Chapter 32 - - Gold JiHan, Part 5 (1/2)

After dinner, I went back to my room after forcefully re-stating my request for AhJung to continue writing her diary entries. I sat on my bed with my legs crossed and laid out the eight bags I had purchased that afternoon. After meticulously sewing the carefully folded talismans into the bags' seams, an hour had already passed.

"I can't believe this took so long," I said out loud to myself.

I wiped my brow with my sleeves, stretched out my sore back and stood up. But at that moment, my cellphone rang to let me know a message had arrived. I went to check the message.

[The 1st act of the comedy synopsis you requested has been sent to your email. Please confirm receipt.]

It was a message from the famous writer, Noh HeeChul who I had requested a comedy play script from. To check my email, I turned on the laptop sitting on the tea table. It was probably going to be a simplified summary, but since Noh Heechul was the best writer in the business, the synopsis was probably going to be of a different class.

With high hopes, I opened the email and read the document. It included a summary of the plot with the description of each of the characters.

The main female lead was Na AhJung. Age, 33. Facial features of a 17 year old. Cursed by her young looks, a theater actress who fails to get casted for mature roles.

"Great. It's exactly AhJung."

Excited at finding the perfectly matched character, I continued onto the plot. From the first sentence on, my expression started to crumble. Upon reading the last line, I grabbed my phone. Then I dialed the number of the writer.

The moment the writer picked up the phone, I yelled without restraint.

"What! Why does AhJung end up getting into a relationship with a girl?!"

[Ah, that. Because there has to be an edge like that to get it some artistic recognition.]

"Look here. You call this art? You just pasted a bunch of ridiculous concepts together and made it as provocative as possible, is that art?"

[The thing is, if an average person reads this, it may be difficult to understand, but if you see it on stage, it will be phenomenal.]

"If I see this on stage, I'll kill you," I threatened. "You may be thinking that I've already got my deposit so there's not much to lose if the play fails. I can tell you've created this play with that mindset, just patching together random storylines."

[Well it's only in the beginning stages, so I can see how you could get that impression.]

"Cursed by her young looks, an unknown theater actress finds out her days are numbered. She meets a girl while on her way to commit suicide and the two become a pair that cannot live without each other after a one night stand. Then, the girl finds out her husband of 20 years is actually her long lost father."

I read back the synopsis back in a hardened voice.

"Whatever more you add to these bones will not make any difference in attracting the audience's attention. More importantly, you missed the main point I emphasized in giving you this project. The story you've given me is not one written for a woman in her 30s living with the face of a teen. That was the point of the project."

[Truthfully...thinking up a story with that criteria in only a week that could also attract public interest was not such an easy thing to do.]

"I gave you $100,000 because I knew it wasn't easy."

[That's true but...can't you give me a little more time? About a month…]

"A month?" I sighed in exasperation. "Is it really that difficult to think up a story for Na AhJung?"

I heard a sigh through the receiver.

"Then, how about this? An unknown actress in her 30s with the face of a teen marries the grandson of a millionaire."

[What?]

"This girl thinks that this man is the greatest luck of her life, but we find out that the man is gay."

[Oh, that's great. And then what happens?]

"The man wasn't marrying the girl because he loved her, but because he wanted to hide the fact that he was gay so he fooled her into marrying him…"

As I continued to tell the real story of AhJung's life, I suddenly backtracked. If I made AhJung act in this play, she might find out that it was actually based on her life. Plus I was giving this play to her as a gift, so she'd be doubly suspicious. We couldn't move forward with that story anymore. I couldn't create a play that was a 100% match with her real life.

Then...should we twist up the story a bit?

"No. Let's do it like this. The teen-looking unknown actress in her 30s goes into a "contract marriage" with the grandson of a millionaire. Using all the imagination at my disposal, I continued making up the story so that it would be different from the truth so that AhJung would not be able to tell that it was her story.

***

Na AhJung

It'd been ten days since JiHan had started forcing me to write my diary entries every day. Only two weeks remained until JiKyung's return.

While JiHan was checking over my tenth entry, I stared at the pictures of myself that hung all around my walls. They were a mirror, my reflection. I concentrated on each of the pictures, repeating it to myself. For ten days I had done this, just as Lee JiHan had commanded.

But how could this beautiful and charismatic person be me? It can't be?

Once the doubt started to resurface, my head tilted back and forth in denial. JiHan's voice echoed from behind me.

"You better not be thinking about something else during this time of self-reflection."

He called this "time for self reflection."

I held my head up straight and tutted. Then continued to look at the pictures on the wall.

It would be nice if I really did look like this…

I was envious of the version of me in the pictures. From behind me, I heard the diary snap close.

"Let's spend some good times together. Like yesterday."

These words meant that my homework check was complete, so I turned back from the wall. JiHan, as he had for each of the ten days, looked at me and smiled. A smile that was brighter than his golden hair.

Ah, I would have thought I would get used to this by now.

I turned back to the wall to hide my thumping heart and pretended to look over the pictures once again. I could feel JiHan stand and walk towards me.

"Are you reviewing by re-looking at the pictures you've already seen?"

"Yes, they're nice to look at," I said beating around the bush.

JiHan's hand squeezed my shoulders slightly. My hands tightened into fists as electricity shot through me.

"If they're so nice to see, I'd like to look at them too."

The pictures weren't going anywhere, and yet he acted like I had been blocking his view of them.