Big Life

Tadadadak! Tadadak! Tadadadak! Tak!

Ha Jae-Gun did not disappoint the belief Lee Soo-Hee had in him. He did not stop writing a single day throughout the entire month just to hand over the final manuscript to Oh Myung-Suk as promised.

‘Elder[2], what do you think? Are you convinced with the plot twist here?’

[I understand that you wish to leave a strong impression, aren’t the pre- and post-case settings slightly lackluster?]

‘Is that so? I thought it was good enough.’

[It’s your work, so do whatever you want. Don’t bother asking me if you’re not going to follow me.]

As he continued workshopping on his manuscript without getting much help from Seo Gun-Woo, the manuscript became more dazzling and refined than before.

Ha Jae-Gun revised his work repeatedly like a madman, and whenever he was on the verge of collapsing, he would drink a cup of coffee from Seo Gun-Woo’s cup to recover.

His family, friends, and even the writers at the office rarely saw Ha Jae-Gun because he had devoted himself entirely to writing his novel.

As time passed, Kang Min-Ho and Jang Eun-Young got so worried over Ha Jae-Gun that they would even talk about him in their conversations.

“Writer Ha should be doing fine, right?”

“I sent him a message in the morning as I was too worried, and he replied asking us not to worry because he’s doing well. He must be on the final sprint of his new mystery novel.”

“I’m worried that he’ll collapse from overworking. I witnessed him almost collapsing here in the office once when you went back home for a few days. How can anyone work with that much concentration? He was like a machine, I’m telling you!”

“Same, I can’t get used to that, no matter how long I’ve been working with him. Anyway, let’s work hard, too. Wait, but where did that punk Hyun-Kyung go? He seems distracted lately.”

Even while the two of them were having that conversation, the keyboard sound coming from Ha Jae-Gun never stopped. Ha Jae-Gun got more anxious as the promised date with Oh Myung-Suk drew near.

‘It reminds me of Tolstoy’s novel.’[1]

A wise woman from a novel had once said that it was great that the festive date had been set. Otherwise, the end would never come despite spending all the time preparing for it. Right now, Ha Jae-Gun found those words extremely relatable.

“Meow.”

“Phew, Rika. I’m almost done. Just a bit more…!” Whenever Ha Jae-Gun’s fingers went into overdrive, he would head to the bathroom and cool them down with cold water before working once more.

Later, he even brought a basin of cold water and placed it beside him, and then he would dip his fingers into it rather than going to the bathroom. Until his novel was revised to perfection, there was no way he would relax.

***

Time flew, and it was soon the end of March.

Ha Jae-Gun was finally done with his revision. The exhausted Ha Jae-Gun finally sent Oh Myung-Suk the manuscript.

- You’ve worked hard, Mr. Ha! I’m sending you a message instead since you should be resting by now. Please rest up, and you can contact me afterward!

The text was naturally from Oh Myung-Suk.

However, Ha Jae-Gun had yet to open it. Oh Myung-Suk was right, Ha Jae-Gun was exhausted, and he had fallen into a deep sleep with Rika in his arms.

Meanwhile, many changes happened to his family.

Firstly, his father, Ha Suk-Jae, was discharged from the hospital. His recovery speed surprised even the doctors, and he only had to receive outpatient treatment in the near future.

Afterward, their entire family moved from their current apartment into a detached house.

“Jae-In, are we really going to live in this house?”

“Mom, you’re doing it again. One more time, and you’ll be asking this the thousandth time.”

Myung-Ja burst into tears when they arrived at the two-story detached house with a small yard for the very first time.

Ha Jae-In hugged her mother while putting the blame on her, but her eyes turned bloodshot as well. Meanwhile, Ha Suk-Jae stood in the corner of the yard, preparing the ground to make a small garden for his wife.

“Thanks for the hard work.”

It was sunset by the time the movers were done moving their furniture.

Ha Jae-Gun closed the front gate and walked inside, exhausted.

