Novelist Running Through Time - Chapter 111



Only Krnovel

EP 5 – Love Story

Stylish brick house. 1st floor cafeteria. Crowded with tourists. People carrying iPhones. A foreign car (here, a domestic car) passes by loudly. And McDonald’s.

I was walking through downtown Brooklyn when I stopped in front of a McDonald’s and thought something was wrong.

I see a familiar Seoul in an unfamiliar New York.

“Uhm…”

This isn’t the Brooklyn I imagined…

While I was still thinking about that, I bumped into someone who was busy walking.

I was walking down the street when I suddenly stopped and bumped into the person behind me, so it was entirely my fault.

I was embarrassed and apologized profusely.

“Ah, ah, I’m sorry…”

“Oh, it’s okay.”

“?”

The unknown Korean passed by coolly. As she was pointing at her back with her finger and making a noise, Gu Yubin giggled and tapped her on my shoulder.

“It’s a tourist destination, right?”

It was like that. This was a tourist attraction.

A photo point where you can see the Brooklyn Bridge through a forest of beautifully lined up buildings.

It looked exotic when I took a picture of it, but with selfie sticks being snapped from all directions, it felt somewhat familiar.

“…Should we stop walking and have something to eat?”

Even the weather was similar to Seoul. Since it was winter in Seoul, it was winter in New York too. It feels a little cool, but it’s still cold.

Unlike Gu Yu-na, who waddles around wearing a scarf and pajamas, Gu Yu-bin, who maintains a sophisticated appearance despite all this, asked me.

“okay? What do you want to eat?”

“Since I came to America, I have to eat traditional American food.”

“Okay, hamburger~”

I went into Guyuna and McDonald’s first,

Gu Yu-bin called Professor Gu Hak-jun and Mrs. Min Chae-won, who were taking a commemorative photo affectionately from afar.

Ki-hoon Ma, who had been working as a photographer, also joined McDonald’s late.

“A senior in high school? It’s not too late for you either. In fact, the elementary, middle and high school curriculum is a test of sincerity, not intelligence…”

“Yes, Professor. yes···”

“I know all kinds of books, textbooks, and materials used at multi-million won academies, but I can’t say that the quality is definitively better than EBS. In the end, it’s a battle of whether to do it or not. “If you want, I will…”

“No, it’s really okay, Professor…”

Unexpectedly, Ma Ki-hoon and Koo Hak-jun were a good match.

In the eyes of Koo Hak-jun, who has a tendency to open his wallet when he sees young people who are humble, Ma Ki-hoon, who lives a life of honesty and taking care of his younger siblings without being a slob despite being a wealthy person, cannot be seen as a bad thing.

Gu Hak-jun, who even heard from me that Ma Ki-hoon was making money for his girlfriend, already opened his heart and was giving life lessons to Ma Ki-hoon.

Mrs. Min Chae-won seemed a little displeased that her husband didn’t play with her and hung out with a complete stranger, but she wasn’t narrow-minded enough to show it.

Wouldn’t you know it if your daughter was marrying an orphan?

Anyway, our group was naturally divided into Gu Hak-jun, Ma Ki-hoon, Min Chae-won, and me, Gu Yu-na, and Gu Yu-bin. It was a combination that could also be called OB and YB.

It was the same at McDonald’s. Three people sat at adjacent tables.

“hmm…”

After looking at the Brooklyn scenery for a while from the McDonald’s window, I quickly lost interest. On the first day, I felt unfamiliar because there were so many people with different skin colors, but after a few days, New York now felt like Seoul. Am I a New Yorker now?

“Yuna, what number are you in America?”

“I don’t know.”

Gu Yuna again answered in a Gu Yuna manner. Instead, Gu Yubin answered for me.

“I guess Yuna’s fourth time in America? “The Grand Canyon when I was a baby, then LA, then Las Vegas, and now New York.”

“……”

This is why they are gold diggers…!

When I heard that someone had lived twice in their lives to come to the United States, and someone else had been to the U.S. four times, I lost all my energy.

So, I sadly turned my gaze toward downtown Brooklyn and sighed. Gu Yu-bin, guessing what I was feeling, asked this.

“why? “Are you having trouble researching the data?”

“yes. “This isn’t the Brooklyn I was thinking of.”

I found out after coming here. In the past, Brooklyn was a shabby suburban city, but modern Brooklyn is the richest of the rich. This is perhaps natural, as it is part of New York, the economic capital of the United States.

In the end, my goal of exploring Brooklyn was impossible in the first place.

“But does it have to be Brooklyn?”

Gu Yubin asked me with meaningful eyes.

“Is there any reason it has to be Brooklyn, or old Brooklyn at all?”

“……”

At this moment, I felt a certain irony. From being asked this question by Gu Yu-bin, who had Gu Yu-na’s face, to hearing this question while sitting at the same table as Gu Yu-na.

I nodded calmly.

“Yes.”

“What?”

“If I had to choose a place where love began, I would have to say Brooklyn in the 20th century.”

