Big Life

Ha Jae-Gun's first-ever autograph event ended successfully.

Although the autograph event had turned into an event for Poongchun-Yoo rather than for Ha Jae-Gun himself, he was still ecstatic. Every novel his readers brought with them for the event was precious to him.

"Mr. Ha, you've worked hard today."

Jo Seo-Kyung was happy as well because another 1,500 books written by Ha Jae-Gun were sold through the event alone, and 300 of them were Storm and Gale. She was satisfied with the outcome. There were overlapping readers from both Poongchun-Yoo and Ha Jae-Gun, but the synergy was great.

"I'm extremely thankful to everyone who helped out today. It’s been hard on you." Jo Seo-Kyung did not forget to thank everyone who helped her out with organizing the event.

If it hadn’t been for Lee Soo-Hee, Jung So-Mi, and Park Jung-Jin, the event would have definitely become a huge mess. She belatedly realized that she had failed to take into account Ha Jae-Gun’s genre novel reader base in this event.

"Mr. Ha, I'll see you again during the radio show, then. I'll contact you again when I've received the script from the producer."

"Yes, thank you so much."

After sending Jo Seo-Kyung off, Ha Jae-Gun returned to the cafe near the bookstore, where his friends were waiting for him.

Park Jung-Jin and Jung So-Mi were discussing their own company's work while Lee Soo-Hee was quietly reading a magazine.

"Let's all go for a meal. Join us, Ms. So-Mi," Ha Jae-Gun said as he put on his coat. They had helped him plenty today, so there was no way that he would send them off without treating them to dinner.

"I'm sorry, Writer Ha. I’ll be retiring first," Jung So-Mi said apologetically as she stood up. "My family is stopping by my place today. I was just waiting to say my goodbyes before leaving."

"Oh, really? We can't do anything about that, then. Still, I thought I could treat you to a quick dinner…" Ha Jae-Gun's eyes were filled with regrets.

Jung So-Mi picked up her bag and said, "I've agreed to have dinner with my family tonight. Please treat me to dinner next time."

"All right, I'll do that. Oh, right. Writer Kang Min-Ho and Writer Yang Hyun-Kyung really like their book covers."

Jung So-Mi looked down and smiled shyly. The two book covers for Demon Lord Returns and Slater—which were signed with Laugh Books—were drawn by Jung So-Mi herself. She was paid 500,000 won for the covers.

As a new employee and also the youngest employee in the company, the amount was huge compared to her low salary.

Jung So-Mi was grateful to Ha Jae-Gun for acknowledging her talent.

"President Kwon kept mentioning how he did not notice your drawing talent the entire time while he was working with you back in Star Books."

"I'm thankful for those words."

"I'll definitely call you again if we've got more commissions like this. I think it's hard for President Kwon to personally reach out to you for these commissions when you're still with Star Books."

"I'm sorry about that, but thank you for the kind words." Jung So-Mi stole a glance at Park Jung-Jin and Lee Soo-Hee, checking their expressions. Knowing full well that she was taking up all their time, she quickly bowed and said her goodbyes.

"Please enjoy your dinner. I'll be leaving first."

"Okay, please take care on your way home."

As Jung So-Mi stepped out of the cafe, she started wondering about what to eat for dinner. Those words about her family coming to visit were a lie; she simply felt uncomfortable having dinner with Lee Soo-Hee, who always emitted a cold aura.

"Let us go as well. What shall we have for dinner?"

Ha Jae-Gun asked for Park Jung-Jin and Lee Soo-Hee's opinions after sending Jung So-Mi on her way.

"How about mixed stew?"

"Sounds good. We had that a lot while we were still in university."

"I'm fine with that as well."

The trio then quickly looked for a restaurant and headed over.

On the way there, Ha Jae-Gun kept thinking of ways to reject Park Jung-Jin's suggestions to have drinks, as he couldn’t possibly visit his father in the hospital with the smell of alcohol on him.

***

"How is it? Isn't it great?"

"Yes, Min-Ho hyung. This is a really good idea. It's very warm," Yang Hyun-Kyung said as he looked at the gloves on both of his hands. What he had on were cheap cotton work gloves with the tips cut, revealing his fingertips.

“Where did you learn this from?” Yang Hyun-Kyung asked as his breath condensed in the cold air.

Mist came out of Kang Min-Ho’s mouth as well, and he replied, "I worked at a gas station. It was always this cold in the middle of winter."

"Do they cut off the tips of the gloves, too? Why would they do it?"

