The Great Storyteller

Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

Juho saw Geun Woo lifting his head as if looking down at his belly button.

“You’ve never felt this lazy, have you?”

“I have.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I’m human, you know.”

Geun Woo relaxed his neck shortly after and said, “You know what though? I feel somewhat relieved.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I can still be like Yun Woo, even if I’m dilly dallying in my room like this.”

Juho looked at Joon Soo, who let out a small sigh. Leaving Geun Woo on the floor, he said to the young author, “I came to congratulate Geun Woo, but I wasn’t expecting him to be like that. I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“Not a problem.”

“Oh! I watched you writing onstage during the exhibition event.”

“Ah, there are some videos of it floating around the internet, I believe.”

There were videos of the presentation recorded by fans floating around the internet. Despite the significant length, the number of views on each of them was growing.

“That ending was really somethin’,” Geun Woo interjected, keeping his eyes closed.

“Was it fun?”

“What was?”

“Writing on a stage.”

“In some ways.”

“Seemed like there was a lot to see. Especially that heavy metal girl,” Joon Soo said, leaning against the doorpost. “But your writing process was not exactly what I expected.”

The young author’s writing process looked entirely different from the image Joon Soo had had in mind. Shrugging, Juho replied, “I was just typing away on that keyboard. That’s all.”

“Actually, there was something about it that kind of reminded me of the genius in Geun Woo’s novel.”

“… As in, I looked like I was about to die?”

Chuckling, Joon Soo denied it, saying, “No, no. I wouldn’t say anything about your stamina in front of Geun Woo, who’d do anything to have stamina like yours. I’m talking about how the genius comes to start eating metal.”

“That’s because he’s hungry.”

With that extremely obvious reason, the genius in Geun Woo’s novel started eating metal. Nodding, Joon Soo added, “Right. Mrs. Baek was saying that you looked famished.”

“What?”

“She suggested having a barbecue when you got here.”

“… I did skip breakfast that day,” Juho said, chuckling and looking away. Since Joon Soo didn’t speak any further on the matter, the subject moved on to something else naturally.

“Speaking of which, any word on the contract?” Juho asked Geun Woo, who caught on to what the young author was referring to immediately.

“Oh. The movie rights?”

“Yeah.”

Since his debut title started catching on, Geun Woo had received a call from a movie studio. The fast pace and provocative subject of the novel made it feasible for a film adaptation.

“Yep. I think they’re about to have a meeting soon,” Geun Woo said, sounding slightly more energetic that time, as if he were stoke about the movie offer.

“Once a book gets made into a movie, the sales are bound to go up, no matter how good or bad the movie is. Besides, the company that approached me is pretty big. Everyone around me seems to think that I should go for it.”

“Mr. Ju said the same thing,” Juho said.

According to Geun Woo’s request, Juho had recently talked to Sang Young Ju on the phone in order to ask about the company that had approached Geun Woo with the movie offer. Thankfully, it was a company that the director recognized. Just before hanging up, Sang Young had asked the young author:

“What about you?”

When Juho looked toward where the voice had come from, Geun Woo was looking toward him. Despite knowing what he’d meant, Juho asked, “What about me?”

At which, Geun Woo asked again in a slightly louder tone, “Aren’t you gonna do a film adaptation?”

“I have.”

Furrowing his brow, Geun Woo said, “Hey, we all know that there’s a film adaptation that we’re all dying to see. Although, I feel kind of bad for Mr. Ju.”

“He’s talking about ‘Language of God,’ you know,” Joon Soo added.

‘Langauge of God’ was one of the most widely talked about novel series of all time. Film adaptations, sequels, TV series. Since it had brought the young author two of the most widely recognized literary awards in the world, it was inevitable that it received significantly more attention than his other books. Although the popularity seemed to have died down over time, the series had started rising to popularity due to the recent mention of it at the popular TV show. Although disappointing his fans was something Juho never wanted to do willingly, he hadn’t been getting any new ideas for the series. Meanwhile, looking as though he was bringing up old news, Geun Woo said, “You turned down all of the movie offers from all of those famous movie studios overseas, remember? The competition for the film rights was probably insane. You have no idea how much your fans looked forward to seeing their favorite story getting made into a Hollywood movie, do you? That includes me.”

