Big Life

While Ha Jae-Gun was pondering hard over the elderly man's words, the cafe doors opened, and Park Jung-Jin walked into the cafe.

Ha Jae-Gun remained lost in his thoughts until Park Jung-Jin sat opposite him.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“Oh, you’re here?”

The two smiled brightly at each other, as it had been a while since they last met. Ha Jae-Gun was still wondering what to say earlier, but he leaned forward and said, “What do you want to drink?”

“Are you serving me? Sure, I’ll have a mocha latte.”

However, the best friends did not speak until their drinks were nearly finished. Park Jung-Jin did not let go of the straw he was biting on while Ha Jae-Gun continued typing away on his laptop.

“What are you writing?” Park Jung-Jin asked, pushing his cup away.

Ha Jae-Gun had also just wrapped up his last sentence for the day and replied, “Malice.”

“Oh, that.” Park Jung-Jin nodded solemnly. Ha Jae-Gun was his best friend, so of course, he would be aware of what his best friend was working on.

“I recently met an elderly man on the streets coincidentally. He said his his in Gyeongju, but he seems to have a residence somewhere nearby as well. And I think he might have been a writer before.”

“Really? But what do you mean by ‘before’?”

“I see,” Park Jung-Jin replied insincerely; he currently wasn’t interested in an elderly man whom he had never met before.

“Jae-Gun.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you really fine?” Park Jung-Jin was one of the few who knew what actually happened. He was worried about Ha Jae-Gun, who had been staying alone for a long tafter that incident with Oh Myung-Hoon.

Ha Jae-Gun was an extremely emotional and sensitive person, after all.

“I’m alright.”

“I’m saying this because you don’t look fine at all.”

“Well…” Ha Jae-Gun trailed off, hesitating.

Park Jung-Jin did not probe but laid his chin on his hand and looked down, waiting for Ha Jae-Gun to organize his thoughts.

“I… actually have a question.”

Park Jung-Jin looked up after a while. This time, Ha Jae-Gun’s eyes were looking elsewhere. “Actually, there’s something I haven’t told you about.”

“…?”

“Not really, it’s more that I couldn’t tell you about it.”

“So what is it?”

“When Myung-Hoon fell…” Park Jung-Jin straightened himself up subconsciously while Ha Jae-Gun recounted calmly. “He looked atand kept smiling as he fell.”

“Myung-Hoon?”

”He even raised a middle finger at me. That murderous look he gave even at the face of death as he fell…” Ha Jae-Gun looked back at the incomplete manuscript on his laptop. “I can't figure out what his malice was. That's why I'm having a writer's block now. I'm not distressed; I'm fine, so don't worry.

"It's just that my mind has cto a halt. My mind automatically plays the scene when Oh Myung-Hoon was falling whenever I close my eyes, and I'm just tired because of that.”

“It's all over now, and you don't have to get caught up with him any longer,” Park Jung-Jin said firmly with indignation. “He was usually that kind of person, very self-centered. And he viewed you as the final boss—He wanted to be the best and the strongest in his world, get married to the best princess, and obtain the highest honor. However, he failed all because of you.”

“Are you afraid that people wouldn't know that you're a gdeveloper? Even your example is game-related.” Ha Jae-Gun joked.

However, Park Jung-Jin stood up all of a sudden. “Come.”

“Where are we going?”

“We need to eat. I'm going to decide on the menu and place.” Park Jung-Jin did not give Ha Jae-Gun a chance to say anything and forced Ha Jae-Gun onto the front passenger seat of his car. He started the engine and then drove onto the road without hitting an address in the navigation.

“Can’t you at least tellwhere we're going?”

“You'll find out when we get there. It won't be too long.”

The place they arrived at in less than twenty minutes was the Hangang Citizen Park. Ha Jae-Gun alighted from the car, stunned. Both the park and the Hangang Bridge in the distance were familiar to him. It was the very splace where Oh Myung-Hoon had thrown himself off.

