Chapter 188

Novelist Running Through Time

TL: KSD

Baekhak Arts High School is quite serious about club activities.

It’s not to break away from rote education that forces students to memorize textbooks and instead nurture their free creativity, but of course, for college admissions.

And when it comes to art school admissions, specs matter more than grades!

Moreover, since Baekhak Arts Foundation has a tradition of throwing money around, a hefty budget backed the club activities.

But club activities are done for the purpose of getting into a good college.

And a good college is a place one goes to become a great artist.

However, great artists win awards like the Hugo Award.

Then what about the club with a Hugo Award winner?

At Kim Byul’s miraculous logic, Min Hyo-min actively agreed.

“Right- right.”

But Ahn Joo-hee couldn’t accept it no matter what.

Not because she hadn’t won a Hugo Award,

But because she couldn’t recognize the legitimacy of that Hugo Award.

“That was a rigged election!”

“…!”

“…!”

From Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, a two-term student council president, Ahn Joo-hee’s storm of a <rigged election conspiracy theory> exploded!

EP 11 – Evening Bell

In fact, the shady suspicions surrounding this Hugo Award selection process were no particular secret.

From the beginning, it couldn’t be a secret, since it was a smear campaign loudly spread everywhere by ‘Simon Publisher’, the arch-nemesis of ‘Collins Press’.

Therefore, as quite some time has passed since then, post-verification has now revealed the context of what happened at the time with fair accuracy.

-……Was it really a rigged election?

-Shh! Be quiet!

The conclusion, according to Simon Publisher, is that it was not a fair election, and this is the prevailing opinion among experts.

However, then as now, the reason Collins Press won the debate over the Hugo Award wasn’t because their argument was legitimate.

People simply wanted to see an Asian girl, falsely accused by a corporate giant like ‘Simon Publisher’, defeat the demon lord with a dazzling K.O. punch.

So, the truth doesn’t matter.

What people get excited about is fiction.

The genius girl from across the sea became a sensation through interviews, was slandered by a major corporation, but in the end defeated the villains and returned home with a Hugo Award. And so the fairy tale ended with a happy ending.

Everyone felt satisfied and proud of that story.

But if someone started muttering <this year’s World Science Fiction Convention was completely marred by manipulation, and the reason is that Baekhak Publishing conducted an organized election campaign in advance to gain an advantageous position in the Hugo Award voting, thereby compromising the fairness of the Hugo Award…> and so on, they might get punched.

This sort of thing requires tact.

Even in the United States it was a festive mood, and Korea was even more celebratory. During such a celebration, someone who coldly drops facts like that becomes worse than a cultural traitor.

They’re steeped in conspiracy theories, believe only they are right, nerd-like, and the type to call themselves cyber experts.

Ahn So-hee was exactly that kind of person.

“Even foreign famous bloggers admit that this year’s Hugo Award vote wasn’t fair…!”

At that moment, Ahn Joo-hee felt three gazes shooting at her.

Kim Byul, an actress shining with the Best Actress Award at Cannes.

Min Hyo-min, a member of a self-acknowledged top-tier girl group.

And Gu Yu-na, who was born as ‘Gu Yu-na’.

At least Kim Byul and Min Hyo-min were squinting and staring while smiling, but Gu Yu-na wore an unreadable blank expression, staring at her with pitch-black eyes.

Ahn Joo-hee belatedly realized that she was the weakest in this classroom.

But it was already too late.

Min Hyo-min smoothly got up from her seat and slung her arm around the shoulders of this brazen girl who claimed her best friend’s Hugo Award was fake.

“The Hugo Award Yu-na got… is fake?”

“I, I didn’t say it was fake…!”

“Are you the chair of the Hugo Award judging panel?”

“…!”

Moon In sometimes joked that youth literary contests are like slaughterhouses where kids kill and are killed.

But reality is even more brutal.

Entertainment industry conglomerates lock up kids and make them fight to the death. That’s the training method for idol trainees.

Therefore, Min Hyo-min, who survived such a place, was already a fully-formed warrior.

“Or is Yu-na the chair of the Hugo Award judging panel? Hm?”

“H-hiik…!”

“Answer me. Is Yu-na the Hugo Award chair?”

“N-no, she’s not…”

“Then you should go argue with the Hugo Award chair. Why are you picking a fight with Yu-na? Huh?”

“T-that’s, that’s, that’s because…”

Ahn Joo-hee struggled to break free from Min Hyo-min’s “arm-around-the-shoulder” but she couldn’t shake off the grip strength of this human weapon who casually endures eight hours of hard training as part of her daily routine.

Ahn Joo-hee looked around, seeking survival, hoping to find Moon Ji-seop, the only one in the classroom who could possibly be considered on her side. But the ‘New Light Spring’ Moon Ji-seop had long since fled to Min Hyo-chan’s side.

‘This bastard trying to save only himself…!’

