Big Life

Chapter 103: Learn What You Don’t Know (8)

— Hello, Senior! I’m Ji-Soo! A freshman!

A bright voice traveled into his eardrums.

As he was preoccupied with working on his scenario, Ha Jae-Gun couldn’t immediately remember Ji-Soo because his mind was preoccupied with working on his scenario.

— I’m Seo Ji-Soo, Senior. We met at your autograph event first with my friend Ye-In, and also once more at the orientation. Do you not remember me?

“Ah, yeah. I remember now,” Ha Jae-Gun replied.

He turned away his haggard face from the monitor.

His voice sounded quite strange, even in his own ears. It was a given, as he hadn’t talked to anyone in a while while he was holed up working on his scenario.

“But how did you find my number?”

— Pardon? Ah, um… Through the seniors…

The hesitation and tone in her answer made it obvious that it was a lie.

However, Ha Jae-Gun didn’t really find it important how Seo Ji-Soo found his number. He just wanted to end the call to continue working on his scenario.

“Okay, so what’s the matter?”

— Actually, class ended early today, so we want to visit you.

“A visit?” Ha Jae-Gun frowned.

A series of giggles could be heard from the other side of the line.

It was clear that Seo Ji-Soo wouldn’t be the only visitor.

— We’re in the area, but we’re not sure where you are. We wanted to surprise you, but we couldn’t really find your exact location. That’s why I decided to call.

With his phone still in hand, Ha Jae-Gun headed to the window and opened it. He spotted a group of four university students standing by the street.

They were talking to each other.

One of them saw Ha Jae-Gun, and she waved at him in excitement.

— It’s us, senior!

‘Oh no…!’

Ha Jae-Gun wasn’t happy at all.

Even if they somehow managed to grab hold of his phone number, how did they get his address? The group of juniors was only waving and skipping excitedly without considering his feelings.

“...All right, come on up.”

— Okay~ Yeah!

During the one minute that they took to come up to his door, Ha Jae-Gun had cleaned himself up, starting with shaving his beard. There was no way he would let them see his haggard look. After washing his face and brushing his teeth at lightning speed, Ha Jae-Gun opened the front door to see the group of girls standing outside.

“Hello, Senior Ha Jae-Gun!”

They greeted him loudly and bowed deeply to him.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled sheepishly and allowed them into his one-room apartment.

“Don’t just stand around. Come in. The room is quite small, so pardon me.”

The visitors’ eyes widened in shock. They were astonished to see that Ha Jae-Gun had been living in a tiny space that contained only essential appliances. The apartment looked quite shabby for a best-selling author who had sold a million copies of his most popular novel.

“Do you guys want some coffee?”

“Ah, Senior. We’ll do it ourselves. But…”

“Hmm? Go ahead.”

Unable to resist her curiosity, one of the girls asked, “You appeared in A Writer’s Study, didn’t you? They usually film those episodes in the writer’s office. Was your episode filmed here?”

It had been quite a while since the recording, but the show had yet to be broadcast. She wouldn’t have been this surprised if she had already seen the episode.

“Yeah, we recorded it here. Why?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. I was just curious. Kyaa, the cat is so cute!” she changed the topic and went after Rika. Rika looked at her arrogantly and escaped to a shelf.

“I think she doesn’t like it. Is it a girl?”

“Yeah, her name is Rika. She’s quite shy. Anyway, the coffee is over there.”

The girls made coffee for themselves and sat in a kneeling pose.

Ha Jae-Gun sat across from them and said, “Don’t worry, sit comfortably.”

“Okay, Senior!”

The girls finally pulled their feet and sat their thighs on the floor. Their faces were flushed red with excitement. They were freshmen in Myungkyung University of the Arts’ creative writing department, so Ha Jae-Gun was like a star in the sky for them.

“I have a question.” Ha Jae-Gun started.

“Please ask.”

“How did you get my address?”

The girls puffed their cheeks and looked at each other. Moments later, Seo Ji-Soo stepped up and answered, “I saw it on the box that the teaching assistant was packing for delivery.”

“Delivery?”

“Yes, she said that Professor Han was sending you books on scenario writing…”

“Ah, I see.”

Ha Jae-Gun nodded.

He finally understood how his phone number and address were leaked.

‘But why did they come here right away without telling me…’ Ha Jae-Gun shook his head disapprovingly. He still saw them as kids, even though they were university students. They probably didn’t realize that their actions were impolite.

