Chapter 7

I am a writer, Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Ring.

While waiting for midnight to focus on Emperor Loki Volume 3, my phone rang.

"What is it?"

Checking the caller, it was Chul.

As soon as I answered, Chul shouted angrily.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Chul, who suddenly asked what I was doing, was clearly upset.

I knew exactly what he was talking about.

It must be about the blind date that Kang So-young set up for me today.

But I pretended not to know.

"What?"

"The blind date we planned for today, you stood her up, right?"

Stood her up.

But I answered differently.

"Who stood her up?"

"Huh?"

"I went out."

Actually, I stood her up but pretended I didn't.

"Really?"

No, I didn't go out.

But I answered differently again.

"Yeah, I went out."

"But why is Kang So-young telling me you stood her up?"

"Because you introduced me to a girl like that, and I came back without even showing my face?"

"What do you mean, a girl like that? What's wrong with Kang So-young? She's pretty and rich, isn't she?"

Chul's voice sounded confused.

It made sense.

I always joked to Chul that I wanted a pretty and rich girl.

But this time, he was really asking.

Thanks to that, I was quite grateful when I first met Kang So-young.

Choosing marriage over abortion was also because of her.

In the end, it was the act that sent my life into a downward spiral.

But Chul didn't know this, so he was just curious.

What kind of girl was Kang So-young?

"Why? Is she too snappy? Even if she's pretty and rich, it's okay if she's a bit snappy."

Yeah, if she was just a bit snappy, I could overlook it, given her beauty and wealth.

But Kang So-young had a huge flaw.

A major, terrible flaw.

The crime of making me raise Oh Young-gon's child as my own was not light. Moreover, she even drove me to my death.

I couldn't tell Chul this.

In the meantime, Chul asked me again.

"Say something. What did Kang So-young do?"

I couldn't tell Chul that I had returned to the past, so I gave a reasonable explanation.

Why Kang So-young didn't work out.

"She has a boyfriend."

"What?"

Chul was surprised to hear that the girl he set up for a blind date wasn't single.

I asked him if he knew the real father of Seung-mi.

"Have you heard of Oh Young-gon?"

"Why is his name coming up?"

From his reaction, it seemed he knew.

I explained the relationship between Kang So-young and Oh Young-gon.

"Kang So-young is dating him."

"What? I thought she was a stalker?"

It seems he also told him that Oh Young-gon was a stalker.

I clarified that it wasn't true.

"No, they are dating."

"How do you know that?"

"I overheard their conversation. That's why I came back home."

Actually, I only found out 15 years after our marriage.

When I told Chul that Kang So-young was dating Oh Young-gon, he asked in a very angry voice.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Damn, wait a minute. I'll tell you what. How dare this bitch mess with my best friend?"

He seemed very angry.

But I didn't want to get involved with Kang So-young anymore, so I tried to stop Chul.

"Hey, forget it. Don't do it."

"But why would a girl with a boyfriend ask for a blind date? And she's dating Oh Young-gon, the stalker? Damn!"

"Just leave it. I don't want to get involved."

"Don't worry. I'll make sure she doesn't mess with you."

He has a fiery temper.

He wouldn't back down even if I tried to stop him.

It was better to change the subject.

"Hey, forget it. How's your tax preparer exam going?"

"Why are you asking that all of a sudden?"

His reaction was clear.

After all, this guy had been talking about preparing for the tax preparer exam for two years while spending his father's money.

He even went to the military, and only after being discharged did he start studying and pass the exam.

In short, he was someone who could pass the exam immediately if he put his mind to it.

I scolded him.

"Are you just playing around instead of studying?"

"Of course not."

"Your voice doesn't sound like it."

"Why are you asking that all of a sudden? You sound like my dad right now. Are you suddenly acting like an old man?"

This time, I was taken aback.

Before returning to the past, I was 37, so to our peers, I was an old man.

I encouraged Chul to become a tax preparer quickly.

"Pass the exam soon and learn some tips from your dad."

"Why?"

Chul, surprised by my sudden interest in taxes.

I explained why he needed to be a tax preparer.

"Because when I make a lot of money, you need to reduce my taxes."

"You're going to make a lot of money?"

"Yeah, you need to pass the exam soon. I'll be your first client."

Chul sneered at my words.

"Hey, to handle taxes through a tax preparer, you need to earn more than a decent starting salary at a major company, you know?"

"I know."

I knew exactly how much one needed to earn to need a tax preparer.

