Chapter 71- A Plateful (1)
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
Nam Kyung thought about Yun Woo as he pulled up his glasses. Whenever he saw him, he was always reminded of another author, his favorite author, Hyun Do Lim. Yun Woo had just spread his wings. Hyun Do Lim was a widely respected author. Yun Woo had taken a risk, while Hyun Do Lim was stable. They had nothing in common, from their ages to their appearances, but for some reason, they shared a similar feel.
'I kind of want to go with Mr. Lim,' Nam Kyung thought. However, that wouldn't be easy because he was known to be stingy about writing testimonials for other authors. His reason was always that he was simply too busy to write something for another author. Although, the gentle manner in which he declined the requests said otherwise. He seemed rather free.
He was an outstanding writer, and Nam Kyung was itching to read his book.
Nam Kyung had made up his mind. He was certain that he'd get turned down, but he still decided to give it a try. 'Besides, who knew for sure?'
He looked over the manuscript that would be sent to Hyun Do Lim and thought, 'This should do,' and gathered up his courage before sending it.
Nam Kyung was turned down in no time, and the editor-in-chief asked him as he chuckled, "Didn't work out, huh?"
"Hahaha!" Mr. Maeng patted Nam Kyung's back as he stood defeated.
"He was so polite."
He knew what the outcome would be, but he had decided to give it a shot anyway. After taking a deep breath, he looked up. It was still worthwhile. When he had talked to Hyun Do Lim over the phone, Mr. Lim was rather impressed and astonished. That gave Nam Kyung more confidence.
A few days later, a testimonial from Dong Gil arrived at the publishing company. After reading it, Nam Kyung smiled brightly.
"A piece that walks on thin ice. It tells me that I'm just as guilty," he had written in his clean, and precise style that was distinct to him. It suited Yun Woo's book well.
*
Juho got off the subway at a station where he had only been once. While feeling familiar and foreign at the same time, he walked up the stairs and out to the surface. Cars spewed out their fumes in the hot air, and people walked busily past him.
Juho had been to that street once. There was a building that he remembered, and another that he didn't.
As he crossed the street, the park's entrance became visible, the same one he went to for the essay contest. It had been some time since he'd finished his new book, and Juho finally accept Yun Seo Baek's invitation from after the contest.
He followed the map on his phone. The closer he got to her house, the more the sound of the city faded away.
'Bark! Bark!' a dog barked, and he thought of a dog he had seen on the countryside once. Though it looked nice, it was somewhat dirty.
At the end of an alleyway, there was another alleyway, so he kept walking. After being lost for a brief while, he eventually came out of the alleyway into an open space with a big house and a small vegetable garden in the front of it. It was surrounded by trees and it was just old enough to look rather welcoming, like a house in the countryside.
He felt the cool breeze. Everything else felt distant.
The house had no gate or walls, so he kept walking past the front yard and toward the door. As he was about to ring the doorbell, he had heard a voice from the back of the house and walked in the direction of the sound instead.
There was a low wooden bench. Yun Seo was there.
"Ah, you're here!" she welcomed him without even being startled. Juho bowed to her.
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"Hello, Mrs. Baek."
"Welcome! Did you get lost on your way at all?"
"A little bit, but I've been around the area before, so I eventually found my way."
"Good, good. Come have a seat."
She waved her hand to tell him to take a seat. There were fresh fruits that she had just brought out: melons, bananas, apples, and a watermelon. It was way too much for just herself.
"So how'd it go with your book?" she asked. From the time he met her, he had written consistently and finished it. However, he wasn't sure of how to answer her question. After a brief moment thinking, he said, "I finished it, somehow."
She smiled at his answer.
"That's all that matters."
"Right."
There was a gentle silence. As he enjoyed the silence, a plateful of fruits came into his view.
'Did she bring all of this out for me?' Even then, there was way too much. Then, he remembered that he heard a voice on his way in.
"Is there another guest over?"
"We always have guests. That's how it is in my house."
