Big Life

Chapter 249: It’s Fine Even If You Can’t Speak English (5)

[Queen of talk shows Oprah Nightly praises The Breath: An incredibly intense, sophisticated, and wonderful story]

[Michael goes on a talk show with The Breath in hand: I will definitely become a writer and meet Ha Jae-Gun in Korea]

[Entering the rankings from L.A. Times to Amazon Bestseller: An extremely rare case where translated texts appear in the publication market, sales of Writer Ha Jae-Gun’s previous novels are increasing collectively]

Countless articles with large headlines appeared all over the Internet in the early hours of Monday. In addition to large news media companies, the main news of all the Internet search portals had the same news headlines. How Oprah Nightly introduced The Breath: Dragon Rider.

Oprah Nightly was one of the top ten renowned women with a global influence, and her broadcast ramifications were simply unimaginable. Of course, the real-time viewership ratings of her programs need not be mentioned. Even the videos uploaded onto YouTube afterward were breaking phenomenal numbers by the minute.

The momentum was simply unstoppable.

The keywords “The Breath” alone did not take long to take over the U.S. in its entirety after dominating California and New York. Anyone could easily purchase a copy of the book with just a single movement of their finger.

There was no landing for The Breath after Oprah added wings to it. Book reviews on the novel that originated from a small country in East Asia began pouring in from everywhere.

[A pressurized story development, which is unconventional. Despite the heavy subject, the surprising pleasure felt from the story is a blessing.

- L.A. Times]

[A world where distinguishing good and evil is meaningless, a method where the country manipulates the public, making the reader see hope in a tunnel of darkness while being led by the collar.

- USA Today]

[A knight, Edward, who had to know how to survive to protect those precious to him, and the mourning of our fathers after going through heavy storms.

- San Jose Mercury News]

[The crude friendship shared between an abandoned knight and dragon is going to send a tremor across all of America.

- New York Post]

The book received nothing but praise. Eden, the editor-in-chief of Open House, couldn't stop smiling even in his sleep. He had discussed the novel with Ha Jae-Gun for a long period of time, and he had put huge amounts of blood, sweat, and tears into revising the novel. The results of those efforts exceeded his expectations by leaps and bounds, and the book was displaying its fullest potential.

“Everything is going swimmingly,” Eden said, dusting himself as he stood up from his seat. He had just finished monitoring the responses. He placed his hands on his waist and looked around the empty editing room.

With the success of The Breath, Open House managed to move offices.

The cramped interior made him emotional.

“What do you think of my judgment, Ben? Our trip to Korea was a ticket to heaven.”

“Show off to me one more time, and I'll sell the company right away. Then, I'll run away with the money. Let's leave the emotions and reminiscing to the party later tonight and focus on wrapping up here,” Ben grunted, picking up the full-length mirror.

Eden carried the other end of the mirror and said, “I didn't see any negative comments.”

“Me, too.”

“It might end up selling like Harrison Potter.”

“I heard that Korea has an idiom that says not to jump to conclusions.” Ben seemed to be nagging Eden, but he was smiling as well.

He was also glad to see their favorable situation. In his heart, he held the same certainty: The Breath was Open House’s greatest achievement since its establishment.

Just as the book received widespread praise in the U.S., a few negative views emerged in its originating country, Korea.

Of course, Ha Jae-Gun had a few enemies lying around in the dark. Regardless of the truth, the unidentified enemies took into their own hands and beliefs and began criticizing The Breath.

Most of them were from anonymous sites as well.

- They’re all just media play, but The Breath is in fact a mess Keke

- They said Ha Jae-Gun is trying to convert into a U.S. citizen; his whole family seems to be doing that. Is that true?

- Honestly, isn’t Ha Jae-Gun just a bubble? All he knows as a writer is to flatter the Chinese and American markets.

- No, let's bring in at least a fact here if we want to incite and fabricate. Those fans[1] are just all talk when they haven't read a single Korean textbook in their lives, let alone Ha Jae-Gun's novels.

“Yeah yeah, go ahead and criticize all you want.” Lee Yeon-Woo snorted as he read all those comments. He had been exposed to all kinds of negative comments to the extent that such comments no longer affected him.

The A4 paper he was printing contained snippets of book reviews of The Breath: Dragon Rider. Lee Yeon-Woo opened his scrapbook and began cutting out the pieces one by one with a pair of scissors.

“There's no need to care about them. They'll cool down in just a week.”

However, Lee Yeon-Woo was wrong. It didn't take a week, but overnight, for the negative comments to dwindle significantly as Open House made another official announcement on the sales of The Breath: Dragon Rider.

