The Great Storyteller

Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

“That’s my first time hearing of it.”

“That’s because I never told anyone,” Yun Seo said, swishing the whiskey around in her glass for no apparent reason, reminiscing to the time when she would drink with her husband and Hyun Do. When Wol had been alive, he had had a habit of bragging confidently as though he feared nothing, like a child who knew nothing about failure. However, life had taken a sudden turn, and he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. To that day, Yun Seo still had vivid memories of the wave of emotions from that time.

“But… I just couldn’t do it.”

“Why not?”

“I miss him too much.”

Hyun Do smiled at Yun Seo’s response. Then, she looked down at the original copy of her late husband’s manuscript, which she had brought out for the first time in a long time. No matter how hard she had tried, she simply hadn’t been able to make progress with the story. Perhaps it had something to do with the description of the protagonist and his appearance or the dark, heavy introduction that was out of Wol’s character.

“I kept finding myself wanting to write a different story. Whenever I would try to work on the manuscript, I would catch myself getting distracted by another story written by another person. So, I just gave up altogether,” Yun Seo said cheerfully.

“That rascal… He had to have already known,” Hyun Do said. Then, as Yun Seo quietly drank her whiskey, he added, “That’s why he never told you how the story ended, to keep you guessing for the rest of your life.”

“What a jerk.”

“Right?”

Putting a rock of ice in her glass, Yun Seo poured herself another glass of whiskey. As she rotated the glass in her hand, the ice clattered against the wall of the glass. When Hyun Do glanced at it, Yun Seo stopped moving her hand and said, “But, something tells me that I would’ve never figured it out.”

Hyun Do looked at Yun Seo while resting his temple on his fingers.

“He had to have thought that one of us would finish the story for him. He probably didn’t say anything because he wanted to see another person’s touch alongside his sentences.”

“Then, I suppose he failed miserably.”

“I guess so. Seems like we liked Wol a lot more than he thought,” Yun Seo said, and Hyun Do shook his head emphatically, appearing disgusted. Yun Seo laughed cheerfully. She was starting to look drunk.

“I welcome the fact that he failed, but I can’t agree with you on that,” Hyun Do said.

“C’mon. Let’s be honest here. We’ve already had a drink or two,” Yun Seo replied.

“You mean YOU had a drink.”

With that, Hyun Do relaxed his body. As his head lowered, his hair also came down.

“I wonder how Yun Woo will go about this,” Hyun Do said.

“What are you expecting from him? That’s a big burden,” Yun Seo asked, bringing up the question she had been meaning to ask.

“Nothing. I did it out of impulse,” Hyun Do said nonchalantly.

“Out of impulse? You?”

Brushing his hair back, Hyun Do gave Yun Seo a brief summary of what had happened at the beach. With lips trembling and nearly blue from being soaking wet, Juho had looked quite pitiful. However, the young author hadn’t hesitated for a moment to jump in the water. Watching him run toward the water in an attempt to save the drowning people, Hyun Do had thought that…

“I felt like I could forgive him, no matter what he wrote.”

That had been the same feeling Hyun Do had felt when he had met Wol as a young author. As if Hyun Do had come across old music on the street, the young author tended to provoke a sense of nostalgia within Hyun Do.

“So, I don’t regret my decision. I won’t have to,” Hyun Do said, looking relieved. However, sounding slightly bitter, Yun Seo replied, “Well, this is Juho we’re talking about here, so he might just figure out the answer to the riddle that we would have had to wrestle with for our entire lives.”

“I didn’t think about that, but that sounds like a plus to me,” Hyun Do said, brushing his hand down the manuscript on the table. At that moment, the landline started to ring, and Yun Seo rose from her seat and answered it. At the same time, Hyun Do sat up on his chair.

“An interview?”

At that, Hyun Do looked toward Yun Seo, raising his eyebrow. Similarly, Yun Seo looked at him with a furrowed brow.

“About… Wol Kang?”

Yun Seo slowly moved her eyes at the mention of her late husband’s name.

“… and his last book?”

Hyun Do rubbed his chin. He had expected interview requests to start pouring in at some point. Then, shortly after the question, Yun Seo swiftly turned down the interview. Meanwhile, Hyun Do thought of Juho, the author who would be following in Wol’s footsteps.

“This won’t be easy,” Hyun Do murmured as if the matter was out of his hands.

