JKA 42

“What do you mean, sunbae? There’s no character in the cast without any lines.”

“We can just take them out. It’s a role that just appears in front of the main character occasionally without any lines anyway.”

“True… He’s a dead person, so it wouldn’t be strange to remove all his lines.”

“Then things like facial expressions become too important. We could just handle the lines with a recording…”

Suddenly, a heated debate broke out among the club members. Jiwoon, who had been listening in silence, heard that the role they wanted to ask him to play was a ‘dead person’ and leaned a bit more to the side to listen to their conversation. 1129 was the first to notice and turned his body, holding out a hand to Jiwoon.

“Give me your cell phone.”

“Yes, pardon?”

“Hurry.”

At 1129’s urging, Jiwoon handed over his cell phone without thinking. Taking it, 1129 strode forward to the members, who were so engrossed in their discussion that they were oblivious to anyone else, and held out the phone.

“Put your number in.”

“Pardon?”

One of the members looked up at 1129 with a bewildered expression. Then, 1129 used his other hand to point at the silent Jiwoon, who was clutching his bag behind him, and said.

“You’ll probably have an easier time talking to him than face-to-face. All of you, leave your phone numbers here. Exchange email addresses or something and at least explain the details. Whether he’ll do it or not is up to him to decide.”

1129 saw Jiwoon craning his neck to listen and judged that he had developed some interest in the club members’ proposal. If not, he would have been pestering him to run away quickly. A slight change of heart was occurring within Jiwoon, and 1129 wanted to help with anything that might lead to progress. It was not just because he was his client.

At 1129’s suggestion, the club members looked at each other and nodded. Then, the man who introduced himself as the club president saved his number in Jiwoon’s cell phone as a representative. As soon as 1129 confirmed this, he immediately called the saved number.

“Save it and contact him. This much is okay, right?”

Having already committed the deed, 1129 belatedly sought Jiwoon’s confirmation. Jiwoon had no choice but to nod. It was because he was not entirely uninterested. It was not that he was interested in things like acting or film. It was just that when they said the role they wanted to ask him to play was a dead person, he became curious about the kind of story they were trying to film.

“I’m sorry for swarming you without knowing the situation. But one of our members said he saw you with Hanbyeol the other day.”

“…”

“No matter how big the school is and how many people there are, finding an actor with the right vibe is seriously like plucking a star from the sky, you know? He’s in charge of the script, and he was making such a fuss, saying the vibe he got from you back then would be a perfect fit for our film… But we all saw you and completely agreed.”

Our school doesn’t have a theater and film department, you know. The president scratched his head apologetically as he spoke, and Jiwoon nodded, taking his cell phone back from 1129. Although he had not found the post on Camta, Hanbyeol’s words were certainly not a lie.

“We thought about casting an actor from another school, but there’s the budget, and more importantly, it’s just for a club presentation, so it’s not easy to gather people. It’s usually better to get help from people in our department.”

“…”

“Not knowing there was someone like you in our department—ha, what a waste of time all this while.”

How did we not know. The members were discussing such things, but Jiwoon still could not understand what was happening. It was because he had never thought deeply about his own face. Furthermore, he had no idea what they meant by ‘vibe.’

If they were desperate for someone to play a dead person, wouldn’t it have been easier to find someone? His own appearance, hiding with his bangs down and his body hunched over, was the epitome of gloominess. He could not help but find it strange that they were making this offer only after he had cut all his hair off.

“Anyway, I’ll contact you. If you give me your email address, I’ll send you the script, so please think about it. And if possible, Im Hanbyeol too, no, if his older cousin has time, with Jiwoon…!”

“Oh gosh, sunbae. Stop it.”

Just as the president got slightly excited and was about to launch into another passionate speech, the other members half-dragged him away and disappeared. Only then did the classroom, where the lecture had ended, become quiet. Jiwoon fiddled with his cell phone, then raised his head to gaze at 1129. There was something he wanted to ask him, but for some reason, the words would not come out of his mouth right now.

