Novelist Running Through Time - Chapter 79

TL: KSD

Artists lack manners.

– There’s a common image.

Books, movies, dramas, etc., that depict prickly singers, eccentric painters, and irritable actors are the very proof of this.

The character of the ‘rude artist’ is a popular stereotype that has been loved from ancient times. Originally, the fantasy of almost all humans is that a person who lacks manners only acts kindly towards me.

Then, why was this image formed?

Speaking as an artist, it’s because it’s a fact.

Artists lack manners.

And what is so-called manners is sociability. It’s the ability to communicate with other people, the organization one belongs to, that is, the outside world.

However, artists are people who create their works by drawing inspiration not from the outside world but from their inner world.

As a result, they neglect communication with the outside world while focusing on the inner self, and thus, the <Theory of Artists with Zero Manners> is completed.

Of course, it’s just a personal opinion that’s somewhat awkward to present as a theory anywhere, but I have recently come to think that my theory is quite credible.

Because the proof was walking around in front of me.

“Hey, Yuna… are you sure you want to skip club today?”

“……”

“Yuna…?”

“……Hmph.”

Gu Yuna had lost her manners.

It was puberty.

Side EP-Princess Maker

The strange sign was felt from the moment Gu Yuna started eating alone.

Of course, Gu Yuna usually eats alone. It’s not like she was being bullied like in the old days, but when the kids from the literature department sit in the cafeteria, laughing and chatting, they would create just one empty seat next to them and sit alone next to it.

Everyone wonders why she does that, but I know very well Gu Yuna’s psychology of ‘I want to be friends with you guys but my pride hurts to approach first, so you sit next to me and start a conversation’.

Of course, there aren’t really any friends who sit next to Gu Yuna.

What about the friends who went to eat with Gu Yuna after school last time?

They were there, but then they weren’t. The details are omitted.

Anyway, that empty seat always ended up being like my reserved seat, but at some point, when I sat next to Gu Yuna, she would take her tray and move one seat away, right?

Other abnormal behaviors observed include ‘walking far away during moving classes’, ‘not picking up a dropped eraser’, ‘stealing side dishes’, ‘not attending the club’, etc.

Of course, as an authority on ‘Gu Yuna linguistics’ and ‘Gu Yuna behavioral psychology’, I haven’t failed to understand Gu Yuna’s way of thinking.

Well, she must have felt like her sister stole her friend.

It was probably that day when Gu Yubin cried without acting her age and without any dignity. Probably.

Gu Yuna, originally with zero sociability, and Gu Yubin, full of sociability, were sisters constantly compared to each other.

As Gu Yubin, known as a genius literary girl from a young age and appearing on TV, shone brighter, Gu Yuna, who inherently had a slightly lacking empathy ability, grew up feeling a complex.

Describing them as the light of Gu Yubin and the darkness of Gu Yuna might feel like some Japanese mobile game characters, but in fact, this is probably the most appropriate expression.

This dark and sticky inferiority complex is a credible testimony because I heard it directly from Gu Yuna in my memory.

After all, I’ve been almost a professional psychological counselor, no, a garbage collector of emotions for Gu Yuna for nearly 10 years.

Anyway, it’s not for no reason that I claim to be an expert on Gu Yuna.

Of course, I also know the prescription to relieve Gu Yuna’s feeling of loss from ‘being upset because it seems like her friend was stolen’.

It’s continuous and warm care and attention.

The ‘continuous’ part is the most important.

It’s not right to shock her by saying, ‘Then eat alone, Yuna! I’m going to hang out with your sister!’.

Making her firmly realize that there’s always someone on her side through time and patience.

That would be the correct answer to calmly manage the heart of precious, no, the golden-hearted Gu Yuna.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What is it.”

“Wow… This is getting to the point of being creepy.”

When I told Lim Yang-wook about everything that had happened at the noodle shop, he poured out criticisms that I absolutely couldn’t agree with.