—

“Well, I didn’t see this coming,” Juho said while looking down at the manuscript, which turned out to be in terrible condition. “I can’t read a single word.”

Wol Kang turned out to have atrocious handwriting. It was so bad that Juho couldn’t tell if it was Hangul, which even triggered the language acquisition device. There seemed to be an urgent need for interpretation. Before he knew it, the young author found himself referring to the white book for that purpose.

‘How did Mr. Lim and Mrs. Baek even read any of this?’ Juho thought, sighing. “Well, it’s still worth it.”

Despite the manuscript being completely illegible, Juho had found satisfaction in the fact that he was given the chance to work with Wol’s manuscript, which held the late author’s concentrated feelings within it. Even the awful handwriting seemed to contribute to that idea by conveying the author’s pain.

‘What I wouldn’t do to meet him… Even if he was on his deathbed,’ Juho thought to himself once again. As time passed, his mind became filled with even more questions. Then, without hesitation, Juho closed his eyes. The house had become quite dusty during his absence, which made the air very stuffy. The clock was off, its third-hand pointing at the same spot, still ticking. It sounded very annoying.

“Where is he?” Juho said as he opened his eyes, flabbergasted. Although he had waited for Wol at the same spot in his dream, the late author had been nowhere to be found. There was only one possible explanation for that…

“You’re not gonna make this any easier for me, are you, Mr. Kang?”

… Wol had to have wanted it that way. Although Juho had been wrestling with the manuscript for quite some time by that point, there had been no progress. In the end, Juho went to bed that night, still feeling confused. Then, when morning came, Juho was awakened by the sound of the doorbell. Having slept for quite a while, Juho got out of bed, feeling well rested. When he opened the door, an unexpected guest appeared on the other side of it.

“What is it?” Juho asked, still rubbing his eyes. Meanwhile, the guest was glaring fiercely at Juho, who was still half asleep after having gone to bed late the night before.

“Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Seo Kwang asked.

“You called? I didn’t know. Maybe it shut off,” Juho said, remembering that he hadn’t charged his phone in a while. Ignoring Seo Kwang, who was facepalming at Juho’s lack of awareness, Juho moved aside and said, “Come in.”

“Hey.”

“Yeah?” Juho said with a cracked voice.

“Where is it!?” Seo Kwang asked, shaking Juho by the shoulders as if the young author owed him something.

“Cut it out! You’re making my head spin! I just woke up! What are you looking for? Did you leave something here?”

“No, no,” Seo Kwang said in a suppressed voice, breathing in deeply, but appearing to have trouble calming down.

‘What’s with him? He wasn’t this crazy when he was translating my book,’ Juho asked himself.

At that moment, Seo Kwang shouted all of a sudden, “Where are you keeping Mr. Kang’s last book!?”

Suddenly feeling wide awake, Juho asked, “How do you know about that?”

“You’re the only one who’s not aware!” Seo Kwang said, growing impatient. Then, he took his phone out and showed it to Juho, pushing the screen up against the young author’s nose. In order to get a better look, Juho pulled away from it.

“Everyone knows that you stayed with Mr. Lim.”

At that, Juho snatched the phone out of Seo Kwang’s hand. Just as the translator had said, there were articles being published in real time. Brushing his hair back, Juho handed the phone back to its owner and asked, “You hungry?”

“How can you think about eating at a time like this!?”

“OK, then. More for me,” Juho said nonchalantly, making his way into the kitchen. There was no use crying over spilled milk, and that being the case, Juho thought he might as well eat something.

“Oh, right. My phone,” he said, remembering to charge it to let Hyun Do know that he had gotten home safely as he had promised.

Then, as Juho made his way into the kitchen after sending Hyun Do the brief text, Seo Kwang suddenly got on his knees and begged, “Please, Mr. Woo! I’ll do anything!”

Juho had a vague idea of what the translator wanted. Looking down at him, the young author replied, “No.”

Juho wasn’t afraid to let Seo Kwang know that he wasn’t looking to share. At which point, Seo Kwang, with his mouth agape, stared at Juho and proceeded to grab on to the young author’s pants, begging even more. When Juho still didn’t budge, Seo Kwang lay in the middle of the living room, threatening that he wouldn’t leave until he got what he wanted. However, quickly realizing that threat wasn’t all that effective, Seo Kwang ran out of the apartment and brought back a small gift with which to bribe the young author. Of course, Juho still didn’t budge. However, in the end, growing tired of him blabbering, Juho caved in and yelled, “OK! All right!”

