An Actor Who Has Lived For 10,000 Years [EN]: Chapter 64

#14 – Being Recognized (3)

I ended up taking a break, though it wasn’t long.

Just a short two-night, three-day vacation.

Kim, my manager, said I deserved a short break after finishing several projects in a row.

But I wanted to start the next project as soon as possible, so I decided to just take a short trip to my hometown.

My parents were blueberry farmers.

The blueberry harvest is in the summer.

So now is the peak of the busy harvest season.

I came to give my parents a small gift with the money I earned from acting, but also, I came down to help with the work.

I hadn’t helped my parents much with their work since I was a child.

I’m not much of a filial son, but I wasn’t a son who earned scolding either.

But my parents always discouraged me from doing hard work.

They said they had enough to do, so I should just focus on my own work.

Thanks to growing up with such parents, I think I was able to pursue everything I wanted.

I didn’t live a wealthy life with expensive private lessons or luxury goods from a young age.

But they always tried to give me whatever I wanted—whatever I wanted to eat, whatever I wanted to have.

That’s why I was even more grateful to my parents.

They sacrificed their own desires and gave me everything.

I can’t repay it all, but I wanted to be a good son to my parents as much as I could.

My parents’ youth was entirely spent on me.

“Mom, is this where I should pick?”

Wearing comfortable clothes and a hat pulled down low, I approached my mother with a basket.

“Oh, I told you to just rest. Why did you come out?”

My mother waved her hand in the air, trying to stop me.

“I have nothing to do today anyway. It’s a busy time, so I’m here to help pick blueberries.”

“Don’t bother. Your mom and dad can do it.”

My parents, busy with the harvest, went to the farm early in the morning.

I got up early and came out, but my mother strongly dissuaded me from working.

“There are so many to pick?”

I picked a ripe blueberry and popped it into my mouth.

“I’ll pick from here.”

“Then, since the weather is hot, just do a little and go inside to rest.”

“Okay, okay.”

My mother sighed, worried about me.

I smiled brightly at her.

Then I quickly started harvesting the ripening blueberries.

The scorching sun was on a different level from the sunlight I received on the filming set.

I sweated while filming on set, but standing in front of the camera outside for a short time was incomparable to doing farm work in the sun all day long.

I bent down for a while to pick blueberries and then stood up, stretching.

Then, my parents’ backs came into view a little further away.

They were working without ever straightening their backs.

My heart ached for my parents’ increasingly bent backs and narrowing shoulders.

How could they do this every day….

As I thought about how they worked so hard to give me everything I wanted, my throat felt choked.

I grow bigger as time goes by, and my parents get smaller.

I have to succeed as soon as possible.

As much as my parents put their heart and soul into me—no, I may not be able to match their extreme love.

But if I want to repay even a part of it to my parents, I must succeed.

The sky was already dark.

Summer is ending, but the days are still quite long.

My father, shaking his sweat-stained clothes, approached me.

“Heeseong, shall we have a barbecue here today for the first time in a while?”

“Sounds good.”

Not often, but there was a barbecue area set up on one side of the farm. Of course, it’s not actually a barbecue area; it’s just an empty space designated as our own place to eat meat.

Since I was a child, my family used to grill meat there.

Meat grilled over charcoal is always delicious.

But meat eaten after sweating all day long… it’s beyond words.

I answered as soon as my father finished speaking, but a thought suddenly occurred to me, and I spoke again.

“Dad, you’re tired from work. Isn’t it too hard to light the charcoal and eat there, and then clean up?”

I was still a child in my parents’ eyes.

Lighting the charcoal and grilling the meat was always my father’s job.

It was no use even if I insisted on doing it.

So I knew that if we had a barbecue, my father would end up doing everything even if I stepped up.

But my father wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “Hey, it’s not hard at all.”

Then he raised one corner of his mouth and headed to the barbecue area, muttering softly, “My son came after a long time; I have to do a barbecue for him.”

“You can just go out and eat comfortably….”

I ran to stop my father, but I saw my father’s expression at that moment—a happy face smiling contentedly.

That expression of being proud to be able to do something for his son, being happy to be able to do something for the family he loves—that must be the feeling.

I no longer stopped my father from heading to the barbecue area.

Then I went straight to my father’s side and started helping with the barbecue preparations.

“Kuh.”

My father took a shot of soju [Korean distilled rice liquor] and opened his mouth.

“It’s good to have meat and soju with my son after a long time.”

I smiled and filled my father’s empty glass.

“Mom, do you want another drink?”

“I think I drank a lot today… but since my son is here, I’ll have one more drink. Just a little.”

“Okay.”

It felt like it had been a long time since I had a drink with my parents.

Since I started acting, there hasn’t been a time like this.

I learned to drink from my father when I was 20 years old and could legally drink [in South Korea, the legal drinking age is 19].

