TL: KSD
My book was placed at the very top of the bookstores display shelf.
To be exact, it was in the first position of the first row.
This position is similar to the height of a person.
Its displayed just slightly above eye level so that anyone who enters the bookstore can easily find it, but also so that the books are unconsciously looked up to.
Because thats the place befitting the number one.
However, the books displayed at a height slightly above what average adults have to look up to seed much higher from my perspective.
I tried reaching out my hand stealthily, but couldnt touch it. A Love Story had already flown far out of my reach.
I quietly smiled and lowered my hand. Then, I looked at the books spread out in front of .
Just the ones right in front of amount to 16 volus. Because theyve gathered the bestsellers from first to sixteenth place.
And right next to those, on both sides, are the non-fiction bestseller sections. There are also 16 volus in each of those, making a total of 48.
These 48 volus might seem like just books to soone, but to , they looked like people.
It felt like I could hear the groaning of people who painfully squeezed out parts of their lives, writing down each letter.
In front of were books containing the lives and struggles of these 48 people, and among them, my book sat on the throne, being the most loved.
And if I turn around,
tens of thousands,
no, hundreds of thousands of books filled the bookstore.
How many lives would be contained in those?
If we were to combine the ti it took to write those books, it would easily surpass the lifespan of a human. Even if one were to dedicate their entire life to reading, it would be impossible to read all those books.
Thus, the ti given to a human is so short and superficial.
Our ancestors knew this, and thats why they started scribbling on cave walls.
It all started like that.
And what started then has accumulated until now. A very small fraction of those records are the hundreds of thousands of books before my eyes.
How could I not revere books in this way?
Therefore, in this country, which is smaller than a babys fingernail when looked at from a globe,
for even a mont, in the history of records which is but a fleeting mont,
that my book was read by the most people
ca to as an indescribable touch of emotion.
Of course, I still doubt my talent. I cannot comfortably accept the praise showered upon . After all, I live in a strange world where being young is a reason to be loved.
But for today, at least, I decided to look warmly at my book, displayed just a little higher than the average adults height.
That place was a spot a young man, who wrote alone in a cold room, could never reach until his death.
EP 5-A Love Story
In the evening, the udon restaurant was bustling with office workers. Alcohol is indispensable in the als of office workers. Thus, this restaurant becos a bar in the evening after being a diner at lunch.
Noise buzzed from tables where three or four people gathered, a mix of those forcing a laugh and those laughing genuinely, clinking glasses together.
Amidst the unique sll of udon and alcohol mixing, in the only private room inside the restaurant, three people were clinking their glasses with bright smiles.
To us!
To, to us!
Lim Yang-wook called out cheerfully, and Baek Seol and Moon In-seop clumsily followed, clinking their glasses.
Lim Yang-wook had beer, Baek Seol had a highball, and Moon In-seop had (he tried to argue for alcohol, but to no avail) a cola.
Kyaha!
Lim Yang-wook savored the cool beer he hadnt had in a while. Then, he slurped up the spicy and glossy stir-fried udon with bonito flakes.
Moon In-seop looked at Lim Yang-wooks beer with a blank expression, his hand reaching out as if possessed.
Snap! Baek Seol slapped Moon In-seops hand away.
You cant have alcohol! Author~nim!
Just, just a sip!
Ssst! No!
Baek Seol eventually moved Lim Yang-wooks beer out of Moon In-seops reach.
Lim Yang-wook laughed at the scene.
Baek Seol, just give him a sip. In-seop wants it so badly
Thats a terrible idea! Absolutely not!?
Oh, what to do now
Lim Yang-wook smirked mischievously and lifted his beer glass, gulping it down refreshingly and even wiping off the foam from his mouth with satisfaction.
Kyaha! This is it!
Moon In-seop felt the truth in the saying that a nagging sister-in-law is worse than a beating mother-in-law.
With mixed feelings, he drank cola from a beer glass as if it were alcohol.
Grrr
Why are you drinking cola like its alcohol?
Today, the cola tastes bitter
You find cola bitter? I find it sweet. Maybe its because of all the hard tis Ive gone through
Then, do you want to switch?
Im fine, but Baek Seol says its not allowed?
Baek Seol, who was unconsciously slicing the okonomiyaki like it was a steak, sighed at Lim Yang-wook, who was teasing Moon In-seop for not being able to drink.
He seed too light-hearted to be the sa person who had brought A Love Story to the number one bestseller without the help of Baekhak Publishing.