"Well, we have to tear off the receipts for customers who pay by card. We need to wet our fingers and rub the papers together if we want to tear them, and it's hard to do that with gloves on.”

"Ah-ha. It is indeed an interesting life hack." Yang Hyun-Kyung started typing away on his keyboard, working on his novel on paid serialization. The novel’s performance wasn't that good, but Yang Hyun-Kyung was improving as a writer.

'I would have given up long ago if I were alone.' If it hadn’t been for Ha Jae-Gun and Kang Min-Ho's help, he wouldn't have made it this far. Yang Hyun-Kyung engraved those thoughts in his mind and fired all cylinders of his motivation to work even harder.

All of a sudden, the digital door lock’s jingle echoed, and the door swung open.

Ha Jae-Gun walked inside with Rika in his arms. He stared at the pair and smiled.

"Writer Ha, you should have contacted us first…"

"I had something to do earlier. Anyway, it's still too early, so I decided to drop by. I wanted to harvest some energy from you guys so I can work on my novel as well," Ha Jae-Gun said.

He turned to look at the washroom upon hearing the sound of running water. Ha Jae-Gun instantly realized that the office had a new resident.

Kang Min-Ho seemed to have seen through his thoughts and said, "A new writer just joined us. They’re washing up right now."

"Ah-ha. I see. Oh, right, please have these." Ha Jae-Gun handed Kang Min-Ho the vinyl bag in his hand.

"It's sushi. I've bought enough for four, so please enjoy."

"Oh, my, Writer Ha. Please don't buy us food every time, I really don’t know what to do..."

"I've already had dinner. Ah, once the writer comes out from the shower, you guys can eat together," Ha Jae-Gun said as he put Rika down and sat at the seat nearest to the wall.

Writer’s Night’s broadcast was tonight. Ha Jae-Gun was planning on spending some time writing his novel here until he had to leave for the broadcast.

"Writer Min-Ho, can you help me look after Rika until midnight? I have somewhere to go later."

"Of course, I actually wanted to ask you if you can leave Rika here with me. For some reason, I write better with Rika around."

"It's the same for me. She's like a watchman, and she makes sure that we do our work. Hahaha." Ha Jae-Gun chuckled and turned on his laptop. He rubbed his freezing hands together, wondering what he should write. Since he had already finished working on The Breath, he could finally work on something new.

'I want to write something that interests me, but hmm…'

Ha Jae-Gun didn’t think about the genre. He contemplated what topic he should write about this time. Actually, it was a burning question that had been bothering him since last week.

He thought that he would get some ideas while conversing with others, just like what had happened with Da-Seul. It was the reason he had come here today.

'I wonder why Da-Seul is so busy these days.'

Ha Jae-Gun hadn't been able to meet Da-Seul ever since he canceled the appointment with her because his father had gotten into an accident. Since then, Da-Seul had been avoiding him under all sorts of pretexts, like being busy and whatnot.

The washroom door swung open.

Steam rushed out of the washroom along with a woman's voice.

"Wow, that was refreshing."

"Hmm?" Ha Jae-Gun looked up in shock and saw a woman walking out of the washroom while drying her hair with a towel.

"Huh? W-we have a visitor?" asked the female writer.

"I've told you a few times before, didn't I? This is Writer Jae-Gun. Writer Ha, this is Jang Eun-Young. She’s a year younger than I am, and she writes romance novels."

"Ah, yes. Hello. I'm Ha Jae-Gun."

"I'm Jang Eun-Young, nice to meet you. I'm sorry for showing you this side of myself at our first meeting. I’ve been enjoying The Breath a lot; you’re a really good writer."

"That's too nice of you."

Ha Jae-Gun and Jang Eun-Young shook hands and exchanged greetings.

Ha Jae-Gun didn’t show it, but he was caught off guard.

He wasn't aware that a female writer had joined the small office.

On top of that, Kang Min-Ho had mentioned that she was thirty-four years old, but she looked to be in her late twenties at best. She was a healthy-looking, beautiful lady.

"Oh, my, what's this? Sushi?"

"Ah, yes. I bought some for everyone to share."

"Hoho, if you think that I'm going to reject this, you’re wrong. Thank you for the food. Please take a seat too. Oppa, Hyun-Kyung, come over here and eat as well."

Ha Jae-Gun immediately saw that Jang Eun-Young had an easygoing personality and that she wasn’t fussy. He headed back to his laptop and replied, "I've already had dinner, so please enjoy the food."

With that, the three writers started digging into the sushi, while Ha Jae-Gun fell into deep contemplation in an effort to come up with an idea for his next novel.