However, when Seo Kwang received the manuscript from Juho, the translator was met with shocking disappointment.

“… What is this?” he asked, sounding appalled, his hands shaking ever so slightly. As the translator rubbed his eyes and blinked repeatedly, Juho drank the coffee Seo Kwang had brought him as bribe and said, “It’s Mr. Kang’s handwritten manuscript.”

“I can’t read a single word!” Seo Kwang exclaimed. Although the look on his face was quite funny to Juho, the translator seemed to be devastated.

“I seriously can’t read any of this! Is it in a different language? Did Mr. Kang do this on purpose? Is it encrypted or something? Oh! Maybe I need to look through a mirror.”

“Who knows?”

Despite being fully aware that a mirror would be of little help, Seo Kwang seemed to have trouble moving on. Eventually, he came to terms with the fact that the manuscript was completely illegible. Although he grumbled with his brow furrowed, the translator still treated the manuscript with care and respect. He was also aware that the manuscript was a copy.

“Happy?” Juho asked.

“Hold on,” Seo Kwang replied, squinting his eyes and staring piercingly at the manuscript in an attempt to interpret it. Juho looked intently at his friend, who seemed to have forgotten to breathe.

“Anything?”

“No…” Seo Kwang said, turning his head and exhaling sharply. Then, putting the manuscript down, he buried his face on it.

“I’ve humiliated myself for this? Oh! This cruel fate of mine,” Seo Kwang said. As Juho patted him on the shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, Seo Kwang moved Juho’s hand away from him harshly, asking, “How are you gonna read this?”

“I can’t read it either,” Juho replied.

“Don’t you lie to me.”

“I’m serious.”

Then, looking as if in deep despair, Seo Kwang said, “You know, I feel like an idiot right now.”

“I have a reference copy.”

“You little…!”

At that moment, Seo Kwang changed his attitude and charged toward the young author. Juho swiftly dodged his tackle.

“Don’t even think about it,” Juho said.

“You know what? You can be really stingy sometimes!”

“This is Mr. Kang’s manuscript we’re talking about. Sorry, but I’m not showing it to you.”

Unable to think of a response, Seo Kwang grumbled. Wol Kang’s writing tended to bring out the possessive nature of its readers. Everyone wanted to know the author for themselves. However, Wol Kang was a well-renowned author in Korea, and people were somewhat disgruntled by that. They were probably unhappy that the author had left his fans too early. The emotions within his books tended to be unrefined and raw, and his fans also tended to behave that way. In the end, Seo Kwang gave up and plunked down on the floor.

“Heard you wrote a new book too…” he asked.

“Oh, at Mr. Lims?” Juho replied.

“Yeah, that. Heard you’re gonna release it soon…”

“I wasn’t planning on it at first, but yeah. It kind of happened.”

“Isn’t Mr. Lim also working on a new book?”

“He is. We were writing around the same time.”

“Do you know what it’s about?”

“Of course. I saw his writing process in person.”

“Then, tell me.”

“You go buy the book when it comes out and find out for yourself.”

“I swear… There’s nothing good about having an author for a friend,” Seo Kwang murmured as if disgruntled by Juho’s haphazard attitude.

“So, what’s your plan?” Seo Kwang asked.

“For what?”

“I heard you’re finishing Mr. Kang’s book. Are you sure you can do it?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Juho replied, “I’m already stuck, actually.”

“What!?” Seo Kwang exclaimed, giving Juho a judgmental look. As Juho shrugged it off, Seo Kwang threw the rice puff, which he had bought for himself, at his author friend.

“You gotta do better than that! You don’t wanna make Mr. Kang look bad, do you!?”

“No, I do not,” Juho replied. Should the young author fail, the consequences were bound to be brutal. After imagining an uncertain future for a brief moment, Juho stopped as he realized what he needed to do about the character that didn’t exist within his fantasy world.

“How do you think I can meet him?” Juho asked.

“Who?”

“Mr. Kang.”

“OK, how are you planning on meeting somebody who’s already dead?” Seo Kwang asked as if he had heard something absurd.

Then, looking at Seo Kwang, Juho said, “Maybe I’ll be able to see him if I die.”