Novelist Running Through Time

Chapter 144

TL: KSD

It’s been too long since I lost my sight. The world that was briefly allowed to me as a child remains in my memory as something vaguely bright and good.

Now, I don’t even remember what I look like.

But it’s not as if I have no idea at all about how I look, because there are always monsters lurking around, desperate to devour my appearance.

“Hey… Want to go out with me?”

Fuck. I got confessed to again by a boy from my class. He’s been coming up to me lately, saying he wants to get closer and offer me some ‘pure help.’

But I don’t even know what this guy looks like. I don’t know his name, his personality, or his habits. So what the hell would I be ‘looking at’ to date him?

Pure help, my ass. There’s one big misunderstanding that people with eyes tend to have—just because they offer some trivial kindness to someone who can’t see, they think that person will spread their legs for them.

In the end, it’s all about the body. They grab your hand, kiss your lips, and then… as they say, they ‘devour’ you.

So, to me, these kinds of guys are no different from monsters who eat people alive. The words they spout sound no different from grotesque growls.

-Grrr… Grrrrrk……

The imagined horrific noise clawed at my ears, and from about five steps back to my left, I heard the sound of laughter.

Correction. It wasn’t just one laugh; it was the sound of multiple laughs. Some girls from my class had gathered, watching me like a spectacle.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“She got confessed to again…….”

“What can you do, she’s the school’s most popular star?”

“What the hell, fuck, it’s so fucking funny…….”

It feels like I’m surrounded by monsters.

Rage, fury, and fear rise up inside me.

Laughing, pointing fingers, whispering, chewing me up piece by piece…

In the end, ‘those things’ are no different from the man-eating monsters.

“…….”

But the weak must submit.

So I answered like this.

Even though I did nothing wrong.

“……Sorry.”

I apologize like this and then run away to survive.

I get up from my seat and run through the darkness.

It’s a darkness crawling with ‘those things’, but I barely avoided them using echolocation.

With staggering steps, I barely grab and open the back door of the classroom.

From here, it’s an unknown territory. I could run into ‘those things’ roaming the hallway and seriously injure myself at any moment.

But it doesn’t matter. Whatever happens, if I had stayed in that terrible classroom any longer, I don’t think I would have survived.

However.

“Wait a second!”

-Grrrrrk… Grrrk……

That creepy ‘thing’ grabbed my wrist.

Revulsion shuddered through me, and a scream burst from my throat as if it would tear apart.

“Let go of me-!”

Then, silence.

Stillness.

Quiet.

“…….”

For someone like me, who finds my way by sound, this was as dark as complete blindness.

But what’s even scarier is the fact that ‘those things’ are silently watching me from the darkness.

They are monsters who are prepared to devour me at any moment, waiting for the right time to pounce now that I’ve shown weakness.

Ah.

It’s truly difficult to survive in such a cruel world.

EP 9 – Sound

“Cut!”

Contrary to popular belief, in film shoots, the distinction between ‘OK’ and ‘NG’ is not clearly marked.

The life of a shot isn’t determined on set but in the editing room, and if a director openly shouts ‘NG’ at an actor, it’s like publicly announcing that their performance was Not Good for all to hear.

(Of course, there are directors like that. Remember, in showbiz, anything can happen.)

In any case, NG usually occurs when the actor themselves declares, <Oops, haha, sorry! Let’s go again> and admits to the NG, or the director, thinking of the actor’s pride, shouts cut and says, <Great. Great. Everything’s great, but…> and only then officially declares it.

Thus, the world of NG is both deep and wide.

However, a sufficiently experienced actor could distinguish between an “OK” and an “NG” just by the nuance in the director’s shout of “Cut!”—and Kim Byul, a veteran with ten years of acting experience, was exactly that kind of actor.

‘This is an NG.’

Her foresight was spot on.

Fortunately, Director So Tae-woong was a cultured and civilized man, strictly adhering to the traditional etiquette and formality of NGs that had been passed down since ancient times.

“Kim Byul, that was good. Really good. But…….”

“Yes, Director……”

The part that Kim Byul was criticized for was her expression.

