Big Life

Chapter 56: Not Alone (1)

—Hello, Writer Ha Jae-Gun. This is Kang Min-Ho. Congratulations on getting first place with The Breath. I enjoyed it a lot and learned a lot from your book in the process. Please take care of your health and don’t catch a cold in this cold weather. Good luck with your writing.

The message had the same courteous tone he felt back during the authors' meet.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled, and then he started typing out a reply.

— Hello, Writer Kang Min-Ho. Thank you for your message. I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the novel as well. How have you been doing?

Ha Jae-Gun didn’t focus too much on the novel and decided to ask about Kang Min-Ho’s situation instead. Like normal people, each writer could be in very different situations, be it mentally or materialistically, such that it might render them unable to work on novels for the time being.

Ha Jae-Gun soon received a reply from Kang Min-Ho.

— I'm doing alright. I got an office space along with a few other writers near Guro station, so I've been working on my fantasy novels there recently, but it isn't going very well. I'm finding it difficult to write anything when I'm trying to fit my work to the current trends of the readers. It's been like this for me in the last half year.

Ha Jae-Gun could imagine Kang Min-Ho's face looking like he was about to cry. Ha Jae-Gun was all too familiar with the pain and stress that came along when one couldn't write a good novel for an extended period of time.

Ha Jae-Gun would love to offer some kind of help if possible. He took a while to think of how to word his reply, and then he soon typed it out.

— I would like to read it, would you send it to me through email?

— Ah, you must be very busy with the serialization, are you sure it's fine? I would definitely be honored if you could take a look at it.

— It's fine. I can read it right now, so please send it over.

— Okay, Writer Ha. I'll send it over to you as soon as I get back. Please take a look, and I'll be grateful if you could give me some feedback on which parts are riddled with mistakes.

— Sure.

Ha Jae-Gun headed to the kitchen to make himself a bowl of ramyun after sending that last message. He hadn’t eaten a single meal throughout the time he was working, so he was starving. Just as he took the entire pot of boiling ramyun to his desk and sat down in the chair, another reply came from Kang Min-Ho.

— I've just sent it over. Thank you, I'll be waiting for your feedback.

Ha Jae-Gun didn’t even switch to his laptop. He accessed his inbox through his phone and saw that Kang Min-Ho's manuscript was at the very top of his inbox.

[The Demon Lord Crash-Landed in Earth]

"The title is um…" Ha Jae-Gun muttered and clicked on the attachment.

The manuscript was about 130,000 characters long, roughly the length of an entire volume. Surprised by the amount of reading he had to do, Ha Jae-Gun decided to wear Seo Gun-Woo's brown horn-rimmed glasses.

"Hmm, he wrote another fusion genre this time, too."

The protagonist of his novel was the Demon Lord, an absolute ruler of a certain continent in the fantasy world. One day, a warrior barged into the Demon Lord's castle and cast forbidden magic on him. The Demon Lord was then forced into an unexpected world and crashed into modern-day Korea.

'The plot is similar to the Great Demon Lord of the Other World that he had released before. Hmm…'

Ha Jae-Gun quickly read through the novel.

He frowned deeply after reading mid-way through the manuscript.

'This is serious!' First of all, Ha Jae-Gun didn’t find much of an issue with the material itself. It was cliched, but it meant that it would be a stable novel that most readers of the genre would like.

However, the problem was—it wasn't interesting at all.

It was so uninteresting that it was infuriating.

There were too many unnecessary emotional descriptions, and many of the story developments weren’t coherent enough, which prevented readers from getting immersed in the story.

If he weren’t reading this for Kang Min-Ho’s sake, he would have long decided to abandon this novel.

"Ah, my ramyun…!"

Ha Jae-Gun quickly picked up his chopsticks and slurped the noodles. Thankfully, he caught himself in time, so the noodles didn’t get as soggy as he thought.

"Hmm, this is a total mess. How should I help him?" Ha Jae-Gun finished his noodles and started writing his feedback on the computer.

After that, he read through it once and got worried that it sounded too straightforward; there were almost no compliments at all. The feedback was mostly made up of the shortcomings and areas Kang Min-Ho had to improve.

Ha Jae-Gun looked at Rika and asked, "Rika, should I just send it like this? What if he gets upset after receiving my feedback? He didn’t seem like he’s writing a lot recently."

Rika only looked back at Ha Jae-Gun instead of answering with a cry.

Ha Jae-Gun let out a helpless sigh and turned back to the screen.

"All right, it's manners to be truthful when writing feedback. I wouldn’t be helping him at all if I were to beat around the bush.."

Ha Jae-Gun sent the feedback to Kang Min-Ho and started working on The Breath once again. Rika rested her chin while lying on the end of Ha Jae-Gun’s bed, her eyes started closing gradually as the drowsiness overwhelmed her.

