Big Life

Ha Jae-Gun continued the conversation with Jang Eun-Young right in front of him.

“I’m really glad that you liked the revisions. I was worried how the changes would look for you, Editor-in-chief.”

— Well, it is true that the emotions of female characters aren’t as easy to express for male writers. It’s not something that you can resolve by understanding them with your brain or by studying them. After all, you have to completely understand them so that the narrative will look natural.

“Yes, that’s why female writers usually use female characters as the main characters in their novels, and vice versa.”

— Hahaha. Anyway, I’m really amazed at your work. If you could send me your manuscript while you’re working on it, I’ll review them immediately and provide feedback.

“Thank you. Have a good day at work.”

— You, too, Writer Ha.

Ha Jae-Gun hung up and kept his phone in his pocket, then he spoke to Jang Eun-Young, “Is there anything else you’d like to eat? I think just having a bowl of buckwheat soba isn’t enough.”

“This meal is your treat, right?”

“Can I have a sushi platter instead?”

Ha Jae-Gun raised his hand and said, “Please give us a large sushi platter.”

“A small platter is enough, though.”

“There are only going to be at most twelve sushis on the large one, anyway.”

“All right, I won’t decline since Writer Ha earns a lot of money. Thank you for the food,” Jang Eun-Young replied coolly and emptied the large platter. However, her face was full of worry as they left the restaurant after the bill was paid.

“I’m going to get fat again,” she said.

“You look good; what’s wrong?”

“I’m fifty-four kilos now, and I was planning on losing weight until I hit fifty.”

“It’s not good to be too thin. Don’t worry about it, and just eat what you love eating.”

“I did that throughout my marriage, and I hit sixty-five.”

Ha Jae-Gun smiled bitterly. He noticed that Jang Eun-Young wasn’t ashamed, and neither did she conceal the fact that she was divorced. He was slightly curious about why she had divorced her partner, but he eventually decided against asking and changed the topic.

“Shall we head to the supermarket for a bit while we digest the food?”

“Supermarket? Is there something you’d like to buy?”

“I might end up buying quite a bit once we get there,” Ha Jae-Gun said as he recalled the contents of the refrigerator in the office.

The refrigerator was basically empty, aside from a few side dishes, including the kimchi that Jang Eun-Young had made. At the very least, the refrigerator was in a much better situation after Jang Eun-Young moved into the office.

Back when it was just Kang Min-Ho and Yang Hyun-Kyung, the refrigerator was in such a sad state that anyone would find it difficult to even open.

‘Since we’re out, let’s do some grocery shopping. I’m going to go into full work mode here before I fly to Japan, anyway.’ Ha Jae-Gun decided after getting connected to Jang Eun-Young’s emotions and working on his novel for an entire day.

He decided to work to the death for the next ten days at the office.

“Let’s go by car, then.”

“But it wouldn’t even take us ten minutes to walk over.”

“I think we’ll buy quite a bit of stuff, so it’s better to drive over there.”

After arriving at the supermarket, Ha Jae-Gun got them a cart, and they cruised around the store, picking up food that everyone would want to eat.

Meanwhile, Jang Eun-Young was asked to look for seasonings and other condiments required for cooking.

'Pork belly, beef brisket… Ten whole chickens. This should be enough meat… Ten trays of eggs, frozen dumplings, tonkatsu, fishcakes, ham, tuna, bread, apples, tomatoes, bananas, milk, juice, and let's get twenty kilos of rice, too.'

Picking almost everything he saw from the shelves, the cart was filled up in no time. It was only when he couldn't even fit another bag of fruits that he finally decided to stop and struggled his way over to the cashier.

"Writer Ha, why did you get so much food?!" Jang Eun-Young exclaimed upon seeing him at the cashier. They had agreed to meet here after fulfilling each of their task lists. She could barely see Ha Jae-Gun's upper body because the cart was piled mountain high.

"Please look over the payment. I'll tape up some boxes outside for packing." Ha Jae-Gun handed Jang Eun-Young his debit card and left the cashier area.

Ha Jae-Gun picked up a large roll of tape and even finished taping three large cardboard boxes, but the cashier was still scanning their items.

“The total is 387,620 won.”

“H-here.” Jang Eun-Young’s jaws dropped as she paid.

Ha Jae-Gun walked over and started packing their purchases into the boxes.

"You've bought too much, you're making me feel bad."

"I'll be in the office in the next ten days, so there's no need to feel apologetic."

