Novelist Running Through Time - Chapter 189



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The Novelist Who Leapt Through Time Episode 189

“When he made eye contact with the baby whose face was crushed, Minha couldn’t even scream. As if the sharp edge of her kitchen knife had penetrated between her ribs, she held onto her chest and froze.

People who encounter ghosts in horror movies often scream and scream. It wasn’t. I learned that when a person is really surprised, Minha freezes and cannot do anything.

Like a traveler who encounters a tiger on a trail in a mountain valley at night, like a soldier who turns around and encounters an enemy soldier with his gun pointed at him, like an unlucky passerby who suddenly encounters a car rushing onto the sidewalk, Minha also ended up encountering something himself. I had a thought.

Sosurachi was frozen in fear, and Minha felt as if time was passing slowly.

This moment of terrifying fear seemed to last forever.

But that wasn’t the case.

Time passed as it always had. And it would continue to be so.

Only then did Minha calmly look at the baby’s appearance, whose face was crushed.

The first emotion I felt was shock. The next emotion I felt was fear. But the next emotion I felt was compassion, something that anyone who saw the body of a newborn would feel.

The moment pity drove out fear, Minha realized that he had not been breathing until now.

Hyperventilation and coughing.

My head, which was supplied with oxygen again, began to think calmly.

It was quite possible for a 32-year-old wage earner who had had an abortion to be separated from her company, exhausted, and seeing a void that symbolized her childhood trauma.

Therefore, rather than making a fuss as if she were the main character of a horror movie, Minha also chose to calmly put down her spoon and go back to her room to take a nap.

What was scarier than the baby with a crushed face who appeared on the other side while I was eating dinner was the fact that I had to go to work tomorrow as well. The fear is doubled because tomorrow is Saturday.

Therefore, Minha put off the dishes to Minha tomorrow, rolled up the blanket, laid down on his side, and took a quick nap. I hope that when I wake up from a deep sleep, this creepy happening will be over.

But when I blinked,

Looking at the baby with a crushed face sitting on the dressing table in the corner of the room, staring at him,

For some reason, Minha had an ominous feeling that she might see that baby again tomorrow.

And that premonition was not wrong.”

EP 11-All kinds

“Uhm…”

Baekseol (30, CEO of Baekhak Bookstore), a wage worker in his early 30s who insists that he is in his 20s even though he is already in his 30s, feels that the hardships experienced by ‘Minha’, a 32-year-old wage laborer, are just strangers. didn’t

It’s not because he suddenly sees a baby with a crushed face, but because he is familiar with the ‘sudden and unavoidable trials of life’ symbolized by a ‘baby with a crushed face’.

It is meaningless to ask why people suddenly start talking about life’s hardships after seeing a miscarriage baby appear as a ghost. That means I read less writers.

Experienced nerds, or rather readers, are bound to become familiar with the author’s repertoire to some extent.

Just like readers who have been reading Haruki Murakami’s novels for a long time suddenly smile fondly when they see the main character ‘masturbating’ and say, ‘Wow, this old man is starting again…’

Baek Seol, who has been reading a writer’s novel for a long time, smiles fondly and says, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy is starting again…’ whenever he sees the writer suddenly ignoring the main character.

As can be seen from these insights, the literary novelist loved to throw ‘sudden and unavoidable trials of life’ to the protagonist.

As the saying goes, the trials are often unavoidable, sudden, life-changing, and the type of trials that a weak individual cannot resist.

I don’t know why I like this development…

I think there is a continuation of a certain fatalistic world view from the cause of death, such as ‘So many things were decided the moment you were born.’

This is the world view that a novelist who started life in an orphanage without any choice would have.

Of course, Baekseol himself was living a life influenced by things that had already been decided before he was born, so he did not feel unfamiliar with the literature of writers.

If you’re looking at likes and dislikes, it’s definitely a ‘favorite’.

However, that is only Baek Seol’s position as the ‘reader’.

‘Editor’ Baek Sul, and many editors at Baekhak Bookstore, were on high alert when they saw the subject of the new work.

“Ah, ahaha… this is a bit…”

Eunbi Lee, head of the public relations and marketing team, laughed awkwardly.

“It seems a bit… inappropriate topic.”

Woo Ki-tae, head of the publishing business division, also expressed concern.

“Evande.”

Lim Yang-wook, head of the publishing management division, declared ‘Evande’.