“Anyway, it’s nice to meet you girls,” Ha Jae-Gun said with a faint smile. He happily accepted the fact that such young and cute juniors of his had come to visit him, but he didn’t forget to warn them.

“But don’t show up unannounced like this in the future. You can’t just do that. You should contact me in advance if you want to meet me. That way, I can prepare as well.”

“Yes, Senior.”

“I’m sorry, Senior.”

The girls looked down and responded at the same time.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled wearily and pinched their cheeks one by one.

“You girls haven’t had lunch, right? Look at that booklet there and order whatever you want.”

“Really, Senior? You’re the best!”

They unanimously decided to order from a Chinese restaurant, and their order of mixed soup, sweet and sour pork, two portions of black bean noodles, and spicy seafood noodles soon arrived at the door.

“Thank you for the food!” they exclaimed and thoroughly enjoyed their meal.

After finishing their food, the girls took the initiative to dispose of the disposable bowls. They even wiped the table, washed the utensils, and even cleaned the floor.

Ha Jae-Gun barely managed to stop them from running the washing machine.

After lunch, they talked about creation, but it was mostly Ha Jae-Gun answering their questions.

A few hours later, Ha Jae-Gun noticed the setting sun and said, “It’s getting dark. It’s about time we wrap this up. It was a pleasure meeting you girls today.”

“Yes….” The girls muttered with rueful looks.

They still had a ton of questions for Ha Jae-Gun.

Ha Jae-Gun dropped them off at the nearest subway station. Just as he was about to make a U-turn and drive away, he saw the girls standing by the road through the rearview mirror, waving at him.

He smiled softly. ‘It’s going to be difficult for me if they decide to visit me often.’

The worry that he had forgotten for a while resurfaced once Ha Jae-Gun reached home. Only four students had visited him today, but he was worried that a group of eight and perhaps sixteen students would visit him next time.

He definitely enjoyed spending time with his junior, but their visit would interfere with his work.

‘Well, at least they understood.’

Meanwhile, Ha Jae-Gun called the teaching assistant and asked them to be careful about leaking his contact details and address to anyone else. Ha Jae-Gun felt slightly relieved after the call, and he resumed working on his scenario writing.

It had been a few days since then, and today’s weather was quite breezy.

Ha Jae-Gun left the door and windows open rather than turning on the air conditioning. The doors and windows had screens, so he wasn’t afraid of mosquitoes or other insects flying into the room.

“Meow.”

“Okay, Rika. I’ll finish this scene and take a break.”

Ha Jae-Gun was writing out the plot of the movie he was watching.

He was all smiles. He had gotten confident in his scenario writing, and he could finally write a satisfactory scenario on his own.

Bzzt!

Ha Jae-Gun answered the call that just came in. He saw that it was from Jung-Mi.

“Yeah, Jung-Mi.”

— Hey, Jae-Gun. Were you working? Am I disturbing you?

“No, it’s fine. Did you call to ask about your novel?”

— There’s that too, but…

Jung-Mi trailed off. On top of that, Ha Jae-Gun could hear the sound of an approaching car from outside.

It seemed that he had become more sensitive to his surroundings over the past few weeks. Ha Jae-Gun noticed something off and headed to the window, and his assumption ended up being correct.

‘What is it this time?’

He saw Jung-Mi’s ivory-colored car, and it was approaching the building he was in.

Ha Jae-Gun heard the hesitation in Jung-Mi’s voice,

— I was actually just passing by. I visited Professor Han a few days ago and saw your address on the box that the teaching assistant was using to pack some books.

“Mm…” Ha Jae-Gun replied, slightly annoyed by the teaching assistant’s blunder.

He saw Jung-Mi park her car, and she alighted from it with a phone to her ear.

She also had a huge shopping bag in her hand.

— I realized that I haven’t been able to thank you properly for helping out with my novel. So I got something for you. However, I thought it would be better for me to give it to you personally rather than through a courier, so…

“Ah, I see. I’m heading down now.” Ha Jae-Gun picked up Jung-Mi from the building entrance and brought her up to his studio.

She got him a relatively expensive set of red ginseng.

“Thank you.”

“You should take care of your health, Jae-Gun. You look thinner than before.”

“Yeah, I will,” Ha Jae-Gun replied dryly.

Ha Jae-Gun felt more burdensome than grateful at her unexpected concern.

However, Jung-Mi did not leave immediately. She only got up nearly an hour and a half later after talking about her novel and her current workplace, as well as some small talk about her daily life over some coffee.

“I’ve taken up too much of your time. Sorry, I’ll go now.”