“What do you want to eat?” Park Jung-Jin asked as soon as they found an empty bench to sit on. “There’s kimbap, cup ramyun, boiled eggs, hamburger, or sandwich. There’s everything here, so tellwhat you want.”

“I’ll have the sas what you’re having.”

Park Jung-Jin then strode over to the store. After a while, he returned with his arms full of food that he had just mentioned.

“Hey, how are we going to finish all of these?”

“We can. Do-Joon is joining us, too.”

“Do-Joon, too?” Ha Jae-Gun’s eyes grew while Park Jung-Jin tore off the packaging of the kimbab calmly.

“He called when I was on the way to the cafe. He said he went to your house, but no one was home. He was worried about you and called me, as you aren’t really in your best condition. That’s why I asked him to join us. Do-Joon is usually punctual, so he should be here in ten minutes.”

“…?” Ha Jae-Gun only had more questions in his mind. Didn’t that mean that Park Jung-Jin had chosen this place earlier?

“You remember that we had a class here, right?” Park Jung-Jin looked around, smiling as he reminisced the memories. “The class that Professor Han Hae-Sun held at the start of the school term. All of us took a seat and wrote our short stories here, and you got first place. Thanks to that, I got to know you, Jae-Gun.”

”Yeah, and we drank till we collapsed at the bar you brought us to. Soo-Hee and Hyo-Jin were with us at the time.”

”Oh, yeah. I totally forgot about that. Hey, looks like it’s because ofthat you got together with Soo-Hee. You gotta pay up.” Park Jung-Jin hooked an arm around Ha Jae-Gun’s neck and pulled him back, falling backward.

The two men burst into laughter as they collapsed to the ground.

”Anyway, I wanted to talk about this; that’s why I brought us here.” Park Jung-Jin continued after they warmed up, “I’m not sure what’s on your mind since you were always quiet, but you emerged at the top that day.

"To be honest, I thought it’d be either Lee Soo-Hee or Oh Myung-Hoon, as they've always been so outstanding since the start of the school term.”

Park Jung-Jin handed Ha Jae-Gun a cup of hot ramyun. Clouds of hot steam rose as Ha Jae-Gun opened the lid, moistening Ha Jae-Gun’s face.

“You were really dazzling on that day; it's simply unbelievable. You looked so cool, and I still think the snow.”

”Why are you so emotional when we aren’t even drinking?”

“It’s true, you punk. When else will I say this to you?” Park Jung-Jin stretched himself out of the blue, seemingly trying to avoid feeling the awkwardness. He then stuffed kimbaps one after the other into his mouth for a grand total of three kimbaps. It took him quite a while to chew all of them.

“Doa favor, don’t crumble,” Park Jung-Jin finally said.

“…”

“Keep writing even if you have a writer’s block. Don’t stop writing just because of the incident with Myung-Hoon. If you’re going to give up, then find another reason that you can agree and accept. You’re the only one who can end your own work.”

Ha Jae-Gun stirred the noodles in the cup ramyun with his chopsticks. He didn’t have the courage to pick up the noodles, feeling choked as Park Jung-Jin patted his shoulder.

“It has to be you.” A single line of comfort coming from his best friend ran through Ha Jae-Gun’s body from head to toe. Ha Jae-Gun clenched his jaws while smiling, but his head was lowered. It would be terrible if his friend saw his eyes getting teary and red.

Of course, Park Jung-Jin already knew.

“You better clean up before Do-Joon arrives. How can a famous writer be such a crybaby?”

“Shut up.” Ha Jae-Gun wiped his tears. He disliked leaving unfinished food, but he couldn’t seem to finish the ramyun at all; he was busy trying to hold back his tears.

Just then…

Park Do-Joon appeared with a hat and sunglasses, his hands tucked into his pockets.

“I’m a global star. How can I eat here in such an open setting? When hundreds of my fans surround us, both of you will have to make way for me, whether it’s using Top Blade Attack or Friendship’s Double Shoot.”