A dead person—that single phrase was overwhelming enough. His body was standing perfectly fine inside a university classroom, but his mind was flailing, trapped in a dark and deep memory. The phrase ‘a dead person’ summoned only one memory. It was the smile his older brother, Myeong Seonwoo, had shown in his final moments.

“You played hide-and-seek with Im Hanbyeol, and that story was posted on a site called Camta or something?”

“…”

“The villa incident, too?”

On their way home side-by-side, 1129 asked for more specific details about the words he had not understood and the things that had happened to Jiwoon. And to 1129’s questions, Jiwoon nodded or answered haltingly, clearing up the mystery. At that, 1129 clicked his tongue, tut, and said.

“There are all sorts of ridiculous things. Do kids these days spend all day holding onto their cell phones doing stuff like that?”

This damn, wretched human world was full of things to learn every time he came. He could handle most information through Jiwoon’s laptop. Things like cooking recipes, for example. But it was the first time he learned that besides messengers where acquaintances chatted on their phones, communities like that existed.

He had thought Jiwoon would find out about the rent problem someday. It was because he knew from the civil complaints that the landlord, Ms. Yoon, would tell Jiwoon all sorts of stories whenever they met. Come to think of it, the information 1129 had was only of that nature.

He had all sorts of information regarding Jiwoon. This was because, willingly or not, the man himself kindly recorded his reasons for wanting to die in detail and sent them up. But if he did not think about wanting to die, he could not know any other information. To find that out, he had no choice but to follow Jiwoon around, but this was information that could not be obtained even by following him.

“What a pain…”

1129 took off his hat, ruffled his hair messily, then put it back on properly and quickened his pace as if he had made up his mind. Jiwoon followed after 1129, who was striding ahead with his long legs, and said.

“Wh-what is?”

“That.”

1129 pointed to the cell phone in Jiwoon’s hand. At that, Jiwoon’s face, for some reason, brightened as he gazed at 1129.

“A-are you going to get one?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a g-good i-idea.”

“Why are you happy about it.”

“…Pardon?”

1129 stopped walking abruptly and answered.

“I’m getting it to monitor you. And the people around you. So why are you happy about it?”

“Th-that’s because…”

Jiwoon started to say something but then clamped his mouth shut. That’s right, why is that a good thing for me? 1129 said it was for surveillance, but maybe it was because he did not think that getting a cell phone would make him monitor me any more persistently. How could he possibly monitor me more than he already did?

“B-because we can contact each other.”

“…”

“Y-you suddenly disappear and reappear, you know. Wh-when I’m curious, or something like that.”

“You’re going to use me as a pager?”

“It’s not necessarily that…”

When he had suddenly disappeared, a thought had occurred to Jiwoon. When he thought about dying, 1129 would appear before him without fail. But when he was not having such thoughts, there was no way of knowing where 1129 was or what he was doing. Besides, he was not human, and he was someone by my side for work, so it would not be strange if he disappeared at any moment.

He had thought that it would be nice to at least have his phone number for times like that. Of course, it would be useless if 1129 did not answer. What would 1129 think if I told him this? He would surely think it was nonsense. So instead of this story, Jiwoon brought up a different topic.

“Y-you’ll need an ID card or something.”

“I can take care of something like that.”

“What about, a name?”

“A name?”

1129’s pace slowed slightly as he started walking again, allowing Jiwoon to comfortably walk alongside him as he continued.

“Even if you c-create a fake identity, you st-still need a name, don’t you?”

Jiwoon felt relieved that he could ask 1129 for his name again under a reasonable pretext. It was because their last conversation had been weighing on his mind.

“I told you I don’t have a name. 1129, that’s all there is.”

“B-but a number can’t be a name.”

“Then I’ll just make one up… Oh, there’s a name on that sign over there.”

The place 1129 pointed to was a hospital. But the moment he saw the hospital’s name, Jiwoon’s brow furrowed.

“G-Gwak Cheolgu is a bit…”

“What.”

“I-I was just thinking it doesn’t suit y-your face…”