Big Life

— Hello? Are you still on the phone?

"Yes, I'm here," Kwon Tae-Won answered with his hand still on his forehead.

Team Leader Park's low sigh could be heard from the other side. The two of them fell into a long silence, as neither of them could ask or share the reason for the halt in marketing plans. Asking about something obvious seemed to be a redundant move at this point, and things like this were commonplace in business.

— How is Laugh Books doing recently?

Team Leader Park was the first to break the silence between them. He tried to change the topic.

Kwon Tae-Won straightened himself and let out a short sigh into the air before replying, "We're just starting out, so there's nothing significant to share."

— But still…

Team Leader Park trailed off. One could hear him moving somewhere else.

Kwon Tae-Won waited patiently until Team Leader Park spoke again.

— Since you already have a marketing budget with huge marketing plans, I’m sure you already have many writers under you, right?

Team Leader Park had hurled a question that Kwon Tae-Won found hard to answer.

Kwon Tae-Won's heart sped up unknowingly as he smiled bitterly.

"We only have one writer signed with us."

— Just one writer?

"Yes."

— But—wait, what are you even aiming for?

"I'm not very sure of it myself, either."

— Wow… wait a minute. Let me light up my cigarette first. That old man wasn't really someone who would resort to using such methods.

Kwon Tae-Won snorted lightly, signaling that he was still listening. He knew that he wouldn't be able to escape from the claws of Park Jae-Gook.

Another face whom he didn’t like to see also surfaced in his mind, but this wasn’t something that he should divulge to Team Leader Park.

— So what are you planning to do?

"Me?"

— Yes, I'm referring to you. You only have one writer under your belt, right? If they start blocking you in every way… This is a sensitive question, but are you prepared for it?

"I'll have to try my best." Kwon Tae-Won stood up straight and opened his shoulders as Ha Jae-Gun's face appeared in his mind.

"Thank you for looking out for me. Good luck, and I will contact you again soon."

— I understand. Hoo, you take care as well, President Kwon.

Kwon Tae-Won hung up and pressed his palms tightly together in an effort to stop his urge to smoke. He stopped smoking many years ago until recently, and he was trying to keep up his streak once more, but the desire to smoke this time was strong.

He regretted it.

'Let's focus on the issue at hand first.'

Kwon Tae-Won breezed through the rental procedure. He bade his goodbyes to the warehouse owner and headed back to his car. A large number of messages had arrived while he was busy.

— This is Team Leader Yoo from Disnote. We had delays in our plans, so I don't think we can promote you on the large banner until after February. I'm sorry.

"Is it finally starting?" Kwon Tae-Won mumbled and put his phone away. He leaned into the driver's seat and placed his head against the headrest while clearing up the thoughts in his mind.

In just ten minutes, he received messages from multiple companies.

'Disnote, Booking24, Booksicker, OpenCulture, BookSale, and Utobooks… So we can't do promotions on any of those sites.'

Kwon Tae-Won smiled helplessly. The small and medium businesses had rejected his marketing plans together. Of course, they had their own reasons on the surface.

He knew this would happen, but he was still caught off guard.

'As long as Navin and KokoaPage are fine…' Kwon Tae-Won thought and bit his thumbnail. The Star Books magic had yet to reach those two large corporations because their strong sales performance was on a different level compared to the small and medium-sized businesses.

Publishing The Breath on paid serialization on Munpiang, Navin Store, and KokoaPage alone would generate more than enough revenue for them to survive.

However, there was no way that Kwon Tae-Won would be satisfied with that.

Kwon Tae-Won looked up the contact number of Utobooks' marketing team leader.

Even if he were to lose the other companies, he couldn’t give up on the business with Utobooks.

'Please answer the phone, Team Leader Jin…!'

Utobooks’ stable system and long history would surely bring them a large number of loyal readers.

Unlike other companies, more than seventy percent of online readers use Utobooks.

Ha Jae-Gun also trusted him and left everything to him. Therefore, he had to do everything within his abilities so that the book would soar and perhaps even surpass the sky itself.

Kwon Tae-Won was determined to have The Breath showcased on the main page of Utobooks.

— Yes, President Kwon…

It took a while, but Team Leader Yoo finally answered the call. However, the voice sounded quite lethargic and meek.

It couldn't be helped as long as one was still human. After all, Kwon Tae-Won had treated him to drinks that were as expensive as his own monthly salary.

Kwon Tae-Won showed no signs of reproach or regret over his decision.

He proceeded to speak in his usual bright tone.

"Hello, this is Kwon Tae-Won. Would you like to have dinner tonight if you aren't busy?"

— President Kwon, actually I—

Kwon Tae-Won quickly cut him off and continued energetically. "I said that I would bring you to an amazing restaurant when we met the last time, right? Let's go together later, you won’t regret it."

— Mm, yes, I remember. You did say that, but…

Once again, Team Leader Park hesitated to finish his sentence.

Of course, Kwon Tae-Won knew why. He wasn't really feeling sorry. He was simply agonizing over whether he should accept the offer or not. He had always been that kind of man.

Kwon Tae-Won had already figured out what kind of animal he was while throwing out baits at him.

“Don’t feel burdened. It’s not like you, me, and Team Leader Jin are unfamiliar with each other. I’m just doing this because I promised this to you before, so feel free to meet me for dinner tonight.”

— If you say so… Do I meet you later at 8 p.m. at Yeoksam?

“Yes, let’s meet there because it’ll be easier for you. I’ll see you later.” Kwon Tae-Won hung up and opened the glove box to reach for a pack of medicine in there.

