An Actor Who Has Lived For 10,000 Years [EN]: Chapter 234

234. #41 – Fruition (4)

I never imagined I’d be so drawn to one particular script out of so many.

And all those scripts were like jewels.

They were all so perfect that I couldn’t choose, no matter how many times I reviewed them.

So, I expected it would take weeks, maybe even months, just to pick a project.

Among perfect works, I needed one that suited me best, one that could express me well and prove ‘Actor Jin Hee-sung’ to the world.

But, contrary to my expectations.

I couldn’t help but fall for one particular project.

I was convinced that this was something I desperately wanted to do, something I absolutely had to do.

And from that day on, I started studying and reviewing only that one script, dozens, hundreds of times.

So, today, I arrived at the company practice room to look at the script again.

Sitting down, I repeatedly went through the script from the first page to the last.

“This feels new no matter how many times I read it?”

I raised my eyebrows and turned the script back to the beginning.

Just then.

The door burst open, and Manager Kim rushed in, shouting.

“Hee-sung!”

At his call, I jumped up from my seat and greeted him.

“Hyung [older brother/male friend]!”

Even though we were only meeting after a week, we were so happy that we shouted as we looked at each other.

He smiled at me with a bright face and a slightly tanned appearance.

“Have you been doing well?”

Come to think of it, this was the first week without Manager Kim.

Of course, there were times when I rested or traveled without Manager Kim when I didn’t have a schedule.

But I had never come to the company every day without him.

I met Manager Kim at least once every two days.

At his question, I nodded vigorously and replied.

“Of course. But I did feel the emptiness, you know?”

At my words, Manager Kim laughed as if he was in a good mood.

“See, I have to be by your side, Hee-sung?”

“Hey, you can’t say things like that anymore. Your wife might get suspicious of us if she hears that? Haha.”

He burst into hearty laughter at my words.

I stared intently at Manager Kim’s face and frowned.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“What’s wrong? Come to think of it, why have you lost so much weight?”

He widened his eyes and touched his face with his hands.

I tilted my head, giving him a serious look.

“Yeah, you’ve definitely lost weight. I saw you posting so much food on SNS [Social Networking Service] every day. Why did you come back looking so haggard?”

At my words, Manager Kim pursed his lips and seemed to hold back a laugh.

Then, he bumped my shoulder playfully and said.

“…There are things like that. Our Hee-sung is still young, so you don’t need to know yet.”

“…What. Haha.”

Manager Kim waved his hand dismissively and took a seat in front of me.

“Oh, never mind. Here, take this.”

“What is this?”

He handed me a shopping bag and said.

I raised my eyebrows and received the shopping bag.

“I went on my honeymoon, but there wasn’t anything special to buy. I saw some pretty clothes there, so I picked them out with your sister-in-law.”

As soon as I opened the shopping bag,

There were several shirts in it that were in my usual style.

I exclaimed with wide eyes.

“What, why did you buy such expensive things? And one shirt would have been enough, why so many?”

The shirts that Manager Kim gave me as a gift were luxury brands.

When I tried to push the shopping bag back to him, Manager Kim pushed it back with his hand and replied.

“Just take it. And why did you give so much for the wedding gift!”

He said to me with a mix of gratitude and apology.

I just smiled and replied.

“I don’t know. Well, I’ll take this gift and wear it well. Tell your wife I said thank you.”

“Okay, let’s have a meal with your girlfriend soon—no, I should say wife now. I’ll buy you something nice.”

“Sounds good!”

At that moment, Manager Kim widened his eyes and looked at the script in front of me and asked.

“Oh? What, did you pick a script?”

At his words, I smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, Hyung, have you seen this script?”

“Not yet. But there are so many good scripts this time.”

Even at Manager Kim’s words, I only looked at the script in front of me and said.

“That’s true… but I can’t see anything else now.”

As soon as I finished speaking, he chuckled and nodded.

“Okay, then I’ll look into setting up a meeting with this.”

I tilted my head at his words that he would look into a meeting right away, even though he hadn’t read the script yet.

“Hyung, you said you haven’t read the script?”

“Yeah, but you already said you can’t see anything else. I really trust your judgment now.”

He picked up the script and the corners of his lips turned upwards.

***

“Please save me… Please save me!”

A voice screaming to be saved.

The voices were cracked and metallic, from how much they had been screaming.

I just closed my eyes tightly and shed tears.

“Haa….”

Only sighs came out of my mouth.

And the moment I took a deep breath.

I realized it.

That this was a dream….

When I opened my eyes, I saw countless people in front of me.

And collapsing houses.

People running around frantically.

It wasn’t to escape this place.

It was just a struggle to survive.

People were screaming as they ran away, and I couldn’t move, even though I might die in this spot.

A person in my arms, at the end of their life.

This person, barely clinging to life, barely maintaining their breath.

Hugging her, I cried out.

“No… you can’t die!”

I knew all too well that no matter how much I shouted, she couldn’t come back to life.

