Big Life

“You’re in a public space, not your house. Why are you trying to kick up a fuss here? Moreover, you don’t have any reason to come here anymore.”

“Why didn’t you answer my calls?! You made me come all the way here to look for you!” Oh Myung-Hoon yelled with bulging eyes.

Lee Soo-Hee’s face darkened, and she said in a low voice, “I don’t want to have to call the police, so you better lower your voice.”

“What? The police? You want to call the police?”

“Let’s talk outside.” Lee Soo-Hee pressed the exit button beside the entrance to their office and stepped out first. Oh Myung-Hoon glared at her for a while before following behind.

They walked to the end of a corridor and arrived at a quiet pantry. Lee Soo-Hee stood with her arms folded in front of her chest and her back facing the window with the scenery of the city beyond it.

“Talk. What is it that you want?”

“Why did you decide to use Jae-Gun?” Oh Myung-Hoon glared as he waited for an answer.

Lee Soo-Hee didn’t avoid his eyes and answered, “Because he’s good at what he does…”

“You were right. It was difficult to hire average writers within such a short period of time, but thankfully, I’ve got my connections. And that person is my university classmate, Ha Jae-Gun.”

“He’s good at what he does? He’s good enough for you to dismiss me and hire him as my replacement?”

“Let’s set this right. You were the one who didn’t like our game’s story plot and kept on complaining about it. Plus, Jae-Gun definitely has the ability to write a game scenario that is as good as yours. Wait, he might even be better than you.”

Oh Myung-Hoon gnashed his teeth, and the tiny beard on his chin that he had already forgotten actually started quivering as he stood there in fury.

“That bastard… is as good as me? And he might be even better than me?”

“Jae-Gun is usually good at writing. He knows how to take criticism, has great observation skills, and is willing to write something entirely new to him despite the risk. He has shown that disposition of his in his writing.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“He was the top in our cohort and even in the previous two cohorts as well. Professor Han Hye-Sun also said so at the teacher appreciation party[1] back then. Didn’t you attend it?” Lee Soo-Hee mocked Oh Myung-Hoon in his face.

“Really? If he’s that good, then why wasn’t he able to shine even until now? He doesn’t know how to write in any other genre aside from fantasy and martial arts, and he doesn’t even have a decent novel to his name…”

”At the last alumni meet, he looked so pathetic I even got sad just looking at him.”

Lee Soo-Hee remained steadfast in the face of Oh Myung-Hoon’s mocking.

She tilted her head to one side with a surprised look and said, “You don’t know? Jae-Gun is already popular. His three recently published fantasy and martial arts novels simultaneously went into reprints.”

“Three simultaneous… reprints?” The mocking on Oh Myung-Hoon’s face disappeared.

Oh Myung-Hoon was pretty well-updated on the trends in the publishing industry as his father was the president of a well-known publishing company, and he himself was a popular romance novelist.

Therefore, there was no way he would have no idea what Lee Soo-Hee’s words meant.

However, it was hard for Oh Myung-Hoon to believe that all three of Ha Jae-Gun’s recently published novels had gone into reprinting. Oh Myung-Hoon’s face turned red in anger. Lee Soo-Hee had to be bluffing. She was doing it to provoke him.

“I think we’re done here, so I’ll get going. If you don’t believe me, you could always just search it up on the net. You know his pen name, right?”

Lee Soo-Hee was about to walk away when she added quietly, “Jae-Gun finally found success and his own way to being considerate with the readers. I’m looking forward to how much more he will grow in the future.”

Lee Soo-Hee finally walked away. The clicking heels grew softer as she walked further away from the pantry and down into the corridor.

Meanwhile, the furious Oh Myung-Hoon, whose teeth were still chattering in anger, was speechless as he stood rooted in his spot like a stone statue, even after Lee Soo-Hee had already disappeared.

‘No way… there’s no way he could write three entire novels in such a short amount of time, and there’s no way those novels could have gone into reprints at the same time!’

Oh Myung-Hoon’s quivering hands pulled out his phone, and he started browsing the Internet. He keyed in the name Poongchun-Yoo in the browser, and a list of Ha Jae-Gun’s latest novels and the readers' reviews showed up on the screen.

- Ramda: Entertaining fr;;; It made me want to keep coming back for fantasy novels despite efforts of trying to quit it in high school.

- HyunRyong: Please publish the next volume of Records of the Modern Master soon! Can’t you release at least three volumes every two months if releasing two volumes per month is stretching it?

- CheonDeokYoung: Definitely 500% worthwhile to bookmark it. Strongly recommend purchasing it for reading instead of renting it.

- YooHeonHwa: I strongly recommend it as an author. It’s much more interesting than my own novel, The Empire of a Good-for-Nothing.