It would be a long battle—he would also have to drink large amounts until he felt extremely bloated.

***

“Hoo, I’m all done.”

It was soon midnight on the deep winter night.

Ha Jae-Gun had just put the last period on the last chapter in another volume’s worth of The Breath. With that, he didn’t have to worry about its progress up until chapter 125.

“Let’s do some calculations, Rika. We’re uploading two chapters a day now, so we will be free for a month and a half. I did well, right?”

“Meow.” Rika cried out and leaped onto his knee.

Rika wouldn’t really disrupt Ha Jae-Gun while he was working hard, but she would immediately act cute after he was done working. Rika’s cuteness would always make Ha Jae-Gun feel invigorated as well.

They had been living together for quite a while now, but Rika could still surprise Ha Jae-Gun

“It’s already midnight. It’s been seven hours since we started the paywall service.” Ha Jae-Gun adjusted his sitting posture to the cross-legged position to make it more comfortable for Rika to sit on his lap.

“The results should be great, right? Should I take a look at it now?” Ha Jae-Gun had yet to open the Munpiang because he was afraid that he would be negatively affected by the results if they were bad.

He had garnered a lot of positive responses from his last few novels, he still couldn’t help but feel this way. He reckoned that the belated fear that he would feel every time he worked on a new novel would never disappear in his lifetime.

“There’s no call from President Kwon, either. Something feels off.”

Ha Jae-Gun finally decided to open Munpiang’s website. He entered the web address in the address bar, but his mouse remained hovering on the Search button.

He looked down at Rika and asked, “Should I take a look after writing another volume of the novel? What if I get upset by the results and couldn’t write anymore after that?”

“Meow.”

“All right, I should be fine. Aish, forget it. It’s not even a paperback book, so let’s just take a look. I’ll still find out anyway once President Kwon calls me,” Ha Jae-Gun muttered and hit the button.

Munpiang’s main page loaded and filled up the entire screen. When his cursor hovered over the ID field on the right side, an extremely familiar-looking cover caught his eye.

‘Why is The Breath…?’

The cover image of The Breath was on the left side of the main page, and it was double the size compared to the images of other novels. He thought that it was a banner at first, thinking that Kwon Tae-Won had paid for the promotions.

However, Ha Jae-Gun was wrong.

‘First place in the Hottest Premium Novel Rankings?!’ Ha Jae-Gun’s eyes widened. He finally realized why the novel’s cover was so huge. The Breath had gotten first place in the Hottest Premium Novel Rankings.

“But it hasn’t even been seven hours, how did it get into first place?”

The Breath had also gotten first place in the two other rankings on the site, namely—Today’s Best New Arrivals and Today's Most Trending Novels.

Ha Jae-Gun clicked on his novel with battered breath. The next page that popped up shocked him even more. The unlocks for the latest five chapters that were uploaded today had gone well over 6,000. The paywalled chapters published in the last few days had also gone over 2,000 unlocks.

“Wooow…! Rika, I’ve already hit over thirty thousand unlocks for the five chapters uploaded today! Thirty thousand!”

Rika looked up at him.

Ha Jae-Gun pointed at the numbers on the screen and excitedly explained, “It’s only been seven hours, but each chapter is already beyond six thousand unlocks, so I’m not sure how much more it would increase twenty-four hours later…”

”This novel feels like it’s going to be the best and biggest hit novel I’ve ever written so far. I’m sure of it.” Ha Jae-Gun picked up Rika and hugged her tightly. Somehow, Rika didn’t refuse his advances and remained still today.

“It’ll definitely go well. I’ll get Father his own study, a garden for Mom, and then I’ll set up an academy for noona. I’ll get her a car as well. I must repay them for everything that I have been receiving from them up until now.”

Ha Jae-Gun couldn’t have come so far with his efforts alone.

Ha Jae-Gun buried his face into Rika’s neck and said, “Then, it’ll be yours and my turn, Rika. I’m not really that knowledgeable about cats until I met you. Let’s move, too, Rika. Senior is here, so we won’t go too far. Let’s get a big house nearby. I’ll give you your own territory.”

Rika looked up at him and licked his neck.

Just then, Kwon Tae-Won suddenly popped into Ha Jae-Gun’s mind. Ha Jae-Gun reached for his phone. He wanted to very much give the former a call, but he decided to leave him a message instead because it was already late in the night.

Bzzt!

Kwon Tae-Won’s phone vibrated, notifying him of a message’s arrival. However, Kwon Tae-Won couldn’t reach for the phone in his pocket because he was busy vomiting into the toilet bowl.

“Blergh…!”

Team Leader Jin had continuously offered him drinks, and he drank them all on an empty stomach, so everything that was coming out of his mouth was nothing but liquid.

“Heugh…! Heugh…!” It was only after he had everything vomited out that Kwon Tae-Won finally managed to catch a breather. He opened the door to the toilet cubicle and stood by the sink. His eyes were teary, making his vision blurry.

‘That’s enough for today…’

Kwon Tae-Won washed his face with cold water.

He could still remember how the drunk Team Leader Jin threatened him that he would pretend as if nothing happened if we were to refuse to drink the soju bomb he had made. However, the soju bomb actually contained five glasses of soju.

Kwon Tae-Won proceeded to ignore the splitting headache and the pain in his stomach. The sacrifices he had made were all to get The Breath on Utobooks’ website’s main banner and promotional event schedule.

After washing his face, Kwon Tae-Won finally took out his phone to check the message that had arrived earlier

The message was from Ha Jae-Gun.