He had been busy arranging all their stuff throughout the day.

“Meow.”

“Don’t hug me, Rika. I don’t have the strength to hug you right now.”

Ha Jae-Gun walked into the house with Rika hanging on to his chest. Myung-Ja and Ha Jae-In were setting up dinner on a short foldable table in the living room.

“Father, please stop doing that and come back here.”

“Alright.” Ha Suk-Jae returned with his hands covered in dirt.

The family spent time the night in their new house with laughter. The father-son relationship had gotten much better now, and they weren’t looking away from each other like before.

“Are you done writing?”

“Yes, thanks to you, Father.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“If it hadn’t been for your forensic friend, I wouldn’t have been able to start writing at all. Your friend is great, but I’m more surprised by your connections, Father.”

“This punk already knows how to sweet talk.” Embarrassed, Ha Suk-Jae looked away and drank from his glass.

Myung-Ja and Ha Jae-In looked at each other and chuckled.

Bzzt!

“Excuse me, let me take this call. I’ll be quick”

Ha Jae-Gun picked up his phone and headed out to the yard before answering the call from Oh Myung-Suk.

“Hello, Editor-in-chief.”

— How was your moving day, Mr. Ha?

“It’s all done. We didn’t have much to move since we were in a smaller place before.”

— You said it was a detached house, right? I’d like to visit one day. Anyway, I’m calling to talk about Summer in My 20s.

“Sure, please speak.”

Summer in My 20s was the title of Ha Jae-Gun’s new mystery novel. It was the title that both Ha Jae-Gun and Oh Myung-Suk had come up with after some brainstorming.

— Tomorrow, the launch marketing for Mysterium will begin across large portal sites, radios, and magazines. Of course, huge promotional efforts are also lined up with Summer in My 20s. As mentioned before, we have arranged for an autograph event, and we might add a TV broadcast appearance instead of a radio appearance, depending on the response.

“Yes, I remember those.”

— Lastly, we will be accepting pre-orders before the official release of Summer in My 20s. I will contact you again next week about this.

“Thank you for always putting in your best, Editor-in-chief.”

— I should be the one thanking you. Thank you for your hard work. Please rest well.

“Yes, you, too.”

Ha Jae-Gun looked up at the sky with a sigh of relief. What happened to the polluted night sky in the metropolitan area? Countless twinkling stars littered the night skies tonight.

***

“Hahaha! Really? It sold over 10,000 copies?”

Oh Myung-Suk burst into laughter upon arriving at the office. He hadn’t even taken his coat off just yet. The good news erased the anxiety that he had been feeling all throughout the night.

“I can’t even finish my sentences properly with all this joy I’m feeling right now. I thought it would already be a success if we could sell 3,000 copies just from the pre-order… Ah. Yes, I see. It’s been hard on you, please continue doing your best.”

Oh Myung-Suk hung up and turned on his computer. He entered Ha Jae-Gun’s name in the browser search bar, and the Summer in My 20s preorder popped up automatically.

“The response on social media is great, too…!”

All sorts of articles related to Summer in My 20s were popping up in real time.

Oh Myung-Suk then clicked on Ha Jae-Gun’s Twitter.

The screen that popped up painted a smile on his face. Ha Jae-Gun’s follower count was approaching 100,000, and enthusiastic readers were continuously sending tweets with him being mentioned.

-A mystery novel this time?! I’m a huge fan!

-Crazy kekeke Is there any genre that Writer Ha Jae-Gun can’t write?!

-To be honest, mystery novels aren’t easy to write;;; There are a lot of things to plot and design. I love his previous works, but I’m worried about this one.

- I preordered, so I’m hoping to receive it soon.

-Writer Ha Jae-Gun, can you drop me a message? I’m not sure if you still remember me, but I’m the staff from the bookstore you met before. I haven’t heard from you since I gave you my number T.T

‘Hmm? What’s this? Is she a member of an idol group?’

