TAKE 4
“What?”
“Why?”
When he mentioned Gi Siyoung’s personal phone number, Myeongwoo was so surprised his buttocks bounced. Gi Siyoung, who had a separate post-recording schedule and entered the recording studio, was reading the script wearing a headset as big as his own face beyond the transparent wall.
“Let’s be quiet.”
A studio staff member glanced at them. Myeongwoo bowed silently with an apologetic expression and then whispered.
“That’s a number I only got to know after a year, but you already received it. Wow. This is so absurd with feelings of betrayal and disappointment….”
“……”
What he’d said to President Gu was a lie, but it turned out to be true after all.
“No, let’s not be petty. Thinking about what you did for Siyoung, it’s worth giving. Even if you’re a manager, taking drinks for an actor instead isn’t easy. Plus, you had an accident recently.”
“It’s embarrassing bringing up old things like that.”
“But it’s true. A manager isn’t a servant who takes beatings instead of old young masters.”
“……”
“Actually, I was really surprised then. If it were me, I would’ve turned away because I’d hate even getting splashed with alcohol.”
“But… does Gi Siyoung-ssi handle a lot of private business on his personal phone? Does he have someone he’s seeing? Someone like Gi Siyoung-ssi, even if he’s seeing someone, the company would probably block everything.”
Seungun subtly tested Myeongwoo.
“Probably, he communicates a lot on his personal phone with people he has private connections with. Like now, he exchanges the business phone number with people he works with externally or at the company. And even if he gave you that number, if you actually contact him on that number, he’ll get terribly angry, you know? I’m also too petty and mean to contact him much on that number. Actually, there aren’t that many occasions to make private contact anyway.”
It’s obvious without even seeing. Seungun agreed.
Inside the car moving after recording ended. Seungun, who was driving, coughed slightly. It was because of the air conditioning blowing strongly in the vehicle. It seemed wind had gotten into his bronchial tubes. If it were up to him, he wanted to adjust the air conditioning strength, but he couldn’t carelessly reduce the air conditioning strength because of Myeongwoo, who had a lot of body heat. Seungun, who had been fiddling with the steering wheel, rubbed his throat where coughs intermittently popped out.
“Did you catch a cold?”
“No. My throat is ticklish.”
“Geez, you need to take care of your health.”
A rustling sound was heard right behind. Gi Siyoung was taking out a ziplock bag containing disposable masks from inside a large bag placed at his feet.
“Ah, I should have prepared it in advance, thank—.”
But it was counting chickens before they hatched. Gi Siyoung didn’t even glance at the driver’s seat and put on a mask on his tiny face. Then he started reading the piled-up scenarios again. For a moment, Seungun’s earlobes, who had only thought it was being given to him, turned red. As his embarrassed hands lost their place to go, Myeongwoo mouthed ‘it’s okay, it’s okay’ and gently placed Seungun’s hands back on the steering wheel.
“But what’s this?”
Gi Siyoung, who had been reading enough scenarios to develop print addiction, suddenly asked.
“Hm? What?”
“This animation.”
“Ah, that? Siyoung-ah, this is a really famous American animation. You don’t know it?”
“I know it. But why is this mixed in here?”
“That animation is having a simultaneous release in North America and our country this time. And you got an offer for the prince dubbing.”
Thud. Before Myeongwoo’s words even ended, Gi Siyoung closed that scenario. The scenarios he’d cast aside were already piled up like a grave. Seeing that scene, Myeongwoo was startled.
“Hey. This isn’t something to just pass over like this, you know? That dubbing position isn’t given to just anyone. They already examined both image and voice before it came to you!”
Myeongwoo quickly picked it up with a regretful face and thrust it back into Siyoung’s arms. The two people’s tug-of-war continued for a while. Seungun just focused on driving. The road signs passed overhead in an instant.
When a van with a large body swaggers through the city center, passing cars subtly stick close or stop to spy—of course, it’s completely invisible from outside—and people on the road often stop walking and point fingers as well.
However, today somehow the traffic lights changed with good timing, making it easy without congestion. It was good not to receive as many stinging gazes. Seungun drove by pressing the brake smoothly in advance when he saw a speed bump.
“I don’t have a hobby of stealing others’ rice bowls.”
“What? How is that stealing others’ rice bowls? Then if I steal Seungun’s steering wheel, does that become stealing Seungun’s rice bowl? If I go to the company cafe and say, ‘Oh my, making coffee is really fun, let me try it once!’ does that become stealing the barista’s rice bowl?”
“I’ve never received professional voice actor training. But what animation dubbing?”
