“It flutters. Just by looking.”
The drawings in this notebook. The serene drawings that remain motionless, yet I couldn’t help but feel a wide tremor spreading from my chest, thinking that they would soon come to life before me through the expressions and voices of the actors.
A feeling of excitement, so great that it wouldn’t fit in my chest, filled me up.
Between the spring and summer Jun and I spent together. Memories of the days when the temperature between us fluctuated several times a day, rising and falling.
Those precious scenes were about to become a brief ‘present’ for us at the house where we spent time together 9 years ago. In that momentary imagination, my heart felt warm.
But soon, the fingers that were leisurely flipping through the contents of the script stopped at one point. It stopped as if my hand had stumbled upon the subtitle written at the top of that page.
“Farewell, After That”
Farewell, after that…
In Jun’s sense of time, the day we accepted the fact that we had broken up seemed to be a significant turning point, dividing what came before and after.
Although it was just a thin sheet of paper, although it was just a single sheet of paper with almost no weight, I found myself unable to easily turn the page to the next chapter after the farewell.
Unconsciously, I traced the word ‘farewell’ with my fingers. After wiping it away like this, the times encapsulated in that word, the sadness and emotions felt during those times, as if they would naturally flow down together.
“It’s okay. You can turn it over.”
Jun’s warm voice, which had been watching me all along, reached me.
“Ah… no. It’s not that.”
“What is it then?”
Perhaps, feeling caught in the act of thinking sad thoughts, my words, which I didn’t realize were spoken aloud, lacked context. Jun’s voice pointing out that point was warm. With his lips slightly curled, he continued.
“It’s written as ‘After the Farewell.’ ‘After’ means our continuing story. So, if you turn this page, and keep turning it, you’ll see…”
Suddenly, Jun’s lips met mine. Caught off guard, I received a brief touch. At the end of the fleeting sensation, Jun whispered with a light smile.
“This will be included too. The scene where I just kissed you.”
After the farewell, it doesn’t only contain scenes of parting. Beyond the farewell, it will be filled with more scenes of us loving each other. So, don’t be sad unless we part again.
Jun’s calm whisper contrasted with his straight gaze that stared at me. As if worrying that even after saying this, I might not feel relieved, his gaze seemed to express concern.
“I like it… the scene you just created for me.”
With just a brief sweet smile, Jun’s eyes softened.
After the farewell.
In my heart, I recited silently. The poignant emotions associated with the word ‘farewell’ momentarily turned tender when it reached the word ‘after that,’ then soon started to embrace excitement.
The fingers, which had been frozen as if there was a wall between the sheets of paper, moved. Flap, the single sheet of paper that had felt somewhat weighty a moment ago, lightly turned over.
The first thing that filled my sight was Jun, sitting and staring blankly at the blue sky.
“Ah…”
The first scene after the farewell would likely be Jun, who had fully experienced the farewell…
With a tender sigh, my chest, which had barely settled down, began to stir again. Do these drawings containing such scenes also capture the emotions of that time? Left alone, Jun, depicted waiting for me in this scene, swayed dryly like a bare branch in the wind without a place to lean against, just like a dried tree branch in front of a strong wind.
“Um…”
I turned my head abruptly. The gaze of Jun, who had lingered on the drawing I had just seen, now rose towards me.
“…Shall we continue from ‘after that’?”
“…There’s no chapter called ‘after that.’ ‘Farewell’ and ‘after that’ come as a set.”
“Ah… a set.”
“Why are you pondering again?”
Contrary to the teasing tone, Jun’s lips, which barely touched my cheek, conveyed a sense of relief.
“Maybe it’s still too early.”
Jun grabbed a few pages after the one I had just unfolded and connected them to the pages that followed. Unseen pages quickly turned over. Leaving behind only a single sheet.
“Is it okay now?”
“…”
“If your heart hurts, there’s nothing I can do. And it’s okay. Don’t make such an expression. There are still plenty of opportunities. Opportunities where you might be okay watching these scenes.”
Yeah… all I can promise now is that I’ll do my best. Even so, when the shoot starts soon, I might need to muster more courage.
If it’s a shooting location where all the actors and staff collectively experience the pain of a scene, maybe there, I can endure a bit of difficult emotions and, at that moment, receive comfort from those who share the same feelings.
“Shall we see the last scene?”
With a slightly cheerful remark, thrown to subtly lighten the mood, I gave a nonchalant permission to do as one pleases. Unintentionally, only a very thin sheet of paper remained. And then…
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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