Ha Jae-Gun pushed the cart with his might. He thought that compared to the help he had received from Jang Eun-Young, what he was doing here was very much negligible. He couldn't feel the weight of the full cart at all.

***

Ha Jae-Gun officially went into work mode. It had been four days since he arrived here, and his fingers were dancing at maximum speed on his keyboard.

‘Phew, this is good. Here, Ye-Ji would be better off going to the hair salon instead of having drinks to take a breather. Wait, she should go on a binge-eating session and go shopping before that!’

Tadadadak! Tadak! Tadadadadak!

Rika didn’t disappoint at all. The emotions exchange remained open without any interruptions. Thanks to Rika, he was working smoothly on his novel.

Ha Jae-Gun hadn’t stepped out of the office aside from his daily routine of walking outside for thirty minutes, and those walks weren’t done voluntarily. Jang Eun-Young had been forcing him to walk outside.

'Why am I so tired? Did my stamina drop?'

Ha Jae-Gun wondered as he looked at the wet towel that he used to wipe the sweat on his neck. The temperature in the office was normal, but he was drenched in sweat after just a few hours of work.

It had come to the point where he was seeing doubles and was finding it hard to breathe. Ha Jae-Gun still had no idea that the special ability was rapidly draining his energy.

"Meow."

Rika suddenly leaped over to where Ha Jae-Gun was after basking under the sun by the windowsill. Her eyes glistened sadly as if she were asking him to take a break.

'Sorry, Rika. I'll just go on for a bit more.'

Ha Jae-Gun stroked Rika’s neck and continued working.

Just then, Jang Eun-Young tapped the back of his seat and said, "It's time for lunch."

"Pardon?"

Ha Jae-Gun looked up at the clock, and he was surprised.

He had started working at 7 a.m. However, he didn’t expect that it had already been five hours since he started working.

"Wow, look at the time."

"Aren't you too focused on your work? You should at least take a ten-minute break after every hour of work. I'm so anxious while watching you work. The food is all done now, so please take a seat."

The pair dug in their meals and headed for a walk in the nearby park.

Smiles painted their faces as they shared small talk while strolling leisurely down the park.

"I think the mystery novel you're working on now right now will be a huge hit, too," Jang Eun-Young said.

"You enjoyed reading it as well, Writer Jang?"

"Of course. I've written adult romance novels for eleven years, and do you know why there are almost no male writers in this genre? It's because they can’t properly convey the emotions and psychology of girls in their stories. However, your expressions and your descriptions of girls are the best out of the novels I’ve read. I thought you were actually writing about me while I was reading it."

Ha Jae-Gun could only respond with a chuckle. Since he had leveraged her emotions and used them in his novel, it wasn’t strange that he was thinking that way.

"I watch shows like Marriage Bureau occasionally, and I reference the psychology of both genders from there."

"I see…" Jang Eun-Young took out her phone before continuing. "Look. When ladies go to their friend's weddings, men look at the appearance of the bride the most. But isn’t it more interesting to describe it as it is? And why do women view capabilities to be more important than appearances? What is the underlying psychology?"

"I see…"

"It's things like these that naturally appeal to the female audience and would, in turn, allow them to relate easier to the work. This is difficult, and there are also limitations to it no matter how much effort you put into expressing them. So your novel is really amazing in that aspect."

"I'm not sure how I should react, but thank you," said Ha Jae-Gun. His phone rang once more. He took it out and saw Oh Myung-Suk's name on the screen.

"Hello, Editor-in-chief."

— I've finished reading the manuscript you sent earlier. It's great, and the story development is extremely smooth. The story of the two chapters you added was great as well.

"I'm relieved to hear that."

— But Mr. Ha, there's just one thing bothering me…

"What is it?" Ha Jae-Gun stopped in his tracks, looking nervous.

Jang Eun-Young stopped as well.

— It's true that the female characters have gotten better, but… they seem to lack individuality.

"Individuality?"

— That's right. Lee Ye-Ji, Han Joo-Hee, and Kang So-Yeon… their personalities are similar. Ye-Ji is bright and optimistic, Joo-Hee is level-headed and intelligent, and Kang So-Yeon is bold with a masculine character. However, they all seem like Kang So-Yeon.

"Ohh…" Ha Jae-Gun looked up at the blue sky. He had to have unknowingly used Jang Eun-Young's emotions in place for all his female characters.

— Actually, this is good enough as well; the market response is going to be great. However, I’m telling you this because I feel that you can do better than this.