She was referring to her pupils. Mrs. Baek was known for accepting a number of pupils. In the past, there had been quite a few people who had learned from her while they'd stayed at her house. Now, there were significantly less people wanting to become writers, and less people were coming up to the city, so she adapted a teaching format that resembled a private institute. The times were changing.
'Pupil.' When Juho thought about that word, two people came to mind: Joon Soo Bong and Geun Woo Yoo.
"So where's your guest?"
"I believe he went out."
"Mrs. Baek," a familiar voice sounded, and Juho thought briefly as he looked ahead, 'What do I do?'
"Mrs. Baek, I've brought the tea. It's the green tea Joon Soo bought."
"OK. Thanks for buying the fruits too."
Juho heard another person behind him. There were two familiar voices then. 'What do I do?'
"Who's the guest?" the voice said, referring to Juho. He turned around slowly, and his eyes met Geun Woo, who held a tray with a tea set. Joon Soo was smiling gently next to him.
"Eh?"
"What brings you here?"
It didn't take long at all for the two to recognize Juho, and they looked at each other.
"You know him, Joon Soo?"
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"Yeah, you too?" Geun Woo asked looking at Juho.
"I remember you saying that you're part of a Literature Club. Are you Mrs. Baek's new pupil?" Geun Woo Yoo asked. He had written a book titled 'Sad Face,' which showcased his distinctively depressing style.
"Well, I guess it makes sense that you're here. You were part of an essay contest, so you must want to be a writer," said Joon Soo Bong. Though he had a somewhat shallow fanbase, he was an incredibly skilled writer.
All of those authors somehow knew Juho, but the two had never met Yun Woo, so Juho found himself in a sticky situation.
While he smiled awkwardly as he thought about how to introduce himself, Yun Seo asked, "Should I say it? Or did you want to say it yourself?"
She seemed to understand Juho's situation, and he decided to come clean.
"I will," he said as he felt Joon Soo and Geun Woo staring at him. "Hello, I'm Juho Woo."
Joon Soo's eyes widened at the sudden introduction. On the other hand, Geun Soo nodded as if he knew. In order to properly introduce himself, Geun Woo was about to say something, but at moment, Juho quickly interjected, "I'm also Yun Woo."
At that, Geun Woo froze, and his mouth dropped open. He blinked twice. Before he had a chance to say a word, Joon Soon said enthusiastically, "Aha!" There was gladness behind his voice. "I read your writing at the contest! I thought so! I thought it was too good for a student. You were Yun Woo all along!"
"Haha."
"It makes sense that you ran out of time considering how much time you had spent outside. On top of that, the build up was rather long. It didn't seem like it was contest worthy in any way. You knew you weren't going to finish, didn't you?"
"Well, yes. I did."
"Joon Soo, move aside for a minute."
As Joon Soo was about to say something while smiling brightly, Geun Woo pushed him and stood in front of Juho with his mouth still open.
"You're Yun Woo?"
"Yes."
"As in Yun Woo, the author."
"Yes."
"Then...You... that day... no, that book... so..." He seemed rather confused. "You're lying," he said in disbelief.
"Would I dare lie about something like that in front of the greats?"
"Well... it's just... no, it can't be," his face was filled with embarrassment.
"I'm sorry about winning that contest," Juho said.
"Agh!"
"Hey, hey! I'm not sure what's going on here, but please, calm down," said Joon Soo as he patted Geun Woo on the back. Despite his gentle words, Geun Woo ruffled his hair with both of his hands.
"I'll never be able to forget this. I won't be able to sleep tonight. I knew I was going to regret it, but this... this... " he murmured.
"Come sit and have some fruit," Yun Seo said amid the chaos.
Things calmed down after some time, and Juho and Yun Seo sat facing Geun Woo and Joon Soo on the bench.
With his head lowered, Geun Woo was quietly chewing an apple.
"So what brings you here, Yun Woo?" Joon Soo asked.
"I invited him. We met in the park on the day of the contest," Yun Seo answered instead. Juho nodded. "I wanted to go take a look, so I went. Then, I found a kid writing on the ground."
"That was me."
