Novelist Running Through Time

There’s a strange rumor circulating.

It’s the rumor that Author Moon is a primary school student.

He simultaneously published a staggering 16 works and swept 16 literary awards, drawing both awe and skepticism from many due to his revealed status as a minor…

And the rumor was that this very author was a primary school student.

“It’s nonsense.”

Professor Gu Hak-jun did not believe such a ridiculous tale.

It’s not because he is a professor at a prestigious university.

Setting aside the social phenomenon that surprisingly smart people often fall for baseless rumors, his social status actually helped verify the authenticity of the rumor.

The content of the rumor was as follows:

– Baekhak Entertainment’s own production planned a special broadcast, and during the filming, Author Moon himself appeared and exhibited extraordinary behavior. It was said he seemed too mature to be a primary school student…

This was the gist of the story that excitedly spilled from people’s mouths. They testified as if they were Joseon era servants who had witnessed something with their own eyes.

Whether it’s the publishing industry, broadcasting industry, or the newspaper industry, South Korea’s ‘industries’ are surprisingly small. This is not only due to the limited land area but also because people are intricately connected.

Gu Hak-jun was a figure somewhat in the center of this web-like social network, and thanks to that, he was able to find about three people who testified they had seen it with their own eyes.

Therefore, for Gu Hak-jun, this ‘rumor’ was more of a ‘report’. It wasn’t just some idle talk buzzed about by unknown people, but information testified to by acquaintances, staking their names on it.

Nevertheless, Professor Gu Hak-jun did not believe the rumor.

Because he had read Author Moon’s books.

“It’s absolutely not the insight or writing style of a primary school student. The solid and stable prose, the hidden expressions and homages within it – this is the work of someone trained in writing. It’s impossible to write such a text with talent alone.”

Before he was a professor, Gu Hak-jun was a ist.

He was a ist who had broken racial barriers and won one of the three major world literary awards, the Goncourt Prize (though he disliked this expression). The title ‘professor’ was merely an achievement that followed his accomplishments.

He trusted his expertise more than the rumor.

“A primary school student? Ridiculous. Just think about it a little. This is the harm of the information age. Too many people have delegated their thinking to electronic devices. They’ve forgotten how to think and judge for themselves. Let’s see whose word is right.”

This is often the pattern with highly educated people falling for scams. They know they are more intelligent than others, so once they make a decision, they don’t change their minds, regardless of what others say.

If his wife had seen him like this, she would have sarcastically remarked, ‘So says the smart man who burned 100 million won in crypto, huh?’ Unfortunately, Mrs. Min Chae-won was at her business at the moment.

Fortunately, their daughter, more like her mother than her father, was at home.

She smiled and stabbed her father in the heart with her words.

“I’ve heard well the words of someone who lost 100 million won in MeowMeow Coin.”

“…It was a dog.”

EP 2 – Other

Professor Gu Hak-jun was a renowned ist and commentator.

Therefore, he didn’t engage in conversations on unfavorable topics.

“…But Yubin, didn’t you say you had something to do today?”

“My beloved younger sibling stubbornly refuses to go to the poetry contest with her sister. So, I left them to the driver. And why is Dad home at this hour? Isn’t it about time to go meet Mom as she gets off work?”

Gu Hak-jun. University professor. 45 years old.

At an age awkward in expressing affection for his wife.

“Who said I’m going to meet her? We just happen to run into each other because we both work late.”

“Tsk, tsk. Mom’s going to be upset again…”

Muttering to herself, Gu Yubin quickly realized why her father, who usually returned home at 11 p.m. to match her mother’s quitting time, had come home unusually early.

It was because this ‘electronic device’, Professor Gu Hak-jun, was sitting in front of the TV, and in the top right corner of the screen was a notification that read, “Young Genius Exploration Team Special Episode broadcasting in 1 minute.”

“Oh! Is it today?”

Gu Yubin flopped down on the sofa next to her father. She too was a literary figure. She couldn’t help but be curious about who the much-talked-about Author Moon was.

“Ah, I was the genius of this field once. Those good days are long gone. Age is truly a formidable foe…”

Gu Yubin lamented the loss of her title as the ‘young genius ist’. Her father couldn’t tell if she was serious or joking from her playful expression.

Instead, Gu Hak-jun asked:

“Do you believe that nonsense?”

“That Author Moon is a primary school student? Whether it’s true or not, what does it matter? If it’s true, he’s a genius. If not, who would dare question Baekhak Group’s claim of a genius?”

“So, you mean it’s a deception of talent?”

“It’s like saying girl groups write and compose their own songs. Similar to claims of being a natural beauty without plastic surgery, or saying they’ve never really dated.”