Although it seems that Baekhak Bookstore has been reorganized from a bipolar system of ‘Publishing Business Division’ and ‘Book Distribution Division’ to a tripolar system with additional published books, in reality, published books have also taken over the publishing business headquarters.

Therefore, the people gathered in the president’s office were the top executives of Baekhak Bookstore’s publishing line.

And considering that the Book Distribution Headquarters was still tightly controlled by Vice President Kim Geun-tae, Baekseol was actually one of the few people whose opinions he could comfortably ask.

In other words, Baekseol gathered a small group of advisors and asked for their opinions on the writer’s next work.

And all three of them shook their heads in astonishment.

Of course, seasoned editors did not criticize the novel, saying it was disgusting, like members of the popular culture and arts research club.

The reason they expressed their disapproval was the subject matter of this novel itself.

“The main topic seems a bit… difficult to handle.”

Director Woo Ki-tae carefully gave advice.

Lim Yang-wook said the same thing more directly.

“If possible, it is best not to write a novel about a topic that is provocative and sensitive, such as abortion, can easily attract public and media aggro, and could easily emerge as a political or social topic.”

Lee Eun-bi, the public relations team leader who was in a lower weight class, just glanced and rolled her eyes.

But just by looking at his expression, he seemed troubled enough.

If a writer’s novel becomes a social problem, she is the one who has to fight, refute, apologize, and explain while being beaten on the front lines.

Baekseol calmly observed the reactions of these three people and sighed.

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t use it…”

Those who find it ironic that Baekhak Library, which handles dozens, hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of volumes, is clinging to one novelist are those who do not know how much ‘Starry Sky’ raked in in the United States and Japan last quarter.

However, the three people gathered here knew the sales volume of literary figures, and they also knew how much sales were generated in the English-American literature as interest in Korean literature increased after the Hugo Award.

The coincidental success of writer Koo Hak-jun’s nomination for the Booker International brought confidence to their theory of the ‘Korean Wave in literature.’ The phenomenon of a single genius sustaining an industry is no longer a theory or fantasy.

Even more so, if that genius is the greatest achievement of a parachute owner whose position is unstable, one must be even more cautious.

Therefore, Director Woo Ki-tae spoke firmly.

“Maybe it’s better to make it unusable.”

Public relations team leader Lee Eun-bi also added with courage.

“And also, because it is election season… there seems to be a high probability that it will become an issue in a bad way.”

“hmm.”

After hearing those words, Baekseol ran the simulation in her head.

Baek Seol, who puts on as much makeup as she can, visits a writer.

And he tells me to change the topic of the novel.

Then what the writer has to say is…

– Me?

– yes.

– why?

– If you write about a socially sensitive topic during election season, the issue may ignite.

– You don’t like it?

– Eh.

Okay, fail!

The rolled up white snow covered my throbbing head.

“Oh, what should I do…”

The secret power, no, the loyalist martyr Lim Yang-wook, quickly took advantage of Utjeon’s discomfort.

“It’s nothing to worry about already. “It is true that it is a problem that needs to be taken care of from a risk management perspective, but there is little benefit in arguing over a novel that is not yet completed.”

“Is that so…?”

“Yes, let’s just watch.”

Lim Yang-wook calmly sent President Baek-seol back to the president’s office, and Woo Ki-tae and Lee Eun-bi, who had anxious looks in their eyes, also returned to their places.

And then I started thinking alone.

In fact, this is already something to worry about.

This is because people think of writers not as ‘novelists’ but as ‘an extraordinary boy who made Korea’s name known abroad.’

Therefore, even in an era when literature was dying out, writers were able to gain more popularity than ordinary novelists, and this was Lim Yang-wook’s ‘publishing management’.

Idol of the literary world.

Since they have gained the popularity of an idol, they can get into trouble for trivial things like idols and then disappear. If you gain something, you also lose something.

“……”

Lim Yang-wook turned a writer into an entertainer, not a novelist.

However, writers are gaining the freedom of novelists, not celebrities.

The publishing management business essentially involves manipulating authors by making them puppets of the company.

However, writers, who are the core of the publishing management headquarters, can write articles that are harmful to the company at any time.

This is because he is a madman with his own, unknown standards, not wealth and fame.

The writer is obviously a strange guy, and that’s where his genius comes from.

Yangwook Lim cannot fathom the strange and twisted world of literature that resides in the mind of a writer.

but.

I knew how people would react when something that went against world standards came out.