In short, it meant he wouldn’t even attempt it if he couldn’t do it perfectly. Myeongwoo, who knew that meaning, dry-washed his face and whined.
“Haah…. What voice actor training? Your pronunciation is good….”
Then Myeongwoo suddenly called Seungun.
“Yes?”
“What do you think? Does it make sense to reject this just because you haven’t received professional training? You know this too, right? This is a super famous animation.”
“Yes, I know.”
Of course, if Gi Siyoung took on the dubbing of this animation prince, not only would there be a promotional effect, but it would also match the prince’s image. Seungun also thought it was a waste to kick away that opportunity, but whatever he chose was Gi Siyoung’s problem, not his own.
“It’s too late even if you start taking lessons now. You’ll have to do breathing, vocalization, and pronunciation correction the way voice actors learned. Do you have time for that? Then take it.”
“……”
It was a prince role in a world-famous animation. It doesn’t go to just anyone. In the era of all-around entertainers where idols act, professional voice actors film observational variety shows, and regular actors frequently take on animation dubbing with great taste, Myeongwoo no longer expressed his opinion to Gi Siyoung, who stubbornly insisted on absolutely not doing it, and just grumbled with his lips.
“That bastard. His stubbornness really….”
“You’re asking if I have time. Then I’ll do it.”
Gi Siyoung tapped Myeongwoo’s seat with the toe of his shoe. It was no exaggeration to say that Gi Siyoung’s schedule was full for the next five years. Even if voice acting lessons were tightly squeezed in there, the release timing was too tight to raise it to a level of ability that Gi Siyoung would be satisfied with.
Gi Siyoung’s stubbornness couldn’t be easily broken. He was a perfectionist. He didn’t tolerate mistakes. A person like this wouldn’t easily tolerate others’ mistakes either, Seungun concluded. At his firm attitude, Myeongwoo also sat back against the backrest as if there was nothing more he could do. However, the unresolved frustration was felt entirely from the side.
“Good work. Drive carefully.”
“Yes, go on in.”
After dropping off Myeongwoo as well, Seungun parked the car at the company. There was no bus that went straight home from the nearby bus stop. After transferring buses about twice, he trudged home.
He familiarly unlocked the door with a key and entered. The studio apartment with almost no furniture looked like a warehouse at a glance. In the living room was a single bed, and on the laundry line in the narrow utility room, laundry that hadn’t been taken down for over a week hung like dried squid.
In the kitchen directly connected to the living room stood a perfectly good chair and dining table that a moving resident had thrown away at a nearby recycling center. This made the space a bit narrower, but it was convenient when eating. Though the times he actually ate could be counted on his hands.
He opened the bundle of bills brought from the mailbox one by one and started making account transfers starting from the top paper. If he accidentally set up automatic transfers, there wouldn’t be many days when money remained in the account. Even if several months were overdue and interest accumulated, it was more comfortable to transfer while directly checking the account balance.
“……”
After sending this month’s rent to the landlord, the balance was bare again. Seungun, who sighed, finished showering with lukewarm water and forcibly squeezed out the body lotion pump, which didn’t have much left, by pounding it into his palm and roughly rubbed it on his body. Without even drying his wet hair, he sprawled out spread-eagled on the bed.
His eyes drowsily closed. The clothes hanging on the laundry line above his head bothered him, but he didn’t have the mental capacity to take those down and fold them. The bed was sucking him in like tentacles.
But it wasn’t time yet. Today’s tasks remained. With half-closed eyes, he crawled up and dragged the bag he’d thrown at the entrance to the bed. Inside the bag were many miscellaneous items.
Notebook and pen, tablet PC, rolled-up socks, earphones, snacks, etc.—so much junk got caught on his fingers that it took some time to find his phone. Among them was also a sewing kit he hadn’t returned to the stylist yet.
As expected, there was contact from President Gu.
Progress?
Just three letters. He always carried around the bugging device President Gu had left behind, but the opportunity to access Gi Siyoung’s personal phone hadn’t come yet. Seungun sent a rough reply.
Not yet.
After flipping over his phone, he covered his eye area with his forearm. The dim room was dyed orange. The sunset hung on Seungun’s feet. The sound of elementary school students who hadn’t gone home yet playing while screaming at a nearby playground could be heard. In tune with that sound, Seungun’s feet with the sunset hanging on them wriggled regularly.
He wanted to return to a time when he was happy enough to be dazzled just by sounds. However, no matter how much he searched through his head, there was no such memory, so his vision soon became pitch black. He just slept frantically like that until the alarm rang the next day.
