Novelist Running Through Time - Chapter 226



Only Noblemtl

Gu Yu-na said.

‘That’s what love is.’

As soon as I heard that, without even having time to think, laughter burst out from within me.

The sound of wind escaping between the lips.

Hearing that, Guyuna tilts her head expressionlessly.

“why?”

I answered Guyuna as if asking her such an obvious question.

“No, that’s right. We haven’t even been together for a month. What kind of love is that? It’s just child’s play.”

But then Guyuna asks me.

“So if you date for more than a month, is it love?”

“uh?”

I racked my brain and tried to come up with something plausible like, ‘A healthy relationship requires time to explore and get to know each other deeply, and you can’t get to know the true side of the other person in a short meeting.’

Then I gave up.

This is because he realized that it was just an excuse he made up because he didn’t want to admit that he had been taken by surprise by Guyuna.

Guyuna’s comments were sharp and accurate.

‘Isn’t short love love?’

Without even having time to think about it any further, Guyuna got up and said, ‘Hmm’ without even hearing my answer.

And then he walked away, staggering, to somewhere.

In the place she left, she left behind only an inexplicable feeling of uneasiness.

I held onto that uneasy feeling and remained silent for a long time.

EP 14 – The Future

Feeling uneasy is feeling uneasy and everyday life is everyday life.

Life is a burden just doing what needs to be done.

I delivered the pile of attendance certificates that Im Yang-wook hurriedly packed to the teachers’ office, sat blankly for hours listening to a meaningless literature class, walked home with my heavy bag on my back, went home, watered the plants, ate, wrote, washed, and went to bed…

As I spent a few days like that, the incident between An Ju-hee and Moon Ji-seop, as well as the uneasiness left behind by Gu Yu-na, seemed to have disappeared into my daily life.

But the incident didn’t end there, and it was one leisurely afternoon when things that I thought had passed without incident came back to haunt me again.

“Who am I?”

“······”

As the warm sunlight seeped into the classroom through the curtains, as if summer was slowly beginning to arrive, the pink-haired girl standing in the middle of the club room shook her head.

“The strongest, invincible, ultimate idol! Rapid Boyz’s Min Hyo-chan appears!”

“······”

I looked at Min-something, no, Pink Soo-mi, with all the contempt I could muster on my face.

But even that contempt was not enough to overcome the frustration of having that pink-headed person as her real older brother. Min Hyo-min expressed her ‘dislike’ with her whole body to a degree that was incomparable to mine.

“Ugh… I fucking hate this….”

“Hyomin. It’s my brother. It’s the brother who won first place on a music show.”

“Ahh! Get the fuck out of here!”

I had the rare experience of seeing Min Hyo-min, the cute youngest member of the famous girl group Benivis, going “Shit, shit” even when turned upside down.

And then next to him, he went, “F*ck, f*ck.”

“Ha··· F*ck···”

If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have helped…

“Hey! Moon In-seop!”

Hearing my screams, Min-something came running with his eyes wide open.

And then he charges forward with that fluorescent pink head –

He just hugged me.

“You are a hero!”

“Let go of this.”

“Brother Inseop!”

“Why am I your older brother?”

“Grandpa Moon!”

“Fuck······”

Boy group Rapid Boyz’s mini album ‘Marionette’ has been released.

And the result was that ‘Min Hyo-chan called me ‘grandfather’.

In other words, it topped the charts.

The results were as follows.

“Open the door! From today on, Min Mo will serve Eun Gong with all his heart!”

“Oh, please···”

“Grandpa! Please accept my bow!”

Fortunately, Min Hyo-min, who couldn’t stand it anymore as she tried to bow to Min Hyo-chan, suddenly stood up and kicked him in the side, ending the immediate embarrassment. However, it seemed like we would have to keep seeing this mess for a while until Min Hyo-chan’s condition returned to normal.

