270 That Authors Home 5 (1/2)
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
From the cameras in his apartment to all the filming crew, the photographer, the publis.h.i.+ng agent and the editor, everything looked as awkward as the clothes he was wearing, which he usually wore when going out. Nevertheless, it didn't take long to get used to them.
”So, you revealed your ident.i.ty recently,” the interviewer said, starting the interview off. Coming from a renowned magazine in the US, the interviewer brought up how the interview had become possible. Because Yun Woo had revealed himself, the young author and the interviewer were finally able to meet.
”And I'm sure most people know this by now,” he added. And just like he had said, most people knew what Yun Woo looked like now.
”I, personally, am curious about your life before you made your ident.i.ty known, as in your life as the ordinary high school student by the name of Juho Woo. How did you bring it up to the people around you? I'm sure there was a handful of people around you who already knew who you were.”
”A few, yes.”
The interviewer started off with a subject that was both light-hearted and specific, and Juho decided to answer the question with one example in particular.”
”I have a friend who's a serious bookworm. A fiend, really. I had already made my debut as an author when we first met, and he was just as much a bookworm than as he is now. Needless to say, we grew closer and spent more time talking about books.”
”Did you guys talk about Yun Woo at all?”
”We did talk about Yun Woo.”
”Were you at all worried that your friend might find out?”
”Not really, no.”
”What gave you the a.s.surance?”
”The fact that I'm able to write in another style, different from Yun Woo's. Even after reading my writing, he didn't think I was Yun Woo.”
Being also aware of Yun Woo's alternate writing style, the interviewer gestured to the young author to keep going.
”I decided to send a message when I was ready to share my story. There were some similarities between Yun Woo and Juho Woo, like age and writing skill.”
”So, your friend did catch on to something?”
”I think so. I think I might have given out some clues without knowing. I was planning on revealing myself eventually, after all.”
”So, how did you send a message to your friends?”
Juho chuckled quietly as he remembered how he had sent the message to his clubmates that he had been Yun Woo all along. Meanwhile, the interviewer seemed like he hadn't expected the interview to be off to such an interesting start right off the bat. After all, surprises made life just a bit more interesting.
”Through my book. I included a message in the epilogue that only my friends and I would be able to recognize, and my bookworm friend didn't let me down.”
Then, thinking that the young author might be referring to a book that he already knew, the interviewer asked, ”And which book was that?”
”You probably heard of it. It was from a series called 'Language of G.o.d.'”
”Huh!” he let out, genuinely caught off guard by the young author's answer. 'Language of G.o.d' was Yun Woo's most commercially successful series, and it was in the epilogue of that series that the hint regarding Yun Woo's ident.i.ty was hidden. It would be a sensation among fans if they were to find out.
”When was this?”
”When people still knew me as Won Yi Young.”
”Which means your friends already knew that you were Won Yi Young.”
”That's right. And they also eventually learned that Won Yi Young and Yun Woo were the same person.”
”Haha! My goodness,” the interviewer let out, murmuring that he would love to interview the young author's clubmates one day. While the interviewer and the crew were left astonished, Nam Kyung and Nabi, looking slightly smug, were enjoying the scene of the secret unfolding. Then, deriving a question from Juho's answer, the interviewer asked, ”What was the significance behind publis.h.i.+ng under the name Won Yi Young?”
”I was already starting to make a name for myself as Yun Woo by that point, which came with a fair share of chaos. People were doubting my skill as an author on one hand, while enjoying my work on the other. I think it stirred up my compet.i.tive spirit when I heard people say that any book that bore my name would sell.”
”Was there a desire to keep yourself hidden? You stayed anonymous for quite some time, so you tend to have that image.”
”I think that, if anything, I wanted to reveal myself, which was why I presented myself in different ways. If I were to have revealed myself right off the bat, it would have solidified people's first impressions of me as truth, which would consequently have made all the other ways I present myself false.”
”I see. That makes sense. Then, let me ask you this. Do you feel like you have a lot to show, Mr. Woo?”
”Yes. I mean, I can't say that it's anything special, but I don't believe that there's one single thing that can sum me up as a person. We all have thoughts in our minds that are constantly contradicting each other, which is proof that we're multifaceted beings.”
At that, the interviewer dug deeper into Juho's answer, and the young author focused on understanding and answering his questions thoroughly. After answering another question, Juho took a sip of water. There was still a ways to go with the interview.
”You know, the more we talk, the more it dawns on me just how good of a speaker you are, Mr. Woo. As far as I'm aware, you're just as fluent in other languages as you are in English, right? And I believe you've done some translation?”
”I've translated one of Coin's books into Korean and one of my own into English.”
”Being proficient at multiple languages is not easy by any means. Were you trained in any way?”
At the word 'trained,' Juho nodded at once, ”Of course. One has to come across a language before they decide that they want to learn it. They have to learn to understand, read, and speak it. The only thing that sets me apart from everyone else is that that process happens just a tad quicker.”
”Are you just naturally talented?”
”Not at all,” Juho said clearly, and a skeptical look appeared on the interviewer's face.
”But you seem to far surpa.s.s most people's ability in that area.”
”That isn't to say that I'm a natural. If that were the case, I would've picked up English at the age of two and learned about eleven more by four, making a name for myself as a child prodigy by the time I'm six. Which isn't true, by the way.”
”Did you have no talent whatsoever in languages growing up?”
”My mother would always compliment me for reading backward.”
Since the interview wasn't about how to learn a language, the interviewer moved on to another subject.
”Are you aware that Taylor Sanders has been speaking highly of your translation?”
”Yes. I found out that he brought me up in an interview.”
”You two collaborated on translating one of your novels, right?”
”Yes. It just happened that way.”