Chapter 46 (1/2)
Chapter 46
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
”So, you are still not making any friends?” Juho asked .
Sung Pil was quite a straight edge, which was unusual for his age . Without any change in his expression, he admitted the fact that he was alone, ”Nope . ”
”Aren't you bored?”
At once, Sung Pil shook his head . He wasn't bored, apparently .
”I write . That's more than enough . ”
Even within a boisterous cla.s.s, he wrote by himself . Somehow, Juho saw a resemblance to his old self . He too had been alone at one point . That was when he had written 'The Trace of a Bird . '
He looked at Sung Pil . His real name was Pil Sung Choi . Three years from then, he would accomplish his impressive debut .
'When did he write his debut novel?' Juho wondered .
”Have you been working on anything lately?” Sung Pil asked ahead of Juho .
He answered after thinking briefly, ”Nothing unusual . ”
”I see . ”
”Instead,”
”Instead?” Sung Pil asked .
”I'm taking part in an essay contest with the club . ”
”An essay contest?”
His thick eyebrows furrowed .
”Yep . The Youth Literary Essay Contest . ”
”What's that? Can anybody take part in it?”
He seemed quite interested, and Juho told him everything he knew about the contest .
”I've heard you need a letter of recommendation from a teacher, but other than that, the only qualification is that you have to be a high school student . ” Then, he added, ”There's a preliminary round too . ”
”A preliminary round? What's that look like?”
”It's like submitting your entry . You write about a topic of your choosing . After writing a short prose, you revise it to the set format and then upload it . Whoever gets picked gets to go up to the finals . I heard they give out the subject the day of . ”
”That sounds fun . ”
His voice was filled with interest, and Juho said, ”You should give it a try . ”
”Should I?” he asked back immediately . His heart was already more than willing . After suddenly standing up from his seat, Sung Pil told Juho, ”We'll meet at the finals . ”
He hadn't even applied yet .
”If the judges like what I wrote . ”
”No! We can make it happen if we work hard enough . We'll meet at the finals,” he emphasized again . Although it was just before sunrise, his face was already s.h.i.+ning brightly .
Juho chuckled with a sigh .
”Fine, if it's possible . ”
---
There was one week left until the deadline for applications, and Juho was sitting in front of his computer .
”A topic of my choosing, huh?”
He couldn't resist the yawn forcing its way out . He felt sluggish and was not in a mood to write . There was one week left . He thought about starting back the next day, but soon, he shook his head . There was no guarantee that he'd be more motivated then, so it'd be safer to upload it when he could . He would have looked for another compet.i.tion if he had been on his own, but now that Sung Pil was involved, Juho had to keep his end of the deal .
”A topic of my choosing . . ”
The topic was the contestant's choice, which meant that they'd accept just about anything . Juho applauded their generosity .
”I have to get past the preliminary round somehow . ”
There was no time to lose . There were countless kids who had paid a handsome amount of money for detailed a.n.a.lyses of the past year's winning composition . However, it was hard to say that the Youth Literary Essay Contest would be more popular than Seo Kw.a.n.g's or Sun Hwa's .
”That still doesn't mean that the compet.i.tion will be taken over by those private inst.i.tutes either . ”
There was no right answer in literature . a.n.a.lyzing an award-winning work didn't always lead to winning an award . A high school literature contest was different from the professional world . What the critics were looking for the most was probably…
” . . . Writing honestly . ”
Heartfelt, unpretentious, honest compositions that made them continue reading despite the crude sentence structures . For example, a mother's letter was one of those things because there were emotions behind those words . They were heartfelt . Before sincerity, even the most skillfully written sentence became mere pretense .
Writing with sincerity might be something that was easier for those with less writing experience .
”At least, I prefer sincerity . ”
In writing, he'd much rather prefer sincerity over skill
”Sincerity…”
He immediately thought of someone . He was loud and had thick eyebrows . When he came across a ten cent coin on the street, he didn't hesitate to take it to the police station . And, he was not afraid to admit that he was alone .
”Let's do this . ”
He thought about writing about Sung Pil and grabbed a piece of paper that was rolling around the room and picked up a pen . First, he had to give shape to the ideas floating around in his head, 'Sung Pil, and thick eyebrows… would not be necessary . He's alone . He writes . He's honest . His writing . His future, present and past . Freedom . Police station . Race . Sincerity . '
There was no way he could include all those thoughts . The length of the composition was limited . In that case, a core foundation had to be established . He had to pick out the most memorable parts of the story .
”The past of a person who had succeeded . ”
That was not a failure . It was a leap toward success . He thought about Sung Pil's present . 'He writes by himself in a cla.s.sroom full of kids…' In that place, he was alone .
”Is this going to turn into my story?”
He reminisced about his past and revisited memories that were more than thirty years old . He had been alone . He couldn't figure why that was . A person always became alone at some point .
'There was no seat for him anywhere . With his tightened lips, he listened to the sounds coming from the cla.s.sroom . ' One by one, he wrote out his honest feelings, advancing toward something, at least for the duration of his writing .
Just like that, 'The Trace of a Bird' was born .
He overlaid his memories with another person's appearance . Then, he closed his eyes and pictured Sung Pil looking more mature, but slowly getting younger .
”This should do . ”
He put his hands over the keyboard . Tick . Tick . For a while, there was nothing but the sound of the pressed keys .
'An author looking back to his first writing . '
Calmly, Juho wrote out his story .
---
”Did you apply?” Bom asked, and Juho nodded with a piece of cookie in his mouth . Of course he had .
”Your compet.i.tion, The Youth Literary Essay Contest, is happening first right?” Sun Hwa asked while bringing some cookie crumbs to her mouth .
”I think so . ”
Every contest started on a different date . In terms of order, Juho's was first .
”Will I make it to the finals?”