All the writers around me who hit it big in the paid serial market first sought out tax preparers.

Some writers even asked me if I knew any tax preparers.

'Thanks to that, Chul made some money.'

Some writers made tens of millions of dollars in the first month alone, thanks to events like free daily chapters on Naver and KakaoPage, and many earned that much in two or three months.

The management process was the same, so as long as it was handled mechanically, money would pour into Chul's tax preparer office like a waterfall, making it easy to earn a lot.

Since Chul didn't know this future, he asked me how I planned to earn money.

"Really? How are you going to earn money? Did you win the lottery or something?"

I smiled at Chul's question.

"I'll earn money by writing, so look forward to it."

My main goal in returning to the past.

Now I would live as a writer, not as an editor.

Chul asked me.

"Writing? The fantasy novel you were writing?"

"Yeah."

"Being a writer is a starving job. Do you really need a tax preparer?"

Most people who don't know would probably react like Chul.

Isn't being a writer a job where you starve?

Eventually, they would realize how much they were mistaken once they knew how much writers could earn.

"Whether you need one or not, you'll see. Pass the exam before I succeed. If you don't, you'll end up working for your dad's clients."

"Hey, forget it. I'm going to drink."

"Alright, think about what I said."

As I kept advising him to prepare for the tax preparer exam, Chul cursed.

"Fine, you old man!"

And he hung up.

Looking at my phone after the call, I shook my head.

"Hey, if you quit college, at least prepare for your future even if you play around."

This advice would only make Chul see me as an old man.

As a senior, I said it, but I also understood him from my own experience.

"Well, since he'll get his act together and take the tax preparer exam after being discharged in two years, maybe I should just leave him alone?"

Unlike me, this is Chul's first twenties.

Thinking about it, a bitter smile appeared on my face.

"Come to think of it, maybe I should be the one enjoying my twenties?"

During this period, while writing Emperor Loki, I received a bombshell from Kang So-young.

She was pregnant.

I had a drink with Chul once and with Sung-yong once.

Chul just listened to my complaints, while Sung-yong gave me advice on what to do.

If Emperor Loki did well, I could keep writing. If it failed, he suggested becoming an editor like him to have a stable income and do what I love.

Actually, the first two volumes did well, not a huge success, but they sold as much as average writers.

The problem was the third volume.

Stressed by Kang So-young's pregnancy, I couldn't write well, and the stress was evident in my writing, causing readers to drop off completely in the third volume.

To the point of ignoring the law of inertia.

In the end, the third volume faced a massive return crisis, and the fourth volume, which initially sold 4,000 copies, barely sold over 1,000.

The publishing company, Purbun, declared an early end to the fifth volume, saying it was pointless to continue.

At that time, Sung-yong said to me.

"I'm sorry, Jun-kyung. As your editor, I should have taken better care of you, but it ended up like this."

His sincere apology left me speechless.

After all, the one who ruined the work was not the editor Sung-yong but the writer, me.

In the end, I had no choice but to become an editor, and I gave sincere advice to writers based on my experience.

"Writers shouldn't be stressed. If they are, it shows in their writing without them realizing it. Think about it. Why do readers read fantasy or martial arts novels? To enjoy themselves during their breaks. But if they feel stress from the writing, it's bound to fail. Like a book that sells 4,000 copies dropping to under 1,000."

Despite my advice, writers, being human, could only understand but not act on it.

It would be nice to write without stress, but it doesn't come just because you want it.

Stress is not just caused by oneself but also by changes in the environment.

Thanks to this, after I messed up, I became an editor, and my twenties were spent taking care of my family.

After talking to Chul, I thought about my twenties and took my hands off the keyboard.

"Since I'm back, should I enjoy my twenties?"

I asked myself, what would make my twenties enjoyable if I didn't have to get married?

"What would make my twenties enjoyable?"

After asking, I put my hands back on the keyboard and answered.

"Writing my own stories as a writer, not an editor, is what makes me happy."

Although I stayed as an editor for a long time because I loved genre literature, the greatest joy was in writing, not reading.

In the end, I started typing again.

Tap, tap, tap!

***

While diligently writing the third volume of Emperor Loki.

I stopped typing to have dinner with my parents.

Tap!

I stopped typing, finishing the sentence I was writing.

The reason was simple.

My eyes were on the bottom right corner of the monitor.

"11:55."

Indeed, it was almost midnight.

The time to drop my debut bomb.

Since the computer might freeze, I saved the manuscript I was writing.

"Saving regularly is essential."