Big Life

“Yes?” Da-Seul flinched. She seemed scared as she looked up at Ha Jae-Gun, seemingly afraid that Ha Jae-Gun would make a weird request.

“I actually have a favor to ask from you.”

“What is it?”

“Instead of singing, could we have a conversation? Of course, I will pay you for your time.”

Ha Jae-Gun’s request sounded strange in Da-Seul’s ears. Of course, there had been lonely customers who would constantly look for karaoke helpers to rant.

However, the young customer before her was strange because he was explaining his side first before ranting.

“We can still talk while singing and playing together,” she said.

“I want us to have a deeper conversation. I would like to hear more about your work, but of course, only if you feel comfortable sharing it with me.”

“About my work? Why?” she asked sourly.

Ha Jae-Gun finally decided that there was no point hiding his job any longer.

He decided to reveal the truth. “Actually, I’m an ink slinger.”

“An ink… slinger? A writer?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t you say that you were an electric pads seller?”

“That was a joke. I’m actually an ink slinger.”

Ha Jae-Gun had never introduced himself as a writer before. The word writer felt like a heavy burden to him, and he also thought that he still wasn’t qualified to use that word to describe himself.

“I had an inspiration for a new novel after our meeting last night. I wanted to write a story that talks about the life of a karaoke helper, so I wrote a synopsis of it.”

Da-Seul’s eyes widened in shock upon hearing that.

“However, I got stuck because I knew almost nothing about karaoke helpers and their daily lives. I couldn’t continue writing with what I had, so I decided to come here to ask you for an interview.”

Ha Jae-Gun’s tone and intentions were conveyed clearly to her, but the girl only looked at him in a daze.

“Is it difficult?”

“N-no.” Da-Seul looked up. She was rubbing her sweaty palms on her thighs. “It’s not, I’m just flustered by your request.”

“I understand. It must be your first time seeing someone like me.”

“So, I’ll just have to talk to you, right?”

“Yes, just as I’ve mentioned earlier.”

“So, I’ll answer your questions, and you’ll still pay me according to the hours, right?”

“Of course.”

After confirming that she would still be paid properly, she finally smiled faintly. The thick lipstick she put on today made her lips look thicker and shinier.

“I’d be foolish to reject your offer because it’s more comfortable for me.” Da-Seul reached out and opened both cans of beer. She took one for herself and handed the other to Ha Jae-Gun.

“Let’s have a toast first.”

“Sorry, but I’m fine…” Ha Jae-Gun trailed off. It would be hard for him to work if he got influenced by alcohol, so it would be best if he didn’t drink any alcohol.

However, Da-Seul pouted and turned away. She seemed disappointed as she murmured, “If we don’t toast, I’m not going to agree.”

“All right… Just one can.” Ha Jae-Gun took the can of beer from her hand.

Da-Seul’s face lit up, and she clinked cans with him.

“Down it at once.”

“This can… a-all at once?” Ha Jae-Gun stammered, but Da-Seul had already raised her head and was emptying the can of beer into her stomach.

Ha Jae-Gun gulped and started drinking from the can with a grim face. He frowned and squeezed his eyes shut as the carbonated drink stung his throat.

Da-Seul had already finished her can of beer and was watching Ha Jae-Gun with a mysterious smile.

“Keuuu…!” Ha Jae-Gun groaned after finally finishing the beer in one go. He unknowingly crushed the can in his hands before placing it on the table.

“Are you even a man? It’s just one can of beer.” Da-Seul chuckled because Ha Jae-Gun was coughing and was holding his throat in agony.

Da-Seul crossed one leg over the other and lit a cigarette. She then started puffing out white clouds of smoke.

“Time is ticking. Let’s start. Ask away.”

“Ugh… Okay.” Ha Jae-Gun whipped out his pen and memo pad. It would have been best if he had brought his laptop with him. Ha Jae-Gun started regretting his decision as he asked his first question.

“I’d like to hear what made you decide to start working in this line of work.”

The girl looked up at the ceiling.

She puffed out another cloud of white smoke before saying, “I dropped out of high school and moved out of the house because I have a bad relationship with my stepmother. I tried looking for jobs, and I eventually discovered this job. It has barely been a month since I started working here.”

