Big Life - Chapter 43

Chapter 43 – With the Night’s Protection  

“What are you doing? Sign it quickly.”

Suhee moved her hands up and down and urged him.

Jaegun took the book and got a pen in his name.

On the blank sheet of paper, a signature became engraved. It was the first signature he gave to anyone and didn’t feel like it had confidence.

“It must be his girlfriend. She’s pretty.”

“We should go. Writer, thank you.”

“Yes, yes. Thank you.”

The two girls left the cafe. Looking through his window, the girls were still looking at the picture taken with Jaegun and blabbering happily about it.

“Aww ~ Ha Jaegun ~~ already a favorite writer.”

Suhee said in a joking manner as she sat across from him.

“Don’t you have to wear a hat around now? Is it ok with just a hat? You need a mask too.”

“Don’t tease me. It’s not that much. Those people just recognized me conceptually.”

A laugh came out as he looked at Suhee.

With a beige blouse and a gray scarf on top of it, it fit the color of autumn very well. He almost spits out the words ‘You look pretty’ out of his mouth

“Here.”

“Thank you.

Suhee checked the sign as she got the book.

It was a strange awkward sign. And there was a sentence on the bottom.

-Ha Jaegun’s first sign goes to Lee Suhee

“Haha, that’s cool.”

Her lips, with a red tint, had a small smile.

“I’ll keep it well. I read it too fast. I should have read it slower. I already read the 90s Child as well.”

“Just wait. I’m working on another story.”

“Wait? Really?”

Suhee’s face had surprise now instead of laughter.

It’s only been so long since he won with 90s Child and A Dumb Woman. And now he was making another one. And the fantasy series was still printing.

She wondered how Jaegun’s 24 hours looked like.

“How long is it?”

“It’s about 16,000 words for the draft. There are a lot of errors though.”

“Jaegun, how many hours do you spend on writing?”

“I’m not sure if you ask the hours. I think I spend everything on writing except for the eating and sleeping.”

“You’re amazing… Really.”

Suhee muttered, shaking her head.

She was more than a bit worried. More important that writing is health. If you’re sick, you can’t even write. Jaegun’s’ face looked a lot skinnier than before.

“Ah, sorry. You should drink something. I’ll buy.”

She pulled down Jaegun who was getting up.

“I’m fine. I drink coffee at the office a lot. We need to eat. I’m hungry.”

“Ok, what do you want to eat? I’m good with anything.”

“Anything?”

“Yeah, anything.”

Jaegun answered with some gusto.

If it was king crab, or sushi, or steak, he could now buy anything that he couldn’t even think about before.

“Ok, let’s go.”

Suhee stood up and pulled her bag around her shoulder. On her eyes, there was a smile.

“You’re not gonna regret it?”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

Jaegun answered confidently and went out the café with Suhee.

“There’s another store that recently came up near the office. It’s closed.”

“What do they sell?”

“You’ll see when you get there.”

When he got there, it was a store that sold spicy ribs as their main dish. Jaegun’s face got pale even before he went through the door.

‘It’s another spicy meal.’

He didn’t think he was bad at eating spicy stuff. But he wasn’t totally good either.

The chicken that he ate with Dasul before was spicy as well and he almost died eating that.

“Welcome. Two people? Come here.”

The employee said with an energetic voice.

Jaegun and Suhee sat across from each other at a table.

“Give us 2 cheese ribs. Hey, can you drink?”

“I’m fine.”

Jaegun answered immediately.

He didn’t bring his car so it was fine.

And it wasn’t with anyone but Suhee.

He didn’t want to feel awkward by refusing to drink because of writing.

“Give us a bottle of soju as well. Brand Liesel.”

“Yes.”

The food came out quickly

The ribs looked spicy just by looking at it. The cheese was boiling on top of it.

Suhee gave a rib onto Jaegun’s dish.

“Eat it.”

“Thanks.”

Jaegun, with his gloved hand, took a rib and took a bite out of it. It was fine for a second, then in 10 seconds, his face burned hot red.

‘Ahhhhhhhh……!! This isn’t a joke!’

It was double what he ate with Dasul.

His tongue couldn’t stand being in his mouth and was flopping around

“Is it that spicy? Eat the cheese.”

Suhee gave some cheese onto his dish with a spoon.

Jaegun frantically poured cheese into his mouth,

Suhee was smiling as the whole spectacle was fun.

“You can’t eat spicy things like before.”

“This isn’t the spiciest thing?”

“You didn’t eat spicy things since college. Remember you cried when you ate that Tteok-bokki near the school?”

“That place was incredible as well. No, aside from that, you just eat spicy things really well. This is just… you win, you win.”

“Hahaha.”

Suhee pulled the bottle out to Jaegun.

As she poured a drink to Jaegun, he poured a drink to her as well.

“Ahh, this is great. Since it’s hot, it goes in better. I can’t eat this without soju.”

“It’s hot to me too. But when I came here with employees, I got addicted to it.”

“Yeah, even though it’s spicy, it’s amazing.”

The two people talked about small things.

The world, their friends, the college days that they both remembered…

Jaegun and Suhee’s face were busy smiling.

“Here, give us another bottle.”

Jaegun looked at Suhee’s face as he took a 2nd bottle. Her face was a bit red, but it still had the strong and focused gaze.

Realizing the gaze, Suhee asked, putting the back of her hand on her face.

“Why are you looking at me? My face really red?”

“No, It’s just, you’re strong with drinks as always.”

