Chapter 394 (2/2)

“She let me name the book after her, but she had one condition . ”

“What condition?”

“That she'd get all of my belongings if I died within five years of the book's release . ”

Baek's jaw dropped open .

“What!?”

“What?” Juho asked nonchalantly .

“I mean, what about your family?”

“I have no wife nor kids, and my parents always tell me that my ma.n.u.scripts are the last things they want . If anybody were to take them, I figured she would be just the right person . I still have the stories that I wrote when I was in high school . ”

“Really? That's it?” Baek asked as if at a loss for words .

“Something told me that if I gave my ma.n.u.scripts to Bo Suk, that would bail me out of trouble in the future . ”

“What kind of a.n.a.logy is that? Have you done anything illegal, Mr . Woo?”

Juho burst into laughter . Death was far from illegal .

“Well, I'm alive and well, so that's good, right?”

At that moment, the sound of knocking came from the door . Lately, there had been waves of visitors coming in and out of the house . Well acquainted with those visitors, Baek rose from his seat and walked out of the room in order to open the door . Meanwhile, Juho remained in bed, reading . Soon, a confident set of footsteps could be heard approaching .

“Juho . ”

As Bo Suk walked into the room, Juho sat up on his bed . The bag on her shoulder looked quite hefty .

“Been a while . ”

“Whew! Traveling to another country is always exhausting . I flew in as soon as I heard about you,” she said with an innocent smile . She was now a seasoned reporter with a significant number of subordinates .

“How are you feeling?”

“Not too bad . Gives me an excuse to be lazy . ”

“You're not young anymore, so don't do anything too extreme, all right?”

“Accidents don't come with warning signs . ”

“Was it really an accident?” Bo Suk asked with a sad look .

“It's pretty obvious, isn't it?”

“C'mon, Juho . For how many years have we known each other now? You're not exactly the most daring type . ”

“I didn't realize we were having an interview?”

“Of course, not! Besides, I'm in the politics department, so I have no business writing about you . ”

Smiling, Juho looked up at the ceiling and said, “Remember what you said to me when you let me name that book after you?”

“I do . ”

“Well, it's been five years since then, and I'm still here . So…”

As Bo Suk stared at Juho quietly, Baek came in with a couple of cups of teas . Clicking her tongue, Bo Suk said, “Ugh, I hate these . ”

“I didn't even ask him to bring anything . He's an interesting one, don't you think?”

“Don't worry, I can always drink it,” Baek said, unfazed, drinking her tea . With dark liquid around his lips, the aspiring writer asked, “So, what would you like?”

“… Green tea, please . ”

“All right . I boiled a lot of water, so it'll only be a minute . ”

After Baek left the room, Bo Suk asked, “Is he really your pupil?”

“He's more like a hired hand . ”

“You might wanna find somebody who actually knows what they're doing . ”

“He's a pretty decent writer,” Juho said, tossing about in his bed in order to sit up straight and drink the tea . Although it was much more bitter than he remembered, it wasn't too terrible .

“So, about the accident you were in recently . Are you sure it wasn't…”

“It wasn't a suicide attempt . Don't worry . ”

“Then, what was it?”

'I came back from the dead, but I couldn't accept that I was given a second chance, so I was brought to the brink of death . I tried to undo my past . ' If Juho were to tell her any of those things, he would end locked up in a hospital all over again . Rubbing his stomach, Juho said, “I'll tell you after I die . ”

“What?!”

“Actually, there's a story I finished recently by the skin of my teeth . I think it turned pretty OK . ”

After a brief pause, Bo Suk gave Juho a surprised look and said, “I don't think I'd ever heard you say that . ”

“I'm confident in my work . ”

Hearing that, Bo Suk's jaw dropped open, a reaction with which Juho was well acquainted .

“What's it about?” Bo Suk asked without hesitation .

“I'd rather you find out yourself . Read it when it comes out . ”

“Is it recent?”

“No . ”

“Then?”

Spreading three of his fingers, Juho said, “Try thirty years . ”

While Bo Suk blinked in confusion, the author added, “I worked on it for three decades . ”

“That's…”

“It even made me wonder if my life turned out the way it did just so that I could write this book . Sure, it's still not as valuable as my own life, but I'm confident that it's going to be my masterpiece . ”

At that moment, Bo Suk reached into her bag and took out a pen and a piece of paper .

“Tell me more . ”

“I thought you covered politics?”

“There are plenty of people I can talk to . ”

Juho had no reason not to tell her .

“I think this is the most lovable story I've ever written, by far . ”

Then, it was night . Bo Suk had left after dinner, and Baek was sleeping in the room across from Juho's . Changing out of his inside clothes and into his outside clothes, Juho went out . There was a full moon lighting the snowy night sky . The air felt quite cold .

There was no sound, no people, nor birds around, not even the crow that had followed him around . Juho remembered the story that he had recently finished . Although everyone else around him had been against him going back to writing so soon, writing an ending had hardly been a challenge after the accident . Young Do and Baek had also been impressed by how the story had turned out .

“I think I'll change the last sentence . ”

Juho took out a pen and a ragged piece of paper, leaned against the safety rail, and started writing . After staring intently at the sentence he had written, Juho put the paper back in his pocket and returned home unhurriedly . The snow had covered the footprints he had made on his way there, so they were no longer visible, which made it difficult for him to remember from which direction Juho had come . However, that was the least of the author's concerns . As long as he was alive, he had the choice to go anywhere .

“What should I write next?”

The sky was still dark, and Juho couldn't think of what to write about next .

'I'm sure it'll come to me eventually . '

Life was long, and morning was bound to come . Taking a deep breath, Juho shouted out the sentence he had just written on the piece of paper, “Here comes the Great Storyteller!”