Hoo
Baek Seol relaxed and took a sip of her highball, regaining her peace of mind now that the war-like publishing of A Love Story was over.
And it was a victory for us.
Congratulations on becoming the number one bestseller, Author~nim.
Thank you. Its all thanks to the editors.
Lim Yang-wook butted in with a sly smile.
Really?
About 6 to 4 ratio?
Whos the 6?
Obviously, .
Kahahah! Have you ever seen such an ungrateful guy!
Lim Yang-wook laughed joyously, patting Moon In-seop on the back, and Moon In-seop also smiled shyly, matching Lim Yang-wooks rhythm.
Baek Seol looked at the two of them getting along warmly with a distant gaze. After all, this familiar scene would soon be ending.
Spring has co. The season for regular personnel transfers approaches. Baek Seol will be leaving the Publishing Managent Departnt to be assigned to the headquarters Strategic Planning Office.
Lim Yang-wook, having caught a glimpse of Baek Seols complex expression, smirked and said,
Baek Seol, are you sad?
What, what do you an?!
Are you sad about parting with us?
Why do you ask sothing so embarrassing
A company is not a place for personal feelings. That was Baek Seols common sense. So, she clumsily hid her feelings.
But Lim Yang-wook said the opposite.
Really? Im really sad.
!
Baek Seol, you were a really good editor. And beyond being an editor, you were a really good person. Thats what I think. And although Im an ignoramus who knows nothing but publishing, I taught you everything I know, so I kind of thought of you as my apprentice. Thats why I thought it would be really fun to work together in the future, but its really sad that we have to part ways like this.
Acknowledged.
The mont Baek Seol felt that emotion, she lifted her head abruptly.
She covered her eyes and replied with a slightly muffled voice,
Why Why would you say that
Everyone knows I miss the mbers of the Publishing Managent Task Force Team, right?
Moon In-seop slightly nodded.
But you know whats funny? When those people were working at the company, I was incredibly cold to them. They were less capable than . Its obvious. I was number one in terms of performance. But looking back, in terms of being human, I was the last.
Of course, there was a bit of a harsh atmosphere because Im from a low-tier college, right? Thats true. But its not like those people were always harsh to . Rather, many were nice and recognized . But I rejected all of that? I thought that was cool. Why, you know. Thats the trend these days. Its good to be cool, decisive, critical, and seen as a rational elite if you work emotionlessly like a machine Ah, of course, thats correct as a company employee. Thats what a good company employee is
But if you ask whether I did well as a person I have a lot of regrets.
Manager~nim
Baek Seol realized that Lim Yang-wook was giving her heartfelt advice for when she would soon leave.
And Lim Yang-wook instructed Baek Seol to beco this kind of person.
I hope that Baek Seol focuses more on being a human than just being a company employee. A company employee lives for the company, but then theres no one left to live their own life. So take care of yourself, look after the people around you, and even fight back against those you dislike Live humanely. These days, living like that might be looked down upon as uncool, but ultimately, its for your own good.
Baek Seol answered with a dazed face.
Yes, Manager~nim
Although the title was wrong, that title was exactly how Baek Seol would rember Lim Yang-wook.
The bald, washed-up team leader who didnt lose his sense of humor even when stuck in the basent parking lot, barely getting by every day.
Such Lim Yang-wook broke the atmosphere with an awkward smile. His smile, as always, seed to scoff at sothing.
Well, I an, soone who almost ruined his life thinking company life would always be smooth sailing ended up rambling. Anyway, dont put everything into the company and live your life its a clich advice. Ugh, I cant believe I said such nonsense to our Baekhak bloodlines Princess Baek Seol Sorry if I sounded like an old fogey.
No, not at all!
Eh?
But today, there was no need for Lim Yang-wook to mock himself. Baek Seol thought so and interrupted Lim Yang-wooks self-deprecation.
Ill really take it to heart. Thank you, Manager~nim.
Yeah. Youll do well there. Baek Seol.
A warm silence lingered for a mont.
Moon In-seop was the one who rcilessly broke that silence.
How are we going to face each other at work tomorrow after this?
Shut up!
Lim Yang-wook swallowed his beer with a face redder than before, whether from the alcohol or embarrassnt, one couldnt tell.
Right! Baek Seol, theres still so ti before you leave, right? Hows the translation of A Love Story? You have to finish that before you go!