- WoodenHorse: Please buy two copies. Please buy three copies. Please buy four copies. /shivers~~

The star ratings of Ha Jae-Gun’s books were eight stars on average.

The Records series and even the Wizard of Pezellon were all seeing positive reviews. Lee Soo-Hee wasn’t exaggerating earlier. Ha Jae-Gun was now a popular writer.

“Damn it!”

Clatter!

Oh Myung-Hoon threw his phone to the ground and even stomped on it a couple of times as if he had lost his mind. He didn’t want to keep using the phone that he used to look up the name of the person he despised the most in this world.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

Oh Myung-Hoon returned to his car. Still seething in anger, he slammed his foot on the accelerator.

He should be on his way to meet his father at this time, but Oh Myung-Hoon was heading to the bar he frequented. He couldn’t help but think that he might really go crazy if he didn’t get himself drunk while surrounded by girls.

***

Tadak! Tak! Tadadak!

While Oh Myung-Hoon was getting wasted, Ha Jae-Gun was in his small one-room apartment working away diligently on his laptop. It seemed that Ha Jae-Gun had long lost his perception of time.

‘Nice, let’s have a plot twist here using a betrayal and—Ah, but this betrayal was also meticulously planned out by the main character. Huhu, even I think that this plot is entertaining.’

Ha Jae-Gun had already completed the manuscript for Records of the Modern Master up to the final volume—volume ten—and sent it over to the editor. He had wrapped up both Records series beautifully at ten volumes each.

The manuscript he was working on right now was volume eight of Wizard of Pezellon, which he had contracted with Haetae Media. Looking at the current pace of the story, the story would probably end in the twelfth or perhaps in the fourteenth volume.

‘I should hurry up and finish this, so I can meet them with peace of mind.’

Ha Jae-Gun was planning to write as much as he could before his appointments this Saturday. In addition, he also had some other projects lined up in the following month, so he would be busy with those projects.

The novels he had completed recently were bringing him enough income to sustain his current lifestyle. In fact, he was earning so much money that he could afford to play around every day.

Now that he had all the time in the world, he wanted to start working on his ‘passion’ projects, the genres he had been wanting to write for quite a while now.

Of course, part of it was that he wanted to receive recognition from his father, who had always treated his own son as a failure.

Ha Jae-Gun hadn’t taken a rest even for a day.

He would wake up early in the morning and start the day off working at Seo Gun-Woo’s laptop for the next fourteen hours.

His long hours enabled him to complete an entire volume a day, and he was slowly filling up his original novels folder.

If he were overwhelmed by fatigue, he would make himself a cup of coffee using the gray cup to recover his energy. After a few uses, he concluded that the gray cup’s ability cooldown was about a day.

“Phew, I’m done!” Ha Jae-Gun exclaimed as he took off the brown horn-rimmed glasses he was using to polish his work. Rika, that had been entertaining herself, leaped onto Jae-Gun’s lap and pawed on his chest, seemingly congratulating him.

“I have completed up to volume eight of Wizard of Pezellon! There are so many events happening in that world that I could write over ten volumes for this novel. That bastard Department Head Ma Jong-Goo would definitely be head over heels, right?”

Ha Jae-Gun looked pleased as he imagined Ma Jong-Goo flattering him all day, thanks to the delightful news that he had prepared for the latter. He sent the manuscript and the good news about how the novel would go beyond ten volumes.

After he was done doing that, Ha Jae-Gun hugged Rika tightly and called it a day.

Ha Jae-Gun’s expectations did not fall far from the tree.

Ma Jong-Goo checked his inbox for Jae-Gun’s email as soon as he clocked in the office, and he trembled in happiness at the sight of the email. He punched his tightly clenched fist in the air in celebration and even waved them in the air.

“Nice!”

Knowing that they could publish over ten volumes of Wizard of Pezellon, which was currently printing at over six thousand copies per volume, Ma Jong-Goo was understandably pleased.

Honestly, it was the best news he had heard in a while.

Ma Jong-Goo immediately walked to Park Kyung-Soo’s desk and said, “Deputy Park! Writer Ha said that he would write over ten volumes for Wizard of Pezellon.”

“Wow, really? That’s awesome!” Park Kyung-Soo looked up from his monitor screen.

The atmosphere in the office had turned for the better after they had successfully signed a contract with Ha Jae-Gun, and it was also the reason why Ma Jong-Goo had been throwing fewer tantrums since then.

“I think we should send him a gift.”

“Hmm, what gift should we send? Maybe a health supplement?”

“No, not something so common. We sent Hanwoo and red ginseng previously, so shouldn’t we arrange a more special gift for him? After all, our sales have become stable in the previous two months because of him.”