“Be careful on the road.”

Ha Jae-Gun sighed as he sat back down at his desk after sending her off.

Her sudden visit had interrupted his train of thought.

Ha Jae-Gun now had to go back to the beginning of the movie and work on the scenario from scratch. He needed quite a long time to recover his broken concentration.

‘I hope she won't visit me again.’

He could always look at her novel over email, chat, or calls.

There was no reason for them to meet face to face over it.

Ha Jae-Gun concluded that she had to be extremely grateful to him, which was the reason she bought him an expensive gift and visited him.

However, something unexpected happened a few days later.

Ha Jae-Gun was fast asleep on a gloomy rainy day.

His front door was left wide open to let the cool breeze in. He had been asleep for five hours, as he couldn’t wait for five hours for the cup’s cooldown to recharge.

Tak! Tak! Tak!

‘Mm…?!’

A weird sound woke Ha Jae-Gun up from his sleep.

Someone’s silhouette appeared in his blurry vision. His eyes focused on the silhouette, and he soon recognized Jung-Mi wearing an apron and slicing some vegetables.

“Ah, Jae-Gun. You’re awake?” Jung-Mi smiled shyly.

Goosebumps broke out all over him, and he hurriedly looked around.

He was definitely in his own studio. Rika was also crouched by the windowsill.

“What are you doing?”

“I had something on at Guro Digital, so I dropped by. You didn’t pick up my call, so I came up and found your door wide open. Then, I thought of making you a stew since I’m already here.”

Ha Jae-Gun was rendered speechless by Jung-Mi’s nonchalant tone.

Jung-Mi got nervous upon seeing unresponsiveness.

She sounded a bit scared as she asked, “I made a mistake, right?”

“Um, well… it’s all right.” Ha Jae-Gun scratched his head and sat up. “I’m thankful that you showed up without telling me and started cooking for me out of the blue.”

Jung-Mi couldn’t possibly miss the thick sarcasm in his voice.

Jung-Mi looked away and finished chopping up the vegetables before saying, “Sorry, I’ll just cook the stew. I’ll leave as soon as it's done.”

“I’m sorry for the harsh reply, but I don’t think this is right.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I thought that we were long-time friends, so I thought it would be okay for me to just come here. Yeah, this isn’t right.”

Jung-Mi went back to cooking the stew.

Meanwhile, Ha Jae-Gun looked out the window with a complicated look.

“Jae-Gun.”

“Mm.”

“Would you date me if I asked you out?”

“...?” Ha Jae-Gun directed a bewildered gaze at her. However, Jung-Mi was already in the foyer with her bag in hand and her head hanging down.

“What?”

“It’s what it means. I think I like you.”

“No, Jung-Mi…” Ha Jae-Gun let out a sigh and slicked his hair back. “You’ve never shown any interest in me back then.”

“Well… I had no idea that you were such a charming person.”

“...”

“Don’t get me wrong. It’s not because you’re now a successful person and earning a lot of money. These feelings suddenly appeared during our recent interactions, and I really want to spend more time with you. I’m working full-time, and I’ll work even harder in the future—”

“Jung-Mi.” Ha Jae-Gun interrupted and looked straight into her eyes.

Jung-Mi shivered beneath his cold gaze.

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“But, Jae-Gun…”

“Let’s stay friends and forget that something even happened today. Please leave.” Ha Jae-Gun dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

The sight agitated Jung-Mi. She stepped forward and exclaimed, “I confessed because I really like you!”

“I don’t like you.”

“...?!”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t see you as a woman.” Ha Jae-Gun’s cold and firm reply made Jung-Mi freeze on the spot.

Jung-Mi’s eyes turned red, but she eventually smiled and nodded as if she had decided to accept the harsh reality. She gnashed her teeth and said, “Sure. I’m nothing compared to Soo-Hee, anyway.”

“What?”

“Nothing. I’m sorry, Jae-Gun. I’m leaving now…” Jung-Mi put on her shoes and left.

Ha Jae-Gun heard her car driving away, and his empty eyes stared blankly into space.

‘I should move away soon.’ Ha Jae-Gun made up his mind. He had always been thinking about moving to a larger place for Rika’s sake, but it seemed that the negative effect on his work efficiency was the final nail in the coffin.

He couldn’t allow his juniors to visit him randomly.

“Rika, let’s go look for a new place to call home.”

“Meow.”

Ha Jae-Gun carried Rika and put on his shoes.

It was still raining heavily when Ha Jae-Gun walked out of his apartment.