“Ha… So now authors are playing the celebrity game too.”

“It’s not for nothing that it’s a program by Baekhak Entertainment, not Baekhak Publishing.”

“It’s starting. Let’s watch.”

The father and daughter, sitting side by side on the sofa, began watching the broadcast with a critical eye. Unbeknownst to them, their facial expressions were strikingly similar.

And they witnessed it.

[Life in the orphanage? There’s not much freedom…]

A young boy from the orphanage.

[Who in this field doesn’t know about the debut fee business?]

[These days, kids are much more cunning than you think. Maybe it’s because of YouTube…]

[Ah, and I’d like to express my gratitude to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea and the Presbyterian Church of Korea for always supporting New Light Spring Orphanage.]

A child who learned about the world too early.

And then.

A genius.

[…The only word that can express the emotions felt in a is its title.]

[Just as there are no two identical people in the world, there are no two identical s. Because a is an object that projects the author’s humanity onto paper.]

[And at the end of it, you face another version of yourself that you can hardly believe you wrote.]

[That’s why the more I write s, the more I feel like I’m learning about myself. Not just about experiencing hardships and joys, and being swept away by the world, but about looking into how I perceive the world and discovering how I create a world of my own.]

[…Maybe I’m addicted to this. That’s why I write even when it’s painful.]

They saw a talent shining brightly like a star.

The world would have felt the same.

* * *

A star was born.

Not just a star of the literary world, but a star for the whole world.

The special episode broadcasted through Baekhak Cultural Broadcasting quickly spread throughout South Korea.

Through social media, word of mouth, rebroadcasts, news and newspapers, community sites.

Now, without the intervention of Baekhak Entertainment’s PR team, countless people were talking about Author Moon.

It was an issue that simply couldn’t be ignored.

– Breaking News: Literary World’s Maverick… Revealed to be a Primary School Student

– Author who won 16 literary awards simultaneously… “Sixth Grader in Primary School”

└Why is this even true??????

└Really amazing. Proud of you. ^^

└Came here to criticize the nationalistic TV headline, but ended up finding a solid article filled with facts

└A primary school genius author? Now every elementary student in the country has to go to essay academies being compared to this kidㅋㅋㅋ

└Seeing people already proud, it seems like the title of K-genius author is a sure thing.

└Don’t overreact. Those genuinely interested in literature would know, but all the literary awards this author received are fabricated. Who knows what else might be a lie?

└”Buying one literary award might be a loophole, but buying 16 makes it art.” This is literally what he said on the broadcast ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└I was in awe watching… How could someone so young have such insight? Only amazement comes out at the thought of a genius…

└So being rude means you’re a genius? What a joke. It was obvious he was just reading from a script.

└If he can read a script like that, isn’t that genius in its own right?

Finally, the tempest in the teapot swept through the entire world.

Author Moon was no longer just a famous figure in the literary world but had become a celebrity in South Korea. Both positive and negative attention poured in on the young, brilliant author.

And attention, whether its positive or negative, is good.

This was proven by what the PD experienced at the broadcasting station.

“We got a warning from the Broadcasting and Communications Commission.”

The head of the entertainment department frowned as he spoke.

With his hands covering his mouth, the PD couldn’t see the director’s expression.

The entertainment department head continued his lecture, hands clasped and covering his mouth.

“What were you thinking, broadcasting words like ‘bitch’ and ‘whore’ without editing them out? And the overall language was too harsh. It was an obvious red flag for a warning. Write a reflection paper.”

The PD remained silent for a long time before finally speaking up.

“…But it was a hit, right?”

The director lowered his hands from his mouth.

The corners of his mouth were cheerfully raised.

Seeing his bright red gums, the PD smiled along.

“Director…”

“You rascal… I knew you could do it.”

In a mass media society, one genius can make so many people laugh and cry. It was another form of cultural power.

And they were leading the flow of this power, creating an unimaginable added value.

In simple terms, the special broadcast was an incredible hit, and attention turns into money. And it will continue to be so.

Thanks to this, the entertainment department of BMB broadcasting station was in a festive mood.

And it was the same for New Light Spring Orphanage.

* * *

New Light Spring Orphanage operates on private donations.

And private individuals don’t often donate to orphanages.

Therefore, most of the private donations come from religious organizations. This is why Moon Chung-jae, the director, switches between Catholicism and Protestantism several times a day.

Because there’s no money!

New Light Spring Orphanage is not poor, but neither is it affluent. It’s a large facility, so maintenance costs are high.

However, after the broadcast, things changed a bit.

Donations started pouring in from all over the country.

The orphanage was sitting on a gold mine.

“Thank you, In-seop!”

“You’re our orphanage’s hero!”

