Big Life

Chapter 19: Is This the Rumored Canned Food? (3)

"What is she trying to do…?!" Oh Myung-Hoon muttered angrily as he looked at the screen with a look of astonishment. The call had ended, and the screen was flashing Lee Soo-Hee's name and number.

'Why is she being so serious all of a sudden?'

He was horrified because he knew that Lee Soo-Hee had never been the type to joke around.

Oh Myung-Hoon looked as if he had lost his country as he stared up at the ceiling for a while. He soon gathered himself again and picked up the phone to give Lee Soo-Hee another call.

'How dare she not pick up?'

The call seemed to have been connected for a moment, but it was cut off immediately afterward. No matter how many times he dialed afterward, the results remained the same.

Oh Myung-Hoon tightened his grip on the phone like he wanted to crush it into powder as he gnashed his teeth in anger.

'Did she really get another writer? No, there's no way. Darn it, I think I overdid it…!'

Oh Myung-Hoon only wanted to make Lee Soo-Hee feel anxious about the scenario before handing her the actual draft he had already prepared in advance.

He acted the way he did because Lee Soo-Hee hadn't been giving him the respect he deserved to receive.

Oh Myung-Hoon had won first place at a huge contest, and his previous work was even in the negotiations to get adapted into a drama, but it didn't seem like much in Lee Soo-Hee's eyes.

The look in her eyes whenever she was looking at him had never changed and was still the same since their university days.

'Damn it!' Oh Myung-Hoon then dialed another number after ending his train of thought. The call rang for a while, and Nextion's marketing team member, Section Chief Lee, answered it.

— Oh, Oh Myung-Hoon. I was just about to call you.

"What's going on, hyung[1]? What's happening?"

Section Chief Lee was Oh Myung-Hoon's high school senior, and they were close to each other. It was also thanks to him that Oh Myung-Hoon was able to get his current position at Nextion. Whatever he said at the last alumni gathering about how Lee Soo-Hee had begged him to write a scenario for them were all lies.

"Lee Soo-Hee mentioned contract termination to me out of the blue. Have you heard anything about that from the planning team?"

— Uh… I heard that they found another writer for the job.

Oh Myung-Hoon's eyes widened at the news. They actually found another writer? Within just a day?!

"W-who is it? Who is that writer?!!"

Oh Myung-Hoon yelled into the phone as his chin trembled in anger. Rather than being curious about what works the writer had written before, he was more concerned about what kind of writer Lee Soo-Hee had chosen over him.

The thought that he had lost to the writer they just found made him extremely angry.

— I'm not sure about that either. Our team leader went to have a talk with them, so I'll let you know after I find out. Oh Myung-Hoon, sorry, but I've got to go. I have a meeting to attend.

The call ended, but Oh Myung-Hoon couldn't put down the phone. His eyes traveled to the full-sized mirror beside him and stayed there for a while. He saw his face flushed in anger and found it so pitiful that he wanted to shatter the mirror.

"Aaaarghhh!"

Oh Myung-Hoon screamed and knocked the mirror over.

Smash!

The mirror’s fragments scattered all over the floor in Oh Myung-Hoon's study. A butler passing by ran into the room after hearing the commotion.

"Y-Young Master! Are you okay?"

Oh Myung-Hoon just stood there, seething in silence.

The butler quickly called the helpers to clean up the fragments of the shattered mirror. Then, he carefully said to Oh Myung-Hoon, "Um, another call came from the president. He instructed you not to be late and show up on time at ten."

"I know."

"There's also the press conference for Missus' latest drama launch at seven. The president said that you must also attend that event since it is her first project acting as the female lead—"

Oh Myung-Hoon exploded, with his eyes almost bulging. "I know! I know! I know! I'm going! Am I a child?! I can always find my way over there, be it by running, driving, or taking a taxi. Stop telling me again and again!"

"I-I apologize, Young Master."

The butler and helpers who had finished cleaning up the room hurried out of the room. They were obviously afraid to stand in his way.

On his own, Oh Myung-Hoon slumped onto the sofa and let out a battered breath. He had never expected that getting the girl of his dreams would be this tough.

***

— Writer Ha, our president had asked me to prepare some abalone for you this time. Since they're live products, is it alright if I personally drop them off at your house? I've got something else to do in the area anyway.

The message came from Star Books’ Jung So-Mi.

Ha Jae-Gun had just received his new laptop from the delivery man. He placed the box down on the ground and replied.

— I'll be very grateful. It’s okay. You don’t have to come all the way here just to send them over.

— No, it's fine. I'll drop you a call later when I'm heading over in the afternoon. *^^*

Ha Jae-Gun smiled at the emoticon in her message. The emoticon made him paint Jung So-Mi's energetic and chic smile in his head.

There were some people who could drive the people's fatigue away just by showing themselves and saying a single line. And to Ha Jae-Gun, Jung So-Mi was slowly turning into someone like that.

"Now, shall we open my new laptop? Rika, come over here."

"Meow."

Rika was just sitting by the windowsill, looking at the world outside. She came down and crouched before the box while Ha Jae-Gun started explaining while unboxing his new laptop.

"It's the latest laptop valued at 1.8 million won. That old laptop was too inconvenient with its small screen. I can look up keywords and any other information if I encounter any difficulties while writing using that laptop, but it takes over twenty seconds to open even a browser on that laptop.”

