with Jessica, I cheerfully told her how I had been.

But no matter how I thought about it, Jessica’s reaction was a little different from usual.

Even as she spoke with me, it felt as if her mind was partly somewhere else.

“Jessica, tell me. What’s going on?”

I noticed it quickly and asked her.

-Sharp, aren’t you? Heh, Siwoo. The truth is…

What Jessica said next was shocking.

Without realizing it, I became serious and focused completely on her call.

I even forgot that there were two people right beside me.

“What?! Uh, um. Yes… It will probably be all right. Still, can I discuss it with my parents and contact you again? Yes, I understand. I’ll get back to you soon.”

After hanging up, I turned back with a dazed face toward the two people waiting for me.

“What did she say?”

“What happened? You looked pretty urgent at the end…….”

Kim Sangcheol and Uncle both rushed to ask what had happened.

Still holding the phone tightly in my hand, I answered in a daze.

“Jessica… asked if I could come to England.”

“Hm, what? England?”

“England…….?! No, more importantly, uh, when?”

“Mm… Well,”

As soon as possible.

I remembered what Jessica had quickly added near the end of the call.

“Right away?”

---

Was it fate?

PD Kim Sanho’s variety show and Jessica’s sudden call.

Both were pointing to England.

Murmur, murmur.

A large hall filled with countless people.

I was at Incheon International Airport.

It had only been a few days since Jessica called me.

After finishing all the boarding procedures, I was waiting in front of the gate with Mother and Uncle.

“Wow, Siwoo. Look over there. Your ad is already up like that?”

“Mhm.”

As she said that, Mother pointed to a large advertisement hanging on one side of the airport.

There was my face, smiling brightly in front of a bowl of cereal.

It seemed the cereal commercial photo I had taken not long ago had been put up here too.

Ugh…

But the moment I saw that photo, my face went pale.

“Why aren’t you excited? Siwoo, you were really looking forward to shooting that commercial.”

Mother tilted her head, as if she found it strange.

Uncle, who had been looking at his phone beside us, heard our conversation and quietly snickered.

Haa…

Since Uncle had gone to the commercial shoot with me, he probably understood exactly how I felt.

“…I don’t want to shoot commercials anymore.”

“What?”

Mother whipped around to look at Uncle as if to ask what on earth had happened.

Then Uncle, who had barely been holding back his laughter, burst out laughing loudly.

“Puhaha! Noona. Don’t even mention the word cereal in front of Siwoo for a while.”

“Why? Did something happen at the shoot?”

After checking my pained expression, Mother became anxious and pressed Uncle for an answer.

Uncle, still looking as if he might die laughing, waved his hand while clutching his stomach.

“No, nothing happened. Nothing you need to worry about, Noona.”

“Then why is he like this…….?”

“Keke, because he ate nearly a year’s worth of cereal in one day…?”

Ugh.

At Uncle’s words, it felt as if cereal might rise back up from my stomach.

“…You ate that much?”

“It couldn’t be helped for the sake of acting.”

At first, I had thought it was just acting like I was eating deliciously.

Something like that would be a piece of cake.

I easily finished one bowl and even received praise from the director.

Hmph. Of course, to act properly, I should actually eat it.

I had thought that with full confidence.

All my misfortune began there.

“All right, then shall we keep trying each type?”

That day, surrounded by pouring waves of cereal, I had to eat, eat, and eat again.

There were scenes where I ran around, and I moved a lot, sitting and standing repeatedly, so it was not as though I failed to digest it.

It was not, but…

That night, I had to ask Uncle to buy me digestive medicine.

“…”

Quietly recalling that day, I stared out the window at the runway stretching long into the distance.

Looking at that wide-open view seemed to calm my queasy stomach a little.

“Uncle, what’s that?”

I decided to stop thinking about that dreadful commercial and instead cling to Uncle and have him explain the unfamiliar sights to me.

“Ah, that’s… probably something the people who manage the airplanes ride around in. It looks interesting, right?”

“Mhm. Wow, can such a big airplane really fly in the sky?”

“Of course. In a little while, you’ll ride that too and go up into the sky.”

“Wooow.”

The airport I had come to for the first time in my life was full of unfamiliar things.

Every time I turned my eyes, there were objects I had never seen and sights I had never even heard of.

I was busy holding onto Uncle and asking him about them whenever I saw one.

“Hehe, is it that fascinating, Siwoo? Let’s eat this while we wait.”

“Mhm! Thank you for the food.”

Even the churro Mother handed me felt incredibly unfamiliar.

Maybe that was why it tasted even better than the one I had eaten at the Happy Land amusement park.

“When do we get on our plane?”

“Mm, I think they’ll tell us to board soon.”

“Wow!”

In just a few minutes, I would board that winged object made of steel and depart for my homeland, England.

When PD Kim Sanho first said we would be going to England, and when Jessica told me to come to England this time, I had wondered.

How on earth was I supposed to get to England, so far away?

Even if seeing foreign countries freely through TV was possible, I wondered whether one could really go to such a faraway place just like that.

When I told Jessica I was going to England, she immediately said she would book and send plane tickets for me, Uncle, and Mother.

After hearing that I would be riding something called an airplane, I looked up airplanes diligently.

The more I learned, the stranger I felt.

From Korea’s Incheon Airport to London’s Heathrow Airport took twelve hours.

To think that if I rode an airplane for that long, I could reach that distant homeland.

“Attention, please. Boarding will now begin at Gate 10 for the flight to England. Please enter in order according to the front number on your ticket.”

“It’s our turn! Let’s go, Siwoo.”

Uncle gathered the simple luggage and my ticket, then held out his hand.

I took Uncle’s hand, passed through the gate, and entered the airplane.

“Wow…”

“You need to put on your seat belt.”

“Mhm.”

A little tense, I sat in my seat and waited for the plane to depart.

With my heart mixed with nervousness and excitement, I clicked my belt into place.

Not even dreaming of the tremendous vibrations and noise that would soon come.