***

The following day, Ha Jae-Gun woke up once more at noon, took a warm shower and washed some rice to cook in the rice cooker. Just as he was wondering if he should fry an egg for his side, he received a message from Kang Min-Ho.

— Thank you for the quality feedback. I tried working on the areas that were lacking through the night, so I hope you could take another look at them today. I would also like to treat you to a meal one day if you don’t mind.

Ha Jae-Gun was still sleepy, but he couldn’t help but smile and feel invigorated upon seeing that Kang Min-Ho took the entire night editing his own novel after reading Ha Jae-Gun’s feedback. It seemed that Ha Jae-Gun had been mistaken in assuming that Kang Min-Ho would be upset by his feedback.

Ha Jae-Gun drank a cup of coffee and started reading the edited manuscript from Kang Min-Ho. Almost every issue that he had pointed out before had been edited, and the novel's overall readability had improved significantly in just a day.

"Writer Kang Min-Ho has great wits, it is always difficult to edit after receiving harsh feedback."

Ha Jae-Gun felt that the edited manuscript was good enough to be released to the public. Kang Min-Ho still missed a few areas, but it was an incredible improvement compared to yesterday’s version.

However, Ha Jae-Gun was still worried. After all, this was just the first volume of the novel. Ha Jae-Gun had no idea how the story would develop in the next volume.

‘The story development and quality of his Great Demon Lord of the Other World dropped significantly from volume three onwards.’

Ha Jae-Gun said that he found the novel interesting during the authors’ meet, but it wasn’t actually the case. The story that was developing well suddenly shriveled up, which he had endured and read through to the end, but it was pure torture.

‘Is there no one else who could help with the story development?’

He couldn’t stay still after getting worried about the story’s future development. He eventually decided to make the call, thinking that it would be better for them to talk over the phone than over messages.

— H-hello, Writer Ha Jae-Gun?

“Yes, hello. Are you free to talk on the phone now?”

— Y-yes! O-of course. I was surprised as I didn’t know you would call.

“I’ve finished reading the edited manuscript you sent me earlier. It’s a lot better than the one from yesterday, really.”

— Really? I’m still not feeling it, but do you really think it’s better?

“I don’t say empty words. But, Writer Kang Min-Ho, is this novel currently contracted with any company?”

— Not yet, and I was thinking of converting this into a paid serialization novel. I’ll release it for free reading for a period of time while waiting for a management company to approach me.

“I see...” Ha Jae-Gun then thought of the ways he could help Kang Min-Ho out, and Laugh Books popped into his mind. Right now, he was Laugh Books’ only writer.

The conclusion came to him quickly. Kang Min-Ho needed someone who could lead him properly, and Kwon Tae-Won needed another author at Laugh Books to expand their library.

Since he was going to help Kang Min-Ho, he decided to help him until the end.

After all, Kang Min-Ho wasn’t an ungrateful person.

However, Ha Jae-Gun still hadn’t expected that he would one day be helping out Kang Min-Ho like this.

Ha Jae-Gun said, “You said you’d treat me to a meal, right? What about lunch today?”

— Today?

Kang Min-Ho’s voice got higher. Ha Jae-Gun’s question obviously flustered him.

— Y-yes, I am definitely open during lunch. Where should we meet? I will head over there immediately.

Ha Jae-Gun made eye contact with Rika and said, “You said your office is near Guro station, right? I’m raising a cat at home, so can I bring her along to your office if that’s fine?”

— Pardon? A-are you saying that you’ll come all the way to my office?

“If it’s okay, it’ll be my cat and me.”

— Of course! The other writers and I love animals as well, and I’m the only one in the office right now.

“All right, that’s settled, then. Please send me the address, and I’ll be there soon.”

— Yes, Writer Ha. I’ll see you then.

Ha Jae-Gun hung up and took his coat. He then picked up Rika, and the two left the house together

Ha Jae-Gun hopped into the driver's seat and started up the engine when a call came in. It was Tae-Won.

“Hello, President Kwon.”

— Have you had lunch?

“Not yet, what about you?”

— I haven’t eaten yet as well. Anyway, The Breath has been holding the fort in first place for quite a while now. Once we enter Navin Store and KokoaPage next month, we’ll start earning much more than what we’re earning right now. You’re about to become a rich man, Writer Ha.

“I’m quite surprised myself as well. I had never expected the medieval fantasy genre to become such a huge hit after its popularity has faded. Oh, right, President Kwon, I was about to give you a call earlier as well. Can we release five chapters a day?”

— What? Five chapters a day?

“Yes, I have a huge stockpile now, so I think it’s possible to do that.” Ha Jae-Gun wanted to increase the number of released chapters daily because he wanted to buy a detached house for his family as soon as possible. If he released more chapters daily, his earnings would come in faster.