[Open House: 5.5 million copies sold for The Breath: Dragon Rider. The printing speed can't catch up with the sales, so it's torture.]

“Hello? Yes, Eden! This is Yoo-Jin! I just read the news. Gosh, how did we already hit 5 million copies? Ohohohoho!”

— You shouldn't laugh that loudly, Yoo-Jin. You're pregnant, you know that, right?

“Alright, I'll be careful. But it's fine because I'm happy!”

Chae Yoo-Jin got busier as sales accelerated. The number of people contacting her because of The Breath had increased exponentially. The people who had been contacting her could be categorized into two groups: overseas publishers looking to sign copyright contracts and movie production companies wanting to make a move adaptation upon seeing the success of the original novel.

“Are you from London Queensbury? Hello, I was about to contact you. Yes, you said you'd like to contract 50,000 copies?” It was time for Chae Yoo-Jin to showcase her full potential as an agent. She took the first step to deal with the rest of the world with the rights of The Breath in her hands.

Chae Yoo-Jin had extensive knowledge of the current publishing industry in many European countries, including the UK. She also had extensive experience in them. She had spent years focusing on her career to soothe the loneliness she felt while living on foreign soil after her breakup with Oh Myung-Suk. The hardships she had to go through were finally paying off.

And tonight…

“Hello? I hope it’s not too late for me to call you.” The last person she had to call tonight was Ha Jae-Gun. Chae Yoo-Jin couldn’t stop smiling as she reported the happenings of today.

***

“Welcome, the future ten million bestselling writer.” Lee Soo-Hee grinned, wearing an apron.

Ha Jae-Gun sniffed the air as he smelled the cooking. After taking off his shoes, he stepped into the living room and asked, “What are you cooking?”

“The dish that our future ten million bestselling author likes, sweet and spicy braised fish[2].”

“Wow, how did you know that I wanted to have fish today?”

“You said it this morning while we were talking on the phone.”

“It's embarrassing hearing you say that. Are you going to keep at it?”

“What are you embarrassed about, future ten million bestselling author?” Lee Soo-Hee asked as she blinked, feigning ignorance.

Ha Jae-Gun grabbed her legs and plopped her over his shoulders, spinning around the house. Her screams and laughter, filled with happiness, rang throughout the house. Rika didn't bother with them, obviously tired of the repeating scene.

“I was on the phone with Ms. Yoo-Jin, and she said we're going to sign with the UK first.” Ha Jae-Gun picked up his chopsticks and then added, “They will wire over the full royalties for 50,000 copies first. After that, we'll sign with either France or Germany.”

“That's great. She does her job really well.” Lee Soo-Hee gathered her hands in exclamation.

Ha Jae-Gun helped her out a few strands of messy hair behind her ear and replied, “You're the one who treats me the best. It's because you saw that piece of news that my novel saw such a huge success.”

“It’ll definitely happen regardless. I’m just bringing forth the period of your success.” Lee Soo-Hee then shifted to sit next to Ha Jae-Gun. As she picked out the fish bones for Ha Jae-Gun, she said, “You probably haven’t heard much of it since The Breath’s success in America is such a huge topic, but there’s good news in Taiwan, too.

"Do you know that Oscar’s Dungeon is very popular there? It’s still in first place in Taiwan’s ranking. You know that it's all thanks to me setting up the foundation there in Taiwan, right?”

“Of course. Should I give you a kiss?”

Lee Soo-Hee pushed Ha Jae-Gun’s face to the side as he leaned in and said, “Stop with your weird antics during meals. Anyway, Director Nam is also very happy. The Taiwan branch is now stable, and The Breath is also gaining more popularity as the game development is still ongoing.”

Lee Soo-Hee smiled, placing the fish meat on Ha Jae-Gun’s plate. “So what’s left now?”

“Us,” Ha Jae-Gun replied immediately. Seeing how Lee Soo-Hee wasn’t following him, he added, “We should begin our wedding preparations.”

“Are you sure…?” Lee Soo-Hee asked, suppressing her joy. “As much as a writer has to work on novels, it’s going to be much more hectic for you going forward. There’s going to be many other things that are going to bother you.

"Our wedding is a fact now, so it’s fine even if we delay it for a while. So I hope you'll schedule it as you wish.”

“I’m rushing it for myself.”

“...?” Lee Soo-Hee had a questionable look in her eyes, but Ha Jae-Gun did not explain further.

He could still feel the same feeling he had back then during their university days. Lee Soo-Hee’s existence was the driving force behind his writing. He pressed on in his writing even when he was having a hard time and was shedding bloody tears.

“You’re still as pretty as you were in university.”

