Chapter 19

* * *“What’s your name?”“Han Maru, ma’am.”“Maru? Good name. Now, Maru will be giving all of you a speech. Five minutes. Though, being in that push up position for five minutes would be bad, right?”“Right.”“What do you think you should do then, Maru?”“I should find a way to finish this quickly.”“Right? Then… give me a five-minute speech while thinking about what the other kids did wrong. Talk about… your first impressions of me. Yeah, that’s good.”Miso glanced over at the first years. Some of them seemed promising, others seemed completely hopeless. The tall guy at the end even looked like he practiced speeches before coming here. But none of that mattered to Miso at the moment. There was only one thing she wanted to see.‘This guy seemed pretty tactful.’Tact wasn’t a part of a person’s five senses. Tact came from observation. Careful observation that would lead to accurate guesses about a person’s thoughts. Maru seemed pretty good at that.Would he understand what Miso wanted this time, though?Miso glanced at Maru. His face was unchanging. Calm. He was calm when he was called out, he was calm when he stepped forward. Even now, nothing has changed. Well, maybe a tiny bit nervous, but that would only end up helping him focus. This was good. Amazingly so, actually.Being unafraid of people’s gazes was essential for an actor. In that sense, Maru passed with flying colors. “Begin.”As soon as Miso gave him the go ahead,“First of all, you were very skinny!!”A shout sprang out of Maru’s mouth. It didn’t have any depth to it, since he wasn’t using his diaphragm, but it was loud enough to reverberate throughout the auditorium. Maru took a deep breath in to continue, but.“Stop,” Miso interrupted him, “at least you remembered. First years, stand up and wait.”The kids’ faces were all reddened. Miso took a look over them again. Some of them were fixing their clothes, others were fixing their hair, etc. Out of them, only two of them were facing her straight without even fixing their clothes.‘Dojin and Geunseok, was it? They aren’t stupid, at least. Geunseok, especially… he’ll be fun to teach.’“May I come down?” Maru asked behind her.“Come down, Maru.”“Yes.”Maru went back to his spot with his slippers on. Miso sat back down on the chair before continuing.“I told you in the beginning, didn’t I? Speak as if you want to make yourself heard. You couldn’t even remember that?”The only one who didn’t avert her gaze was Maru. He had no reason to look away, though, so she let it pass.“I’ll be giving you a few words of warning, since we’ll be together for a year now. First, you do what I tell you to do. You don’t know what you’re doing otherwise. Second, think. Don’t move just because I told you to move, actually think about it. Understood?”“Yes!!”“Good answer. Your voice will only get louder the more you use it. Try to practice enunciating words better for now.”“Yes!!”“Good. We’ll stop here for today. Why don’t we actually introduce ourselves now that we’re at it?”Miso unzipped her jacket, making some of the kids look away in surprise. How adorable.“Ah, third. I’m only really this serious while I’m at work. Everything else is super lax. I’m done with work now, so feel free to relax. I’ll be super strict once practice starts, though. Understood?”Miso finished with a smile.