Novelist Running Through Time - Chapter 217



Only Noblemtl

The novelist who leapt through time, chapter 217

“The phrase ‘love at first sight’ can be used to describe a first love beautifully, but our first love was neither fateful nor romantic.

「Well, there are social expectations. It’s like the quests given every time you level up. There’s the expectation (or pressure) from those around you that you have to fulfill a certain role when you reach a certain age. It’s hard to explain in detail, but if you’re a Korean reading this, you’ll probably already have a rough idea and be nodding along with a subtle smile.」

“My first love felt like a necessary quest. I got into college a year later than everyone else, and I went on a company trip, embarrassed by the scarlet letter of a repeater, and there I met a girl who was also a repeater. We became close using our only commonality as an excuse, drank together, pushed each other around, got numbers, and before long, we had sex, which wasn’t a very pleasant experience, became a CC (campus couple), went to see the cherry blossoms, celebrated our 100th day together, and after about a year, I heard from the military that we had to break up, and it ended.”

“Anyway, it was a very conventional first love. Since we had to live up to social expectations, we fulfilled our roles and also satisfied our sexual desires. And for a start, we weren’t all that innocent. Here, the purity I’m talking about doesn’t mean sexual purity, but inner purity. I thought it was a huge deal because I met a pretty woman who was ‘not my class’ under the pretense of being a repeat student, and after looking into it a little more, I realized that my family didn’t have money, so I should think carefully about marriage. However, when I got older and thought about it, it seems like she was the same in that kind of dirty behavior. I paid for her luxury handbags and even her phone bill. Anyway, the reason why kids in their early 20s dated like this is all because of YouTube. YouTube took away the innocence of teenagers, so kids these days are just using YouTube to get their Ada.”

“Here, readers with good memories will probably remember the story about her death at the age of 22, but if you’re going to argue about that, I can’t help it. People like young people. It goes for idols and terminally ill patients. Most people probably haven’t read The Last Leaf (I haven’t read it myself, but anyway, that book) and they don’t want to watch the death of a poor woman who has had one or two children and is starting to get wrinkles around her eyes. Beauty is cruel. Even things that break should be beautiful. That’s why I had no choice but to add some MSG to suit the tastes of consumers in order to sell my experience of love. Love is so cruel.”

“Nevertheless, our first love was beautiful.”

“Because love is a powerful poison that makes everything else I’ve mentioned insignificant.”

EP 13-Chunbyeon Manhwa

The term ‘animal kingdom’ is often used to describe the love life in the classroom.

When I see successful guys dating this guy and then dating that guy and then changing their partners, I feel like they’re not human.

But there is a certain purity there too.

First of all, to students, ‘love’ is a kind of play, or a game.

As long as it’s fun, that’s fine.

Therefore, most student relationships do not involve looking at each other’s families, assets, or even faces. They start out as friendships, and then they become girlfriends and boyfriends because they like each other.

Of course, a love that starts lightly can end lightly, but when two elementary school students hold hands tightly and say “honey, honey,” you can’t help but think that they are both innocent and pure. After all, purity is another form of ignorance.

Therefore, the love lives of adults who usually know everything tend to be a bit more dirty.

Kim Byeol knew that fact very well.

“under……”

If the classroom was the ‘animal kingdom’, the entertainment world was hell.

The pattern of dating properly is similar here and there, but adults’ exclusive domains such as drugs, drinking, extramarital affairs, sexual bribery, sexual entertainment, media exposure, coercion using hierarchy, etc. are added.

Basically, in the entertainment industry, where profits are made by showing off rational charm, celebrity dating has been subject to criticism.

But the attempts to reach for that forbidden fruit have never stopped for even a moment. This can be seen by looking at the front page of any entertainment magazine.

Why on earth do you do that?

Are people who suffer from social pressure relieving their mental stress by venting their desires?

Since they make a living by seducing people, are they also vulnerable to temptation?

Or is it just that if we do this in a place like this, we’ll all go crazy?

Veteran actress Kim Byul hasn’t figured out the answer yet, but one thing is clear.

There were a lot of people on this floor who walked around with their brains hanging between their legs.

“This is driving me crazy… … ”

Kim Byul was a classy actress who won the Cannes Best Actress Award, so she didn’t add ‘shit’ at the end of her sentences.

However, the dark pupils that were as cloudy as a fish’s eyes and the dark nuance unique to a person working in a shitty industry made Gu Yu-na and An Ju-hee have the insight that they heard the ‘fuck’ that Kim Byeol was muttering in her mind.

Overwhelmed by that terrifying momentum, An Ju-hee was trembling in fear like a mouse in front of a cat or a writer in front of bullies, while Guyu-na was savoring a coconut cookie worth 1,500 won in her own world.

In the end, the three of them were sitting around the cafe table, but there was no conversation, and the decision was made solely in Kim Byeol’s head.

‘A phone number… Is that the end of the phone number?’

The note Kim Byeol received contained only a phone number.

There was no mention of dating, no mention of contacting me, no mention of wanting to have a romantic relationship, and no mention of wanting to nurture a beautiful love even though I was an adult and you were a minor.

But even without those words, the note is problematic because it contained such a meaning, and conversely, the note is problematic because there is no evidence that it contained such a meaning.

A note containing only a phone number cannot be evidence of courtship toward a minor.

It could be a note that was accidentally stuck, a note that was misdelivered, or a note that you wrote your phone number on a piece of paper while trying to get a receipt at a cafe and ended up getting stuck to your coffee cup.

So Kim Byeol realized that the crazy guy she met was a clever beast who had the intelligence to woo minors while at the same time creating an escape route.