“I just didn’t find any of them all that appealing.”

“As you always do!” Geun Woo said, calling out Juho’s impulsive tendencies. Although he appeared to be calculating on the outside, he was never concerned about those around him, only about himself, which forced him to make up an excuse.

“I was busy, you know. I had no time for anything.”

“Then, what about now? You have time. Does that mean you’d take up on an offer if it came your way?”

“Not necessarily.”

“You’ll get tons of money from the film rights alone. You’d make millions from the export advance alone. If I were you, I wouldn’t think twice about it. Besides, what do you have to lose?”

Although Juho was fully aware of where Geun Woo was coming from, he brushed his hand across the back of his neck, hesitating.

“I just can’t think of a reason to do another movie adaptation,” he said.

“You don’t need anything fancy. Your readers want it.”

“Well, my opinions are important too, aren’t they?” Juho asked.

“Think about all the profit you’d make. Wealth. Fame.”

“‘Language of God’ has been more than popular and profitable for me, even without getting made into a movie.”

“Prick.”

“That’s harsh,” Juho said, shrugging. At which point, Geun Woo turned his body toward the young author, staring straight into Juho’s eyes, which made him feel uncomfortable.

“You just don’t seem to have the drive when it comes to things like money and fame. Aren’t they things you can never have enough of? Most people would do anything for them, especially if they’d tasted them once, like me and Joon Soo.”

At that, Joon Soo chuckled and added, “Juho was exactly the same when he did his first film adaptation. I saw it in the interview. ‘A film adaptation that surpasses the original novel.’ That was your condition for the director, wasn’t it?”

“That sounds right,” Juho said.

“I just don’t get you.”

“What are you all doing here?”

At Yun Seo’s sudden appearance, everyone looked toward the doorway. Walking into the untidy room, she stared intently at Geun Woo, who sprung back up to his feet from lying on the floor. However, Yun Seo didn’t make a big deal out of his seemingly lazy behavior.

“The meat won’t cook itself, you know,” she said, and the three left the room at the same time.

(TL’s Note: In Korean culture, it’s considered impolite and rude to be lying down in front of older people, hence Geun Woo’s behavior when Yun Seo steps into the room.)

—

“Any word from the publisher?”

“No, not yet.”

Nabi had been looking into a certain author’s copyright after receiving an inquiry from a client. Although having a substantial fan base overseas, the author was far from popular in Korea. After discussing it with another agency, with which she had been in contact, Nabi reached out to the publisher of the author. When she opened her email again, her inbox was filled to the brim with emails from all across the globe, which were mostly about an international book fair that was being held in Germany that year. Since Kelley Coin was known to participate, the fair drew quite the attention.

One of the responsibilities of an agency was to introduce authors who they found to be promising. As for Nabi, she was thinking about bringing up Geun Woo Yoo, who was quickly rising to fame as of late. His debut title seemed like it would be well received by international readers.

His new novel had been quite interesting in how it depicted the inner beings of the characters in great detail. Every single one of them carried a sense of inferiority and defeat, which enabled them to understand each other while having nothing else in common. Geun Woo’s unique style of writing was quite effective when it came to bringing the most out of the material. One of the most prominent characters was the metal-eating genius, who added an interesting twist to the novel. Although being the most powerful and practically invincible, the character met his demise before any other character within the book. Aside from the tragic ending, the character had a lot in common with Yun Woo.

“Hey, Nabi. Do you know which question I get the most since I started working here?” her coworker, whose desk was right next to her, asked.

Having come from another company, she was quite the curious type, striking up conversations at every opportunity. Reading an email from a partner, Nabi replied haphazardly, “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“It’s about Yun Woo.”

At the mention of the young author’s name, Nabi, while pretending not to listen to her, kept her ears open.

“You’ll get used to it soon enough.”

“I get questions about him all the time. Even from my parents! I haven’t even met the guy.”

Then, studying Nabi’s expression cautiously, the coworker asked, “Speaking of which…”

“What?”

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to know. So, there’s a rumor…”

“A rumor?”

