Chapter 32

* * *Miso looked a lot worse than usual today. Maru tried to slip out of the auditorium when she wasn’t paying attention, lest he were to incur her wrath as well.“Han Maru!”Oh boy, it was too late. What was she going to say this time?“Wait right there. You guys stay here practicing your lines. You better not make a mistake by the time I come back, got it?”“Yes ma’am!”“Good.”Miso walked over to the auditorium entrance where Maru was standing. She seemed to have made up her mind about something, which meant nothing but trouble to him.“Um, what...”“Follow me.”“What?”Miso grabbed his arm. She seemed to be planning on dragging him elsewhere. Maru had no intention of allowing that though. He didn’t like getting pulled away without a reason like this.“Follow me.”“Please tell me where we’re going.”“Aha, so you’re planning on resisting, huh? You think I’m weak because I’m a girl? Just you watch, I...”Miso pulled at his sleeves. She was strong for sure. Especially for a woman. But Maru didn’t even budge. He could easily take something like this. His body was almost abnormally strong compared to his past self. It was probably another one of the gifts given to him in starting his life again.“Ughhh.”Miso pulled harder.“Um, you could just tell me...”“Shut it. This has to do with my pride.”Pride? Here? Miso tugged him with all of her strength. She was getting weirdly competitive with this. Maru looked back. He could hear voices behind him. The club members were all looking at them with concerned expressions.“Look away!”Miso shouted. The club members instantly looked somewhere else. Kind of like meerkats. Maru stepped forward, shaking his head. This was making him embarrassed now.“Don’t you dare move. I’m going to make you move by force.”“You win, instructor.”“Hey!”“Let’s go.”Maru stepped down, leaving Miso behind him. He could hear her huffing loudly, but decided to ignore it. He’s dealt with a lot of actors as a road manager in the past. One thing he’s learned about actors during that time… was that many actors had a very innocent side to them.Innocence was a really good way of putting it. A lot of times, they were more childish. Acting is an art form where a person had to throw their all into a play. Shame has no experience in acting. That’s why a lot of actors have strange personalities. Strange enough for people to misunderstand that these actors were rude. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just meant that those actors are successful. Successful and skilled enough to make money despite their rudeness. Most unsuccessful actors acted as humble as they could. But actors with stable careers typically acted with pride. Speaking of which, he recalled that Miso was a pretty famous instructor as well. She wasn’t even over 30 yet, meaning she had a very bright future ahead of her. That is…She was talented, so she didn’t need to act humble at all, which lead to the development of a very stubborn worldview. You can’t just keep losing to people like her. They would keep sticking to you otherwise. The best tactic to take, then, was to either keep ignoring them or to just suck up to them. Out of those two, Maru decided to just ignore her. The effect was pretty immediate.“......”Miso came down the stairs with an annoyed look. She took a deep breath before walking over to the parking lot to Maru’s observation.“Come on, get over here. I’m an adult you know. Follow me for once.”“Where are we going?”“I want to show you something.”“What?”“Hyehwa station.”“The place with all the college theaters?”“Yeah.”“Why?”“Why do you think?”Miso opened the door of her car.“Get in!”