* * *

‘what? ‘You haven’t seen Captain America?’

If you want to say specifically when this time is, I think there would be a more appropriate expression than saying which year or which season it is.

At this time, Gu Yuna and I, who were rivals who recognized each other, gradually recognized each other as friends and began to open up little by little.

Gu Yuna knew that I was from an orphanage, and I knew that Gu Yuna had a deep inferiority complex towards her older sister.

Those kind of times.

After a certain writing challenge is over. On the bus returning to Seoul together, Gu Yuna was shocked to learn that I had not seen the movie ‘Captain America’.

‘How can you not see that?’

‘You might not see it.’

‘Isn’t it mandatory for Koreans to watch Marvel movies?’

‘Are you saying I’m not Korean?’

‘Are you a spy?’

‘I’m just waiting for you to be caught.’

In the end, Gu Yuna forced me to take me to the movie theater.

The movie was nothing special. It was a story about a weakling in the back alleys of Brooklyn meeting friends, overcoming hardships, and becoming a hero.

But as soon as I made a separate appointment for the weekend, I realized that this was my first weekend ‘meeting’ with a girl my age.

And after going through the process of realizing that such a ‘meeting’ is called a ‘date’ in English.

Eventually, as if I wasn’t the only one who thought that,

Dressed in unfamiliar attire in front of a movie theater,

Seeing the unique appearance of Guy Yuna, who had been waiting for me with a shy attitude.

ah.

I knew that love had come for the first time in my life.

So the place where my love began is Brooklyn.

This is Brooklyn in the 1950s, not any other time.

If you asked me to choose a place where love might begin, I had no choice but to choose that place.

* * *

“If I had to choose a place where love began, I would have to say Brooklyn in the 20th century.”

Gu Yuna looked confused, but Gu Yubin playfully pointed out that she had discovered that I also had a childlike side.

“Did you enjoy watching Captain America?”

“You could say that.”

But the Brooklyn of the 20th century no longer exists.

disappeared into time.

At that time, like Gu Yuna, who watched a movie with me…

As I was munching on a hamburger from the American mainland in a depressed mood for a moment, Gu Yu-bin, who seemed suspiciously interested in my writing, smiled and asked me a question.

“I guess this work is a romance novel?”

“yes.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

“yes.”

“really?! Are you still dating?”

“I’ll never see you again.”

Gu Yubin froze like ice. She opened her mouth wide to eat the hamburger and I froze with her eyes wide open.

“…”

“…”

“…”

After that, there was silence at the table for a moment.

I felt depressed and only munched on French fries, Gu Yubin also stayed still with an earthquake in her pupils, and Gu Yuna also froze as she was about to put a hamburger in her mouth.

I spoke in a somber voice to clear up the situation.

“Now I can’t see you again, but it hurts when I keep remembering the bad breakup. Love is love, but so is the relationship between people. I don’t know when or how it will end. So, if you have a good relationship with anyone, do your best, and when you break up, do it with as much dignity as possible.”

“…”

“…”

“Well… it’s just like that.”

I tried my best to sort out the situation, but the silence didn’t go away easily.

Fortunately, Professor Koo Hak-jun, who seemed to have heard nothing at the table next to him, was nagging Ma Ki-hoon like a storm, and inside the McDonald’s, people of various colors were talking about their lives in various languages.

Surprisingly, it was Gu Yuna who broke the silence.

“···however.”

Gu Yuna spoke carefully.

“You want to see Brooklyn in the 20th century, right?”

“huh.”

“Then why not look for 20th century movies set in Brooklyn?”

“Hey, that’s…”

“······”

“that······”

For a moment, I thought about why I shouldn’t do that.

There wasn’t.

Then the conclusion is simple.

“Let’s do it now.”

* * *

“okay. “This movie is clear.”

“…But if you’re going to be like this, why did you come to America?”

“If you pay attention, you will lose.”

A movie that had just finished screening was added to the checklist. At the top of the checklist were endless films depicting 20th-century Brooklyn.

The writer did not leave the hotel room after that day. I just endlessly search for movies depicting Brooklyn. Gu Yuna claimed to be his assistant.

Even while Koo Hak-jun, Min Chae-won, and Ma Ki-hoon were sightseeing in New York, the writer did not come out of the hotel.

And Gu Yubin watched this bizarre writing process from beginning to end.

“What was the most famous cafe in Brooklyn in the 50s? So, a place where a poor dock worker would take the woman he loves with great determination.”

“Aren’t the date courses back then not cafes, but bars, restaurants, and movie theaters?”

“Then, let’s find out what dating was like back then.”

The data research conducted by Munin and Gu Yuna went very well together. Gu Yu-bin guessed that it was probably because of the web novel she wrote together in school.

However, in the realm of novels, Gu Yu-na could not provide the slightest help to Moon In-seop.

It was not because Gu Yuna lacked creativity, but because the writing method of a literary writer was fully developed.

‘It seems like two people are using it…’

Professor Gu Hak-jun, who wanted to travel around New York with writers and discuss reading, was disappointed, but Gu Yu-bin was able to achieve her goal.