I asked Min Hyo-min, who was looking down at Min Hyo-chan, who was wriggling on the floor like a caterpillar.

“Min Hyo-min, why is your brother like that-”

“I don’t have an older brother?”

“Why is that Mr. Min over there like that?”

“Um, that is···”

Min Hyo-min, a member of a famous girl group, explained the circumstances of a boy group member named Min, who is not related to her at all.

‘Marionette’ is a mini-album containing only one song.

In other words, it was a comeback that Baekhak Entertainment quickly planned with all its might before the popularity of the project web novel ‘Marionette’ died down.

As they had to plan the music video, album, choreography, marketing, etc. in just a couple of months, it goes without saying that Baekhak Entertainment’s ‘full power’ was mobilized for this comeback.

Given that the aftermath of box office failure despite all that effort was obvious, ‘Marionette’ was literally the last chance given to Rapid Boys.

And they didn’t miss the last chance thrown at them.

For the first time since their debut, Rapid Boyz achieved the honor of winning first place on music shows and charts from all three music streaming companies.

I tilted my head in confusion, not knowing how great that was, and Min Hyo-min added.

“You could say that after winning three major literary awards, it was also the number one bestseller in bookstores.”

“aha.”

“Even if all the members have a good time, the settlement amount will be in the hundreds of millions?”

After hearing that, I suddenly started to hate Min Hyo-chan.

Even if a novelist wins three major literary awards and becomes number one on a bestseller list, it is difficult for him to earn hundreds of millions of won.

“Eight.”

I also kicked Min Hyo-chan, who was still writhing like a caterpillar after getting kicked by his younger brother earlier.

Then Min Hyo-min followed and started kicking her brother.

Despite this, Min Hyo-chan’s expression looked happy.

It seemed like he was having a good dream, or rather, he was intoxicated by a reality that was like a good dream.

At that moment, the classroom door opened with a creak.

The sound was not small at all, so I looked up in surprise, and An Ju-hee came running in in a hurry.

“Moon Ji-seop!”

An Ju-hee looks for Moon Ji-seop as soon as she arrives.

Why are you breaking up in less than a month and then coming back to me in a few days?

But when I looked closely, I saw that An Ju-hee was sweating profusely.

It seems like he ran all over the school looking for Moon Ji-seop.

She shouted at us.

“Jiseob isn’t here?”

“There isn’t any?”

“Have you ever been to the club room?”

“uh.”

“Oh, this is driving me crazy······”

An Ju-hee’s voice was trembling as she muttered that she was going crazy.

I asked seriously because it didn’t seem like he was joking.

“Why, what’s going on?”

An Ju-hee shouts in an angry tone.

“That kid is transferring schools!”

“what?!”

* * *

“I just don’t think it fits my career path.”

It was two days later that I found Moon Ji-seop, and that too at Saebitneulbom Daycare Center.

Moon Ji-seop had already unpacked his belongings from the school dormitory and informed the principal’s office and the daycare center of his intention to transfer.

I searched for Moon Ji-seop with a bewildered heart, and when I finally met him at the orphanage, the answer I got back was like this.

“Career path? Career path?”

“huh.”

Moon Ji-seop spoke to me while wearing donated clothes that were a bit too big, typical of orphanage children.

“It’s a little embarrassing to say, but… the reason I went to Baekhak Arts High School was because of you.”

“me?”

“Yeah. Since you encouraged me to study, and since studying was something I was good at, I thought that if I went to the same school as you, I would be able to make a lot of money and find a way to be successful like you.”

“uh······”

As I hesitated over what to say, Moon Ji-seop was the first to snicker.

“Yeah. That’s a ridiculous idea. Why did I go to an arts high school, really…”

“······”

“You saw that too, Inseop. I have no talent for literature. Rather than getting into an arts school with no talent and just getting good grades, I’d rather go to a humanities high school and focus on my studies. I think that’s right.”

