The next morning.
6:00 A.M.
A time that could be considered quite early.
Without even giving myself time to think, I headed straight for the shop early in the morning.
I parked my car for a moment in a parking lot where not a single soul, nor even a bug, could be seen.
“Yawn…”
A yawn escaped me involuntarily.
I had gone to bed early to try and get some sleep, but no matter how much I closed my eyes, sleep wouldn’t come.
‘Robert Penn.’
The excitement of meeting this actor and the curiosity about how he was doing…
All sorts of thoughts scrambled through my brain, disrupting my sleep.
When his name first came to mind, I thought he might be living a life similar to mine.
But a burger joint owner…?
“Ha… haha. Seriously…”
Thinking about it again, I could only let out a hollow laugh.
The fact that ‘Iron Guy’ was running a burger joint.
Who would believe that the highest-paid actor in Hollywood was a burger joint owner?
Then again, if someone told me that, I wondered if I would believe it either.
Lost in thought, I glanced at my watch; barely ten minutes had passed.
‘Maybe I’ll sleep a bit more.’
After setting an alarm on my phone for roughly 30 minutes later, I closed my eyes again.
A man stood at the entrance, preparing to leave for work.
His primary-blue shoes stood out vividly, but as if he didn’t care, he stepped into them naturally, crushing the heels, and turned on his MP3 player.
“Hmm~ Susan!”
The man stopped just as he was about to open the door and spoke to his wife.
“Going to work?”
“Of course~”
The man gazed at his wife for a moment with loving eyes.
“Did you forget something? We won’t be able to see each other for about eight hours now.”
“Hmm… really?”
“What, did you actually forget?”
The man looked at her wistfully, his eyes moist as if tears were about to fall at any moment.
“Sigh. Alright.”
His wife kissed him as if he were a child, and he nodded, finally looking satisfied.
“Have a good day.”
“You make sure to get by without me for eight hours too. I’m worried about you.”
If any other man had said such a thing, he would have been called insane.
But this man was someone who could make even words like that seem charming.
The man’s name was Robert Penn.
Wearing a floral Hawaiian shirt, red shorts, and a white fedora, boasting a confusing sense of fashion, he plugged in his earphones as soon as he stepped out the door.
‘AC/DC for the morning commute.’
His song choice was AC/DC’s Back in Black.
He headed toward the store, swaying his body here and there as if surrendering himself to Angus Young’s captivating guitar rhythm.
“Huh?”
Robert frowned at the expensive car parked in the store’s lot.
Early dawn, an expensive car.
And a deserted parking lot.
Just looking at this combination made it obvious what kind of person was inside that car.
“Tsk.”
Robert approached the car slowly.
The mere fact that such a person had parked in the parking lot of his sacred burger joint seemed to irritate him; Robert knocked on the car door with a deep scowl.
“Hey.”
Knock knock.
“Hwaa… Oh? You startled me.”
A language other than English was heard from inside.
Hearing the startled tone, Robert thought:
‘Did he finally wake up from the drugs? No, he might still be wasted on them…’
With this thought, Robert moved to the opposite side of the driver’s seat and spoke.
“If you’re awake, please move your car. This is the store’s parking lot.”
“Just a moment!”
The person who stepped out of the car was a somewhat familiar-looking Asian man.
The man looked at Robert with eyes that seemed tired.
‘What’s with that look?’
It was a gaze he couldn’t quite read.
Thinking it might be dangerous, Robert stared at him in silence for a moment.
If he were high on drugs, it wouldn’t be strange for him to do anything.
“Hello.”
“What is it? Just get back in and leave. I won’t report you.”
“Report me?”
“I don’t care what weird things you do here. As long as you just leave quickly…”
At Robert’s words, the man waved his hands in bewilderment.
“I was just waiting for a moment to eat a burger. Then I accidentally fell asleep…”
“You parked your car here at 7 AM just to eat a burger? You expect me to believe that?”
“A cheeseburger with one extra slice of cheese.”
“…”
Is he a journalist? Or a paparazzi?
But he had never mentioned eating it that way anywhere.
No, did he tell someone while he was high?
“Looking for a scoop? Unfortunately, I’m done with drugs now…”
“Ah, I’m not that kind of guy… Here is my business card.”
[Seonghyeon KMD Pictures
Director Gyeong Chanhyeon]
“Gyeong Chanhyeon…”
Now he knew why the face looked familiar.
He didn’t follow the Late Night Show regularly, but Gyeong Chanhyeon’s appearance had been quite a hot topic.
Most importantly, his wife Susan, a film producer, had insisted they watch it together, so he had no choice.
“You’re the director of Space Vagabond, right?”
“Ah, haha. Yes. I’m famous for that.”
“And why did you come here?”
Gyeong Chanhyeon replied with an awkward smile.
“I heard the owner eats one every morning when opening the store, so I thought I’d try one too…”
“If you’re going to lie, make it plausible. Do you really expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth.”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s answer, Robert let out a deep sigh and said,
“Then let’s check inside the car for a second.”
“What?”
Gyeong Chanhyeon blinked in confusion.