"I approached him, but he didn't even notice. I looked at what he was writing out of curiosity, and it turned out that he'd been writing something completely irrelevant to the topics given at the contest."
"Irrelevant?"
"Didn't you say it was a contest?" Geun Woo asked quietly. Like Juho noticed in their last encounter, he got over things rather quickly.
Juho said, looking in his direction, "I was working on something at the time, and I suddenly had an idea for wrapping up the story."
"You don't mean that you've been working on another book, do you?" Geun Woo asked, laughing.
"That's right. My next book."
"Huh?"
Joon Soo coughed while mid-sip of his tea.
"What? A new book? Did you just say that you wrote another book? Yun Woo did? Now?" Geun Woo asked with an odd look on his face.
"Yes, why do you ask?" Juho asked calmly.
"It hasn't even been a year since your last book came out. 'The Trace of a Bird' is still the number one bestseller across the nation."
"I already sent the manuscript to the publishing company."
"Wow," exclaimed Geun Woo.
"You're one brave kid. Aren't you worried about the outcome? What if it doesn't do as well as your last book?"
"Geun Woo, I think you should stop there if you don't want to regret that later," warned Joon Soo with a warm smile. Geun Woo said no more.
"It's OK, Mr.Bong. Mr.Yoo brought up a good point. I did think about that at one point," Juho said as he smiled.
Geun Woo said as he waved his hand, "Please, you don't have to be formal with me."
Although Juho was trying to be polite, he quite enjoyed the fact that he was being recognized as an author.
"Same for me," Joon Soo added.
"If you say so," Juho said.
"So, what made you write another book so soon?" Geun Woo asked.
Juho thought about the question. The word 'soon' made him think.
'Had it really been as soon as Geun Woo described?' Juho had already been an author for three decades before he returned to the past. Without that experience, he wouldn't have been able to write the book.
He had been afraid of failures. The word had always been accompanied with anxiety. He had always written in a hurry, as if he were being chased. The outcome had always been less than average.
In the past, his next book had been the beginning of his downfall. He didn't want to live the way he had then and he didn't want to fail. However, he couldn't write without accepting failure as a fact of life. That's how writing had always been. An author wouldn't be able to write a single word if he was afraid of failure.
"Like I said, I was concerned at one point."Chapter 72- A Plateful (2)
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
At one point, Juho had been afraid.
"Of course, it was rather cumbersome. After all, I'm known as a genius and the youngest person to debut as an author. So, I tried to stay low and enjoy my life for as long as possible, but that's when I thought of something I wanted to write about. I saw it with my own eyes."
Yet, he had still been looking. Once again, he had found himself desiring for something that had the power to lead him to his downfall. Because of that, he was able to find it and face it.
"What can I do? I gotta write what I want to write about," said Juho as he smiled. "I've tried really hard to not think of things that would get in the way."
Failure, success, results, unchanging future and the complaints of readers, Juho had been fighting these thoughts from disrupting his mind and forcing him to stop writing. It was the only way he could write.
"I'm a professional when it comes to setting things aside"
He had spent the last three decades of his life running away. He had fled from his past failures, fear of challenge, and desire to write.
He didn't think of the failures. He didn't gape after success. He didn't let his anxiety get to him or rush him in any way. He simply wrote. He looked at nothing else, but the graph-like paper.
"I have no clue about how the next book will turn out, but now that it's already finished... Well, what can I do?"
'I guess all those failures in the past weren't in vain, after all,' Juho thought as he smiled.
"Whew... did you hear that Mrs. Baek?"
"I sure did."
"How old are you again?"
"I'm seventeen."
"My... my!" Geun Woo exclaimed. For a timid person like him, he wouldn't even dare say such things. Yun Seo smiled quietly.
"I'll look forward to it," she said.
"Yes, ma'am," Juho answered confidently.
He went inside. If there was anything different from the usual household, it was the designated space for writing lessons. It almost looked like a classroom. There were desks, a sitting mat and natural wood grains on the floor. There were compositions of her past pupils on the wall and a white board at the front.
"So, what do you think? Not bad, huh?"
"No, ma'am."
