Chapter 45
Big Life – Chapter 45 – Follow Me If You Can
The quiet study had only the keyboard sound clicking
Myunghoon couldn’t control his nervousness . His glance was on the computer for hours straight .
Myungsuk was reading for 2 hours straight .
It was a draft of Myunghoon’s novel . Since it was his brother’s novel, he was reading it with more concentration .
The time read noon now .
Myungsuk finally lifted his body as he finished reading . Waiting for this, Myunghoon asked a question as he stood up .
“How is it? Is it good?”
“Hm… . I think it might be hard for the Modern Teen Literary Contest . ”
Myungsuk was saying as he was rubbing his back .
Myunghoon dropped his head .
He was about to the enter the contest . Dead line was the day after tomorrow .
It might be hard…
He wasn’t waiting for praise, but he was asking for, this is pretty decent at least .
‘… . . ’
He lost his focus in one go . .
“The sentences are clear and this is pretty good for this . I always tell you this, but your wording and sentences are great . But the story is shallow and has no depth . ”
Myungsuk was saying the same thing as before .
“The time that you could win with just good sentences is gone . Yo0u have to think of the entire story . The story that this contest picks is only one . And the standard is way too high . ”
Myungsuk tapped his brother’s shoulder and added .
“There’s the Gaunnuli Contest, try that . The awards are more than 1 and there’s a better possibility . ”
Myunghoon couldn’t say anything .
The contest that Myungsuk said right now wasn’t a huge difference in standard compared to the Modern Teen Literary Contest .
The award for the grand prize was 1 million dollars and it was way more than the Modern Teen LIterary Contest .
But Myunghoon had no reason to get the prize . He had way more than enough money in his household . He wanted to enter specifically the Modern Teen Literary Contest .
There was a reason .
He wanted to gain recognition from his father from getting an award from a respectable contest .
And furthermore, from Suhee too .
It was a high standard contest, but he had a place that he trusted . That was because, one of the judge, Professor Kim, was friends with Myungsuk .
‘If brother could just help…!’
Myunghoon knew how good his brother’s connections were . He had huge amounts of contacts . He was expectedly waiting for his brother to give him the honor and glory of winning the Modern Teen Contest .
After a brief pause, Myunghoon said .
“Um, Professor Kim…”
Beeppp!
The vibrations on the table cut him off .
Myungsuk immediately picked up the phone and took the call . ”
“Yes, Professor, hello . How were you . Yes yes, I’ve been doing good too . I guess you must be tired waiting for the judging . ”
“… . !!”
At the mention of judging, Myunghoon’s eyes widened
It had to Professor Kim’s call who was judging the contest .
“Ah, yes, Professor, ah Really?”
Myungsuk replied and stood up . He felt Myunghoon’s glance and moved the study next door .
‘What is this . ’
It felt weird . Myungsuk wasn’t the person to move away unless it was an important call .
And the calling person was the judge Professor Kim .
Myunghoon went outside and stood next to the door his brother went in . Putting his ear next to the door, he could slightly hear Myungsuk’s voice .
“Ah that writer who won the Digital Literary Contest? Yes Yes, the name is… . Ah Ha Jaegun . ”
Myunghoon widened his eyes and listened closer .
He didn’t mistake it
Myungsuk said the word Ha Jaegun .
The name that made his blood curdle .
But he didn’t understand why that name would be mentioned in a call with Professor Kim .
Myungsuk continued .
“It was a person who writes very well . A Dumb Woman . Yes, you read it too? Hahaha . Yes I know . That person entered the Modern Teen Contest, he must be a writer who writes very enthusiastically . ”
“…?!”
Myunghoon’s breathes became quicker . It was a huge shock that he couldn’t even move . There was no blood on his face anymore .
“Yes, Professor, I will come . Yes, I’ll see you there . Good work . Yes . ”
Myungsuk ended the call .
Myunghoon went straight back to his seat . And then the door opened and Myungsuk came back in .
“Professor Kim?”
Myunghoon calmly said to him .
Putting the phone in the charger, Myungsuk nodded .
“Yeah, about a dinner appointment . You know that I’m going to a publishing company . Professor Kim made the spot for me . ”
Myunghoon nodded his heavy head . He didn’t care for anything other than the name Ha Jaegun .
“Professor Han Hesun is also coming . Do you hear . She’s a great person? Learn from her . ”
Myunghoon could only look at the red carpet on the ground with fierce eyes .
Myungsuk said as he lifted his jacket on the chair .
“Why is your face so stressed? You can write again . Let’s go eat . Lunch . ”
“Help me . ”
“What?”
Myunghoon lifted his head slowly
The two eyes were shaking like an earthquake .
“Help me edit . ”
“… . let’s eat separately . ”
Myungsuk didn’t hesitate and went to the door . Myunghoon went quickly and blocked him .
Myungsuk’s face was already fiercely wrinkled .
“Move . ”
“Help me one more time . Please . Last time . Please . ”
“I said last time was the end . I don’t want to be a son that lies to his father . Move . ”
Myungsuk pushed him away .
But Myunghoon couldn’t give up
He couldn’t especially after the fact that Jaegun entered .