“I see…” Ha Jae-Gun wrote down the key points diligently as he listened to her story in stupefaction. It was surprising that she would share her personal story with him on top of his question.

Of course, he welcomed the personal story because her story would also help him greatly in making his characters come to life. He had to extract as much information as possible.

“How did you discover this job?”

“From the Internet. I saw an advertisement and called them. There was an interview with the mister from an entertainment room in a cafe, and I started working on the very same day. My working hours are usually from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., if there are many customers, I would sometimes have to work up to 4 a.m.”

“Ah, I see, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Do you have any other income source here aside from the basic pay?”

“The regular customers often give me tips, but happy customers would always give me tips. There are also pretentious and dirty lowlives who are exhausting to deal with but would only give me 10,000 won.”

“Wow, they must be really tiring to handle.” Ha Jae-Gun was talking with her, but his hands didn’t stop writing. The white memo pad was soon filled to the brim with tightly spaced words.

***

‘Why is it so quiet?’ The lady boss frowned. It was strange. It had been quite a while since the customer of Room 2 entered the room, but not even a single melody had come out of the room since then.

‘Did something happen inside?’

The world was filled with all sorts of people, and it had always been hard to determine what was going on inside their heads.

Unsettled, the lady boss decided to check things out.

‘Oh, they’re just chatting?’ The lady boss peeked through the glass and saw the lady and Ha Jae-Gun sitting next to each other, having a normal conversation. Albeit belatedly, she got curious. They had only met for the first time yesterday, so why were they so engrossed in their conversation? What were they talking about?

“Over here, please give us another four cans of beer!”

“Sure, sure. I’ll bring it over soon.” The lady boss turned around and hurried to the fridge. She was much too busy to be spending her time observing one unusual customer, and her interest in Ha Jae-Gun stopped there.

As the night grew darker, the entire building became filled with singing noises from the enthusiastic guests. However, there was one room that remained silent amidst the boisterous surroundings.

“Phew… Thanks for your help.”

Ha Jae-Gun finally put down his pen after a long two-hour interview. He had managed to get the answers to everything he needed to know for now.

He would probably need more information from her when he started officially working on the novel, but for now, he had gotten all he needed.

“You’ve been a great help. I’ll use these as references and do my best to write the novel. Could I look for you again if I need more information from you?”

Da-Seul pulled up a new stick of cigarette and nodded. Her long eyelashes trembled faintly. It seemed that she had also gotten tired from their two-hour-long conversation.

“Since I’m starting work at 8 p.m., it’s best if you could do it before then. I’ll be drunk later in the night, so holding a conversation will get difficult,” replied Da-Seul.

“All right. You must be tired, right?” asked Ha Jae-Gun.

Da-Seul shook her head and chuckled. “Not really, it was fun.”

“Was it?”

“It was my first time getting asked questions like these, and it made me like I’m a star, you know?” She stuck her tongue out, showing her cute side. She would definitely look much younger if she removed her thick makeup.

“Just call me on this number next time. Don’t go through the lady boss.” She handed him a paper with her name and contact number written on it.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled and thanked her inwardly—from the bottom of his heart.

He was truly grateful to her—the girl who had saved him last night and tonight.

***

It was finally time for Ha Jae-Gun to start officially working on the novel. Every single day started and ended with Ha Jae-Gun working on his new novel.

Time passed rather quickly because Ha Jae-Gun would spend sixteen hours a day working on the novel. Unfortunately, the end was still not in sight.

‘It feels weird… I don’t like this!’

He had filled up his word count quota long ago because Seo Gun-Woo’s laptop allowed him to type ten thousand characters in an hour.

The issue was the fact that his work was barely satisfactory.

He had written and deleted almost the same amount of words.

Ha Jae-Gun typed profusely on his keyboard as he inwardly asked, ‘Senior, what do you think of this scene where the main character meets the karaoke helper for the first time at a motel?’

[Don’t ask me, I don’t have the answer to that. But the description is so elegant that it feels weird. What’s important is that the two of them fell in love at first sight, but the lines are too beautiful, and that kind of blurs the scene. I would delete everything.]

‘Is that so? I didn’t want to describe this scene too plainly. I’m not writing just a romance novel since it will talk about the growth of these two characters who are burned out from life.’