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If there was a school for aspiring authors, it would've looked like that.
"This is my seat, and also where I wrote my debut title. I'm not sure how much that would mean to an author like Yun Woo, but yeah," said Geun Woo as he sat on the second backmost seat. Though he started off proud, his voice grew more and more timid toward the end.
"Do you mean the one you were decorating the sky with?" Juho asked as he smiled.
"Let's... not talk about that for now, shall we? I got in enough trouble with Mrs. Baek," Geun Woo said bashfully.
"Whether you decide to change what you've written or throw it out altogether is up to you as an author, but not like that. You can't treat it like trash. At that point, you're not just throwing away your writing, but you're also hurting yourself."
"Yes, Mrs. Baek."
Though she said it light-heartedly, there was substance to her words. She was more strict than Juho had imagined.
That day, Geun Woo had almost given up pursuing his dream of being a writer. It hadn't been that he hadn't been happy with what he had written or that he had felt like he couldn't write well. Deep inside, he'd lacked courage. Repeated failures had chipped away at his self-esteem.
What he had really wanted to desert hadn't been his novel. It had been himself. Yun Seo had urged him not to give up.
"Coming to think of it, you two have a unique relationship," Yun Seo said light-heartedly.
"Pardon?"
"An ill-fated relation turned good."
"Sometimes, I can't tell if you're complimenting me or just trying to call me out."
Though Juho hadn't intended, he had always been part of Geun Woo's failures and successes.
"I haven't done anything really. In the end, you wrote something amazing, Geun Woo," Juho said.
"Yep, and I'm also the one who wrote a half decent book. Come by anytime you want. I'd love to
rub off of you," he said as he made a tai-chi like move with his hands. At that, Juho calmly took a step back to distance himself.
"You're staying for dinner right? I'll go prepare the rice," said Yun Seo.
In the past, she had asked Juho what his favorite food was. After Yun Seo went outside, Juho quietly walked toward Geun Woo and sat across from him.
"Thanks," Geun Woo said quietly.
"For what?"
"For picking up my manuscript that day."
"I recall you already thanked me then."
"Yun Woo wasn't there that day."
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Juho asked after a brief silence, "Were there any missing pages?"
"A few. I read through it and rewrote them."
With that, they no longer talked about that day. Neither Geun Woo or Juho said any more. They had talked about it enough.
At that moment, Joon Soon came back in after taking a phone call. He tapped his finger on his phone three times before putting it into his pocket. After he briefly looked in Juho's direction, he looked back up at the sound of Geun Woo's voice.
"Another lecture?"
"Yep. My books don't really sell," Joon Soo said as he sat next to Geun Woo. The way they sat around the desk resembled an official debate.
Geun Woo grumbled with his face filled with discontentment.
"It's odd. Why is it that people don't read your book?"
"Beats me."
Joon Soo wouldn't have been able to answer that question. He just smiled gently as he patted Geun Woo's shoulder three times. Juho thought of his books as he watched. His books tended to be focused more on literary value than appealing to the masses. There were countless gems that were not best-sellers, but unfortunately, not all became known. As the publishing market grew even narrower, accessibility was a crucial component in a book. There had to be something that caught people's attention. That was the reality of it.
Juho looked at Geun Woo. His debut title was doing very well. The gruesomeness of his book had caught people's attention. In modern days, people no longer remembered the fear of getting eaten. However, in reality, that fear was closer than most realized. One didn't have to be chewed on like a piece of meat or have their bones taken away in order to remember the fear for survival. Geun Woo understood that fact. It was something people would take interest in. The publishing company he had submitted the manuscript to had predicted its success, and invested a large sum of money into promotion.
Juho turned his head and looked at Joon Soo then. He wasn't as familiar with Joon Soo's books. His books weren't as provocative. From the perspective of a reader who had to pick and choose what interested them the most, his books didn't quite stand out. However, Juho had been impressed by them. His style was clean, sophisticated, and beautiful.
