Chapter 75
“What?! A car crash?!”
Dasul said loudly .
A few customers looked at her .
“H, How? How did that happen? How badly?”
– I don’t know, I have to go to the hospital . I got my sister’s call so I’m going . My mom hasn’t picked up . I’m sorry for calling so late .
Just then Dasul realized it’s already been 30 minutes .
But she didn’t care . She shook her head and continued .
“Don’t worry about me . You’re driving, right? Don’t drive recklessly even though you’re in a hurry . Ok?”
-Ok . I’ll call later .
“Hm . Be ok . Your dad will be fine . ’
-thank you . I’ll call later .
The call hung up .
Dasul closed her eyes . She didn’t have a religion but she still prayed .
***
“Stop it . No one died!”
Sukjae said annoyed .
He had just lied down in the bed .
Myungja, Jaeyn, and Jaegun were standing next to the bed . The two girls were sniffling as they had just cried .
“Stop, really . Jaegun, you take your mom and sister and go home . ”
Jaegun only looked down at his body . His left wrist and the ball of his right foot was fractured . There were small hits around his body as well .
It was a crash from the apartment that he had worked in . A person had back up, not seeing Sukjae taking out the trash .
Jaegun felt horrible and guilty
If he had just told him more forcefully to stop working .
Then this wouldn’t have happened . It was his fault .
“Now, stop . ”
Sukjae’s glance turned to Jaegun . Jaegun continued .
“Don’t work . Stop working . Please,”
Sukjae closed his eyes .
Jaegun waited for an answer .
But Sukjae didn’t respond or open his eyes .
John sighed and turned around .
“Where are you going?”
“To get his clothes . ”
“Let me go too . I need to get stuff too . Mom, I’ll go with him . ”
Jaegun and Jaeyn went away .
Myungja sat in the chair next to eh bed and said .
“I know you’re not sleeping . ”
“ . . . . ”
“Say something . How bad do you think he feels . Why are you so reactionless?”
“I’ll do better so don’t talk to me . ”
“What if you had just stopped when he told you to . He’s doing well . He already got so many awards . His books are selling well? He comes up on the internet . Aren’t you proud? Why do you not like him?”
Myungja stood up . She didn’t really expect an answer .
Just then .
“It’s not that . ”
Myungja stopped .
He was breathing heavily with his eyes closed . And his voice came out slowly .
“I don’t want to see Jaegun tirelessly writing . He doesn’t sleep or eat for 4 days to write . He smiles and cries in his own thoughts . He doesn’t listen . I screamed and told him to write while taking care of himself . But he doesn’t listen . ”
“ . . . ”
Myungja sat back down .
He continued as he swallowed once .
“He became a writer even when I warned him . That summer, he didn’t come out of his room even once because he was writing . ”
She nodded her head . She knew it too .
“Some days, I couldn’t sleep . So I got up pretending to go to the bathroom . And I looked at Jaegun’s room . And you know what I saw? He was bleeding from his nose but he was still typing . ”
“ . . . . ?”
“I knew then as a father . If this is a writer’s job, I’m not going to let him do that . What does it matter if you’re going to write something for others but you can’t help yourself?”
His face turned pale .
Myungja's hand was on his hand .
“That day, I hit him . I just had to . It hurts when I think of him . He’s going to write like that forever . Probably yesterday, and today too if I didn’t get hurt . ”
Myungja put her head on his chest .
Sukjae put his hand on her hair . It was the result of the years of age .
***
On Sunday, Bandi and Lunia had a lot of customers .
There was a place for one person just close to the entrance . It was the sign meeting for Writer Ha Jaegun .
‘Phew, I’m nervous . ’
Jaegun was looking at himself through the bathroom mirror . His clothes looked nice with a plain sweater and jeans . He wanted to look comfortable to the readers .
‘What if no one comes . ’
Jongjin came in .
“Hey, It’s about to start . When are you going to be there?”
“So it’s not like no one came . ”
“What . What’s that?”
“No, let’s go . ”
Jaegun came out of the bathroom with Jongjin .
It felt good to be with Jongjin .
“Is there a problem?”
A 40s woman smiled at him and said . It was Segyung . It was the first time that he had actually seen her .
“No, I’m fine . ”
“Sit down . It’s about to come on the announcements . ”
“Jaegun, I’ll be over there . ”
“Ah, yes…”
Jaegun sat down on his special place . The people were looking at him . It was so awkward for Jaegun .
“Um… you’re Pyung Cheon Yu, right?”
Jaegun lifted his head quickly .
A teen looking to be in college looked shyly at him .
“Ahah, yes . It’s right . ”
“I’m sorry, I was wondering if you could sign this, too . ”
The teen pulled out a book of Pegelon’s Magician . Jaegun smiled and nodded .
“Of course . ”
“Ah, thank you . I thought you would only do Storm and Gale so I wasn’t sure if I should ask . ”
“No this is mine too . What is your name?”
“Ah, Im Park Jusik . ”
Jaegun signed carefully .
His practice paid off .
He didn’t care that it wasn’t Storm and Gale .
“Here . ”
“Thank you writer . I’ll be reading . ”
“Yes, thank you . ”
***
The teen was smiling to himself .
And he pulled out his phone and took a picture of the signature . And went to twitter and posted it .
-ㅋㅋㅋ Pyung Cheon Yu . Got it signed . It was a Storm and Gale sign meeting but I got a sign with Pegelon’s Magician . Haha
There were so many comments that couldn’t all be read .
At the same time, the news spread through the many SNS users .
Not knowing this, Jaegun was only worried about getting embarrassed because no one would come .