“So suddenly? I mean, you can if you want, but…”
Ignoring Gyeong Chanhyeon, Robert leaned in to smell the driver’s seat.
A clean scent of perfume wafted out, and there were no syringes or rolled-up bills in sight.
“Hmm.”
“What is it?”
“Forget it.”
He definitely wasn’t a junkie.
Thinking the man’s eyes were just glazed over because he was tired, Robert said with relief,
“It’ll take some time to make the burger. I have a few things to do every morning.”
“I’d love to chat a bit while we’re at it. Haha. Do you have time? I’ll help you with the work.”
“Help me with the work?”
“Yes. I did a lot of this kind of work in my younger days. I’ve mopped a lot of floors, done a lot of dishes, whew. More than half of my life was…”
Gyeong Chanhyeon’s story continued endlessly.
Robert was puzzled by Gyeong Chanhyeon’s appearance, as he seemed exceptionally nervous.
‘He’s completely different from what I saw on the Late Night Show.’
On the TV show, he seemed like a very cool-headed and rational person, but the man before him now looked like a fan who had just met a top star.
His eyes looked tired, but his face was flushed with excitement, and the corners of his mouth wouldn’t come down.
‘But why on earth would a film director…’
It had been nearly three years since Robert had appeared on screen.
Even the movie he filmed three years ago had been a total box-office failure, so no one paid him any attention.
But he had met Susan in that movie.
The movie failed, but just meeting Susan made it a valuable film for Robert.
“That’s enough.”
When Robert cut Gyeong Chanhyeon off, he awkwardly folded his hands together.
“Sigh… I’ll pay you an hourly wage. Just help me for about an hour.”
“Ah, yes! Haha.”
As I followed Robert into the store, the first thing he handed me was a mop.
“Mop the floor first with this.”
“Yes!”
At my answer, Robert turned around and shook his head as if he couldn’t understand me.
I couldn’t properly grasp what I was doing right now either.
I had just intended to chat a bit before leaving, but the offer to help with the work had popped out as an automatic reflex, bypassing my brain.
“Wipe the dust over there. Move quickly.”
“Ah, yes!”
Using the mop, a grip I hadn’t felt since my military days, I swept the floor in an instant.
I finished the job so quickly that Robert looked at me with curiosity.
“Did you work for a cleaning company before becoming a director?”
“Haha. I’m pretty fast, right?”
Robert scanned the area once and nodded.
“You’re at least worth your hourly wage. Sit over there and wait. I’ll give you a burger soon. Do you want fries too?”
“No. Just a cheeseburger with one extra slice of cheese, please.”
Looking toward the kitchen, Robert grilled the patties with practiced ease and quickly assembled the burger.
As I stared blankly at him, seeing a side of him that felt both mismatched and fitting, Robert brought over two burgers on a tray.
“Do you want a Coke? I don’t drink them.”
“Ah, I’m fine too. Thank you for the food.”
Robert Penn also took a large bite of his own cheeseburger.
Then, his brow furrowed in satisfaction, and he nodded.
“By the way, how did you end up becoming a burger joint owner?”
“Are we already that close? I think this is the first time I’ve met you.”
“…”
He was right.
It was just that my internal sense of intimacy was too high.
From his perspective, it was a film director he’d never met before helping him work and then buying a burger.
‘Do I look like a crazy person?’
Worried by this, I looked at Robert’s face for a moment.
He certainly possessed a charm different from other actors.
His large, round eyes looked as if tears might fall at any moment, as if he carried some hidden story, and his natural wrinkles looked like marks of experience rather than signs of age.
“Then… uh. Um. It’s delicious.”
“?”
The words ‘I want to get close to you’ almost slipped out.
So, I simply changed the mood by saying it was delicious and smiled, and Robert looked at me as if wondering what kind of guy I was.
“Of course it’s delicious. But who told you to eat it like that?”
“What?”
“A cheeseburger with one extra slice of cheese. You chose that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“…”
I hadn’t chosen it on purpose.
After hearing Robert Penn’s story, I had started eating it this way because I wanted to be like him.
If that counts as imitating, then I did…
“No. I usually eat it like this.”
“I’ve hardly ever seen anyone eat it like that in my life.”
“Many people eat it this way in Korea. Have you ever been to Korea?”
“…”
Robert seemed to find it strange, but he nodded as if he had lost to an unavoidable argument.
“Koreans certainly know how to eat.”
“Of course.”
And so, the two of us chewed the same menu in silence.
Shortly after, the employees arrived for work and entered the store.
“Huh!? Director?!”
The employee who had recognized me yesterday ran toward me with wide eyes.
“You came today already? I was going to tell the boss today…”
“What?”
“Ah! It’s nothing.”
At my shout, the employee stared at me as if I were strange.
I sent a look that pleaded, ‘Please, please don’t say it.’
“Haha. I just really wanted to eat this cheeseburger. Haha! Right? I love eating cheeseburgers in the morning. I asked what time you open in the morning because I wanted to come. Haha.”
“What? No. Director, yesterday you said you were a fan of Mr. Robert Penn… and that you really wanted to meet him.”
So clueless…
“Aha, is that so?”
Robert Penn looked at me with a sly smile.
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