After that, I had a few drinks at the farm, but around the time I was graduating, from the moment I said I would definitely step into the path of an actor, there was no time like this.

Because they were so against the entertainment industry.

They were also against the Department of Theater and Film at the university.

But I applied, and my parents seemed to think that I would just wander around aimlessly until college.

But my dream was firm.

Rather, while attending university, that dream took root deeply in my body.

Apart from being against it, I was too busy after that.

I couldn’t ask my parents, who hated this industry, for money.

If they saw me struggling with my livelihood, they would hate it and be upset even more.

So I worked part-time along with acting.

So naturally, I didn’t have time to come home.

A smile kept leaking out at the drinking party with my parents after a long time.

The meat was already gone.

A pot with ramen [instant noodles] was placed on the grill.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had ramen cooked by our son.”

My mother said, looking at the steaming ramen.

“That’s right. He always cooks ramen when we eat here. Haha.”

My father added, taking a shot of alcohol.

“Of course. You have to finish with ramen at a barbecue.”

I quickly filled my father’s empty glass.

The three of us stared blankly at the boiling ramen.

Our eyes were fixed on the ramen, not meeting each other.

At that moment, my father opened his mouth in a small voice.

“Son… it was good that you became an actor.”

“…….”

It was definitely a small voice, but I could hear it clearly.

It was the first time that such words came out of my father’s mouth.

They were against it.

Especially my father was strongly against it.

My father, who knew it was a difficult path, strongly dissuaded me.

But for those words—that it was good to be an actor—to come out of my father’s mouth… I swallowed hard at those words, and I couldn’t say anything.

I didn’t drink much, so it was definitely not my heart beating because of the alcohol.

But my heart started beating as if it would burst.

And my father’s short words lingered in my head.

Actually, it’s not that I haven’t had a hard time during that time.

No, there were so many difficult things, from acting to livelihood.

But my father’s one word felt like it was comforting everything.

Suddenly, the emotions that came on started rushing in like a tide.

The whirlpool of emotions wrapped around my whole body.

If I looked up at my father, for some reason, it felt like tears would pour out.

Because I have a family that truly loves and supports me, to that gratitude, to that comfort, it felt like the difficult past was being washed away.

I bit my lower lip.

I just nodded and fixed my gaze on the innocent ramen.

***

A high hill.

I started walking up the steep hill with both hands full of luggage.

Back to Seoul again, and the way back to my narrow house located in a high place.

I was stopped like that, but my mother packed all kinds of side dishes.

My arms were numb from the many side dishes I brought from home.

I loosened my shoulders and gripped the straps of the bag tightly again.

And without realizing it, my thoughts popped out of my mouth.

“Ah, I really want to do well!”

It was a word that really contained all my heart.

My heart was burning hot with such a desperate feeling.

I definitely wanted to succeed as an actor and become a proud person to the people around me, and to my family.

“Haa.”

A rough breath burst out on the steep hill, but my face was full of smiles.

I feel energized after meeting my parents.

***

“Hello.”

A short two-night, three-day vacation to my hometown.

The next day, today, I went to the office without an inch of delay.

Now that I’ve renewed my determination, I need to choose a project quickly.

In order to climb to where I want to be, I didn’t have time to be relaxed.

After greeting the managers and employees who came to work at the company, I hurried to the practice room.

And today, the search for the script began.

Finding the perfect script for me among the vast scripts is by no means easy.

Of course, I can’t play the role in the script I chose.

After choosing a script, I enter a new process to win the role.

To do that, I first need to read all these scripts one by one and choose them.

The scripts I’ve read and the scripts I need to read… While floundering among the scripts that were divided, Manager Kim came into the practice room.

In his hand were a few other scripts.

“Hyung!” [A Korean term used by males to address older brothers or close male friends/colleagues]

Manager Kim put down the script and sat down.

“I brought these for you to see too.”

“Okay, I will.”

After nodding, I pulled the script and focused on the work again.

But Manager Kim was just staring at me.

I slowly raised my head at that gaze.

“Hyung, do you have something to say?”

Manager Kim awkwardly avoided my gaze.

“What is it?”

When I asked again, Manager Kim made a subtle expression.

I couldn’t tell if it was a pitiful expression or a sad expression.

“It’s unwelcome news.”

I tilted my head at his words.

“Park Minjoon decided to go in.”

“…Huh?”

“The drama we missed.”

I nodded at Manager Kim’s words.

His expression was not sad but rather one of pity.

Manager Kim was the one who kept saying that he wanted me to play the lead role in that drama.

So Park Minjoon went into that position.

He seemed even more displeased and unhappy.

He cut off a sigh and continued to speak.

“Our role… WG Entertainment was working with Park Minjoon behind the scenes.”

Manager Kim bit his lower lip.

“Why Park Minjoon of all people.”