Big Life

“Ah…” The unexpected question caught Ha Jae-Gun off guard, and a weird noise emerged from him. He spread out the torn page and nodded once.

Seeing that, the female staffer’s eyes widened. “You’re really Writer Ha?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“My gosh…!” the female staffer covered her mouth in shock.

She was frowning slightly, but she was smiling from ear to ear as she said, “Oh, my! Ah, I’m really surprised! I couldn’t tell from afar, but now that I’m seeing you up close…! I saw the interview you did with Navin.”

“Ahaha, I see.”

“You’re much better looking in real life. I enjoyed Foolish Woman as well. I just started reading it on my commute yesterday, but I’m already nearing the end of the novel! I even got scolded on the subway for crying!” the female staffer exclaimed.

She had totally forgotten that she was still working.

Ha Jae-Gun only stood there awkwardly as he was unsure how he should respond.

“Ah, sure.”

“Thank you, thank you! Wait a minute, I’ll be back in a bit.” The female staffer quickly opened the door to the staff office after scanning the surroundings for her fellow colleagues. It took her less than thirty seconds to return with her copy of Foolish Woman in her arms.

“I bought it just last week. Please sign it here.”

“What is your name?”

“It’s Kim Ha-Yoon.”

Ha Jae-Gun fixed the book in a corner of the bookshelf and then signed the book with sincerity. This was the second autograph that he had ever given out after the autograph that he had given to Lee Soo-Hee.

[Thank you. Please be happy.]

He left a message on a blank page along with his autograph.

“Here you go.”

“Ah… Thank you. I’m so happy.” the female staffer murmured as she took the book from Ha Jae-Gun.

The encounter with Ha Jae-Gun was a huge thing for the female staffer because her routine at work had always been boring, but her favorite novel writer suddenly appeared during her boring workday.

“Do you come to our bookstore often?”

“Yes, this is the nearest one, so I come here quite often.”

“Ah, why have I never seen you around before? But you read the books really fast. Ah, I didn’t mean to invade. I only noticed it when I was organizing the books. As expected of a writer, your reading speed is really different from normal people.”

The female staffer looked to be just slightly over twenty years old—roughly around Jung So-Mi’s age. She couldn’t control herself as if she were a child as she babbled on excitedly.

“I really enjoyed your book. I’ve also got lots of questions about books and writing. Could I buy you a cup of coffee when you’re available? I always get off work at 6 p.m.”

“Ah…” Ha Jae-Gun was flustered by the female staffer’s bold move.

He didn't actually dislike her advances. Her navy blue uniform with her cute face and petite body made her look charming—she looked so charming that he couldn’t see her as just an avid reader but as more of a woman.

Ha Jae-Gun didn’t immediately answer. He had wondered for a moment if he should accept her invitation, but he didn’t agree outright.

"Let's meet if there's a chance in the future."

"Thank you. Um… the pen please…" Ha-Yoon asked as she pulled out a memo pad from her pocket.

Ha Jae-Gun pulled out his fountain pen and handed it over to her. She then wrote her name and phone number on the memo pad and gave it to Ha Jae-Gun. Of course, she returned his pen as well.

“I have to go organize the storeroom now. I hope you’ll contact me. It was nice to meet you.”

“Yes, it was nice to meet you, too.”

Ha-Yoon then headed to the storeroom with her arms full of books. Ha Jae-Gun could feel her turning around to give her one last look before entering the storeroom.

However, he didn’t look up to meet her gaze.

‘Should I not have taken that picture?’ Ha Jae-Gun couldn’t believe that someone would recognize him once more. The thought that he had to change the bookstore just to continue reading books comfortably crossed his mind.

‘I should head back today.’

Ha Jae-Gun took five to six other books that he had been eyeing to read, along with the book that he had accidentally damaged, to the counter. Things would surely become troublesome if he were to stay here any longer, especially because a female staffer here actually managed to recognize him.

‘As expected, this is the most interesting book I’ve read today.’

Ha Jae-Gun took the escalator up to the first floor and opened the book he had accidentally torn while reading. The fantasy novel was set in medieval times, and it was about how a dragon who loathed humans met a knight.

