Big Life

Chapter 121: There Was A Sea (3)

“What? The police station?”

Park Do-Joon retrieved his cue stick and turned around.

Ha Jae-Gun repeatedly said ‘yes’ to the phone with a serious look until the call ended.

“What’s wrong? Why the police station?”

“Yeon-Woo passed out drunk outside," Ha Jae-Gun replied as he took his coat.

"You'll have to stay here alone for a while, I'll be back soon."

"You really don't need me to go with you?"

"Why would this globally huge star want to hit the tabloids? Help me take care of Rika."

Ha Jae-Gun hopped into the car and entered the address in the navigator, then hit the road. The police station wasn't that far since it was located between the writer's office and Ha Jae-Gun's house.

"..."

Ha Jae-Gun parked his car and entered the police station in a daze, even forgetting to greet the policemen. Lee Yeon-Woo lay like a piece of dead log on the long bench with his mouth half-open. He was also flailing around like a drowning man, which was a spectacular sight.

"Are you Mr. Ha Jae-Gun?"

The clear voice made Ha Jae-Gun turn around.

A policewoman in her late twenties was standing at her desk. Her sturdy-looking build and sharp gaze could easily make one think that not anyone would be able to take up the job of a police officer.

Ha Jae-Gun did not commit any crime but felt himself shrink in her presence as he asked, "Yes. It's been hard on you. How did this happen?"

“As you can see, he got himself drunk at the convenience store riiiight over there and mistook the streets as his bed.” The policewoman pointed outside the window in a specific direction.

As per her words, Ha Jae-Gun spotted a convenience store across the streets. In other words, Lee Yeon-Woo collapsed across from the police station after drinking until he was dead drunk.

“I had contacted his mother earlier, but she said she was busy and couldn’t make the trip down and asked me to deal with him on my own. I searched his recent call logs and only saw Mr. Ha Jae-Gun on the list.”

“Ah, I see.”

Was Lee Yeon-Woo on bad terms with his family? Ha Jae-Gun had never once asked or heard about Lee Yeon-Woo’s family circumstances.

Ha Jae-Gun looked at the drunk Lee Yeon-Woo tenderly. The latter seemed like an abandoned puppy in Ha Jae-Gun’s eyes. He found him pitiful.

“Is my identification card enough?”

“Yes, and please fill up this form.”

Ha Jae-Gun entered his identity and stamped his seal, then put down the pen. All that was left now for him to do was bring Lee Yeon-Woo back with him.

The policewoman suddenly said, “I’ll always be supporting you, Mr. Ha.”

“Pardon?” Ha Jae-Gun asked in return at her sudden words.

The policewoman clenched her fists.

“I recognized you from the moment you entered the station. The true image of the police in Summer in My 20s, I’ve engraved Corporal Ko Sun-Young deep into my heart. Like the detectives and police in the novel, I’ll also strive to be a true protector and civil servant.”

It was the true feelings of a policewoman with an overwhelmingly strong spirit.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled, deeply moved.

“It’s a pity I can’t get your autograph. If I had known that I would see you here, I would have brought my book with me along.” The policewoman seemed quite disappointed.

Ha Jae-Gun pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, “Please wait for a moment.”

“Pardon?”

Ha Jae-Gun returned to his car and took out the author’s copy of There Was A Sea from the box in his trunk. Thankfully, he had left the book in his car as he found it annoying to bring it with him.

“This is my new novel. If you’re fine with it, should I sign here and give this to you?”

“Oh, my, I haven’t been able to purchase this because I’m too busy.”

The policewoman smiled brightly for the first time.

Ha Jae-Gun opened the book to its first page and signed there before handing the book to the policewoman. She happily hugged it and said, “I will treasure this for the rest of my life. Thank you so much.”

“I should be thanking you instead. You kept my brother safe.”

With her and another policeman’s help, Ha Jae-Gun was able to carry Lee Yeon-Woo back into his car successfully.

Ha Jae-Gun started the car and peeked at the rearview mirror to find the policewoman still standing by the entrance. Thanks to her, Ha Jae-Gun had made another realization as a writer; the texts in his book had different meanings depending on who was reading them.

“Or should I be grateful to you instead?”

Unfortunately, Lee Yeon-Woo was too drunk to answer him.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled bitterly and grabbed the steering wheel. The car glided onto the road and into the busy traffic.

***

The morning sun penetrated the window.

“Ugggh…!”

Lee Yeon-Woo squinted and groaned. His head was pounding badly from the terrible hangover. His throat was stinging and parched. He guessed that he had vomited, but he couldn’t remember it at all.