Moon Ji-seop smiled bitterly and said that although the tuition was covered to some extent by the academic scholarship, the dormitory fee was really pitiful, and the cost of living that far away was not cheap.

At that moment, I suddenly saw Moon Ji-seop talking about money and an ominous feeling came to my mind.

A breakup caused by a sudden text message, Moon Ji-seop keeping his mouth shut, a transfer, and the inevitable ending of a love affair between a child in a daycare center and a non-child in a daycare center.

“Have you heard anything from An Ju-hee’s family?”

“what?”

“A kid without a parent shouldn’t be with our daughter… Did you hear something like that?”

Moon Ji-seop answered no.

With an extremely nonchalant face, smiling nonchalantly, he answers no.

It seemed so normal that I thought I had it right.

Orphans are adept at hiding their pain.

What on earth made Moon Ji-seop hide his own pain?

I called An Ju-hee aside and asked her questions as well.

“By any chance, did something happen between Ji-seop and your family?”

Instead of answering, An Ju-hee burst into tears.

It was the moment when suspicion became certainty.

* * *

A while ago, Guyuna said:

‘That’s what love is.’

As soon as I heard that, laughter burst out from within me.

In terms of height and personality, the current Yuna was a tiny brat compared to the Yuna I knew.

So, a laughter that was half funny and half cute came out unintentionally.

But the subtle uneasiness left by that day’s experience.

I ask that uneasiness.

‘Doesn’t Yuna know love?’

No, I know.

Even I know who that love is directed at.

Even though the true nature of that love is an artificial and dependent thing created by the endless favors bestowed upon her by her past lover who returned to the past since she was young, Guyuna already knows love.

‘Then is my love qualitatively superior to Guyuna’s love?’

no.

The love I held was like a sand castle that crumbled down in the face of the trials the world threw at me, and I am a fool who realized too late that I could not pick up that love and that I was destined to never be able to pick it up again.

Whose love would I ‘dare’ to ridicule?

Why on earth did I laugh at Guyuna’s love?

Why on earth did you laugh at Moon Ji-seop and Ahn Joo-hee’s love?

Without even having to think about it, the answer was simple.

Well, he’s a kid.

What does a child know?

With such shallow thoughts, I stopped trying to understand someone’s heart.

The moment I realized that such a thought had been lodged in my head, I finally realized.

ah-

I’ve become the adult I hated so much.

Wow, you’ve become quite the petty adult.

“······”

Adults don’t fight back. They know the fear of the world. So they endure, let it go, and regret it.

But children fight back. They don’t know the fear of the world. So they clash, bleed, and regret.

As an adult and as a child, I knew which path would be the least regrettable if I were destined to regret either path.

As soon as I finished thinking about it, I called Magi Hoon.

– Hello? Inseop, why?

“Brother Ki-hoon.”

– Where are you going? Should I drive there?

“It’s not company business, but there is somewhere we need to go together.”

– What? Where is that?

“This is Saebitneulbom Daycare Center.”

* * *

A large tree planted in the yard provided a shadow that protected the children playing beneath it.

The little children were running and playing under the tree, laughing happily, the slightly older children were pretending not to be laughing happily but were also running and playing happily, and the older children were not playing but were laughing happily while watching the little children.

A forklift came into the peaceful Saebitneulbom Daycare Center.

White Starcraft van.

The kids know whose car it is.

“Oh, Inseop is here.”

“Guys! The writer has appeared!”

Children swarming towards the vehicle.

I offer my respectful prayers to the adults who clone pizza and chicken.

But the first one to get out of the car was not a writer.

“Wow, a lot has changed here.”

Magi Hoon.

The dictator of Saebitneulbom Daycare Center has returned.

Children who did not recognize him due to his large muscles and size ran away in fear, while older children approached Magihun with snickers.

“Long time no see! Your Majesty!”

“Okay.”

Magi Hoon said this while taking off his sunglasses.

“Hey, I need to gather the kids together.”

“yes!”