“Wow, Jae-Gun. Did you hear him? Friendship’s Double Shoot. Do-Joon, are you sure you didn’t fake your age? Are you sure you aren’t my uncle’s age?”

“Are you belittling Danpei[1]? It’s the masterpiece of all masterpieces. I still watch it occasionally with Tae-Bong hyung now while having drinks.” Park Do-Joon glared at Park Jung-Jin.

Ha Jae-Gun couldn’t hold back and burst into another round of laughter. It was comforting just watching his friends arguing.

”I’m not joking. If you guys are done, let’s go. I found an Izakaya with a great atmosphere. Let’s go drink there instead. We can pack these and have them later.”

”And it’s the global star’s treat, right?”

”Of course. I have to bootlick Ha Jae-Gun today, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

”Teencent Pictures contacted me. Why else would they reach out? Hey, Jae-Gun. Go all-out when writing the main character for the scenario, okay?” Park Do-Joon grabbed Ha Jae-Gun’s arm, pulling the latter up to his feet.

Ha Jae-Gun blamed himself as he stood amongst his two chattering friends. If only he had met them much earlier, he wouldn’t have been living this life alone for so long.

The sun shone brightly without a fluff of cloud in the sky.

***

It was 5 p.m., and the sun was beginning to set. Lee Soo-Hee was in a hurry as she hopped into her car, worried about Ha Jae-Gun who was working in his study alone.

Lee Soo-Hee was putting her best foot forward, hoping to see him recover as soon as possible. Their upcoming wedding wasn’t the issue. She just didn’t want to see Ha Jae-Gun hurting by himself.

She had brought it up a few days back after a long period of pondering, telling him to stop writing if it felt torturous for him. She even said that he was more important to her than his writing. At the time, Ha Jae-Gun responded with a bitter smile.

It was still before off-office hours, so the road wasn’t that congested. She soon arrived back home.

“What’s all this…?”

“Oh, you’re back early today.” Ha Jae-Gun smiled brightly, welcoming her as he vacuumed the floor. Ha Jae-Gun was drenched in sweat, and all the furniture was pushed aside into a corner of the house.

“Jae-Gun, what are you doing now?”

“Can’t you see? I’m deep cleaning. The house is huge, so there’s a lot of dust, too. Go up and rest. I opened all the windows, but the air still isn’t good down here.” Ha Jae-Gun resumed vacuuming the floor. Despite the sweat rolling down his face, he still had a beaming smile.

Lee Soo-Hee stood in a daze for a few moments before approaching him as something tugged at her.

“What’s wrong? Go on up.”

“Let’s clean together.”

”I’m almost done; I started this morning. You should go shower and change into clean clothes. I’ll prepare dinner later, so don’t lift a single finger later.” Ha Jae-Gun pushed Lee Soo-Hee toward the bathroom.

However, Lee Soo-Hee did not yield. She put strength in her feet and looked at Ha Jae-Gun.

“Why is the team leader not obedient today? Why are you looking atlike that?”

“Because you’re cute…”

“What?” Lee Soo-Hee pulled Ha Jae-Gun into an embrace. Ha Jae-Gun let go of the vacuum cleaner and flailed his dirty arms in the air.

“I’m dirty now. There’s so much sweat and dust on me.”

“No, you smell good.” Lee Soo-Hee pressed her face against Ha Jae-Gun’s chest. She leaped and wrapped her legs around his waist. Ha Jae-Gun reflexively held Lee Soo-Hee’s thighs. “You’re heavy…!”

“Too late!”

Screams mixed with laughter and cries rang through the messy living room. There was no need to say further, and Lee Soo-Hee needn’t ask more. Looking at each other’s gazes alone was enough to complete the conversation.

Ha Jae-Gun finally put Lee Soo-Hee down when the phone on the table rang. As Ha Jae-Gun caught his breath, he saw Oh Myung-Suk’s nappear on the screen.

1. Anime: Hono no Tokyuji: Dodge Danpei ☜

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