“Please . ”
Myunghoon blocked the person that he depended on the most in this world and held his arms .
Myungsuk’s jacket fell to the ground .
“It’s an easy job . If you put your connections and editing skills, this will be easy . Like the last book, help me . And just say something to Professor Kim . yeah?”
“This guy… . !”
Myungsuk’s two eyes were about to break
To think his brother would plead this much .
He was asking to edit and he was asking to basically bribe the judge .
“Oh Myunghoon, there’s a line that you can’t cross . Do not say that in front of me again . ”
Myungsuk lifted his finger in front of his nose .
Myunghoon couldn’t say anything because Myungsuk was really mad . He could only swallow his breath .
Myungsuk pushed the door .
After the door, a long corridor appeared . Two maids were cleaning the windows .
Myungsuk went farther and farther away .
The shivering Myunghoon shouted to him .
“You knew Ha Jaegun was my colleague . ”
Myungsuk slightly stopped, but he quickly went back on .
“Why do you make a person feel terrible! Just call in front me! Who said I needed you to move? If you’re going to help me, just help me!”
The shout rang through the hallway .
Myungsuk had already disappeared .
But his shouts didn’t stop .
“That guy was a guy whose books didn’t even odd in tot eh stores! And I lost to that guy? That guy was a guy who wrote nonsense to get a few cents! There’s no pride?! Say it!”
Myunghoon hit the door as hard as he could
The cleaning maids shivered slightly, but they didn’t turn around at all/
Myung Hoon’s personality was well known to the maids as well
“Dang it!!!”
Myunghoon turned around furiously .
He could see Myung Suk’s jacket next to the door .
He kicked the jacket in hatred of his brother .
It was that time
A paper came out of the jacket .
‘What… what?”
He saw the name Professor Kim on the paper .
‘Is it the judge’s names . ’
Myunghoon looked through the names
It was the judges of the Modern Teen Literary Contest .
It had the names and contact information of the great literary people in their respective literary genres .
Myunghoon soon lost interest and threw it .
The paper flew through the wind . Hearing that sound, Myunghoon thought of a great idea .
‘AHhh… . !’
Myunghoon’s two eyes opened .
He picked up the paper and sat next to the computer and opened the word document .
‘I need to tell that Ha Jaegun and Pyung Cheon Yu are the same person . I wonder what the literary writers would say if they heard about this…’
Jaegun didn’t tell any of the audience that he was writing a fantasy novel with a pen name .
There was no need to know why
He just had to tell the people this .
Myunghoon’s ten fingers flew across the keyboard . For some reason, this went many times faster than writing his own story
***
“Give us two servings of tofu . ”
“Yes . ”
Somii turned back and laughed .
“This place is good . You’ll like it too . ”
“I know . ”
Jaegun answered as he sipped a drink
It was about 1 pm .
It was after the workers lunch time so it was not crowded at all .
“I’m sorry, I know you’re busy . ”
“No, I’m not busy . Don’t care . ”
Jaegun got Somii’s call who said she was going to buy lunch .
He wasn’t really comfortable either .
Somii was a StarBooks employee . There was no reason for Somii to meet him unless for a good reason .
‘Is it for the sequel . ’
The time was good for now .
He finished all the novels he was working on . The Modern Ranking series and the Pegelon series .
The book for the Modern Teen Literary Contest was done too . There was at least 2 months till the announcement .
‘I don’t have anything I want to write… . ’
This was jaegun’s problem
He didn’t want to write anything about martial arts or fantasy . So he was wondering how to cordially decline Somii’s offer .
“The tofu is really good . Eat some before the main comes in . ”
Somii gave the dish to him .
Jaegun smiled .
It was true that meeting with Somii was fun . She was a good person to be with and she helped him a couple of times too .
‘She got prettier . ’
In Jaegun’s eyes, Somii was more mature and showing more feminine ability .
The turtleneck sweater and the brown shorts . With that, the black stockings and the sneakers showed the end of the fall .
He was slightly disappointed to
It felt that the college girl appearance disappeared .
And to be true, the end of the year was close .
He felt as though time went by very fast .
“What do you think that much . ”
“No, nothing, but I guess the editor is busy?”
“Yes, he is . Really . ”
Somii only said that .
Tewon stayed in StarBooks for now because of work or something . He said he would tell Jaegun the day he was leaving .
“And that, writer, I wanted to say . ”
“Say it . ”
Jaegun put his chopsticks done . It was probably about to be about the sequel .
But he was wrong .
Out of Somii’s smiling mouth, a conversation was coming out of her that he didn’t expect .
“How do you think about your novel becoming a webtoon?”
“Webtoon?”
“Comic KT gave an offer . They want to put your Modern Ranking series into a webtoon . You know comic KT . ”
“Ah yes…”
Jaegun knew them . They were the webtoon company that only did webtoons .
They had a top five presence in webtoons in the county and they had a huge audience and respect rate .
“And so I wanted to meet now to ask you . ”
Jaegun blankly stared at Somii .
Somii smiled as she slightly shook her body .
She understood that she didn’t really need to ask Jaegun’s answer .