It was during the monologue, “t’s truly difficult to survive in such a cruel world”, where she was asked to convey a more complex emotion.

The list of emotions was as follows:

– ‘Self-mockery’ towards her twisted self, who, despite the kindness and affection shown to her, reacts violently.

– ‘Exhaustion’ from the excessive attention she receives because of her appearance, which she doesn’t even know.

– ‘Anguish’ over her blindness.

– ‘Sorrow’ for being bullied by her classmates after rejecting a confession.

– ‘Resignation’ about her status as a social minority

– ‘Hopelessness’ at the prospect of living like this forever.

“……I, I see?”

Kim Byul smiled. But it wasn’t a real smile.

At that moment, Kim Byul genuinely expressed a dual emotion—she was laughing on the outside, but crying on the inside. For reference, her internal cries were something along the lines of ‘Fuck, fuck’.

It wasn’t that Kim Byul was strange.

There isn’t a single actor who, after receiving such ridiculous directions, wouldn’t have a ‘fuck, fuck’ reaction. If there is, that person must be a walking Buddha.

The only reason Kim Byul remained composed was because of her humble position and the many ups and downs she had experienced in life. If a superstar who could stand up to So Tae-woong had received such direction, the atmosphere on set would’ve turned hostile.

It makes no sense.

What kind of lunatic, what kind of madman crams this many emotions into a single scene?

The method for finding that culprit is simple.

Whenever something strange happens to Kim Byul, it’s usually that “bastard” at fault.

Once again, the root of all evil was Moon In.

– Isn’t this a bit bland?

Originally, the script for Sound was straightforward.

A blind girl, the bad bullies who torment her, the kind teacher who looks after her, and the boy who becomes her first love…

It was, in every sense, the foundational plot of a classic “teen romance”.

It was even hard to believe that a man in his fifties wrote the script—it was filled with an almost unbelievable amount of ‘freshness’. There’s a reason So Tae-woong is called a genius.

But of course, it’s always the hipsters infected with artistic disease who ruin a perfectly good story. This time, it was a novelist with a twisted mind who meddled with the script.

– Can all the hardships in the girl’s life be solved through a single romance? Doesn’t a major life-changing transformation require existential struggle and the will of a human who takes action?

– Oh.

Art disease is still a disease.

It’s contagious.

So Tae-woong, now a chronic patient, had yet to recover.

He carried the script he co-wrote with Moon In like a holy text, forcing its doctrines on the actors.

Thus, the kind-hearted Kim Byul was enduring something terrible—the hierarchical oppression in the entertainment industry was much like this.

“Cut! Kim, can you come over here for a second…….”

“Cut! That was good. Really good, but…….”

“Cut! Just one more time, for the last time…….”

A little while later.

Kim Byul, who had finally been granted a break, stared blankly into space in the waiting room.

She felt like her soul had been completely threshed. If this kept up, everyone would lose their minds.

“Heh… Hehehe…….”

The most horrifying part was that Director So Tae-woong’s meticulous demands were all written into the script.

It was a script that didn’t consider the autonomy of the actor in the slightest—a thoroughly writer-driven script that controlled every character like a puppet.

Kim Byul couldn’t help but feel utterly exasperated. Shouldn’t a script be written loosely so that the actor can interpret the character themselves! That’s the way it should be in this industry!

This is why novelists should never be brought into the film world. Those freaks of literary eccentricity should be permanently imprisoned in the publishing industry’s dungeon…

“Ah!”

At that moment, an idea flashed in Kim Byul’s mind.

If the script was difficult, wasn’t the solution to bring the person who wrote it?

* * *

Although I was involved in the fascinating work of film production, it didn’t take up my entire life.

School life, Baekhak Entertainment, the publishing industry—none of these are truly part of my daily routine.

My daily routine, both in the past and now, is still a battle with writing.

The place where I spend the most time each day is in front of my desk in the study, and the thing I think about the most is what to write for my next novel.

That leaves no time to spare. Just as infinite crops grow from the furrows of a field, infinite questions sprout from the folds of my soft brain.