Of, of course Ive finished it! Ive already sent the manuscript to the publishers we made connections with during my trip to the US.
Good. Spring has arrived again, right? Its the season for the Annual Spring Literary Contest.
The Annual Spring Literary Contest had returned.
A season where newcors wield their pens in competition, and the judgnts for various literary awards are announced.
Lim Yang-wook gently tapped the cola-sipping Moon In-seop, grinning slyly.
Look forward to it, In-seop. Last year was undeniably your year. You may have bought your way into a debut with a literary award, but this ti, even a real major literary award seems possible.
However, that didnt happen.
In the following spring, during the Annual Spring Literary Contest season, contrary to Lim Yang-wooks expectations,
Author Moon In-seops writing did not win any literary awards.
* * *
Baekhak Entertainnts headquarters is dubbed A Sanctuary for Artists.
Theres a minor history to this.
Baekhak Entertainnt was the only one among Koreas major entertainnt companies to be controlled by a chaebol conglorate, naturally facing constant criticism for not being sincere about art.
This was both a critique of Baekhak Entertainnt and an attack on CEO Baek Seung-won, who was not an artist but a white-collar worker.
A vexed CEO Baek Seung-won would retort,
So they claim theyre not after money?
Why only criticize when they also have white-collar workers running things with artists as figurehead CEOs?
But, of course, these were not comnts he could make in public.
If CEO Baek Seung-won were a more daring person, he might have laughed it off, saying, Theres no end to competitors trying to slander each other.
However, CEO Baek Seung-won was sowhat prickly, neurotic, paranoid, a workaholic, and sowhat neglectful of his family.
(It could be said that the executives of the main company, who constantly tried to find fault with the CEO from a collateral branch, created this monster.)
Anyway, CEO Baek Seung-won gave them a taste of their own dicine, in response to the bitter slander that he muddied the waters of the entertainnt industry by managing it as soone from a clerical background.
Baekhak Entertainnts headquarters building was lavishly invested in.
Having undergone a major remodeling with A Sanctuary for Artists as its motif, Baekhak Entertainnts headquarters, from the lobby to the rest areas, was equipped with anities on par with those of hotels.
Even the cafeteria and the in-house caf were redesigned under the supervision of a famous international architect with a design that enhances the creativity of the employees, and for the training and healing of their own celebrities, there were massage rooms, spas, gyms, psychiatric services, and even a pet center.
And CEO Baek Seung-won would say,
Even I, coming from a white-collar background, take care of our companys artists like this. What do those so-called CEOs with artist backgrounds actually do for their people besides pushing them around?
However, there was a place that even CEO Baek Seung-won dared not touch.
That place was-
The rooftop.
The design of the rooftop cannot be changed by the CEO. Nor by an architect. The atmosphere of a company buildings rooftop is created by none other than the employees themselves.
Despite Baekhak Entertainnts substantial investnt in the building with A Sanctuary for Artists as its the, the rooftop was no different from those of any other company.
Office workers tired from work gathered in small groups to smoke. A sculpture that was supposed to symbolize environntal conservation and sustainable developnt had long since been reduced to an ashtray.
Among the many smokers, there was one bald man puffing on a cigarette.
It was Departnt Head Lim Yang-wook.
Departnt Head Lim Yang-wook of the Publishing Managent Departnt was quite a well-known figure among the staff, even for soone at his level.
After all, he had risen from being a prisoner in the basent parking lot to claim an office and a Departnt Heads title like a phoenix.
Moreover, he was also bringing in good money.
However, from the perspective of Baekhak Entertainnts employees, Lim Yang-wook was still an outsider from Baekhak Publishing, and the work he was doing now was even a step removed from this industry.
The scene on the rooftop, where no one approached Lim Yang-wook to even offer a casual greeting, starkly revealed his position within the company.
Of course, there was a ti when there were people who would chat with Lim Yang-wook while they smoked.
But those colleagues were expelled from Baekhak and thrown into the harsh world outside. It was the price of bitter betrayal and failure.
Lim Yang-wook lit his cigarette and looked out at the cityscape soaked in the sunset. His forr colleagues were scattered sowhere in this scenery, living their lives.
Of course, they werent people who had co together to do right. The company is a place to make money, and office workers are people who make money. They couldnt always do honorable work. In fact, the mont they tried to create a star author by bringing in a half-baked person and planning to ghostwrite for them was already a bit off.