[I’m saying this because I’m afraid that you would mess up the work while focusing too much on the artistic side of it. Don’t put too much effort into that area, you should write them with sincerity. Just write down the first expression that comes to mind. That would be the real and best line.]

‘Yes, sir, I’ll keep that in mind.’

The Seo Gun-Woo in Ha Jae-Gun’s mind was coaching him with his heart and soul.

Of course, Ha Jae-Gun was doing his best as well.

He wanted to write a novel that was satisfactory to both him and his mentor.

‘Ah, I’m stuck again…! This isn’t enough!’

It had been a week since he started writing furiously, and Ha Jae-Gun was once again met with difficulties. He buried his forehead into his hands. The karaoke helper female lead lacked a sense of crisis.

‘Things should not always be this smooth for her. There’s no way that things would end with just her drinking a few cans of beer and singing a few songs with her guests. I need more information!’

In fact, he knew this would happen. When he met Da-Seul last time, he thought it would be awkward to ask her such embarrassing questions because it was their first real conversation.

In addition, he knew that he could always meet her again to ask more questions.

‘Should I contact her now?’

Ha Jae-Gun looked at the clock and saw that it was past 9 p.m. It was highly likely that she was currently entertaining customers right now. In the end, Ha Jae-Gun made the decision to send her a message first.

— Hello, I’m the ink slinger from before. I’m sorry for asking so late, but could we meet tonight?

Ha Jae-Gun was very anxious, as it had been a while since he got stuck in his writing. He really wanted to meet her tonight to get more information from her.

However, he didn’t receive any reply from her. Ha Jae-Gun knew that she had to be working right now, but he still decided to wait anxiously for her reply.

An hour later, his phone finally vibrated.

Ha Jae-Gun and Rika lying next to each other on the floor abruptly sat up.

— I’m sorry, I was working. Would it be possible now?

— I’ll head over immediately. Should I go to Herb Karaoke?

— Hansung Pocha is next to it. I’ll be there.

— All right, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.

Ha Jae-Gun changed into a shirt and jeans before rushing out of the house. He contemplated bringing his car along, but he decided against it because he was heading to a popular place for drinking.

In addition, Da-Seul might ask him to drink.

“Over here, oppa!”

Da-Seul waved at him from a corner of the restaurant. Ha Jae-Gun walked through the crowded dining hall and sat across from Da-Seul. There was a beansprout soup and a bottle of soju on the round table.

“This place is better because it’s less stuffy, and we’re not going to sing, anyway.” Da-Seul smiled brightly at him.

Unlike last time, she was wearing less makeup this time. Her clothes were also more plain than fancy, similar to what women in their 20s would wear—a khaki jacket and tight jeans that accentuated her legs.

‘She’s pretty.’

He thought she was pretty the first time he met her, but this time, he thought that she was really pretty.

Was it called natural beauty? Her natural look was stunning.

“Have you eaten dinner, oppa? I’m hungry.”

“I haven’t had dinner, too. Order whatever you want.”

“I can order anything I want? I love extremely spicy food.”

“I can eat spicy food as well.”

“All right. Auntie! One steamed chicken[1], please!” Da-Seul shouted the order and picked up the bottle of soju.

As he raised his glass with both hands, Ha Jae-Gun couldn’t help but think that he had made a great decision not to drive here.

“So, what are you curious about today?”

“Um… It’s about…” Ha Jae-Gun found it hard to raise the question. He hadn’t thought of drinking, but his hands automatically brought the glass to his mouth. “Um, how should I say this? It’s about the more sensitive things you encounter at work.”

“Huh? You’re making it hard for me to understand.”

“For example… there are customers who wouldn’t just sing normally.”

“Hmm?” Da-Seul looked at him with narrowed eyes.

Embarrassed, Ha Jae-Gun picked up his chopsticks quietly.

He had just picked up a piece of beansprout when Da-Seul seemed like she finally understood Ha Jae-Gun’s words as she asked, “Do we go on field trips like in MTs[2]? Is that what you’re curious about?”

1. 찜닭. This is made with chicken, and various vegetables marinated in a Korean soy sauce-based sauce.

2. Membership Training is an event held among university students in South Korea.