Just as Ahn Joo-hee was cursing Moon Ji-seop and the world itself,

Kim Byul finally stepped in to restrain Min Hyo-min.

“Stop it. Why are you crushing a friend’s spirit like that? I think she got the message.”

“Ehehe. I was just curious and asked~.”

Benivis’ adorable youngest, Min Hyo-min, once again used her charm to smoothly manage her image and stepped back.

But Min Hyo-chan clicked his tongue and shook his head at his sister’s despicable behavior.

As Min Hyo-min re-entered “battle mode” and lunged at Min Hyo-chan, Ahn Joo-hee, now thoroughly shriveled, stood once more in front of the teacher’s desk, undeterred by the oppression.

Emulating the spirit of the great scholar Galileo Galilei who muttered “And yet it moves” after being crushed in a religious trial (which he never actually said), she declared, ‘Still, there’s something wrong with this club’.

“St-still! I think club activities can’t continue in such a haphazard way!”

Min Hyo-chan, who wanted to end the meeting quickly so he could go back to the dungeon raid he didn’t finish earlier, responded half-heartedly.

“Then what do you suggest?”

“We should learn literature!”

“How?”

At last, Ahn Joo-hee could reach her original goal.

In truth, this was the very reason Ahn Joo-hee had joined the club.

“What if Moon In…! teaches us?”

Min Hyo-chan replied immediately.

“Hey, I taught Moon In web novels, can I skip?”

“That’s not how it works!”

“Geez, how picky…”

Min Hyo-chan gave a nudge to Moon In, who was busy tapping away on his laptop under the pretense of writing a novel.

“Hey. Can you teach us?”

“Me?”

“If you say something like ‘Why? I don’t want to’, I’ll punch you.”

“Well… I guess I could. Want to see the novel I’m writing now?”

“Me? Why? I don’t want to.”

“……”

This time, Moon In was the one caught off guard by his own habitual phrases of <Me-Why-I don’t want to>, and his face twisted like he’d bitten something bitter.

But unexpectedly, Kim Byul readily expressed agreement.

“Shall we? Maybe we could give it a try?”

“Kim sunbae’s just going to skip because she’s filming a drama…”

“No, I’m not?! I’m on break, okay?”

“You mean you’re just not getting any work?”

“What are you saying. I told the company I’m taking a break. Don’t you know how well I’ve been doing lately?”

Min Hyo-chan murmured with a blank expression.

“Yeah yeah. I also told my company I’m on break and that’s why I’m taking time off. It’s definitely not because I have no work.”

“……”

“……”

The winner of the Best Actress Award at Cannes and the winner of the Hugo Award can joke about each other.

But a boy group member going through a slump after flopping an album shouldn’t be teased.

That would be too cruel…

However, Ahn Joo-hee, the typical literature major who lacked human empathy, couldn’t care less about the solemn atmosphere once the bait called “Moon In’s writing” was dangled, and she leapt forward.

“Right! Let’s take a look!”

“What?”

“Show us!”

Ahn Joo-hee intercepted Moon In’s laptop faster than he could say, “Well, go ahead and read it…”

Moon Ji-seop, who had been quietly erasing his presence, followed along curiously to see something interesting, and Kim Byul and Min Hyo-chan, who pretended otherwise but were secretly curious about Moon In’s writing, also leaned in subtly.

Gu Yu-na, who had been turned into Min Hyo-min’s beloved doll, tried belatedly to join in, but couldn’t escape Min Hyo-min’s grasp.

“W-wait…!”

“Let’s see here…”

The club members, who had ruthlessly abandoned the straggler, crowded around the laptop.

And they looked at the first page.

「Sixteen years ago, the worst crisis in Min-ha’s life ended rather rationally. Her boyfriend wasn’t such a bad person as to abandon a pregnant girl in a school uniform and run away, nor was he dumb enough to insist they could raise the baby to the end.

‘Sorry. Let’s have the abortion.’

‘Okay.’

‘I’ll tell your parents.’

In truth, Min-ha had wished to become an unwed mother raising a child in unfortunate circumstances. It wasn’t because she loved her boyfriend or the baby, but more like a kind of excuse, a desire to prove her own purity and goodness to those who threw stones at her.

But now, sixteen years later, she tends to think her boyfriend’s opinion was probably right. Reaching her early thirties, she realized that life is not as pure as she thought, and humans are not particularly sacred beings.

That’s how Min-ha concluded her contemplation of the abortion in her youth. It wasn’t a matter of distinguishing between good and evil, but simply one of the many common trials of fate every human faces. And when standing before a trial, humans must choose to survive, not to be virtuous.

Therefore, Min-ha, who hadn’t ruined her life at a young age, had become a common wage laborer living a common life. Though thoughts of childhood mistakes, wrongs, or choices sometimes welled up, they didn’t affect her daily life.