But they were people who tried to do sothing. They were people who tried to do anything to save the slowly dying publishing industry, despite the finger-pointing.
Lim Yang-wook could never forgive Yang Sung-jun and Kim Sang-guk for rcilessly discarding them and confining himself to the basent parking lot.
The mont he forgives them, the mont he kneels down in cowardice, he felt he could no longer live as a proud human being.
But here lies the question.
What is the value of this revenge?
For whom is this revenge?
His colleagues?
Certainly, the mont they were expelled, they were deprived of all the ti and effort they had invested to enter this company and the rightful compensation for their lives poured into this company.
They didnt just lose money and jobs.
They lost their lives and ti.
But were they ruined? No. So have successfully found new jobs, so returned to being soones spouse and soones parent, and so continued their lives as owners of a chicken restaurant.
They are bearing the weight of life in their respective places, and Lim Yang-wook has no right to avenge them. No one can live soone elses life for them.
Lim Yang-wook knows it. His desire for revenge against Yang Sung-jun and Kim Sang-guk was not a noble emotion to avenge his colleagues.
It was closer to hatred, stemming from their jealousy of his abilities and their cowardly action of confining him to the basent parking lot for two years.
And Lim Yang-wook had already driven one of his enemies out of the company. Now, only Kim Sang-guk, who has beco the precarious CEO of Baekhak Publishing, remains.
But
What would change by driving him out?
Kim Sang-guks followers are still scattered throughout Baekhak Publishing.
Even if it were possible, the mont Lim Yang-wook expels Kim Sang-guk, he becos the enemy of countless juniors.
Then what would beco of Moon In-seop?
Haah
This spring, no literary awards were given to Moon In-seop.
To Lim Yang-wook, it was an inconceivable situation, yet also conceivable.
Moon In-seop had captured both artistic and popular appeal. Lim Yang-wook had made it so.
But he had also exposed the debut fee business by buying 16 literary awards. Lim Yang-wook had made it so.
Elder authors in the literary world viewed Moon In-seop sowhat positively.
But the literary world is not monolithic.
To the prestigious literary magazines that publish collections of literary awards, Moon In-seop was already a whistleblower.
So, this situation was a kind of revenge.
And there was no room for protest.
Moon In-seop had been listed as a nominee in almost all major literary awards.
That is, since there are people who won the awards over Moon In-seop, responding to this situation would make matters irreversibly worse.
No one in the literary world would forgive the act of belittling another novelist to protect one.
And.
Lim Yang-wook had no idea how long this kind of revenge would last.
Of course, there is a way.
Just once.
Just bow once.
Go to Baekhak Publishings President Kim Sang-guk, and bow just once.
This ti, the humiliation wouldnt be so great. After all, Lim Yang-wook is now another player in this industry.
Kim Sang-guk would likely extend his kindness to make him and Moon In-seop his people.
Lim Yang-wook could shake hands with a kindly smiling Kim Sang-guk and go around offering apologies to the elders of each literary magazine.
Then, from now on, Moon In-seop can perfectly blend into the literary world.
If Lim Yang-wook just gives up on revenge.
Of course, Kim Sang-guk is not entirely unrelated to this incident.
He might have directly orchestrated it, or at least he knew about it.
But thats a secondary issue.
The core of this problem is this.
How long should Moon In-seop be dragged into his revenge?
That was the crux of Lim Yang-wooks dilemma.
The answer to that question was obvious.
Haah.
Lets bow.
Just bow once.
For Moon In-seop, lets put aside pride and bow just once.
Lim Yang-wook decided so.
Click
Lim Yang-wook put out his cigarette and got on the elevator, intending to act imdiately on his decision before changing his mind. He decided to et Kim Sang-guk before that.
But as he passed through the underground parking lot to get to his car, Lim Yang-wook felt his fist trembling involuntarily.
He felt the humiliation of the two years spent in this parking lot. The shock of the day he found himself in the mirror, balding in clumps and halfway to madness, ca back to him.
Lim Yang-wook paused to contemplate one last ti but bit his lip, climbed into the drivers seat, and drove towards Baekhak Publishing.
Chewing over the bitter taste of gall, his smartphone vibrated while he was driving.
Hello.
Di, Di, Di, Departnt Head~nim!
Yes, whats the matter, Baek Seol?
-Boo, boo, boo, booker!
Boo, what?
-A Love Story has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize!
Lim Yang-wook made a U-turn.
*****
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