The box revealed a 17-inch, silver-colored, sleek laptop, which was much larger than Seo Gun-Woo's ancient laptop. Ha Jae-Gun smiled in joy as he connected its adapter to the power plug and turned the machine on.

"Look, Rika. Booting time takes less than five seconds! This thing has an SSD, and it allows laptops to boot in the proverbial blink of an eye."

"Meow?"

"1.8 million won is slightly pricey, but it's fine. I'll be able to earn that amount back after writing for an entire day. Today’s a new start with a new laptop!"

Ha Jae-Gun installed Word on his new laptop and opened the proposal that Lee Soo-Hee had sent over to his inbox. Today, he was planning on creating the quests for Oh Soo-Min, one of the female game characters.

"Ah, could it be because I haven’t really composed any pieces in this kind of genre? It’s so cringey that I’m dying!"

It had been a while since he found it difficult to start working on a manuscript, and Ha Jae-Gun couldn’t really be blamed because it was the scene where the protagonist would meet Oh Soo-Min at the gas station for the first time.

Ha Jae-Gun had to write a line from Oh Soo-Min's perspective, but the line he had come up with was so cringey that he found it difficult to get immersed in the role.

Ha Jae-Gun came up with a line, and as he was writing it down, he started speaking as well.

"Hmm… Kyaa, I'm sorry! Oh my, handsome oppa! Are you hurt? Wooow, is this your car, oppa? It's so sexy! I actually sprained myself after we knocked into each other—Ouch! Could you send me back home? Ah—Argh, darn it. This won’t do."

Frustrated, Ha Jae-Gun deleted the entire paragraph. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t written a romance novel before because he was having a difficult time writing such cheesy lines. Since Seo Gun-Woo’s talent wasn’t working, it seemed like Ha Jae-Gun was the problem here.

He then decided to start working on what he could for now, which was the quest location's background setting and its description. He decided to write the character lines later.

Tadadak…! Tak! Tadadak!

It had been two hours since he started working diligently on his new laptop, but…

'Hmm, what’s going on…?'

Ha Jae-Gun felt that something was wrong as he tilted his head from side to side and stopped typing on his keyboard. There weren’t any issues with the words he typed. The issue was with his fingers. They weren't catching up to the thoughts and ideas in his head.

'It has already been two hours, but I only wrote this much?'

He clicked on the document information again and saw that he had only written five thousand characters during the entire two hours.

His face turned grim as he inwardly exclaimed, 'What's wrong with me…?!'

His fingers, which had been producing ten thousand characters every hour before, weren't working properly anymore. He had boasted and promised Lee Soo-Hee that he could send the first draft to her tonight because of his ability.

'It could also be due to the fact that I hadn't written such drafts before… Let's try working on it for a while.'

Ha Jae-Gun continued working on the draft with patience. However, thirty minutes later, he leaned back in his chair with a pale face. He didn’t have to check the document information to know that he had lost his special ability to write ten thousand characters per hour.

'Just what's happening…?!'

Even if he worked without rest until eight this evening, there was no way he could keep his promise to Lee Soo-Hee. He was struck with a realization and was quickly gripped by fear.

'Did my ability… disappear?!'

Had he lost Seo Gun-Woo’s gift? Was that the reason he found it difficult to write lines for a female character? Was it also the reason that he couldn’t write ten thousand characters anymore?

Bzzt!

"Heok!"

The vibrating phone startled Ha Jae-Gun and pulled him back to Earth. He looked at his phone and saw Jung So-Mi’s name being displayed on the screen.

"H-hello."

— Writer Ha, I'm outside your apartment building right now. I'm sorry for disturbing you when you're so busy.

"Oh, no, it's fine. Please come up. I'll open the door for you."

– Thank you.

Jung So-Mi’s voice remained energetic and cheerful. Of course, it wasn’t really strange. After all, she didn’t know Ha Jae-Gun’s mood and state of mind.

Ha Jae-Gun stumbled his way to the door and opened it for her. However, Jung So-Mi was still near the end of the corridor, and she was visibly struggling to carry the styrofoam box in her hands.

Seeing that, Ha Jae-Gun promptly rushed over and helped her carry it.

"I'm sorry; I should have gone down to fetch this from you."

"It's alright; it wasn't too heavy. Have a good day, Writer Ha."

Jung So-Mi bowed ninety degrees and turned around to leave, but Ha Jae-Gun immediately called her afterward.

"Please come in for a while. I'll treat you to a cup of coffee."

"Oh, it's alright, you must be busy…"

"I don't feel comfortable sending you away like that, so please don't reject me." Ha Jae-Gun said once more.

He wanted to talk to Jung So-Mi, hoping to recover some of his energy. He was afraid that things would only get worse if he were to continue working in his current state.

"All right, please excuse me." Jung So-Mi entered Ha Jae-Gun's house and took off her shoes.

Just then, Rika's eyes momentarily glimmered like a flashlight being quickly turned on and off.

Ha Jae-Gun and Jung So-Mi didn’t see the strange phenomenon, so they also had no idea that the light in Rika's left eye had landed on Ha Jae-Gun, while her right eye was on Jung So-Mi.

1. Hyung is a common address for males addressing their older brothers, whether blood-related or not. ☜