Up to here it’s fine.

If you lined up all the crazy and psychopathic people Kim Byeol encountered in the entertainment industry, it would fill up Jamsil Sports Complex.

Kim Byeol knows very well that when she meets Torai, she should not confront him but rather quietly avoid him.

But the guy Kim Byeol met this time was none other than the ‘male protagonist’.

And Kim Byeol is the female protagonist.

The two had to act in love.

“… … ”

Feeling a chill as if the inside of her skull was soaked with cold ice water, Kim Byeol looked at the predicament she was in as rationally as possible.

* * *

Kim Byeol was now forced to hold hands, hug, link arms, cuddle, and kiss in front of cameras with the man who gave her his phone number while she was still a minor.

Are you feeling like shit?

Yes, that’s right.

Then can I hit it?

No, it won’t work.

‘That’s unprofessional… … ‘

Likewise, the act of handing a note to Kim Byeol was not considered a ‘crime’ by the standards of the entertainment industry.

Crime is a word used for things like drugs, adultery, stock manipulation, and drunk driving. Even those things are sometimes not crimes.

Moreover, in this animal kingdom, love was not a crime as long as it was not discovered.

It was just ‘unprofessional’.

The fact that they are minors doesn’t matter either. In a world where kissing scenes between actors with a 10-year age gap are naturally filmed for viewer ratings, a mere 4-year age gap is nothing.

In that social context, there would be no problem if a young, handsome male actor secretly sent a note to an actress who was four years younger than him, except that the other person was a high school senior.

Even this is not the idol industry, but the acting industry.

Even if Kim Byeol complains through the company, the other side will be criticized by the company president and it will be over with one sale.

That’s ‘common sense’ in the entertainment industry.

Of course, Kim Byeol could also bring this issue outside of the entertainment industry.

Through exposure.

From then on, it will become a realm of common sense, because the people’s trial will begin.

The drama will fall apart, the other actor will be finished, and public opinion will flare up and burn everything down.

And Kim Byeol was no exception.

Playing with fire is fun, but ashes are of no value.

Kim Byeol was destined to be an actor who destroyed the work.

And I’ll forever be hearing things like, ‘He’s the one?’, ‘Tsk, he’s causing trouble for nothing…’

So, should I go back to the beginning and choose the path of escape? As someone who has done nothing wrong?

Or should I just silently endure this humiliating and shameful suffering?

“ah.”

Shame and disgrace. And pain.

Kim Byeol realized the identity of the confusing emotions she was feeling.

And finally, we get to the ‘real problem’.

The reason Kim Byeol was afraid of acting in ‘love’ was not only because the other person was the one who handed her the note.

Kim Byul has already acted out countless loves. To escape the shame of being a trash, to become a star, she has sold her love countless times.

Kim Byul has acted in countless love stories, as the female protagonist in a high school web drama, as an extra in a music video, and as a supporting actor in a weekend drama.

At that time, it didn’t matter how rude the male actor was.

Because this was business.

Because it was work.

Because it was a matter of preserving the ‘professional consciousness’ that Kim Byeol cherished the most.

But what exactly is this ‘professional consciousness’?

It was the delusion of a mother projecting her own failures onto her young daughter, and her desire for revenge against the world that points its finger at the fallen star.

There is no Kim Byeol there.

That’s not Kim Byeol’s life.

What Kim Byeol cherishes, the life that Kim Byeol can possess, is hidden deep in her heart, in the provincial city of Cannes in the south of France, after the film festival, while talking on the phone at the hotel… …

* * *

“I have a favor to ask.”

Kim Byeol stared at Gu Yu-na and An Ju-hee and made a fervent wish.

“Change the script.”

An Ju-hee was flustered and flustered by the sudden outburst.

“Me, us?”

“Please persuade writer Im Song-i to somehow remove the love line from the drama.”

“Even if you say that…”

An Ju-hee rolled her eyes in front of Kim Byeol, looking embarrassed.

The question was, between Kim Byeol and Im Song-i, who would suffer less damage if they were disliked by others?

And when you consider the situation of An Ju-hee, who had chosen to pursue a career as a writer, it was naturally advantageous for An Ju-hee to be seen favorably by writer Im Song-i.

‘But, but…’

However, An Ju-hee was also human and had a human heart, so seeing Kim Byeol’s expression and story, it was not easy for her to refuse.

While ‘Ganjwi’ An Ju-hee was weighing Kim Byeol and Im Song-i while looking at the liver…

Guyuna didn’t hesitate.

“huh.”

Guyuna nods her head while munching on cookies.

An Ju-hee was shocked.

“Yaaaahhhhh – !”

“why.”

“What if I accept it without even thinking about it!”

An Ju-hee grabbed Guyu Na by the collar and shook her, but Guyu Na’s expression did not change.

Of course, I thought about it before accepting it.

While An Ju-hee hesitated, in Gu Yu-na’s computer-like mind, the complex and bizarre plot and the maze of plots were already being rearranged, and a ‘calculation’ was made that the love line could be deleted from the drama.

Therefore, for Guyuna, granting Kim Byeol’s request is already within the realm of ‘possibility’.

And since there was no reason not to grant Kim Byeol’s request, Guyuna nodded without hesitation.

Guyuna’s world is that simple.

The world is a strange place.

So, Gu Yu-na looked at An Ju-hee with a pitiful gaze, filled with contempt and pity for this foolish and illogical world.

“Can’t you do it?”

“… … !!!”

An Ju-hee’s answer was not much different from the answers of adolescent boys who heard the word ‘coward?’