‘What, where am I?’

Lee Yeon-Woo sat up on the bed and looked around. He was in a room that he had never been in before. The floor was laid with wine-colored carpet, and the room was furnished with a sofa for two, a round table, and a wall-mounted TV.

Creeeak.

He opened the door to leave the room and a familiar living room.

Ha Jae-Gun was on the sofa, reading a book.

“Are you awake now?”

“Hyung, what happened?”

“What else? You passed out drunk on the streets and got sent to the nearest police station, so I had to go over there and bring you back here.”

“Ahh..! Ah, hyung…! I’m really sorry.” Lee Yeon-Woo wrapped his forehead with a distorted look on his face. The scenes from last night were slowly coming back to him.

“This usually happens when I drink rice wine. And because I started off with soju last night and then mixed it with rice wine afterward—ah, Ha Jae-Gun hyung, I’m really, really sorry. You must have been busy, but because of me…”

Ha Jae-Gun closed the book in hand and stood up, then approached Lee Yeon-Woo. He tapped the latter’s shoulder and said, “It happens when people are going through tough times.”

“Hyung…”

“Let’s go have some food.”

Ha Jae-Gun turned around and picked up his wallet. The topic about last night’s events ended there.

Lee Yeon-Woo didn’t need to be reprimanded right now. He had to be having a hard time right now to the point that he felt like dying would be a great respite.

“How about some ox bone soup? You’ve got to cure that hangover.”

“I can make do with just ramyun, hyung. You don’t have to eat that because of me.”

“It’s not because of you. I want to have ox bone soup.”

The two of them headed to a 24-hour restaurant near the subway station and ate their early breakfast. Lee Yeon-Woo didn’t have much of an appetite, but he still ate as much as he could.

Ha Jae-Gun’s nose felt sour as he watched Lee Yeon-Woo shove spoonfuls of food into his mouth.

‘I hope he hangs in here.’

Ha Jae-Gun could still remember going through the same ordeal as Lee Yeon-Woo, so he was familiar with how painful it felt for one’s novel to fail its debut.

Back then, the shock proved so strong for Ha Jae-Gun that he had to stop writing for quite a while. He even had to get a job at an ice cream factory in Incheon and worked mindlessly, sticking ice cream sticks.

It was his escape route and another means of survival; it allowed him to forget the torment during his work hours.

It was his first failure and the first crossroad that he had encountered. He had two choices back then: whether to continue being an ink slinger or find a different path.

Quite a few people wished to become writers, and most of them grew up hearing remarks that they showed potential in writing.

Those people often identify themselves with their works. They would work diligently every step of the way until their work was completed.

They worked hard to complete their work, but their work crumbled instantly in the face of harsh reality, crushing the souls of those writers.

It was difficult to get back up with just perseverance and passion. It could take as short as a few days or months, but some could take a few years or even their entire lives to recover from the failure.

Ha Jae-Gun was worried about the latter the most. He desperately hoped to reduce the time Lee Yeon-Woo would need to get himself back together. He wanted to offer as much help as possible since the latter was Poongchun-Yoo’s biggest fan.

“Don’t look up your novel on the Internet for the time being.”

“…”

Lee Yeon-Woo stopped eating mid-way and looked up at Ha Jae-Gun.

Ha Jae-Gun looked down at his food. He stirred it and continued. “The low performance shouldn’t be the only thing that’s making you feel this way.”

“Okay, hyung…” Lee Yeon-Woo nodded, understanding what Ha Jae-Gun meant. The other thing that was bothering Lee Yeon-Woo so much was the malicious comments and criticisms about his novel.

“The situation right now is completely different as compared to when you serialize your work for free. Once you become a writer who profits off your works, the reviews on it become harsher. You should have heard many say this often as well—it’s not easy to earn money off of others.”

“Okay, hyung. I’ll do that. I won’t search it up and just focus on my novel.”

“Where did you stop for Martial God Management?”

“I’ve completed up to volume five.”

Ha Jae-Gun smiled faintly. He was glad to hear that Lee Yeon-Woo kept working on his novel even though he was struggling internally. As expected, Lee Yeon-Woo’s mental was strong.

“You’re going to finish off the novel at volume six, right? Once you’re done with the plot, show it to me.”

“Okay, hyung. Thank you.”

However, that was not all Ha Jae-Gun had to say.

The advance royalties Lee Yeon-Woo had received for the first two volumes of Martial God Management wouldn’t be able to last him for long.

Lee Yeon-Woo didn’t like the idea of working part-time to earn enough for his living expenses, considering how much effort he had to put into his writing.