“What are you saying… Did you get drunk after a small glass?” Lee Soo-Hee picked up her glass. Before toasting, Ha Jae-Gun pulled her into a hug and took a deep breath. Her scent was as refreshing as ever, bringing him strength.

***

“Oppa, let’s stop by the bookstore for a while.”

“We do have time, but why the bookstore out of the blue? You can just let me know if you need anything.”

“I want to buy it personally. I just need five minutes, please?” Hong Ye-Seul pleaded as she massaged her manager’s shoulders.

She had always wanted to do this after becoming an actress. She wanted to be like Lee Chae-Rin, visiting a bookstore secretly to purchase his novel and take a photo of it as proof.

‘The timing's great. Today is the release day of The Breath.’

The Breath revised edition was released today. The autograph event wasn’t held today like back when Lee Chae-Rin had done it herself, but Hong Ye-Seul had been waiting for this moment since morning.

“Oh, I get it now. You want to purchase The Breath, right?” Her manager asked as he turned the steering wheel at the cross-junction of the building where the bookstore was located. Caught red-handed, Hong Ye-Seul kept her mouth shut and looked out the window.

”I saw that 100,000 copies were sold during the pre-order. The C.B.C. also said that Writer Ha’s creative works should be encouraged further for the sake of national interest. That’s true, as his cumulative sales in the U.S. is approaching the 10 million mark.”

Hong Ye-Seul smiled while listening to her manager’s mutterings. How could she not grin when she had always been treating Ha Jae-Gun’s success as her own success?

“Aside from that, it’s already the end game. The president mentioned at the cabinet meeting that there should be ten or hundreds of writers like Jae-Gun in Korea. Who could have thought that a single writer from Korea would become this successful?”

“I knew it.”

“Huh?”

”I knew right from the start that Writer Ha would become a huge success. And it’s still far from using the word success on him. It’s just the beginning after all.”

“Anyway… you’re always odd whenever we talk about Writer Ha.”

The vehicle entered the basement carpark and came to a stop. Hong Ye-Seul was about to undo her safety belt and get off when her manager stopped her with a glance.

“What is it now?”

“I’m sorry for always asking you this, but you’re really fine, right?”

“I’m fine. How many times do you want me to say it? Why are you still so worried when you’re already monitoring me around the clock?” Hong Ye-Seul replied with a frown.

Hong Ye-Seul knew what her manager was talking about. The rumors of her being a karaoke helper were still circulating on the Internet, after all.

“You’re the most important person to me, and I know how much effort you have put in to get where you are today. So don’t suffer alone; depend on the company whenever you need.”

”Yes, I get it. I’m fine, really. Like you say, I’m diligent in my acting career. Look at Na-Yeon unni, she has been going to Hyehwa-dong more recently despite getting it worse than I did.” Hong Ye-Seul then slapped her manager’s shoulder lightly and added, “I won’t crumble. I’m not a weakling.”

”Alright. Remember to wear your sunglasses. Here, your hat.”

Hong Ye-Seul put on her disguise and entered the bookstore. However, before she could locate Ha Jae-Gun’s novel, her fans saw her through her disguise, and ten minutes later, another news article appeared on the Internet.

Its title read: I came to buy Writer Ha Jae-Gun’s book♡

***

“Yeon-Woo, where are you going not having lunch?”

”I have an appointment today. I’ll be having lunch outside, so please enjoy lunch without me. I’ll be back later.” Lee Yeon-Woo stepped out of the office with mixed feelings of anticipation and suspicion.

He had received an email from a publishing company called Fantasium, and it was all because of his blog.

- As a member of the brand promoting fantasy literature, we would like to meet Writer Lee Yeon-Woo if possible. I would appreciate it if you could drop me a contact whenever you’re available.

‘What did they like from my posts that they'd call to meet me? Am I…becoming a recognized writer as well?’ Immersed in his thoughts, Lee Yeon-Woo nearly bumped his head against a telephone pole. After a while, he calmed down slowly. ‘It doesn’t make sense now that I think about it. None of my novels have been doing well, and my capability is still quite inferior.’

Either way, meeting with an editor and discussing his writing with them was the only way he could grow as a writer, which was why Lee Yeon-Woo agreed to the meeting.

On top of that, Fantasium was a brand created under the umbrella of a large corporation, so it was quite credible.

‘It’s here, right?’ Lee Yeon-Woo entered the cafe they had agreed to meet at. He looked around, and a man sitting at a table in the corner of the shop lot stood up.

“Are you Writer Lee Yeon-Woo?”

“Yes, that’s me. Editor-in-Chief Oh Myung-Hoon?”

1. The original word here used is ‘쉐리’, but I can’t seem to find an explanation of this word. If anyone knows, please enlighten~ ☜

2. 갈치조림 Image ☜