Oh Myung-Suk chanced upon the name Chae-Rin, from the girl group AppleT amidst the long list of mentioned tweets. Her tweet that mentioned Ha Jae-Gun had already been retweeted thousands of times.

- I’m looking forward to Writer Ha Jae-Gun’s new novel! I haven’t gotten over Storm and Gale just yet, and now he has written a mystery novel?! It’s a genre that I totally love! I pre-ordered it! I just hope it’s not a tragedy T.T

‘This is great…!’

Oh Myung-Suk clenched his fists. As the editor of the novel, he knew more than anyone else that Ha Jae-Gun’s latest novel was a great one. Ha Jae-Gun had yet to escape from his image as a newbie writer, so Oh Myung-Suk didn’t expect that the novel would sell over 10,000 copies in the preorder stage.

Selling over 10,000 copies even before its official release?! Oh Myung-Suk was trembling from the ecstasy and shock.

‘Summer in My 20swould bring Mysterium to new heights…! This is definitely going to happen…! I have to make sure that it remains viral!’

Oh Myung-Suk was prepared to do everything within his means to raise the sales of Ha Jae-Gun’s latest novel. Be it advertising, broadcasts, or even to leverage on the power of OongSung Publication Group.

Aside from doing it for Ha Jae-Gun, he also wanted to have another entry on his portfolio. He wanted to say that he was a competent editor-in-chief who had discovered a great writer.

‘Ah, I should drop him a call.’

Oh Myung-Suk picked up his phone, excited to share the good news.

However, his office door was swung open, and an unsolicited guest stepped into the office before he could even dial a number.

“What are you doing?” Oh Myung-Suk’s face darkened.

Oh Myung-Hoon was standing at the door. Oh Myung-Hoon was panting heavily as if he had run over to his office, and he glared murderously at Oh Myung-Suk.

“I didn’t call you, so why did you barge in without any notice? When will you correct that rude habit of yours?”

“What’s going on?”

“What?”

“Stop pretending. You know what I’m talking about.”

Oh Myung-Suk sighed and took off his glasses.

He knew that his own brother would soon visit him.

“Are you talking about Mr. Ha?”

Oh Myung-Hoon’s eyes widened, and his jaws dropped. He quivered all over as he asked in disbelief, “Did you just call him… Mister?”

“What’s wrong with that? That’s how we address the writers.” Oh Myung-Suk shrugged.

Oh Myung-Hoon slammed the door shut and yelled, “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Did you even give me an opportunity to tell you about it? You never really go home, and…” Oh Myung-Suk trailed off. He looked at Oh Myung-Hoon and asked, “What would change if I had told you about it?”

“Ugh…!”

Oh Myung-Hoon gnashed his teeth with all his might and let out a twisted grunt. He had never expected that his own older brother would abandon him.

His head was spinning, along with the floor and the ceiling.

“How… how could you do this to me?”

“I’m Mysterium’s Editor-in-chief, you know.”

“You knew how much I hate that bastard! How could you betray me and launch his novel?!”

“I’ve told you countless times to write a novel that is good enough for the brand’s launch. I also told you that I could wait as long as possible. However, you didn’t even respond to me, and you never came back home even once. These are the consequences of your actions.”

“Just you wait…! Just watch what I’m going to do about this! How dare you insult me like this?!” Oh Myung-Hoon screamed while pointing at himself.

Oh Myung-Suk remained calm while staring at Oh Myung-Hoon.

“Just wait and see!” Oh Myung-Hoon yanked the door open and left. He was starting to find it hard to hold his tears born out of fury.

Oh Myung-Suk had no idea what his brother’s words meant; he only hoped that Oh Myung-Hoon would abandon his hatred and become a great writer.

1. Referring to the Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy. ☜

2. We'll be changing Seo Gun-Woo's title from Senior to Elder from here on, to distinguish Seo Gun-Woo's status in Jae-Gun's heart from other people whom he'll be addressing as seniors. ☜