“What does that friend do that you understand her so thoroughly? Are you, what, stalking her?”

Stalking, what nonsense.

Of course, there was one time when Gu Yuna stalked me, but let’s bury that incident in the sands of time.

“What stalking… I just naturally came to understand her personality from reading her novels.”

Fortunately, Lim Yang-wook was knowledgeable enough to empathize with my words.

“Well, you can see what kind of person a writer is from their writing.”

“Right?”

“But you were an exception. Man, I thought for sure you were some young dude whose spirit was crushed after getting rejected from literary awards dozens of times. Who would have known you were such a young kid? Haha!”

“……Ahaha!”

How did he know? Really like a ghost. No. Not a ghost, maybe a fortune-telling octopus…

Lim Yang-wook’s face turns red when he’s drunk, and since it extended to his scalp, his entire head was red.

His appearance reminded me of some cephalopod with eight legs, but for privacy reasons, I won’t specify which.

Lim Yang-wook took another gulp of highball, using the takoyaki that came with the udon as a side dish.

“Kuuuuh…”

He let out a strange noise as he put down his glass, a shadow of darkness passing through his eyes, but I didn’t pry. What’s the point of asking a young guy if company life is tough? I don’t want to make someone who’s already having a hard time lie.

“Ah, right, how’s the writing going?”

“Writing?”

“Yeah! Don’t just look at Gu Yuna’s novels, try writing some yourself! Bring your next work quickly! Earn some money!”

“Are you rushing me now? It’s so disgusting I can’t handle it. I’m changing jobs.”

“Sorry, my bad. Please, spare me.”

Writing, huh…

It’s not going well.

Lim Yang-wook got it backwards. It’s not that I couldn’t write because I was looking at Gu Yuna’s novels, but rather, I looked at her novels because I couldn’t write.

Of course, I was eager to see Gu Yuna’s talent bloom as soon as possible.

Unlike me, who is at the mercy of time, Gu Yuna has already made a name for herself in the world with her own writing.

Selling 300,000 copies of self-published books is no child’s play.

Moreover, Gu Yuna wrote mystery novels. Mystery novels are, after all, genre literature. And in the Korean literary scene, not to mention the drama scene, genre literature is considered not the orthodox but the heterodox path. The moment she sold 300,000 copies as a minor genre with individual effort, Gu Yuna became the supernova of mystery literature, no, of the Korean literary world in her early twenties.

However, the act of bestowing the honor she rightfully deserves and passing on the skills.

This personal favor is not the sole reason I’m helping Gu Yuna.

It’s more like a habit.

We had this habit between us. When I hit a block in my writing, I would look at Gu Yuna’s writing, and when Gu Yuna hit a block, she would look at mine.

Then, the blockage would clear.

It’s natural. We were each other’s halves.

Not just in an affectionate sense, but our literary worlds resembled each other. Looking at each other’s writings was like looking into a mirror where one could find themselves.

This wasn’t a miracle that happened by meeting a fateful soulmate.

It’s a perfectly natural occurrence that comes from being partners who grew up together from childhood, the most critical period for the formation of one’s self.

There’s a saying that a person’s character is the sum of all the people they’ve met. If that’s the case, half of my character belongs to Gu Yuna, and half of Gu Yuna’s belongs to me.

Soulmates.

It’s a cliché expression, but it’s the most fitting.

Even though we eventually parted ways.

“……Damn it!”

“Hey! Hey! You little!”

Frustrated, I snatched a sip of Lim Yang-wook’s highball. Leaving a shocked Lim Yang-wook behind, I felt a bit relieved as the buzz slowly crept up on me. Indeed, a young body is sensitive to alcohol…

Anyway, helping Gu Yuna with her novel writing was certainly a proud task.

However, on the other hand, the stark realization that I couldn’t find any trace of myself in Gu Yuna’s novels was felt.

There were no habits I corrected, no lessons we learned together.

My literary world and Gu Yuna’s literary world were completely different.

Then, from where could I draw any inspiration?