Ha Jae-Gun pondered about it before saying casually, “Driver—no, be my manager.”

“M-manager?”

“Yeah. Not every day, just be my chauffeur on the days when I need to travel to a few destinations. I’ll be able to use the time to work on my stuff in the backseat while you earn some pocket money on the side. What do you think? It’s a win-win, right?”

It was a proposal he had thought of that would allow Lee Yeon-Woo to naturally earn a living and allow him to experience different things as a writer.

“Why aren’t you giving me an answer? You don’t want to do it?”

“…”

Ha Jae-Gun could not ask further as he saw tears of joy and sorrow rolling down Lee Yeon-Woo’s cheeks despite the latter looking down at the table. The tears dripping onto the table sparkled under the sunlight that streamed through the window.

After a while, Lee Yeon-Woo finally spoke, “I’m really grateful to you for looking out for me. Hyung, really. If I ever crumble again…”

Lee Yeon-Woo’s sentence got cut off as he gulped his sobs before saying, “If I ever crumble again, I’ll leave the office by myself. This won’t happen ever again.”

“You said this before in the car.”

“I’m for real this time. As you said, I won’t concern myself over other things and just focus on my writing.”

“I get it, so stop crying. Why are you such a crybaby?”

“I’ve never cried in front of anyone else besides you, hyung.”

Lee Yeon-Woo wiped his tears and looked up with a bright smile.

And that was how he became Ha Jae-Gun’s manager…

The contract was established by eating the two bowls of ox bone soup in front of them.

***

“What? Mom, really? Our house got chosen as a filming site?!”

Jung So-Mi could not believe her ears.

The phone call from her mom early in the morning was enough to shock her to the point of fainting. The bed and breakfast run by her parents had just been decided to be used as the house where Ba-Da lives in the movie There Was A Sea.

— That’s not all, girl. During the entire period of their filming, we will be providing food for all of them, and the staff will be using the place as their accommodation as well. How blessed are we to have this business during the off-season? Your father has been busy cleaning the entire building since morning.

“It’ll be great if our bed and breakfast would become popular when the movie becomes a hit.”

— Stop getting ahead of yourself. But… we’ll get more customers if the movie succeeds, right?

“Mom, you’re getting ahead of yourself too.”

There Was A Sea was near the end of its pre-production stage. This was the period where they had to prepare all elements for the filming on-site.

It was only natural that the quality of the movie would increase drastically because they had put in all their efforts to prepare for it.

Dozens of staff were still in the midst of preparing for the trip to Donghae City today.

Even the director, Yoon Tae-Sung, was talking to the production manager as they faced the Mukho Sea.

“There are no issues with the generator car as well. The accommodations and food for all staff have been arranged too. It’s not difficult to cordon off the area as there aren't many people around here usually.”

“Thanks for the hard work.”

“Oh, and Director, should I notify you about the rainy season in advance?”

Yoon Tae-Sung shook his head and said, “You seem not to know much about Gangwon-do, department head.”

“Pardon?”

“The weather at the East Sea doesn’t betray during this time of the year.”

Bzzt!

Yoon Tae-Sung took out his phone. It was a return call from Ha Jae-Gun, who couldn’t pick up the call when Yoon Tae-Sung called earlier.

“Yes, Writer Ha.”

— My apologies for not answering your call, I was in the shower earlier. Have you checked out the scenario up to scene 50?

“Yes, I actually called you after reading it. It was great. Please proceed accordingly.”

— Thanks for your positive review.

“I feel great as well since there’s no need to work on it twice. Ah, if you’d like to see the filming, please let me know anytime.”

— I understand. Thank you so much.

Yoon Tae-Sung hung up and took some time to stretch his body. He turned around to see Park Do-Joon standing across the street.

Park Do-Joon’s expression looked quite grim, considering that he was the one who wanted to see the filming site for himself and followed the staff here.

Yoon Tae-Sung tapped the production manager’s shoulder and asked, “What’s with him?”

“Mr. Do-Joon? I’m not sure. He was still quite bright and lively until just now.”

Park Do-Joon was silently staring at his phone, unaware that Yoon Tae-Sung and the production manager were talking about him.

His phone was filled with impure texts that could be labeled as hearsay and malicious rumors.

The words were about Kim Na-Yeon, who was cast for the role of Eun-Hee, a friend of the female lead in There Was A Sea.

‘Whew…’

He had seen it coming, but he couldn’t help but panic since it happened earlier than he expected.

Park Do-Joon pondered over it before gnashing his teeth and dialing a certain number.

— Why did you call?