He hadn't given up on writing even as he took on a second job. He refused to conform to the norm. His tenacity would eventually bear fruit in the future. He would become a bestselling author, and many people would come to appreciate the true beauty of his writing. Juho smiled quietly. Joon Soon had been stroking the desk in front of him. He did it by reflex.
After staring at it for a brief time, Juho said, "Three times."
"Huh?"
"You've been touching things three times."
His cell phone, Geun Woo's shoulder, the desk, and the same while he was eating fruit. He had a habit of tapping things three times before putting them down. Juho had noticed some time ago.
"He caught you."
"Ah, shucks," he said as he smiled awkwardly, scratching his head. Amid his embarrassment, his good nature remained apparent on his face. His hand soon moved away from his head. Though it hadn't been visible, Juho guessed that he had tapped his head three times.
"It's a kind of ritual," said Joon Soo.
"More like OCD, Joon Soo," Geun Woo murmured quietly.
Instead of criticizing him, he humbly admitted it, "I'm sure it seems more compulsive to others."
It might be compulsive to others, but to himself, it was ritualistic.
"What kind of ritual?"
"It brings good luck."
'Good luck.' Perhaps three was his lucky number. Whatever the reason was, it was an interesting habit.
"Not to sound arrogant, but there are times when I'm surprised by what comes out of my head. It almost feels like something just flowed into my body, and I'm just lending my body to it. It doesn't feel like I wrote it. You'd know since you're an author. It doesn't sit well with me."
There were times when a sentence suddenly thrust itself into the depths of the author's heart.
Those sentences were apparent in Joon Soo's books. When the author wrote with such inspiration, they knew immediately how the words would fit with the surrounding words. However, there was a foil to such inspiration. That was anxiety. They felt anxious and insecure about whether or not they would be able to write something like that again in the future.
Juho asked after a brief thought, "What led you to that habit? Why three times?"
"My third composition became my debut title," he answered with a gentle smile. It was somewhat of an underwhelming answer. "My books haven't done so well since then, so I've been wondering if I spent all of my luck on writing that book. That's why I tap things three times before I put them down – to bring in luck," he added. He was somewhat of an oddball too. "Mrs. Baek didn't say anything about it either. Besides, three is my favorite number. You can say that it's a form of affection."
"Towards what? The number three?"
"Myself. Mrs. Baek has always taught us to love ourselves."
"I'm not sure if that necessarily translates to tapping your fingers three times."
At that moment, Yun Seo cut his nonsense short.
"My husband used to like the number three as well," she said as she sat next to Juho.
He picked up a faint, comforting smell of cooked rice
"Mr. Kang, right?"
She nodded quietly. Wol Kang. He was Yun Seo's late husband, who had passed away at an early age. He had been known as an eccentric, but his books were still loved by many. The fact that there was a movie about him showed how much his fans loved him. Juho, too, had been an avid fan of his and sought out every one of his books. They had been cheerful and peculiar and they had made the readers joyful. That lively, fearless author had lost his life to tuberculosis at an early age.
"You know, I always had a feeling that he'd pass away too early," she said as she smiled innocently.
"Mrs. Baek..." Whenever she made remarks like that, her pupils felt as awkward as possible.
"What? It's true. I even got rid of him first in my book."
"Are you saying that there was a character modeled after Mr. Kang?"
"Really? Who?" asked Joon Soo and Geun Woo. They must have never heard about it. Juho also thought, 'Who could it be? The first character to die, similar to Mr. Kang...'
After a brief time staring at, Juho asked, "It's not Malddong, is it?"
"Oh my! You guessed it before I even had a chance to say it!"
"Goodness, Malddong??"
Geun Woo was dumbfounded, and Joon Soo, too, no longer looked peaceful.
"You're talking about 'The Horse Hoof,' right?" Geun Woo asked in disbelief.
"Yes, the servant who worked at the stable."
"He gets killed after getting kicked by a horse, right?" Juho asked quietly after Yun Seo answered brightly.
(TL's note: the word 'mal' translates to 'horse' in Korean, while the word 'ddong' means excrement. So, Malddong would mean horse poop. Having 'ddong' in a servan't name seemed to be a common practice in Korea back in the day.)