Lee Jong-Suk sat down on his bed, staring at the experience book on his table. He was thinking about the Moon-Il-Ji experience. He understood and could see the effects of the Kun-Gong experience. He could also see the effects of the absolute taste and knife skill mastery experiences. But in the case of Moon-Il-Ji, he could not see the effects of the experience. He wondered what effects it had.
While he thought about it, Lee Jong-Suk stared at the experience book. He looked away, took out the mathematics book from his bag, and spread it open.
He cleared his throat and said to himself, “Moon-Il-JI… When I listen to something or see something, I should remember that thing.”
Lee Jong-Suk opened the textbook to the part that they had learned in the class that day and took out his pencil. He got a blank sheet of paper and tried to solve a problem. He concentrated and tried to remember the formula the teacher used in class and how he used it. The method of solving the problem gradually came to him, and he started solving. When he was done, he opened to the page of the textbook where the problem was solved.
“Oh, I got it? Wow!”
The question looked like a complex one. But when he started solving it, it looked easy. He scanned the book for another math problem that was more difficult. He easily solved that one too. Lee Jong-Suk finally understood what Moon-Il-Ji was. It looked like he would always be able to remember the things he learned and also understand them.
Lee Jong-Suk smiled as he thought of that. He flipped through the pages of the book and solved different math problems. After solving many problems, he stopped when he got to one. He didn’t know how to solve that one. Moon-Il-Ji made it possible for him to understand and remember things he had learned, even complex math problems. Why didn’t he know how to solve that one?
Lee Jong-Suk thought about it for a moment and then realized he couldn’t solve that problem because they hadn’t learned that topic in school. The experience of Moon-Il-Ji allowed one to remember and understand the things that they had learned. It wouldn’t be of much use in cases where he had not learned what he was trying to remember.
He ruminated on that for a moment and opened the math textbook in front of him. He decided he would study the textbook from the beginning to the end. He knew he’d be able to solve any problem in the book when he was done learning it all. He wondered if he would get the first rank in the whole school at the end of the school year.
Lee Jong-Suk smiled as he imagined his parents’ reaction when he was declared the best student in the whole school. Still smiling, Lee Jong-Suk started studying the math textbook. He studied for a while and then checked the time.
“I should write down what I did today,” he said as he opened the experience book.
Although what he experienced might not be a great one, it would at least give him some experience points. Since the day his father thought the experience book to be a diary, he had considered using it as one. If he wrote down a few sentences daily, the experience points would accumulate, and that wasn’t something that could be ignored. He would start using it as a diary today.
After thinking for a while, Lee Jong-Suk picked up his pencil and started writing. He decided he would first write about what happened during lunch break. After he was done with that, he would write about the judo class.
While writing down the day’s events in the experience book, Lee Jong-Suk felt like he was reliving the moments. He wondered if that was what writing in a diary felt like. He stopped writing and thought about that for a moment. He was still deep in thought when the words he wrote in the experience book disappeared, and new words appeared.
[Common love experience has been written. Gained 25 experience points.]
[Common judo experience has been written. Gained 25 experience points.]
Love experience? Lee Jong-Suk’s face turned red. Mumbling to himself, Lee Jong-Suk went to bed.
***
“I’m going to the bookstore,” Lee Jong-Suk said as he prepared to leave the house.
“Alright,” she replied.
The elementary school students were the main customers of the snack shop. And since the elementary school students didn’t go to school during the weekends, the snack shop was less busy, and Lee Jong-Suk didn’t have to stay back and help.
Lee Jong-Suk finally got to the bookstore and entered the Ghosopang.
Ding!!!
The store owner looked up and smiled.
“You came.”
“I did. Do you have any new books?”
“A few are back there. Don’t forget to arrange them.”
“Sure.”
Lee Jong-Suk walked to where the bookshelves were and looked through them. Most of the books in the Ghosopang were usually neat because Lee Jong-Suk cleaned them occasionally. When he visited the bookstore during the weekend, he sometimes cleaned the books he couldn’t during weekdays. The shop owner did the cleaning too sometimes, along with an employee who was paid regularly.
Lee Jong-Suk saw the sack, untied it emptied its contents. He looked through the books and noticed he’d already seen some of them before. He saw one book that looked very old. It was from Chosun University and was made with Hanji. The book had the kind of smell old books had. Books like these came in once in a while. This was his first time seeing a book like that in real life. He’d seen it once or twice in movies.
Since he had a lot of time, he would start by arranging the books and then cleaning them. He quickly got to work and started arranging the books. He put the reference books in the reference bookshelves and put novels in their section.
When he was done arranging and cleaning, Lee Jong-Suk went over to the counter where the shop owner was.
“I’ve arranged everything.”
“Are there any books that could be used?”
“A few reference books were there and a few old books were there too.”
Lee Jong-Suk brought out the old book and placed it in front of the shop owner on the counter. The owner looked at it and nodded.
“That book will make money.”
“Books like this will make money? Who will want a book like this in this generation?’
“Sometimes books like this are usually bought for interior decoration.”
“Decoration?”
“In a Chinese medicine house or a tea shop, books like this in a volume or two will give an air to the atmosphere.”
“I see.”
“Books like these are interesting. Is this your first time seeing a book like this?”
“I’ve seen it on TV before.”
The owner permitted him to go through the book, and Lee Jong-Suk sat down to read.
It was titled The Royal Family.
Lee Jong-Suk slowly read through the content. He saw the picture of a beautiful house, which must be where the royal family lived. In the book, the home of the king was bookmarked.
[This is the work of a person who is the subordinate for a high position. Though not a low position, I was not given anyone to work below me.]
[This is not something that a person has fabricated. This is something that has happened. Any person who changes according to his position is called a child. No matter where it is, they say a person doesn’t change.]
[It is not enough to look at one thing ten times to do one thing.]
Lee Jong-Suk nodded thoughtfully as he read. The shop owner looked over at where Lee Jong-Suk sat and laughed.
“Do you know what it contains?”
“What?”
“Can you read that?”
Lee Jong-Suk nodded absentmindedly.
“Of course, I-”
He suddenly stopped talking and looked at the book again. How was he able to read hanja? He was even reading it fluently. Still surprised, he held the book and looked it over again.
“Oh, the experience book!”
“Experience book? What are you saying?”
“Um, nothing.” Lee Jong-Suk said as he hastily continued reading the book. His mind wandered. He must be able to read the hanja because of the bachelor’s experience. The bachelor must have known how to read hanja.
Lee Jong-Suk got up and took a pen and paper from the counter.
“May I borrow this? I want to write down something.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
Lee Jong-Suk took the paper and pen and sat back down. He thoughtfully twirled the pen in his hand for a few moments before placing the paper on top of the book and started writing. A smile crept on his face as he wrote down what he had learned about the royal family. He had never seen those words, nor read the contents before, but they were very clear to him.
Writing Chinese characters didn’t seem like an easy thing, but he was surprisingly good at it. He wondered what someone like Kim Young-Woo would say if he saw him writing Chinese. He chuckled.
“The scores for the Chinese test are here,” he said playfully.