Chapter 543 (2/2)

“Already?”

“I just feel stuffy in here.”

Pilhyun took Gwak Joon outside. Hanmi, who had lost her opponent to growl at, shriveled up like dried up seaweed.

“Man, you have a tiring way of living your life, huh.”

“It’s over for me.”

“Like hell it is. You have loads of days left to live. You fought well until now. You should just keep doing that. You won’t find anyone who’s never made a mistake in this world, you know?”

“Maybe I should’ve slipped like oppa said?”

“Now you’re just making me look bad. If you are successful, then you should be thankful for it. Don’t go churning the insides of countless people who don’t get their works sold.”

Haesoo looked at Daemyung. She wondered if it was okay to say this in front of a student, but he didn’t look like the light mouthed kind, so it should be fine. In the first place, Pilhyun wouldn’t have called him here if he wasn’t.

“Try talking to the producer about it. Imagine how good it would be if you can discuss with others like the other writers do.”

“Unni, don’t you know how I’ve been doing my interviews until now?”

“I do, I really do.”

Hanmi was someone with a high ego when she was in her 20s, but she had the writing skills to back it up. While Haesoo was focused on publishing her work, Hanmi staked her life on dramas. She earned money as a secondary writer for some documentary series at a TV station to get by everyday life, and she split what little time she had to write a scenario for a mini series which she handed in for a contest. The day she was notified that she passed, Haesoo celebrated with Hanmi, who froze up in front of the camera.

After that, Hanmi became successful with many mini-series titles. Hanmi in her thirties was a writer who lived in the world by herself. Looking at what she said for various lectures would make anyone wonder if such an arrogant and ċȯċky person could exist in the world. Haesoo wasn’t surprised by it. A writer who never failed even once. She was someone who hit it big for 8 years straight while many others of her profession rarely even had one hit, so who could insult her for being ċȯċky? Her speech had toned down quite a bit ever since she reached forty, but her arrogance was still very high and looking at her work was pretty hard.

“Why did I do that?”

“You shouldn’t have become such a character.”

A writer who never holds prior discussions with the producer. A writer who refuses feedback. A perfectionist writer. That was Hanmi’s identity according to what Haesoo heard from other people. Haesoo had seen the extremes of that ċȯċkiness once before. 3 fixes to a script in one day. Even after committing such a tragic crime, Hanmi was bold about it. She was filled with the confidence that only she could write the script, and that confidence was something that supported the perfectionist in Hanmi. Indeed. The atlas that propped the being known as Hanmi up was that confidence.

Yet now, that confidence had been shattered. She said that it wasn’t something that happened recently. She said that she had become afraid of writing about a year ago. However, since she acted as such until now, she kept wearing the hat that didn’t suit her and kept writing without any consultations with the producer. Haesoo swore at her saying that she was foolish, but it wasn’t that she couldn’t understand her. Everyone lived that way after all. A meager pride had become the identity that represented oneself from some time onward, so that pride couldn’t be easily thrown away. Hanmi was pushed to the extreme, and this was the result.

“Unni, unni.”

“Urgh, damn girl.”

She had become a kid. The writer whose pen broke had become a child who burst out into tears while playing with fire. Since she lost her confidence, she lost her directionality, which was how she ended up writing the latter half of her script while referencing fan-fiction on internet forums. The problem with that was that she borrowed some of the ideas despite the fact that they had conflicting elements with what she originally wrote.

As stifling as her persona might be, she couldn’t really go anywhere to complain about it, and with the deadline approaching, she probably ended up finding a breakthrough by referencing a fan-fiction. She shouldn’t have had any time to cross-reference her own work to make sure that it wouldn’t sound disconcerting. If she had time to do that, she would’ve consulted others a long time ago.

This little sister was incredibly frustrating with the way she worked. Since writing was everything to her, and she was never betrayed by her writing before, she had been pushed into a corner like this. Because of that meager pride, because of that meager reputation, Hanmi said that she was afraid of being tagged the ‘failed writer’.

“Ah!”

Just then, Daemyung made a sound after being quiet all this time. Haesoo tilted her head and looked at him.

“What is it?”

“N-nothing.”

“Hey, you stutter quite a lot, huh? What is it? Tell me about it. I’m someone who can’t hold back my curiosity.”

“Uhm… the thing is, I thought you looked similar to someone I know when I first met you.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“A celebrity?”

“No….”

“Just joking. But who exactly?”

“A friend of a friend of mine. You really look like her.”

“Really? You said you live in Suwon, right? Do you perhaps go to Myunghwa High? My daughter goes there.”

“No, I go to Woosung High.”

“Ah, I see.”

“But that person that looks similar to you goes to Myunghwa High.”

“I also know someone who goes to Woosung High.”

“....”

“....”

Something just clicked. Haesoo spoke, thinking there’s no way it would be true.

“No way, it shouldn’t be. You said that you liked Lee Chan from the drama, right?”

“Yes. Because he’s a friend of mine.”

“...Really?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my word. You know Han Maru?”

Daemyung, sitting opposite to her, blinked before opening his mouth wide.

“Yes. I do. He’s my best friend.”

“Oh my, you’re friends with my daughter’s boyfriend?”

“I knew it, huh. I thought I was mistaken.”

“Do I look like my daughter?”

“Yes, a lot, actually.”

“No way, I’m much better, aren’t I?”

“....”

“You’re quite honest. Sorry that I’m being quite senseless. Rather than that, we meet like this huh. Do you also do acting?”

“Yes. I do. Ah, right. She came to our school today.”

“My daughter, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“I told her to go play with Maru and she actually did go there, huh. Kids these days are so fast.”

Haesoo smiled and picked up the drink bottle.

“As strange as it might be, here, you should drink a little.”

She never thought that she’d meet an acquaintance of her daughter here.

It once again came to her that the world was pretty small.