"I understand. I will think about it. Thanks for pointing it out."

— No problem, I'll contact you again.

The call had already ended, but Ha Jae-Gun was still thinking over Oh Myung-Suk's words. Seeing that, Jang Eun-Young pointed at the bench next to them.

"Let's sit here for a bit," she said.

"Ahh, yes."

Ha Jae-Gun stared into space as he walked over to the bench.

How should he overcome the issue that Oh Myung-Suk had pointed out?

All of a sudden, the faces of two women surfaced in his mind.

'Lee Ye-Ji is… Ms. So-Mi!'

Lee Ye-Ji was the main character of the incident, so rewriting her parts was of the highest priority, and her personality resembled Jung So-Mi the most. He was confident in the revision because he could still remember her emotions from before.

Ha Jae-Gun pulled out his phone once more and asked Jang Eun-Young, "Would you be comfortable if I invited the illustrator to come over to the office to work?"

"Why would you ask me about that? It's your office, so you can do whatever you want. But who are you talking about?"

"She's the one drawing your novel cover."

"Oh my, Ms. Jung So-Mi? The person who drew the covers for Demon Lord Returns and Slater? Of course, I'd be happy to see her!"

"I'm still not sure if she'll come over."

Jung So-Mi should be working hard in her office right now, so Ha Jae-Gun texted her rather than calling her.

***

"He asked you to finish reading this draft by Monday? No, how can you possibly…" Deputy Lee trailed off. She was at a loss for words.

Jung So-Mi was tasked to complete the workload of three, including her own, because two members of the team had gone on leave. She had to proofread the first two volumes of a new fantasy novel scheduled to launch next week, and she also had to work on the new volumes of a few ongoing novels.

"This is crazy; how can he ask you to finish all of these by yourself? I'm not even allowed to help you," muttered Deputy Lee as she looked through the task list.

"What? He even added in work that isn't on next week's release schedule. Crazy About Dungeons volume 7, Alcohol is the Way to Go volume 5, Tyrant Demon Lord volume 4… Why is he fussing about all that?"

So-Mi's head hung down, looking helpless and tired. She had long lost her appetite and couldn't even finish a third of the fried rice she had ordered for lunch today.

The editor-in-chief did not forget to poke at her sarcastically, asking why she did not bun up her hair today. If she did bun it up, he would comment that she would get talked about on the internet again.

"It's my first time really experiencing what being bossy[1] really is about. Ms. So-Mi, I'll help you; we can work on the new novel together."

"No, Sis. I should do it by myself. I'll get it done as long as I work through the weekends as well," said Jung So-Mi, but she was quite worried as well.

Jung So-Mi had actually been planning on working on the illustrations commissioned by Laugh Books over the weekends, but now, it seemed that she had to start working late into the night from tonight, Thursday.

Bzzt!

Her phone screen suddenly lit up, and the name on the screen brought a smile to her face.

- Ms. So-Mi, how is it going with the illustrations?

"It's Writer Ha, right?" Deputy Lee asked with a mischievous smile.

Jung So-Mi smiled shyly and replied to the text.

- It's alright. I-I'm just having trouble focusing due to the noise from my neighbors.

- Really? Laugh Books got an office space for me, would you like to come over during the weekends to work? Even the writers whom you are drawing the book covers for are working here as well.

Jung So-Mi gasped lightly at the unexpected invitation.

Would she get to work in the same area as Ha Jae-Gun?

Jung So-Mi’s heart pounded madly against her chest as she replied to the text.

- Can I do that? I would love to take a look at your office.

- Of course, there are extra computers here as well. It has 8GB RAM, so you won't have any issues working on your illustrations. You can just bring your drawing tablet over. You can have your meals here as well.

- Thank you so much. I'll contact you again on Friday evening.

- Okay, have a good day at work.

Jung So-Mi put her phone down, and she looked much happier compared to just earlier. Her gloomy look disappeared without a trace.

"This is serious."

"What is it? Do you… want to have ice cream again, Sis?"

"Of course. I want Shooting Star. You're going to have toothpaste again, right?!"

"Don't call it that; it's mint chocolate chip."

Good things would always come after a series of bad things. It was strange, but life was always full of ups and downs.

Jung So-Mi stood up.

She was determined to enjoy her life as much as possible.

1. The original term here is 갑질, generally referring to overusing one’s power, usually between boss-subordinate/contractor-vendor relationships. ☜