Yun Woo had always been surrounded by all sorts of rumors. As a number of them crossed Nabi’s mind, the coworker added, “… that he absolutely hates visual media. Is that true?”

‘Oh. Right,’ Nabi thought, chuckling.

“Not at all. He appeared on TV not too long ago, remember?”

“But he hardly ever makes TV appearances though.”

At that, Nabi let out a small sigh and explained, “He’s just focused on writing. You know the type. Like San Jung Youn, who lives in the mountains, or Mr. Lim, who refuses to write testimonials for other authors.”

“Sure, but I think Mr. Woo’s particularly worse.”

“Just get back to work,” Nabi said. However, her warning did little to stop the coworker from speaking.

“OK. This is what I’ve been REALLY wanting to know. If he doesn’t hate visual media, does that mean there’s a chance that ‘Language of God’ will get made into a movie? ‘Cause I love that series.”

“A-ha…”

The coworker wasn’t the only fan of ‘Language of God,’ and rumors of a film adaptation had been circulating for a number of years by that point. In actuality, Nabi and her agency had been receiving offers from movie studios from all across the globe. Having prepared for a fierce competition over movie rights back then, Nabi had tried to convince the young author into selling the rights to a company offering the best conditions and price. However, he hadn’t sold the rights to anybody. No matter how many scripts or how much money they offered, nothing had changed his mind.

“I doubt it,” Nabi replied to her coworker, smacking her lips.

“Why not?”

“You said it yourself. His case is worse, even among authors. He even turned down an offer from a Hollywood director recently, you know this.”

“… Can’t hurt to hope.”

“Well, I doubt it’s gonna happen anytime soon,” Nabi said, and her coworker sighed deeply. With that, Nabi redirected her attention to her emails. At that moment, she heard her coworker, mumbling, “Mr. Woo has to come out more often, you know. He has to make himself known to the world. Isn’t that what an agency is for?”

“Just go back to work.”

“If he were to be at the book fair in Germany this year, the Korean booth would be booming with people. Is he really not going? The Korean wave shouldn’t be limited to just music and TV, don’t you think? Why shouldn’t the publishing industry be part of that wave? Korean literature has just started catching on, and Mr. Woo would be in the center of it if he were to be there.”

Germany. Nabi stopped midway while reading through her email. Roughly eight-thousand companies from about a hundred countries were going to be part of the book fair in Germany, which was also one of the three most prominent book fairs in the world. Not only were there going to be celebrity authors, but there were bound to be countless other publishing agents sharing information with each other. Since there was going to be a booth set up for each of the countries, the fair was bound to get crowded. Then, cutting her coworker off, who was murmuring about how desperately the company wanted to take Yun Woo to the fair, Nabi said, “He declined the conference right off the bat.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“But I don’t think it’s quite over yet,” Nabi added, resting her chin on her hand.

“What’s that mean?” the coworker said, coming closer to Nabi. A subtle smile spread across her face.

“It means authors don’t go to the fair just on official business. Whether it’s on vacation or whatnot, as long an author gets there, they get to meet all the important people in the industry.”

There was much to be gained from an encounter with such figures, and Nabi fully intended on dragging Yun Woo with her to Germany.

“Besides, Mr. Woo isn’t anonymous anymore. Making public appearances isn’t an issue anymore.”

The young author’s face was widely known, which made the rumors surrounding him a natural thing, along with the anticipation of seeing him from the fans. At Nabi’s remark, the coworker’s face lit up.

“So, how are you planning on convincing him?”

“You see, that’s the issue.”

“C’mon, really? You looked so confident, so I thought you had something in mind!” the coworker grumbled. At which, Nabi said quietly and menacingly, “I’m gonna put you with Kelley Coin if you don’t stop talking.”

“Sorry.”

Since she started working with Yun Woo, Nabi had come to learn a few things about the young author. One of them being that he wasn’t afraid to travel long distances as long as there was something he wanted at the destination. Although she had no clue as to what Yun Woo would want or when or where, that much was clear. In other words, she needed some kind of bait.

“What could it be?” Nabi asked herself, redirecting her attention to the screen of her monitor.