The world is never tolerant of ‘twisted things.’ Just like Lim Yang-wook himself…

So what should we do?

Should we allow freedom for writers, even though we know that it is difficult for flawed celebrities to survive in this world?

or not……

* * *

‘That bastard who is a writer! ‘He’s just a celebrity to begin with!’

Ahn Joo-hee cursed Moonin hard (inwardly) with the same mindset as the heavy metal band’s fandom, which does not tolerate a visual band with only a smooth face.

It wasn’t because Ahn Joo-hee’s feelings were twisted.

Of course, An Ju-hee was a child with a twisted mind, but the public opinion that downgraded the writing skills of writers other than An Ju-hee was by no means small.

The reason is, ironically, that writers have become overly famous.

If you ask whether you belong to the major league or the minor league, of course it is the major league.

And since the publishing industry has traditionally been the minor league of minor leagues, writers were an opposite that could not be easily accepted by those who were struggling to survive in the darkness of the minor league.

In a word, he is ‘a writer who succeeded through telling stories and is liked by the general public.’

However, since the fandom of writers was not easy, whenever the ‘level’ of writers became a hot topic on the Internet, a battle between light and darkness would always unfold.

Ahn Joo-hee was also one of the apostles of darkness.

“Honestly, I would have been as successful as a writer if Baekhak Bookstore had given me that much support…”

In this life, writers rarely entered the contest, so Ahn Joo-hee almost never missed first place in national youth literary awards (except for the occasional encounter with Gu Yu-na).

Since it was objectively proven that she was the number one among youth literature students, Ahn Joo-hee sometimes thought that her writing skills were equal to or better than those of writers.

However, as a sensitive and complex first-year high school student, both light and darkness were sleeping in Ahn Joo-hee’s heart…

It was as if the light Ahn Joo-hee, whose heart pounded the moment the writer recognized her, and the dark Ahn Joo-hee, who tried to belittle the writer’s writing skills, coexisted.

Moon Ji-seop, unaware of such complicated feelings, answered firmly.

“no. Wake. You are not at the literary level. “If you go somewhere and say something like that, you’ll be in big trouble!”

Ahn Joo-hee’s heartfelt punch hit Moon Ji-seop’s forearm.

Ahn Joo-hee coldly turned around and sat down, leaving behind Moon Ji-seop, who was crying and holding onto his forearms like a little girl.

And looked around with cold eyes.

Actor Kim Byeol, who is alone with his smart phone, and Min Hyo-chan, who is addicted to otaku games alone. Plus the idol Min Hyo-min.

First of all, it can be said that Ahn Joo-hee has already defeated these three with her writing skills.

The problem is that little monster sitting on Min Hyo-min’s lap and being stroked…

“Tch…!”

Guy Yuna.

The devil in the youth essay writing.

And, along with being a writer, he was the lucky guy who won the Hugo Award…

However, since her skills were acceptable, Ahn Joo-hee kept Gu Yu-na in check with a wary gaze.

Therefore, the two people that Ahn Joo-hee wanted to avoid in this club were Mun-in and Gu Yu-na.

Ahn Joo-hee swallowed her saliva and waited for the literature practice of the Daemoonyeon club to begin today.

Soon, the writer who would lead the practice arrived at the club room.

“Oh, sorry I’m late-”

“Why are you so late?!”

“I’m not sorry.”

The writer, who arrived at the club a little late, canceled his apology as soon as he heard the harsh urging of Ahn Joo-hee, who had been waiting for the practical training more than anyone else, and entered confidently.

However, An Joo-hee could not stand his shamelessness, because an old man with a long white beard came in behind the writer.

An Joo-hee knew the old man. She was the homeroom teacher who appeared briefly at the beginning of the semester. She is someone who quickly disappears because she does not attend any classes.

Even the name is vague now. Why is he really at school? That person…

However, when Ahn Joo-hee felt a sense of déjà vu, thinking that she had seen the old man’s face somewhere, a writer came forward and introduced the visitor.

“This is Teacher Park Chang-woon, our homeroom teacher in the literary arts department and an active novelist. “I invited you here to help with the club’s literature class, so please give everyone a round of applause.”

“Applause.”

Park Chang-woon.

As soon as she heard these three letters, An Joo-hee opened her eyes and stood up.

“Could it be Park Chang-woon from ?!”

Park Chang-woon grinned and stroked his beard.

“Hoo?”

And he smiled as if he had found a fun toy.