This is the 1910s… the Japanese colonial period.

It wasn’t easy to save lives, and even if we lived, she and I couldn’t live without worry in a happy family.

I could only feel a heart-wrenching pain and let her go….

“Sa… sa….”

“You don’t have to speak if it’s hard.”

Her lips moved as if to say something.

I barely endured my trembling body and brought my ear to her lips.

Then, she whispered in a very small voice.

“I… I love you, in the next life… let’s meet… happily….”

As soon as she finished speaking, I bit my lip so hard that blood flowed.

In the end, those became the last words I heard from her lips.

“No!”

I hugged her tightly and shed tears.

Just then.

Many people spotted me and ran towards me.

I hurriedly turned around and started running, holding her in my arms.

Labored breathing.

Blurry vision.

Just as darkness began to appear before my eyes.

Flash-!

“Haa… Haa….”

When I opened my eyes, a pure white ceiling came into view.

“What kind of dream is this….”

My face was covered in tears.

The moment I lost her, the one I loved more than my own life, during the Japanese colonial period, came to mind.

“That’s right… the person I loved so much….”

And that face was clearly etched in my memory.

“…Song Yu-na.”

The moment her hand touched me in Hollywood, I realized that she was the one I loved.

But dreaming again of being separated from her, I was immersed in a sadness I had never felt before.

And my heart began to ache.

I immediately pulled the calendar on the bedside table and looked at it.

“Now, there’s really only about a year left….”

The life of 10,000 years.

Now that life was really heading towards its end.

Song Yu-na’s image became clearer and clearer, and the moments I spent with her unfolded like a panorama.

The past of Song Yu-na, whom I loved so much, whom I met in the 1910s.

And Song Yu-na, whom I met in the lives after that.

Although she didn’t realize that I was the same person.

I knew for sure.

That that person was the one I loved more than myself.

And fate brought Song Yu-na before my eyes again.

“Is this really the end?”

The lives in which I had faced Song Yu-na countless times.

But this life will really be the last with her.

Hot tears streamed down my cheeks.

I couldn’t tell exactly whether this feeling that was rising up was because the 10,000 years of life were coming to an end, or because I was thinking of Song Yu-na.

But the only person that came to my mind right now was ‘Song Yu-na.’

***

Misty smoke was rising thickly, and visibility was limited to the person sitting right in front of you.

“That guy going far away over there is the one I told you about, the one who lived for 500 years.”

“Is that the guy you met when he was living for 300 years in the human world back then?”

Nevertheless, their vision could see clearly even to a very distant place.

Because they don’t live in the human world.

In other words, they were beings who were too different from ordinary people who are born, live according to the natural order, and face death, beings called ‘gods.’

They sat side by side in chairs placed on white smoke like clouds.

A red velvet material with a long backrest.

The shiny gold border that luxuriously wrapped the red color.

While exchanging trivial stories and chatting.

The man wearing a fedora asked the person wrapped in a black cloak.

“That’s right, what happened to that human who was living his first life that we talked about back then?”

At his question, the person in the black cloak pursed his lips and nodded.

“Hmm… come to think of it, that human must be facing his end now.”

“Isn’t it slowly coming to an end now? Or has it already ended?”

The man wearing a fedora asked again with interest.

The person in the black cloak raised the corners of his lips and waved his hand in the air.

Tada-!

A monitor turned on at his touch.

The monitor showed Jin Hee-sung getting up from the bed and shedding tears for no reason.

The man wearing a fedora chuckled at Jin Hee-sung’s weeping and said.

“Fortunately, he’s still alive. I almost missed a very interesting scene.”

“That’s right, how can we miss that fun thing that only comes once every 10,000 years. Seeing him crying like that now, it must be starting soon.”

At his words, the man wearing a fedora tilted his head.

“Starting soon?”

The man wrapped in the black cloak swept the cloak over and raised the corners of his lips.

“The highlight of the punishment will begin.”

“Highlight… is something going to change?”

He leaned forward and murmured, raising his eyebrows as if watching an interesting movie.

“Now, that guy will dream every day.”

“Don’t tell me… he’s going to have that dream every day?”

He frowned and asked as if he was horrified.

The one corner of the black-cloaked man’s mouth twisted into a cruel smile.

“It will be like hell. To the point where he’ll feel that dying is happier than living.”

The man sitting next to him shuddered as if he was terrified.

He pressed down on his fedora and sighed deeply.

“It’s only natural to be punished if you’ve done something wrong. But that punishment of living for 10,000 years is really cruel.”

“That’s right. But the last choice that’s coming soon will be the most cruel, more than the pain he felt living those 10,000 years.”

The man in the fedora finally smiled and replied.

“Now the time I like the most is coming.”

He interlocked his fingers and bit his lip, then opened his mouth again.

“I hope that day comes soon.”

The man sitting next to him wrapped his cloak around him and checked the date and time.

Then he nodded and murmured.

“Unfortunately, the time left for that human is coming to an end. I wonder if we’ll be able to say goodbye….”