What was the reason for bringing writers to America in the first place? Was it because I wanted to get a glimpse of his talent?

People think of writers like monkeys. This monkey performs amazing tricks at a young age. So, I cry and laugh when I see this amazing talent.

However, to writers, at least to Gu Yu-bin, writers were something beyond understanding. Who would dare laugh when someone is just being trampled helplessly by a 13-year-old monkey?

So in the end, Gu Yubin lifted the curtain of the literary world and took a peek at what kind of talent existed beyond it.

But what was beyond the curtain was not a sparkling talent, but a cold machine.

“What does it take to write a complete, romantic, and eternal love story? What is it that makes love stand out? test? Then, if we add skin color as a social ordeal, the gap between rich and poor as a structural ordeal, and complex as a personal ordeal…”

“If you want to highlight the charm of the opposite sex in a novel… it would be better to introduce another competitor who covets the opposite sex, rather than putting effort into describing appearance or personality. “It has been a law of nature for millions of years for a male to kill a single female…”

“Let’s just pretend that the character Tris never existed. It has no role to play in the novel. We need to add a person who will appear here and die, and we need to add a person who symbolizes the human rights situation for workers in the 1950s in the United States, have them leave quickly, and then create tension…”

In Gu Yu-bin’s opinion, it seemed like there was one writer and one editor inside Moon In-seop.

It seems like two people are writing.

If a writer writes in his own way, the editor mercilessly corrects it.

The two looked like completely different people. The criteria for judgment are different.

The author writes like a sensitive, impulsive, emotional, and at first glance paranoid person. Not a narrative, but a message to this unreasonable world.

However, the editor cold-heartedly cuts out the article. Cut out excessive descriptions, cut out problematic descriptions, and reorganize the story around the story, not the message.

This is the crucial reason why Gu Yu-bin recognized the writings of literary writers in two ways.

‘Just like my dad…’

Two standards that appear in the writing process of a literary writer.

‘Writer’ and ‘Editor’.

Gu Yu-bin saw Gu Hak-jun in the ‘editor’s’ work.

The way of evaluating which writing is good, which description is good description, and which narrative is interesting matches perfectly with Gu Hak-Jun.

It’s hardly a match. It matches perfectly. The moment Gu Yubin realized this, she felt a chill running up her spine, almost like fear.

Gu Yu-bin was astonished as to how something like this could happen, but she also seemed to understand why Gu Hak-jun had fallen in love with the literary writer’s writings to an extent that he couldn’t understand.

And, near the end of the trip.

The writer completed a novel.

It was a ‘love story’ that was thoroughly mechanically tailored.

* * *

“……”

Gu Yubin quietly read ‘Love Story’.

A story about a man and a woman.

romance.

It is the oldest genre and the most loved genre.

Of course there is a formula.

And this novel followed that formula so thoroughly that it was creepy.

A man meets a woman, they are attracted to each other, they overcome obstacles, and they end up together…

“how is it?”

The writer asked.

Gu Yubin evaluated this novel as someone who watched it from beginning to end.

“It looks like a manufactured product.”

“A product printed in a factory?”

“okay.”

Gu Yubin knows all the formulas that make up this novel. She already knows how clichés are intertwined and what role each character plays in the novel.

That’s why this evaluation comes out.

However, people who encountered this novel for the first time would have a different impression.

Gu Yubin seemed to be able to see people enthusiastic about this enchanting love story.

“I think it will sell the most out of all your novels.”

“is that so?”

“It captured the popularity perfectly.”

Gu Yubin knows the essence of this novel. It’s a cold machine. But this novel is covered in pink wrapping paper.

The wrapping paper is Brooklyn in the 1950s. Classic landscapes, people with classic mindsets, and racist and sexist discourse.

Such classic elements, and therefore the most trendy elements, uniquely surround the romance of this novel.

“Many people will call this novel a masterpiece. Even some critics.”

“thank god.”

But Gu Yubin was a little disappointed.

Is this the true nature of a writer?

A writer who mechanically weaves text?

Without any inspiration or inspiration, just a structural combination?

To Gu Yu-bin, who was trying hard to hide her disappointment, the writer spoke calmly.

“It’s a perfect romance… I’m glad that the first part was well made.”

“···what? chapter 1? “Then is there a part 2?”

“yes. “Actually, I wrote part 2 first.”

Gu Yuna, who was watching from the side, hurriedly intervened and asked.

“when?”

“Why, when I didn’t go to school.”

“no way···”

Gu Yuna looked like she had an ominous premonition, but Gu Yubin didn’t care about that so she begged to see part 2 as soon as possible.

The writer refused, saying that Part 2 was unfinished, but eventually handed over the manuscript of Part 2 at Gu Yu-bin’s urging.

And Gu Yubin witnessed it.

30 years later.

– How on earth can someone do that! How can a person do that!

– Shut up, you piece of trash!

– We’re done now. get out of my house

In the passage of time, a love that seemed like it would last forever is shattered.