“What? You’re thinking of MT at freshman year?”

Suhee looked at him.

Jaegun laughed instead of answering.

It was the freshman year at MT.

A few older girls gave Suhee a few drinks, making very stupid excuses for it. They wanted to break the strong and confident Suhee’s will.

But Suhee didn’t break.

She survived while standing up to almost 10 girls alone.

And in the end, the people who fell drunk were the older girls.

Then Jaegun already knew.

Suhee didn’t have a huge capacity; she was just average. But she didn’t back down because of her strong pride. The feeling of sympathy was still in Jaegun’s heart.

So Jaegun helped her without anyone noticing.

When the people didn’t notice, he poured water in Suhee’s drink and made it weaker.

Suhee didn’t know. Even his best friend Jongjin didn’t know. It was his secret.

“What are you thinking? My cup is empty.”

“Drink slowly. You’re getting drunk.”

Jaegun laughed while getting a drink from Jaegun.

“That’s funny,. Since the words came out, but you know I’m really strong at drinks? I almost killed 10 girls.”

“Almost kill. Wow. Like the game company team leader, your language is very different as well.”

Suhee sighed slowly after a loud voice.

A shadow, that couldn’t be hid by the light, was present on her face.

“What’s up?”

“Hm? No nothing.”

Suhee waved her hand and answered.

Because of Jaegun, the company came up in her thoughts. She didn’t want to tell Jaegun right now that the game that they were developing was about to be scrapped.

“Ah, you were writing another story.”

Suhee clapped her hands and changed the topic.

“What is it about?”

“Ah, um…. It’s a romance about a girl and a boy. But there’s a lot of stuff when I started writing. It’s about society, or about the suffering of the office workers, and stuff like that.

Jaegun lifted his cup and rank.

With a bitter expression, he continued his words.

“I said before, I finished the draft but there’s so many things wrong with it. The female main character’s emotion and actions are just awkward. She feels like a man.”

“You portrayed it well with A Dumb Woman.”

“But that’s because the model was my sister. I knew her from a young age so I could portray it well. This is different.”

But Suhee didn’t understand.

“What about the quest you did for our game. That was amazing. I saw that and thought you really understood women’s feelings really well. I was surprised.”

“Ah, umm….”

He couldn’t say that he got Somii’s feelings.

So Jaegun changed the topic with a loose voice.

“But it’s hard. I’m writing all day except for eating and sleeping, and it doesn’t work out.”

“Liar.”

Was it the drinks.

A word that was in her mind came out without even her realizing it.

“What?”

Jaegun asked with wide open eyes.

Suhee answered trying to look calm.

“When you called me earlier, you were at the karaoke bar. I think you have fun a lot.”

“Ah, that’s …. That’s not…”

Jaegun hesitated while putting his glance somewhere else.

Suhee one-shoted a cup, thinking that her assumptions were right. Her face was calm, but inside it was boiling like the cheese on the plate.

“You can say that you met a girl. Ha Jaegun? What’s up with you? You’re 27. Is anyone gonna eat you?”

Suhee grabbed the bottle.

Jaegun took the bottle away from her who was pouring herself a drink.

“Don’t do that. Drink slowly.”

“I’m strong, so don’t worry.”

The soju filled up the empty cup.

Jaegun said while looking at Suhee who was bringing the cup to her mouth.

“I went to see a karaoke helper.”

Suhee froze with her cup on her lips,

If it went in her mouth, she might have spit some out. She was that surprised. Jaegun quickly added, looking at her pale face.

“Don’t think of it that way. I went to go for an interview.”

“Inter… view?”

“The female main character is a karaoke helper. So I need to know things about it. So I went there myself. There’s no other way.”

Her suspicions didn’t disappear quickly.

She could believe that he went there for an interview. Since a long time ago, he was always the type to get directly involved for his writing,

‘But did it only end in an interview? When I heard the voice, it was really friendly’

The words were on her tongue, but she couldn’t say it.

Because she didn’t have any excuse to say it.

Suhee muttered because she was angry that she was probably overthinking this.

“I want to read that. That book.”

“The one that I’m writing?”

“What  else? How fun would it be to read a book that you got directly involved in. I want to read it right now, but i can’t so…”

The bar was loud and the lights were dark.

Therefore, Jaegun didn’t recognize that she was just saying it and accepted it as her truth.

“You want to come to my house?”

“….Ah?”

“You want to read it now? I only have the ending on my phone. If you read it with your hawk eyes, that would be amazing. I thought you would be busy, so I didn’t ask.”

Suhee was completely shocked that she forgot her upset feelings and sat there with her mouth open. How did the conversation get like this.

“It’s only about 8. We were going to drink again so let’s drink at my room while reading. I’ll drop you off when you’re going. OK?”

“Uh, uh….? It’s fine but…”

“We ate so let’s go right now. I’ll buy.”

He was really happy. The feeling that a writer got when someone wanted to read his story was the best feeling. And it was even better with his smart friend Suhee reading it.

“You left your car? Let’s get a taxi.”

“Ah, umm…”

The two people sat next to each other in the taxi.

The night setting went by quickly out the window.

Suhee couldn’t calm her beating heart while looking out the window.

‘It wasn’t a passing comment. But did I come too easily? Won’t he think I’m weird?’

It felt very fluttering, and also a bit worrying.

She went during the day, but at this nighttime, and with some drinks, she was going to a room where a man lived alone.

It was on her mind even though it was Jaegun. Without any care about her anxious mind, the taxi ran nonstop to the destination.