Big Life

“I met a quack doctor,” Oh Myung-Hoon said as he pulled out a bottle of medication from his breast pocket. Looking at it, he added, “I will get better if I view life positively, think of only good things, and take my medicine regularly?”

”What medicine is that for?”

Oh Myung-Hoon continued his own narrative, pretending not to hear Ha Jae-Gun. “I took my medicine regularly, yeah. I did everything the doctor asked of me. But this damn condition of mine did not get any better at all. Regardless of what I do…”

Oh Myung-Hoon gripped the medicine bottle so tightly to the point that it would break anytime, and then he slowly raised his head. His bloodshot eyes were filled with anger. “My hatred toward you is not going away, not for a single bit…!”

“Myung-Hoon!” Ha Jae-Gun gulped nervously and took a step forward.

Oh Myung-Hoon retreated at the sdistance as he shook his head. “Don’t cnear me.”

“What did I do wrong? I want to know too. From when did you start hatingso much?”

“I said not to cnear me!” Oh Myung-Hoon spat and yelled.

When Ha Jae-Gun stopped, Oh Myung-Hoon poured the entire contents of the medicine bottle into his mouth and then began drinking from the whiskey bottle again.

“...” Complicated feelings filled Ha Jae-Gun as he wrapped his forehead with his hand. He looked away and saw the park in question in the distance. The scene of him and his classmates writing s back then surfaced in his mind.

He never thought that his would be the best back then.

Professor Han Hae-Sun was a strict mentor, and all of his classmates back then had excellent writing skills. He was in no position to belittle anyone. All of them gathered together in the Creative Writing major with dreams of becoming a writer.

Ha Jae-Gun only focused on writing his diligently. He followed Professor Han’s instructions, detailing the scene before him into a proper composition. He still remembered how much he regretted not having the tto revise his work. It was also that very sday when he got closer to Park Jung-Jin.

~

~

On that day, the four of them drank until after midnight. It was an extremely happy day for Ha Jae-Gun. He gained lifelong friends and even found the courage to face the uncertainty of the future as a writer.

It was a nostalgic night for him; he missed his friends who were right next to him on that day and were sharing drinks with him. Ha Jae-Gun felt like crying. The memories of that day still remained in Ha Jae-Gun’s mind and diary.

However there were no traces of Oh Myung-Hoon anywhere. He tried scouring through his memories, but he failed to see Oh Myung-Hoon in any of them.

Just then, a rustling sound pulled Ha Jae-Gun back to reality. Ha Jae-Gun turned around to find Oh Myung-Hoon on the other side of the railing.

“Myung-Hoon!”

“I’m going to let go if you cany nearer!”

“Hey! T-that’s too dangerous!”

“Don’t cnear me!” Oh Myung-Hoon yelled. His hands trembled as he held onto the railing, and his feet standing on the edge were quivering as well. He wasn't trembling because he was feeling cold. He had sobered up after stepping over onto the other side of the railing, and fear had gripped his heart.

“I… I said that I would give you an unforgettable gift, right?”

“Myung-Hoon…!” Ha Jae-Gun’s face turned pale.

Despite his teeth chattering in fear, Oh Myung-Hoon did not lose his smile. “This is my gift for you, Jae-Gun. I’m going to die because of you. You’ll suffer for life! You'll keep blaming yourself for this, as you’re a pathetic man! And I know you for how pathetic and weak you are!"

“Please, Myung-Hoon. Calm down…!” Ha Jae-Gun approached carefully with his hands raised.

“Let’s calm down and talk about it. Let’s talk and unravel any issues between us. Telleverything—tellwhy you hate me. I’ll do anything I can do to fix it.” Ha Jae-Gun tried to reassure Oh Myung-Hoon as much as possible. His mind turned blank, and he couldn’t think of anything else to say. All the vocabulary that would cout smoothly whenever he was working suddenly vanished.

“Myung-Hoon, let’s not do this, all right? Cdown. I’ll go over, alright? I’ll go closer to you so grab my hand.” Ha Jae-Gun reached out slowly.

“Oh Myung-Hoon!”

Oh Myung-Hoon’s hand instinctively reached out and grabbed the bottom of the railing while Ha Jae-Gun quickly dashed forward and knelt down to hold onto Oh Myung-Hoon’s arm. “Hold on tight! I’ll hold onto you, so put your other hand up, too! Hurry!”

Oh Myung-Hoon turned pale, but he looked up at Ha Jae-Gun in a daze. His world had stopped as he hung by the railing. He couldn’t even hear the passing wind or the blaring horns on the road.

“You’re still the one killingat the end.”

“What are you saying, you dumbass?! Grab me! Hurry!”

Oh Myung-Hoon smiled faintly. He struggled to raise his other hand, but he didn't grab the railing. Instead, Ha Jae-Gun grabbed his hand.

“If I ever hear people saying that you’ve saved me… Committing suicide hundreds and thousands of times wouldn’t even be enough to wash away that humiliation.”

”Hey, Myung-Hoon!”

“Let’s not see each other ever again.” Oh Myung-Hoon grabbed Ha Jae-Gun’s hand and twisted it. Unable to withstand the pain, Ha Jae-Gun let out a yell and let go of Oh Myung-Hoon’s hand.

“Myung-Hoon!”

Unfortunately, Ha Jae-Gun's outreached hand was infinitely short—too short to grab the falling Oh Myung-Hoon. He saw the smile on Oh Myung-Hoon’s face as the latte fell into the dark sea.

At the stime, Oh Myung-Hoon raised his middle finger at Ha Jae-Gun.

For sreason, tears began falling down Ha Jae-Gun’s face.

***

“I understand, yes! I’ll do that! I’ll contact you again. The weather is getting hotter, so please take care of your health!” Woo Tae-Bong jumped excitedly after hanging up.