The partner has disappeared, and now only the image of a student I must teach remains.

Then, where should I find inspiration?

When the writing block happen… Whom should I turn to?

How should I write?

“……Sigh.”

Let’s admit it.

I’ve fallen into a slump.

* * *

My slump continued until the literature department kids began to glow with excitement as summer vacation approached and they started their countdown.

Lim Yang-wook consoled me, suggesting I take a break during this opportunity, but to me, literature is survival.

Writing is not an activity with active and rest periods for me, but a struggle to maintain my identity. That was my literature.

But what if the writing doesn’t come out?

It’s like saying the heart beats even without breathing.

Something is wrong.

Wasn’t I a person who could only live by writing? Shouldn’t I endure each day by encapsulating all my sufferings in books? Why can’t I think of the next novel?

Then, one day, I realized.

I’m not… suffering.

There’s no stress to cram into my writing.

There are no emotional wounds to sublimate into literature.

That’s why the writing doesn’t come out.

In other words…

“You’ve gotten complacent, aren’t you?”

Gotten complacent…

No, no.

“Hey, Ki-hoon hyung, isn’t that a bit harsh!”

I protested to Ma Ki-hoon, who was putting side dishes in the studio refrigerator, but what came back was a harsh critique.

“Right. You’ve gotten complacent. You’ve become lazy because the royalties come in steadily and you don’t have to worry about living expenses.”

“My manager… talking back to me?”

“I have a girlfriend to support, so just spare my life.”

Ma Ki-hoon, the lofty swordsman of New Light Spring Orphanage, shamefully saved his life. It seems true that a man becomes weaker when he has something to protect.

Determined, Ma Ki-hoon squatted down in front of me and began to advise.

“Hey. I’ve been thinking about your slump lately…”

“…Hyung?”

“I did some internet searches…”

Ma Ki-hoon skillfully changed his tone as he continued.

“How about changing your environment?”

“The environment?”

“Or exercise might be good, or picking up a hobby, or maybe even going for a walk in the morning…”

“You’re just listing things you found on the internet now, aren’t you.”

“Regain energy through sufficient rest, or go back to the basics, or don’t whip yourself too hard, or fill your life with a positive mindset…”

“……”

“……”

“……Have you run out of things you memorized?”

“Yeah.”

Ma Ki-hoon, who had scrambled to pull advice from the internet, was sadly chased out of the studio.

However, Ma Ki-hoon’s advice to “try changing the environment” would soon be put into action.

Of course, it wasn’t by my own will.

* * *

Since ancient times, when a dynasty changed, the monarch would thoroughly dispose of the traces of the old dynasty.

If they didn’t, those remnants would surely become rebels and kick them out again.

The same goes for the modern-day dynasties of chaebols.

The second son of the previous chairman, who seized the Kingdom of Baekhak Group, cleanly disposed of the old generation’s heavyweights.

However, in Baekhak Media Group, there has always been a powerful local regime untouched by the central powers…

That is Baekhak Entertainment.

Baekhak Entertainment, founded from scratch by Baek Seung-won, a collateral family member, occupies a unique position within the Baekhak Group.

Singers, actors, etc.

While it is an important company that produces, manages, and supplies the human resources necessary for the comprehensive entertainment industry, the headquarters’ influence hardly reaches it.

Of course, Baekhak Group’s headquarters can control more than 51% of Baekhak Entertainment’s shares using the circular shareholding structure.

However, the rules of capitalism cannot take precedence over the ‘rules of governance,’ which have a history far too ancient to compare.

It’s the logic that the president can’t play emperor even if the National Pension owns more shares than most conglomerate chairmen.

Therefore, changing the head of an organization required a more delicate operation than one might think,

Typically, this involved putting someone who would stir up trouble from within at the forefront to erode the leader’s control.

“So, you’ll have to be the one dispatched there.”

“……Me?!”

The Booker International Longlist Nominee,

Baek Seol, won.

*****

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