“I always believed in you!”

I, who was a precocious ‘monster’ that shattered the orphanage’s image on camera, suddenly started receiving the treatment of a ‘genius author’.

However, as people usually feel envy when someone they don’t know succeeds, there was a reason why envy was overwhelmingly surpassed by admiration in the orphanage’s opinion polls, even as I was doing well.

There are two ways of donating to the orphanage.

The first is the typical donation to the facility,

And the second is.

One-to-one donations to a specific child in the facility.

Naturally, since the flood of donations to New Light Spring Orphanage was due to the broadcast I appeared in, most people chose to donate specifically to me, rather than the orphanage.

As a result, a large amount of the donations were tied to me.

Director Moon Chung-jae found himself in a predicament with the excessive amount of donations. He couldn’t redirect the funds, nor could he pour them all onto me alone.

Adding my designated donations to the general budget of the orphanage would be deceiving the donors and me, and using all that money for me alone would not only mismanage the orphanage’s operations but also practically declare me an official outcast.

I approached the distressed Moon Chung-jae first and offered him a solution that brought a smile back to his face.

The solution was this:

“Dear residents, today too, Moon In-seop from the elementary section has treated us to pizza and chicken for dinner.”

“Wowwwww!!!”

“Tonight, there will be a unity event in the multipurpose room with cultural gift vouchers as prizes. Students who ‘have the time’ should all participate. Just by participating, you’ll receive a comprehensive stationery gift set, so it’s good even if you just come for that.”

Thus, I became the second coming of Jesus at New Light Spring Orphanage.

Though it might sound strange for a Christian orphanage, my disciples testified that I performed miracles like multiplying chickens and bread.

The residents’ attitude towards me changed 180 degrees from before.

“Author Moon! We’ll do the cleaning!”

“In-seop! You don’t need to do this!”

“Moon In-seop. He is a god!”

Even some fanatics went so far as to curse at the numerous Moon O-seop series in the orphanage.

“These insolent Moon Dang-seop rascals. How dare they share two letters in their names with ‘the God’? If they had any shame, they would change their names themselves…”

“Repent! Amen! Amen!”

Moreover, the residents would rush to me, thinking touching my sleeve might cure their illnesses, or take large leaves from the yard, shouting ‘Hosanna’ and waving them, or bring normal cola and praise it as water I turned into cola, or pretend to faint the moment our eyes met, as if a demon possessing them was expelled.

As you might guess, such play became a trend in the orphanage.

It’s a flaw of a Christian orphanage.

The children, generally lacking in faith, were rigorously taught the Bible every Sunday, so they had abundant knowledge of Christianity.

Eventually, when the adults discovered our ‘second coming of Jesus’ play, it was promptly condemned as heresy by the pastors and priests on Sunday.

Then, the residents who had just been worshiping me tied me up with a jump rope, intending to crucify me as the leader of the heresy.

However, this minor incident was resolved by Ma Ki-hoon’s intervention, who dismissed it as unrelated to me and simply instructed them to do penance.

Even after this commotion, the overall atmosphere among the orphanage children didn’t calm down easily.

When asked why they were so excited, they said it was natural for an orphanage kid to become a nationwide star.

And I found this atmosphere quite burdensome.

Because I couldn’t write.

“In-seop! Are you there?”

“Why are you running away from us!”

“Can’t I praise you?”

The fanatics, designated as heretics by both the Catholic and Protestant churches supporting New Light Spring Orphanage, were still chasing after me.

Of course, they weren’t genuinely devout; they were more like psychos who enjoyed seeing me embarrassed by their excessive praise.

Luckily, I knew the orphanage’s geography very well. I knew perfect hiding spots and places unknown to adults where I could rest.

The problem was, those guys knew these places too.

Eyes peeked through the gap in the secluded storage room door.

“Found. You.”

“Please stop…”

“Guys! In-seop is here!”

Then, one day.

Director Moon Chung-jae suddenly called me to his office.

* * *

“It’s about an adoption inquiry for you.”

“…Adoption?!”

What on earth was this about?

Normally, the possibility of adoption for upper elementary students is close to 0%. Parents looking to adopt generally prefer to build a bond from a very young age, rather than deal with the challenges of older children.

Of course, there are exceptions for children with exceptional looks, but usually, the pretty, handsome, and cute ones are adopted when they are younger. Therefore, adoption inquiries for upper elementary students are virtually nonexistent.

It’s the same principle as the difference in euthanasia rates between cute and not-so-cute cats left at animal shelters.

But an adoption inquiry?

“Who, who is it?”

“Well, about that…”

Director Moon Chung-jae hesitated for a moment, then sighed and gave his answer.

“There are too many…”

*****

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