‘Having a dragon is quite cool. Flying around with a pair of wings and turning an entire city into ruins with a single breath.’

Ha Jae-Gun was already holding the fountain pen in his hand.

‘Should I write a novel with the dragon as a subject?’

He wrote the word Dragon on the book’s blank space after much thought.

A while later, another character appeared in his mind.

‘A faithful knight abandoned by the king after getting framed by his fellow comrade who was jealous of his own talents! Just as his head was about to go flying beneath the guillotine, a dragon fell from the sky!’

Ha Jae-Gun quickly wrote down the idea that had just appeared in his mind.

All of a sudden, a man standing behind him patted his shoulder.

“Hey, could you make way?”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” Ha Jae-Gun apologized and moved aside. He hadn’t realized that he had been blocking the way because he was deep in his thoughts.

‘Sigh, I should go somewhere else to organize my thoughts.’

He had to quickly write down all the ideas in his mind before they disappeared.

Ha Jae-Gun saw a cafe nearby. It was brightly lit because it was just across the bookstore. He looked around briefly. In the end, he decided to look for another cafe.

“Welcome.”

Ha Jae-Gun was greeted upon walking into the cafe that he had chosen.

“Please give me an iced americano.” After receiving his order, Ha Jae-Gun took a corner seat in the cafe. He started drinking his coffee before continuing the story developments that he had put on pause earlier.

‘With its injured wings, the dragon fell and destroyed the execution site… The protagonist, who successfully escaped from a near-death crisis, was worried that the residents of the nearby village might have gotten hurt. However, he chanced upon a sight. The dragon was dying, but it still shook its tail and saved a girl who was pinned under a huge rock!’

His fountain pen kept scribbling on the memo pad as he filled the pages up with more story developments.

‘At that moment, the protagonist realized that the people had been misunderstanding the dragon, including his comrades who betrayed him. He removed the cursed seal in the dragon’s wings and escaped with it… That’s all for the introduction!’

Ha Jae-Gun was breathing heavily, and his heart was pounding so hard that he felt as if it were going to explode anytime soon. The intense rush he was experiencing right now would only happen whenever he was writing a story he was interested in.

It was also because of this rush that Ha Jae-Gun decided to become a writer.

‘The protagonist and dragon made a contract. The protagonist aims to save both the kingdom’s people and the princess he likes, while the dragon wants to reclaim its nesting place. And that was how the contract was made!’

Ha Jae-Gun punched his clenched fist into the air and grinned.

The two women seated at the table next to him turned pale, and they hurriedly moved to another table.

‘Now that the contract is made, only the protagonist is allowed to ride the dragon. The dragon is a powerful being, so there should be a handicap. I can say that it got weakened by the curse, or I can also say that the dragon can’t use its powers for an entire hour out of the entire day…’

Ha Jae-Gun kept on writing without realizing the passage of time.

After one, two, three, and four volumes—he had created an epic and solid story. It wasn’t only the passing of time that Ha Jae-Gun had missed. He also didn’t even realize that he was writing with Seo Gun-Woo’s pen.

‘Huh? What time is it now?’

He looked up and found that the sky outside had already turned dark. Ha Jae-Gun pulled out his phone and saw that it was already well past 7 p.m.

Ha Jae-Gun finished the rest of his iced americano, which had turned into a room-temperature drink by now and left the cafe in a hurry.

‘Once I reach home, I have to write this novel immediately.’

His footsteps heading toward the subway station quickened.

His mind had no time for other thoughts aside from the new novel that he was eager to start working on. He got so absorbed that he almost missed the station where he was supposed to alight.

Bzzt!

Just as he was nearing home, where he could finally spot Seo Gun-Woo’s grave, a call came in from Da-Seul. There should have been no reason for her to initiate a call, so Ha Jae-Gun was surprised. Of course, he still answered it.

“Hello?”

— Writer Oppa, what are you doing?

“I went for my appointment and went to the bookstore. I’m now heading home.”

— I see. Have you had dinner yet? I’m not working today.

“Ah, I have something urgent to do right now,” Ha Jae-Gun answered without slowing down.

