/Two tigers, nearly identical in appearance, leap onto the page together./

/In the next scene, they are surrounded by a flurry of claw marks, and the title "The Truth Tellers" is etched deeply into the background behind them./

[The Two Tigers]

[Gangnam District, Seoul]

[2017]

/A staircase. Feet are thump-thumping noisily as Seungho hops up one stair at a time. Real classy./

S: Hup - 

Hup - 

Hup - 

/At last he arrives at the top, and he leaps with both feet onto the linoleum floor and stretches out his arms, like a gymnast landing from a death-defying somersault!/

S: Aha!

/Beside his face, the caption proudly proclaims,/

[Im Seungho - APL Trainee and Total Adult]

/...Before he stumbles and nearly falls backwards!/

S: Oop -

/When Seungho recovers from the destablizing effect of his own shenanigans, he goes to a nearby auditorium, and gingerly knock-knocks on the door. Inside, he sees two men leaning against a check-in table, engaged in conversation./

/One of them, an elderly man wearing spectacles and a threadbare cotton vest and khakis, smiles and waves enthusiastically when he notices Seungho standing there./

K: Congratulations on passing the audition, Tiger! 

On the up and up.

S: Aw, thanks. 

/Seungho hops over to Mr. Kim, grinning ear-to-ear./

K: I saw your video. Pretty good form, for someone with so little dance training! 

Reminds me an awful lot of your brother.

/He says, referring to Taewoong./

K: Say, you live around here? 

S: Oh, 

I still live with my parents in Jung District. 

K: That's right! 

/The long-buried memory seems to hit Mr. Kim right on the noggin. He gestures energetically as he recalls it./

K: Your family owns that garage near Namdaemun Market! 

I had soju with your dad and brothers years ago. 

You're a cracking, lively bunch!

S: Oh, haha!

Thank you?

K: But I can tell, 

You're a bit different from them. 

S: ...?

/Seungho, who had been in his element, freezes. He's gotten that comment many times over the years, and still hasn't figured out a good response. It is only for a second - not long enough to be noticeable./

/Without sensing that anything is the matter, Mr. Kim continues.../

K: So, Im Seungho! Let’s find you…

...your new home sweet home. 

/He says, as he searches with his tablet./

K: Well, we still have a couple of vacancies in Yongsan.

The budget option!

And here, right across the street, 

there’s a waitlist for a new highrise. 

Perfect for beauty sleep - you just roll out and go!

/A map shows up on the screen, illustrating the distance between the two properties./ 

S: Um,

what about living at home? 

K: ...Of course! Of course, you could try that...

...but for someone like you, so inexperienced, and joining us outside the recruitment cycle,

...well! Dorm life could make all the difference!

S: Right...

/Seungho responds tepidly, embarrassed at having even asked. Mr. Kim is a nice guy, but he sure knows how to put a trainee in their place!/

K: Let's suppose you decide to stay in Yongsan, where your brother lived. 

We have a building near the Han River that just took some repairs. 

/We see a brown brick building stretching the length of an entire block - an unusually old, uncommonly long and strange building, that looks like a relic of an earlier age of rapid industrialization in Seoul. It would not be strange for someone to proclaim it was once military barracks, or a prison. This is the exterior of Taewoong's dorm as it appears from the road. Walking around it is an even stranger sight, as it is actually bent into a horseshoe shape, with Taewoong and Myungie's dorm tucked into its shadowy interior./

K: Most units are around 20, 25 pyeong?

All of our dorms come with standard amenities and house 2 to 4 people.

You’ll have a full kitchen - unless, you’d prefer a kitchenette?

S: Oh no, Mr. Kim, I'll cook!

K: …Ah, good! Very good. Well, I won't pass judgment either way.

/As Mr. Kim dexterously swipes through his tablet, rattling on about the features of the building, we see flashes of the apartment that would soon become Seungho's home. The familiar floor plan - the narrow lobby with the old-fashioned manual lock - the glass sliding doors that conceal a narrow coat closet - the passthrough window that connects the living room to the kitchen, through which we espy a range that hasn't been used to cook all that much - and underneath the thin ledge, where a gleaming glass bottle sits emptied of its spirit next to a cheap plastic drinking cup - there is a plastic foldout table supporting a lonely box of cigarettes. On the wall - a calendar of the type you commonly find at green grocers./

/Though humble and small, the unit is lit by the warmth of the spring day, and an unspoken something that connects it spiritually to Taewoong's old apartment with Myungie, hovering just below and beyond this one, a memory and a blueprint./

/Mr. Kim clicks the screen and pulls up a dense sheet of names, organized by unit number./

K: Here, and you can see from this column, who's living with who.

/He's right. Looking closely, it is possible to guess who is living in duos, trios, and who is singled out, just by counting the number of characters in their names. For example, we can see that room 3-01 also just has one person, while neighbouring 3-02 has two people. We can also see that 2-34, which is Taewoong and Myungie's old apartment and reputedly haunted, actually shows someone to be living in it still. Why is that important?.../

S: Uhhm...

/It is then that Seungho, a Total Adult who is making quite a show of looking like he's thought this through, suddenly blurts out,/

S: What about this person who's all by himself,

"Kang Minho"?