Park Kyung-Soo fell into deep contemplation after hearing Ma Jong-Goo’s words. He looked around, and his own keyboard caught his eye. A thought came to mind at the sight. It was an item that would always be the closest to any writer’s fingers.

Therefore, it was the perfect gift.

“Department Head Ma, what about we gift him a keyboard?”

“A keyboard?”

“We can have a custom-made keyboard for him that would reduce fatigue when using it to type over an extended period of time. It has to feel great as well. I think Writer Ha will love something like that as a gift.”

Ma Jong-Goo snapped his fingers as he stood up. “Hoho, that’s right! That’s a great suggestion, Deputy Park. Go look it up, and get a good one! It doesn’t matter even if it costs four hundred thousand.”

“Yes, sir!” replied Park Kyung-Soo.

Since they were finally done with their brainstorming session, Ma Jong-Goo headed over to the president’s office with a spring in his steps to report the good news.

Meanwhile, Park Kyung-Soo was smiling as he started looking for mechanical keyboards on the Internet.

***

On the other hand…

Unlike Haetae Media, there was a cold tension in the air within Star Books’ office.

Slam!

“Just what have you been doing?!” President Park Jae-Gook yelled and slammed his fist on the desk. Kwon Tae-Won, who was seated across him, sunk deeper into the sofa with his head lowered.

"You must have done something upsetting, and that's why he chose to sign with our competitor for his next novel! They are printing six thousand copies now! I've always reminded you to grab a tight hold of him, yet you're letting them publish his works?!"

Park Jae-Gook flared up because Haetae Media was publishing Ha Jae-Gun's Wizard of Pezellon. He was furious when he heard the news that the book had gone into another round of reprinting, and he directed his anger at Kwon Tae-Won.

"How dare you call yourself an editor-in-chief! The company's sales are dropping drastically now. How could I ever trust you to perform in the future? Are you getting over your head now that you've got ten years of experience under your belt?”

”Why are you giving me such slipshod work!"

Kwon Tae-Won could only gulp down his saliva. He had never done his work half-heartedly in the nine years he had been working at Star Books.

He had always strove for the best interests of the company. He was the ideal workaholic—someone who would work regardless of whether it was day or night. He even worked on weekends.

The titles Ha Jae-Gun had published through Star Books, Records of the Murim Master and Records of the Modern Master, were pretty popular and had raked in huge profits for the company. They were definitely earning more compared to the lone Wizard of Pezellon, which was being published through Haetae Media.

However, the old president wasn't getting any of it, and the old man was feeling regretful and annoyed by the fact that they couldn’t sign Ha Jae-Gun's Wizard of Pezellon.

"Anyway, do your best at the authors’ meet this Saturday! Make sure that he shows up! I want you to get the distribution rights to his next novel as well!"

"..."

"Why aren't you answering? Did you hear me?!"

"Yes, sir."

"Now, get out!"

Kwon Tae-Won stepped out of the president's office with drooping shoulders. He stood blankly for a while in what felt like an extremely long corridor.

He had gone through that corridor countless times throughout the nine years he had been working with the company. However, today he couldn't even remember the way back to his office.

'I'm tired.'

He was already forty-four years old. He was at an ambiguous age where one couldn’t really label him old or young. He started in the publishing industry from the ground up, and he made his way up to the position of editor-in-chief.

As a salaried worker, he was already at the summit of his career. How long could he maintain his current position?

He became filled with uncertainty as he started thinking of his future. The president's family and relatives were slowly filling up the key positions in the company, so it was inevitable for him to feel a growing worry.

"Uh, editor-in-chief," said Jung So-Mi upon bumping into Kwon Tae-Won at the door to their office.

Jung So-Mi was carrying bags of different burgers, and Kwon Tae-Won only needed a glance to see what was going on. With a sigh, he asked grimly, "Deputy Ko made you run an errand?"

Jung So-Mi was clearly hesitating as she answered, "Ah… I needed some cash as well, so it was on the way."

Of course, Kwon Tae-Won did not buy her answer. The fast food restaurant was on the first floor of the next building, and the ATM was right outside their office.

"Just go inside and start working." Kwon Tae-Won sent her back in without further explanation.

Deputy Ko wasn’t a first-time offender, Kwon Tae-Won had already called him out before and had given him a couple of warnings, but it seemed that Deputy Ko’s habit of sending new female employees to run errands for him was a tough nut to crack.

Kwon Tae-Won left the office and headed to the convenience store to get himself a pack of cigarettes. He had quit smoking over a year ago, but he decisively opened the cigarette pack and called Ha Jae-Gun.

— Hello, editor-in-chief.

1. Some of us might have joined this kind of party back in our school days. It was organized for the fresh graduates or alumni to show appreciation to their teachers. ☜