However, nothing came to his mind.

The writers eventually finished their food, but Ha Jae-Gun’s Word document was still empty.

“Wow, this is quite ridiculous,” Jang Eun-Young muttered, seemingly dumbfounded.

A Japanese website was displayed on her monitor.

“What is it? What news is it?”

“It’s not news. I was just looking for something to write about when I chanced upon it. A female student committed suicide and was found to be four months pregnant, and the person who posted this was the student’s friend. The student’s family did not want an autopsy done, and they just had her cremated. I really pity the student.”

“What…?! How could the law let that happen?”

“I’m not sure, and I’m not familiar with the law.”

Ha Jae-Gun listened to their conversation, feeling sad for the student, as they were at their prime and had chosen to end their life while pregnant.

He couldn’t help but wonder how heartbroken her parents had to be.

‘Mmm…?!’

Ha Jae-Gun was suddenly struck by his muse. The sensation was horrifyingly similar to the one he had felt when he was starting on Storm and Gale.

Ha Jae-Gun looked up at the ceiling with his eyes wide open as if he had gone mad.

The cogs in his mind went overdrive to work on the topic that had just come to him, and his trembling fingers started typing slowly on the keyboard.

Tadadak! Tak! Tadadadak!

Ha Jae-Gun’s display slowly filled with words. His fingers got lighter as well, and they were soon flying rapidly across the keyboard.

‘This is it…! Yes, this is going to be my next novel!’

Ha Jae-Gun glared at the screen.

He wrote every single word that streamed into his mind.

A group of freshmen joined an MT[1]. Everyone was wasted one night, when a high-pitched scream of a female student rang in the night. An alleged sexual assault…! There was a suspect, but he was not indicted due to insufficient evidence. As time passed…people concluded that the alleged assault victim was actually just hungry for attention…! However, a serious incident occurred during the following summer vacation, which compelled her to commit suicide!

Tadadak! Tak! Tadadadak!

Ha Jae-Gun was typing so rapidly that it felt like the keys on his keyboard would go flying at any moment. Ha Jae-Gun couldn’t even control his strength as his fingers smacked the keys.

At the sight, Kang Min-Ho covered agape mouth.

Yang Hyun-Kyung turned to Jang Eun-Young and warned. “Writer Ha is now focused on his writing. Let’s stop chatting and work on ours as well.”

“I got it. I should focus, too.”

The others headed back to their seats and started working on their own novels.

Meanwhile, Rika leaped onto the table from the windowsill.

She crouched next to Ha Jae-Gun’s laptop and leaned in to rub against Ha Jae-Gun’s chin.

‘You know it too, right, Rika? My muse just hit me. I’ve made a great decision by coming out today.’

Bzzt!

Just then, the phone in his pocket started to vibrate.

Ha Jae-Gun frowned slightly at the disturbance. The call was from Kwon Tae-Won, so in spite of his feelings, he could only take the call.

“Hello, President.”

— Hello there, Writer Ha. How are things going for you?

“Everything’s good. How about you, President?” Ha Jae-Gun was still typing while talking over the phone.

Kwon Tae-Won’s chuckle tickled his ears.

— You must be working hard on your writing again. Is it a new novel?

“No, it’s not enough to call it a novel yet. I’m just taking notes and conceptualizing.”

— Please slow down and take care of yourself. You’ve already submitted all the chapters for The Breath, and you’ve been going all out lately. Ah, and I’ve got something to tell you as well.

“Yes, please tell me.” Ha Jae-Gun’s replies were curter than usual because he was still figuring out his new novel.

Kwon Tae-Won could feel the urgency in Ha Jae-Gun’s voice, so he quickly addressed the elephant in the room.

— Do you think you need a working studio?

“A studio?”

Kang Min-Ho’s ears perked up at those words.

Yang Hyun-Kyung turned around as well with a face full of interest.

— Yes. If you feel frustrated working from home, I thought it’d be good to get out of the house and work in a studio occasionally. Laugh Books managed to get an office thanks to you, so I was hoping to do something for you in return.

“Ah, I see…” Ha Jae-Gun finally stopped working on his novel and held the phone properly. He took in the current office environment and let out a soft sigh.

— What do you think, Writer Ha?

Ha Jae-Gun spun around in his chair and looked behind him. Kang Min-Ho and Yang Hyun-Kyung quickly turned back to face their computers, pretending as if they had been working on their novels all this while.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled at the sight and answered, “President Kwon, will I be using that office alone?”

1. Membership training. ☜