/Mr. Kim doesn't immediately react - which might have been Seungho's first clue that something was off. The silence envelops his countenance, like a shadow./

K: ...Oh!

/After a weighty pause, he taps the tablet screen with the heel of his hand./

K: OK. 

S: Is it really OK?

K: Yes, yes, perfectly fine! 

I'll call building management today.

Next, you'll need to fill out some waivers! 

Waivers, waivers…

/Seungho doesn't totally understand what just happened, but the confusion is soon displaced by a feeling of intense euphoria./

/It is finally dawning on to him that, whatever experiences he'd had up until this point, a line had been irrevocably drawn with the choice of Kang Minho, and that through this lease, he is finally embarking on the adventure of his life.../

["2 years later”]

/This is not the Seungho of yesteryear. He is wearing a long beige quilted jacket with a concealed zipper, layered over with a coarse wool scarf and a small light crossbody bag, and paired with loose-fitting slacks. Underneath he is wearing a very pretty collared shirt with an apple blossom design, and delicate mother-of-pearl buttons that button on the left side. Most conspicuous is the change in his hair, which is now bleached blond and fashionably unkempt - perhaps a forerunner to the ubiquitous wolf cut of 2021?/

/But all of this is just Seungho's day-off look. Nothing special. After all, he is an idol now./

/Quietly, he murmurs to himself,/

S: It always feels like 

something life-changing is about to happen

up here.

/Behind Seungho and below him, there is a low indistinct sound - someone's distant question pinging off the walls of the wide staircase./

Mh: …?

/Seungho turns towards the voice and yells, a bit more forcefully,/

S: …I said it’s life-changing up here!!

Mh: Oh, OK.

/Seungho hops away cheekily./

S: Minho can’t hear ~

/Kang Minho - Seungho's housemate by chance, and now his groupmate - does not react to this provocation. He slowly makes his way up the stairs. with characteristic stoicism./

/He, too, is much changed. Minho is wearing a vintage navy-coloured tweed suit with dramatic peak lapels. Underneath, he sports a checkered neck scarf with a golden pin, and a thick cotton undershirt with frog buttons. Both suit and vest are remarkably filled out, as if he had been in intense training since we last saw him in 2018./

/But it is not just his physique - his once frizzled, bleached blond hair is now dark and slicked back, his eyes are sharper and more prominent, and the line of his jaw is taut. He looks nearly like a completely different person - but in his mannerisms and expressions, there is still a hint of the old personality - the ennui, the apathy, and the matter-of-factness of Kang Minho./

/The new, upgraded Minho casts a wary eye up and down the hall./

Mh: You talking about the back offices? 

...Yeah, 

They definitely do change lives.

/Seungho gives him a well-worn look, the same exasperated look that he's given Minho many times since their debut, but he is smiling./

S: …C’mon.

/They slide past the door that Seungho once knocked so lightly, and together they gaze upon the auditorium:/

/Mr. Kim is sitting alone behind the same check-in desk, still dressed in an old-fashioned knit vest and unfortunate khakis, still sporting those big rectangular spectacles./ 

/Unlike the two young men, not much has changed in Mr. Kim's physical appearance since 2017 - though perhaps his bowl cut is a touch less voluminous than before. But then, there is his energy: even though it has only been 2 years, Mr. Kim seems less sprightly than he once was, more withdrawn. Nevertheless, he smiles warmly when he sees Seungho./

K: Why, it's Seungho! 

S: Mr. Kim!

Has it been 2, 3 months already? 

S: Mmm…yeah!

/Seungho has the decency to look sheepish./

S: Sorry we didn’t drop by sooner...

It’s been super busy…

K: Ayy. 

Think you’re the first young fellow who forgot old Mr. Kim 

as soon as he became famous?

/Seungho doesn't quite know how to react to that./

Mh: ...

S: Ah…

Kim: Ha ha...aw, 

I'm just teasing ya.

But, I do have a bone to pick with you 

about the name!

C'mon now…"Apollo”, like the candy?

S: Well actually, it’s meant to be 

The Greek god of Light and Music!

/A flash of the marbled face of Phoebus Apollo appears out of the darkness of bygone myth./

K: Hmm...I dunno!

It smells like the kind of thing an out-of-touch old desk jockey would think was "hip".

[Meanwhile, at the CEO’s office...]

/A sneeze erupts - it's nearly enough to blow the big man right out of his chair!!/

CEO: Ach-ooo!!

S: That’s OK. It's cool with us! 

/He nudges the truculent Minho, who inclines his neck - and his pride - ever so slightly./

Mh: ...It's cool in a way. 

S: …Thinking about it, I hope we get to keep the name!

Candy company, please be sweet to us?

/Seungho looks behind him with big innocent eyes at no one in particular. Um, what's going on, Seungho? Is there an IP lawyer hiding in the walls or something?/

K: ?

/A tidy stack of papers looms in the foreground, reminding us of the businesslike purpose of headquarters./

K: So! 

What can I do for the two dashing young debutants?

/The two look at each other, suddenly shy. What is their true reason for being here?/

S: Oh,

So...