Ha Jae-Gun had no intentions of agreeing to Da-Seul’s invitation today. He had to start working on the novel tonight. He was even planning on having just a simple dinner for tonight.

— I won’t ask you to drink. Can’t you just have dinner with me?

“I really can’t do tonight. Let’s meet next week instead. I’ll buy you a delicious meal then.”

— Tsk, alright then. Let’s just cut off contact altogether.

“I’m sorry. I’ll treat you to something delicious next week instead.”

— I’m just joking. I understand. Good luck, Oppa.

“Thank you. Enjoy your dinner, Ms. Da-Seul.”

Ha Jae-Gun ended the call and decided to stop by Seo Gun-Woo’s grave for a while.

He looked at the grave in the darkness and said, “Senior, I visited the bookstore today. Do you know how many books I’ve read using your glasses? I’ve read over fifty books in a span of two hours. That’s a third of my usual reading book count over a span of a year. How is this even possible?”

Ha Jae-Gun started pulling the weeds growing around the tombstone and continued.

“Thanks to the reading today, I was able to come up with a new novel. I’m going back home to write it out right now. It’s another fantasy novel, which is a genre that I really enjoy writing. Back in university, I’m the only one who wrote fantasy. We should have the right to dream in this desolate world because dreams are great.”

He had never said those words to anyone else before, but he had said them out loud in front of Seo Gun-Woo’s tombstone.

“I’ll be going back home now. Once I’m done, I’ll bring it over here for you to read. Please have a good night, Senior.”

Ha Jae-Gun bowed down deeply and went down the hill. The tombstone watched over Ha Jae-Gun silently as he headed back home.

***

The subway station on Line 1 was bustling with people at 7.30 a.m.

Jung So-Mi was currently sandwiched between the door and someone else.

Unfortunately, she could barely breathe.

‘I should just get out of the house half an hour earlier from tomorrow onward.’

Jung So-Mi had a driver’s license, but she didn’t own a car. Moreover, she actually couldn’t afford to own and maintain a car just yet. After all, she had stepped into society without a single helping hand from her family.

The bed and breakfast that her parents were running in Donghae wasn’t doing so well as more pension houses started springing up in the area.

After making the decision to work at Star Books, she rented a small one-room and paid the security deposit for it using the money she had saved while working part-time during her university days.

Bzzt!

‘Ah, who is it?’ Jung So-Mi was surprised when her phone vibrated in her pocket.

However, she couldn’t bring her hand down and reach out for her phone because she couldn’t move at all. The phone vibrated for quite a while, and thankfully, the door opened just in time when it pulled up to the station.

Jung So-Mi alighted and made way for the other passengers behind her who had to alight at the station. In the meantime, she took out her phone and saw Ha Jae-Gun’s name on the tiny screen.

“Hello, Writer Ha. What made you call so early this morning?”

— Are you on the way to work?

“Yes, I’m on the train right now,” Jung So-Mi answered as she boarded the train once more after everyone who wanted to alight had alighted. Fortunately, the train had gotten a bit more spacious, so she could finally catch her breath.

— It’s because I’ve just written a new novel.

“Pardon? A new novel? Are you releasing your next novel?”

— Yes, it’s a fantasy novel. I had a new story idea after meeting you that day, so I started writing it. I just sent over the manuscript for up to three volumes to you.

“...!” Jung So-Mi’s eyes widened in shock.

It had just been two weeks since they met, and she even got rejected when she tried to ask him about making another novel. However, he actually wrote three volumes in just two weeks?!

Jung So-Mi couldn’t help but feel highly suspicious of Ha Jae-Gun’s writing speed.

— Please take a look and give me a call. If it’s good, I can meet you today as well.

“Sure, Writer Ha. I understand. I’ll give it a quick read and call you again.”

— Thank you, goodbye.

When the call ended, Jung So-Mi accessed the office email immediately. She saw that Ha Jae-Gun had indeed sent over three volumes of his new novel.

‘The title is Dragon Rider? The protagonist rides a dragon?’

Jung So-Mi opened the novel with sparkling eyes, and she got so engrossed in the novel to the point that she was only looking at the screen of her phone while making her way to the office.