Chapter 111

Maru didn’t say anything for a long time. No, maybe it was just the awkward air between them that made the passing time feel so slow. Daemyung looked at Maru carefully for a second before leaving to buy himself a drink. He bought a fizzy lemon soda. Perhaps the sour taste of the lemons could help kill his nervousness a little bit. Sadly, all it did was tickle his throat. Tok tok tok. Maru was tapping on the table, looking out through the window in front of him. What was the boy thinking? Thankfully he didn’t seem very mad.“Hey Daemyung.”“What?”“What’s the most important thing to you right now?”“Well, I can’t really choose. My family’s important, my friends, acting...”“Right? It’s ridiculous to choose just one thing in your life, right?”“......”“But let’s say there was a person who lived just for one thing. What would happen if you took that one thing away from them?”“He’d become really sad.”Was Maru talking about himself? The boy still hadn’t denied anything Daemyung had written in his diary. Maybe Maru was talking in extension to what Daemyung initially wrote. Did that mean Maru could choose “one thing” in his life that was the most important?Daemyung couldn’t imagine it. Everything in his mind, from his family to friends to acting, were pretty much on equal footing. He wouldn’t be able to choose one thing that was more important than the others no matter what. “Han Maru, acting out the role of Han Maru.”“I just wrote that down for no reason. Don’t worry about it.”Maru nodded with a smile, but his mood seemed dark. He was probably thinking about what was written in the diary, and Daemyung started feeling bad for making Maru so concerned. “A lot of these are just dumb predictions, so… Don’t keep it in your mind too much.”He put the diary back in his bag. Making judgements and observing his friend had been a pretty fun experience. He thought he knew a lot about Maru, but that immediately turned out to be untrue. Learning several new things about his precious friend was definitely a great experience, but he didn’t realize that showing his observations to his friends would be so burdensome on his mind. Reviewing a person… The act of doing so was simple, but the results were incredibly stressful. Perhaps instructor Miso had all of this in mind when she gave them this homework. At this point, Daemyung could only hope that his words wouldn’t hurt Maru. Hopefully this wouldn’t make Maru develop negative thoughts about him. After a few more seconds, Maru sighed, the dark shadow on his face starting to go away. He cracked his neck a few times, smiling a bit mysteriously.“Thanks.”Thanks? Daemyung was confused. He’d written a very negative impression of Maru on that paper. He wasn’t mad about this? Was he being sarcastic? That didn’t seem to be the case. Maru seemed honestly thankful for what Daemyung had done.“Can you do something for me?”“Something?”“Yeah.”“What is it? I’ll do anything if I can.”“It’s a bit difficult, but I hope you can do it. I think you’d do a really good job.”“Me?”What did Maru plan on asking? Looking into the boy’s eyes, Daemyung got an inkling of what Maru might want from him. Indeed, his prediction turned out to be correct. “About that one-man play… Can you act out your second impression of me? I want to see it.”It really sounded more like a command than a simple request. Daemyung could only say ‘yes’ to Maru’s words. “Observation is an amazing thing, isn’t it? I honestly had no idea that Daemyung was so good at seeing through people.”“...Really?”“They say everyone has a talent, right? Maybe yours is observing people. Why don’t you try going into criminal psychology instead of acting?”Maru stood up with a slight smile. “I’ll tell you what I get after observing you as well in the near future. You observed the hell out of me, so I have to reciprocate. Get ready, you bastard.”“Y-you don’t have to go that far, Maru.”Daemyung quickly waved his hand. He had a feeling that Maru might even chase him into the bathroom for observation.“I’ll get going first.”“Ah, yeah.”Daemyung watched Maru walk out of the convenience store. Thankfully, the boy didn’t seem in as dark a mood as he did a few minutes ago.“That’s good, I guess?”Daemyung scratched the back of his neck nervously.