— Writer Ha, that would be 150 chapters in a month, which is around five to six volumes. How much do you have in your stockpile?

“I have around 350 chapters right now.” It was a lie. In fact, he had only written up to chapter 175. However, Ha Jae-Gun was confident in writing twenty-five chapters a day, thanks to Seo Gun-Woo’s laptop and cup.

— 350 chapters? Wait, when did you write so many chapters?

Kwon Tae-Won was flustered, and his voice even cracked.

Ha Jae-Gun started the engine of his car and chuckled before answering, “You know that I’m very diligent. Anyway, does this mean that you’ll allow me to release five chapters a day?.”

— Are you really sure that you’ll be fine?

“Yes, of course. Don’t worry about me. Oh, I have to start driving now, President Kwon.”

— Ah, I understand. Please drive carefully, and we’ll talk again later.

Ha Jae-Gun ended the call without bringing up Kang Min-Ho. He thought that it still wouldn’t be too late after he was done clearing things up with Kang Min-Ho.

“Let’s go, Rika.” The car started running. Rika in the front passenger seat sat lazily, and she yawned before closing her eyes. Kang Min-Ho’s office wasn’t that far, and they arrived at their destination in just twenty minutes because there was no traffic.

“Hmm? It’s not a proper office but an apartment.”

The navigator brought them to a remote residential area. The run-down exterior of the building looked like it was over twenty years old.

All of a sudden, Ha Jae-Gun’s phone rang.

— Hello, Writer Ha. Where are you?

“I’ve just arrived. Is it the orange-bricked apartment building?”

— Ah, yes. Please wait a moment.

The sound of a door being unlocked could be heard, and the door opened, revealing Kang Min-Ho standing behind it. Ha Jae-Gun alighted from his car with a slightly surprised look. He looked like he had never thought that this would be their office.

“You’re here fast.”

“Yes, there wasn’t much traffic on the road.”

“Please come in first. It’s shabby, but I hope you won’t mind,” Kang Min-Ho said. He started leading the way for the visitors.

Ha Jae-Gun picked up Rika and followed Kang Min-Ho to basement 1, where their office was located. The office seemed to be around 12 pyeong[1].

It had a living room, a larger room, and a smaller room, as well as a narrow kitchen and bathroom. The relatively empty house was stained with mold from the humidity It also looked like they didn’t have any proper furniture or appliances here.

A table with several tables laid out on it caught Ha Jae-Gun’s eye, and it proved that this was indeed an office used by several writers along with Kang Min-Ho.

“Hahaha, I’m sorry. It looks kind of bad, doesn’t it?” Kang Min-Ho smiled awkwardly while scratching the back of his head.

“A few of us pooled money together to rent this place on a monthly basis. I had been living alone in a gosiwon[2] before this, so this was much more economical and better for me.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Let’s have lunch first, shall we? What would you like to have? Here’s a catalog of food available for delivery here. Please choose something you like,” Kang Min-Ho handed over the catalog.

He seemed excited that he couldn’t calm himself down at all.

It couldn’t be helped because a rising writer had come all the way here to meet him—an unknown writer. No one would be able to stay clear-headed if they were in his shoes.

“What about braised monkfish? The seafood soup is delicious, too. Ah, the sushi can be delivered immediately.”

“Hmm, I kind of want some black bean noodles.”

“Black bean noodles…?”

“Yes, I’ve been thinking about it while I was on the way here.” Ha Jae-Gun laughed.

He realized that Kang Min-Ho wasn’t getting along well, so the latter probably didn’t want to spend too much money. He also didn’t want to offer to pay for the meal because it might hurt Kang Min-Ho’s pride.

“Really…? Are you fine with just having that?” Kang Min-Ho repeated with an embarrassed look. He thought that it was a great disrespect to serve Ha Jae-Gun a cheap meal when he had traveled all the way here.

“Writer Kang, do you not like black bean noodles?”

“No, I love it too, but please choose a better dish.”

“Any delicious is good food. I’ll just have that. Anyway, I like the normal black bean noodles rather than the dry version.”

“Ah… All right, I’ll order that, then. The black bean noodles here is pretty good as well, but I still feel ashamed…” Kang Min-Ho muttered with a troubled look as he proceeded to make the order.

After Kang Min-Ho was done placing an order, Ha Jae-Gun asked him without hesitation, “Writer Kang Min-Ho, would you like to sign a contract with me?”

1. 평 Pyeong is a unit of measure used in Korea and China. 1 pyeong would be roughly 35 sqft. ☜

2. Gosiwon is a single-room occupancy found in Korea. It is originally designed for students preparing to take exams, and they are characterized by low rent, shared bathrooms and kitchens, with very limited private space. ☜