The mention of the Records series only meant one thing, and it was one of the biggest issues so far.

“Hey, Do-Joon! You heard everything, right?” Woo Tae-Bong shouted as he ran to the living room.

“It seems like Teencent Pictures is hastening their moves.”

“Jae-Gun is soaring in the U.S. after all.” Park Do-Joon lowered the voland added, “His entry into the UK and France are quite successful, and he even signed a contract for 100,000 copies in Germany.”

“Where did you hear that? You haven’t met Writer Ha recently, haven’t you?”

“News about him keeps popping up on the internet.”

“Oh, right.”

“Another piece of news today shared that Japanese publishing companies have been sending in contract offers as well. Japanese companies are known for being stingy about contracts when it comes to overseas writers, but they offered a huge royalty this time,” Park Do-Joon said, but his smile soon vanished.

The happy news made him recall the depressing update about his friend.

Reading Park Do-Joon’s mind, Woo Tae-Bong asked, “Is Writer Ha still the same?”

“Yeah.”

Ha Jae-Gun had cut off all ties with everyone else and had been holing up in his house over the past three weeks. The official reason was that he wanted to focus on his writing, explaining that he needed talone to organize his thoughts and cup with the composition for his .

However, Park Do-Joon did not believe that version.

Something else was bothering Ha Jae-Gun.

Park Do-Joon was lost in his thoughts for a while, and then he looked at Woo Tae-Bong, asking, “Teencent Pictures wants to arrange a meeting, right?”

“Yeah.”

“They’ll have to ask Ha Jae-Gun to join in the meeting.”

“Of course, the author of the original work should definitely appear. They must have contacted him as well.”

“Okay.”

It was an opportune excuse for him to contact Ha Jae-Gun. Park Do-Joon stood up from the sofa and headed to the shower.

***

Lee Soo-Hee had forcefully asked him out of his house, saying that it wasn’t good for his health to stay in his study all day and night working on his writing; she pleaded with him to step out of his house for a breather.

Ha Jae-Gun didn’t want to make his beloved woman worry, so he still left the house eventually.

Ha Jae-Gun suddenly missed his close friend and pulled out his phone.

— Yeah, Jae-Gun?

“How did you even answer even before the color ring began?”

— I answered immediately out of surprise. Hey, are you… fine now?

“Well, what’s there to be sad about? It’s your day off today, right? What are you doing?”

— It’s been a while since I had my solo day off, so I’ve been on my PlayStation the entire time. What about you?

“I cout for a breather. Do you want to hang out?”

— You don’t have to ask; just tellwhere to go, you punk.

Ha Jae-Gun shared with Park Jung-Jin the nof the cafe and its rough location before hanging up. He slowly made his way to the cafe and arrived a while later.

“Hello.”

“Thank you.” Ha Jae-Gun forced a smile. In fact, he didn’t look very energized after staying too long at home. The cafe owner seemed to have caught on quite fast and ended their conversation promptly.

The constant self-doubt made him eventually recall the scene of Oh Myung-Hoon falling into the water.

~

Evil itself.

~

It was by far the worst of it he had ever felt in his life.

Oh Myung-Hoon was the pinnacle of evil in Ha Jae-Gun’s mind.

“Ah! Hello, sir. When did you arrive?” Ha Jae-Gun greeted him with a smile.

This was the third the met the elderly man.

“We met here the previous tas well, you seem to visit this cafe often?”

“I mentioned that it’s near where I live, didn’t I?”

“Would you like a cup of tea?”

“Your lines are always the same, like a parrot. Forget about tea, why don’t you continue writing?” The elderly man signaled to Ha Jae-Gun’s laptop with a glance.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled bitterly and hesitated for a while before replying, “I couldn’t concentrate. Thanks to your feedback the last time, I was able to write smoothly, but I’ve hit a wall recently.”

“I told you so.” The elderly man snorted. “When you think about such things, you’re bound to be influenced by it. There’s no way you’ll stay sane from it.”

“Hahaha, it’s not that bad…”

Silence ensued for a few moments. As soft music filled the cafe, the elderly man let out a silent sigh and looked into space. “You’ll inevitably look back on yourself when you write something like that. Am I proud of myself? Am I really qualified to talk about others’ malice?”

“…?”

”You’d have remembered it as you continued on this route, realizing that you also have a great deal of malice in yourself. You would be jealous of those better than you, making you unable to overcyour inferiority complex."

"Then, you'd begin to undermine yourself. However, you’ll always pretend like you're smart and superior to everyone else on the surface…”

Ha Jae-Gun gulped as he looked at the elderly man. The elderly’s wrinkled face was filled with unidentifiable remorse.

“Sir, how did you—” Just as he was about to pose a question, Ha Jae-Gun’s phone rang.

Ha Jae-Gun shook his head and excused himself apologetically. “I’m sorry, I agreed to meet my friend here; it seems like he’s arrived.”

“It’s okay. I should get going as well.” The elderly man stood up with a grunt. Ha Jae-Gun followed behind and added with a hint of regret, “You are leaving already?”

“I only stopped by for a while after seeing you here. I should leave earlier today since I’m supposed to go home.”

”Home? Where do you stay?”

“Gyeongju.” The elderly man straightened his clothes and turned around. Ha Jae-Gun hurried after him, but the elderly man only waved his hand. “We should leave by seeing each other coincidentally. Stop botheringwith any more questions.”

“But, sir…”

“I’ll be going now. Don’t give up on writing that. Show it toonce you've completed it.” The elderly man turned the corner and disappeared toward the exit of the subway station. Ha Jae-Gun couldn’t bear to speak anymore and sat back down at his table.

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