These days, Min-ha’s biggest concern was about changing jobs. One company offered a higher salary, but it was small and far from her home. Still, the large and small bullshit she experienced at her current job kept pushing her back. But what if the new job is also bullshit?

That kind of mundane worry was Min-ha’s biggest headache.

But one morning, when she saw a baby with a crushed face staring straight at her, Min-ha instinctively realized that this being originated from her.

And she also instinctively knew that the job change no longer mattered.」

“……”

“……”

“……”

Amid everyone’s silence, Min Hyo-chan, who was scrolling down, offered a brief review.

“Do we really have to fucking learn this?”

***

Lim Yang-wook, a 26-year-old new employee, was filled with ambitious resolve to eliminate the crusty old corrupt dinosaurs and become the savior of the publishing industry.

Lim Yang-wook, a limp 36-year-old, lived the life of a useless human buried in the Underground Parking Lot, wishing only to go home, saving neither the publishing industry nor anything else.

In the end, in the present, Lim Yang-wook became the savior of the publishing industry.

And he came to understand just how much work those crusty old corrupt dinosaurs were actually doing.

Because he had become one of them.

“Hey, Team Leader Kim, is this all you’ve got?”

“I’m sorry!”

“Ha… This is driving me nuts.”

Just as the archenemy of a soldier is their superior officer, the archenemy of an employee is an executive.

Lim Yang-wook, who had spent his life regarding executives as enemies, knew very well that the staff being scolded by him were thinking, “You think yelling at us from above is gonna make it happen, you moron?”

But all Lim Yang-wook could do was yell. He couldn’t step in and help with Team Leader Kim’s work. Because next, he had to yell at Team Leader Park, then Team Leader Choi.

So what exactly does Lim Yang-wook do?

He has to detect when the eldest son of the Baekhak Group tries to oust CEO Baek Do-hyun by planting people in the publishing board, investigate and shut down the shady schemes that Kyosensha and Collins Press keep pulling, prevent reporters from finding out about the big scandal caused by a new writer under contract with the Publishing Management Division, stop Team Leader Park and Team Leader Choi from bullying Team Leader Kim, listen to CEO Baek Seung-won from Baekhak Entertainment complain why she get no perks despite sharing the same building, accompany board members of Baekhak Publishing to the golf course for their socializing, assist CEO Baek Seol with political judgment as her only close aide, visit high-profile novelists before they start whining about poor treatment to ensure they’re properly pampered, attend the Baekhak Literary Award judging panel to help select winners, and handle the occasional directives from Managing Director Kim Myung-woon…

In short, it’s a goddamn mess of busyness.

And in the middle of all this, if you don’t show results, you’re gone like a fly. That’s the life of an executive. So today, too, Lim Yang-wook was passionately chewing out his subordinates.

However, Lim Yang-wook was a returnee who had once been unjustly exiled and made a miraculous comeback with cheat abilities. He was in a position where it wouldn’t be strange to have a status window, so using a cheat key every now and then was acceptable.

Director Lim Yang-wook gave an order to CEO Baek Seol.

“CEO-nim. Shall we go see what In-seop is working on for his next project?”

“Sh-should we…”

Baek Seol looked visibly reluctant.

“Why do you seem hesitant?”

“I just feel like I’ve become a pathetic adult who looks for Doraemon every time things don’t go well…”

“In-seopemon. I like it.”

Lim Yang-wook, who was not only pathetic but also lacked a conscience, went straight to find In-seopemon without hesitation.

Carrying a premium beef gift set, Lim Yang-wook barged into the studio and badgered Moon In as if scolding a subordinate.

“In-seopemon! We need money! Give us your next manuscript!”

“Did Manager Lim eat something weird?”

“……”

The embarrassment belonged to Baek Seol.

Slightly less pathetic as an adult, Baek Seol at least began by checking on his well-being.

“Author Moon, have you been doing okay these days?”

“Ah, yes, I’m doing fine. Sorry for causing any concern.”

“No, no! Not at all! Writers are mentally a bit sensitive, after all… It happens sometimes. If we had known you were struggling that much, we should’ve looked after you earlier…”

Though smiling with concern, Baek Seol discreetly checked Moon In’s condition.

Over the past few months of seclusion, Baek Seol had naturally visited Moon In a few times.

Back then, he didn’t even look human…

Fortunately, he looked much better now. His hair was neatly trimmed, his complexion had improved, and most importantly, he didn’t sound depressed, he seemed normal.

Baek Seol, who had secretly felt guilty thinking they’d overworked the kid and driven him into seclusion, felt the heaviness in her heart lighten quite a bit.

But then, Moon In went one step further, lightly smiling as he even introduced his next project.

“I happen to be working on something, would you like to take a look?”

“Oh! Of course! I’d love to!”

Baek Seol smiled brightly.

Unaware that smile would vanish a minute later.

*****

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