Why do I write? Where is my literature headed? Where must my literature go? What shape does the direction of literature take?

Occasionally, I explore Baekhak Entertainment’s facilities, play badminton with Ma Ki-hoon, and watch the increasingly busy Lim Yang-wook, and before I knew it, spring had passed, and summer was suddenly upon us.

Then, one day, as I sat in my chair in the study, I noticed something strange.

“Huh?”

It’s tight.

I had painstakingly set the child-sized office chair to its largest setting, but it was still tight.

It’s impossible that the chair had shrunk, so it meant my body had grown.

“I’ll have to get a new chair….”

It seemed I no longer needed the largest child’s chair, but rather, the smallest adult-sized one.

This time, I hoped I’d grown a little more than before.

Long ago, when short little me used to walk around with Gu Yu-na, who was even shorter, we really looked like a pair of dwarfs.

“Well, I guess it’s a meaningless thought….”

I might as well just write.

As I cleared my mind of random thoughts and gripped my pen, the sound of my phone ringing interrupted me.

“Hello?”

-Hey, In-seop. I know you said no last time, but could you do just one lecture…

“I’m not doing it.”

Click. I pressed the end call button and put the phone away.

I tried to refocus on my writing, but the phone rang again.

As soon as I picked it up, Lim Yang-wook’s exasperated voice burst out.

-Hey! How many more years of experience do I have than you…!

“I said I’m not doing it.”

-I’m begging you. Just this once, do a university lecture for me, huh?

“Me?”

-…Next you’re going to say ‘Why?’ and ‘I don’t want to,’ right?

“You know me well.”

-You heartless bastard!!!

“I’m hanging up.”

From the other end of the line came the anguished cry of a Kraken whose face had turned beet red, but I firmly hung up, like a mother eagle pushing her chick off a cliff.

Recently, Lim Yang-wook had changed his persuasion tactics.

Before, he’d put all his effort into coaxing a reclusive author like me out of my shell, but now, his strategy was to simply dive in headfirst and see what happens. He’s trying to take advantage of my kind and generous nature.

His usual accomplices are usually PD Park Young-tae and PD Shim Yeon-ho. They’ll say, “Let’s just grab a meal,” and when I go out, I find myself in a fully-set-up camera meeting for a show, and before I know it, I’ve shot an episode of a variety show.

The entertainment industry is full of cunning schemes, and the weak have no chance of survival.

If I had been fooled by the request for just one lecture and muttered, “Fine… just this once”, I might have ended up appearing as a guest on a lecture-style variety show.

And so, I firmly crushed Lim Yang-wook’s devious plot and turned my gaze back to the manuscript.

But once again, the phone rang.

In a moment of frustration, I lost my composure and snatched up the phone.

And, snapping irritably, I shouted.

“For the last time, I said I’m not doing it!”

-Oh… I haven’t even said anything yet… That’s so mean…

It was Kim Byul.

* * *

One of the biggest advantages of stories set in contemporary settings, whether in movies or dramas, is that building the set doesn’t cost much.

The set for Sound was no different. They simply rented out a school and used it as-is, conveniently located in the city. It was worlds apart from the days when they’d go all the way to the Manchurian plains to film movies and face the bitter cold, dry Siberian winds to shoot a movie.

Thanks to that, Kim Byul was able to meet Moon In at a nearby café. She knew very well that her chances of persuading him would increase if she offered him a strawberry yogurt smoothie, so she didn’t hesitate to offer the bribe.

However, today, it didn’t seem to be working.

“… Acting guidance?”

“Yep.”

“From me?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

Lim Yang-wook, who had failed to answer this question when trying to get Moon In to do a lecture, couldn’t come up with a good reason. After all, he was a sneaky adult trying to profit from putting a child in front of a camera.

But Kim Byul, who had a legitimate reason, answered confidently, proving once again that righteous means trump shady tricks.

Kim Byul put on a serious face.

“You ruined the script.”

Cough! Cough!

The strawberry yogurt smoothie went down the wrong pipe, and Moon In choked, coughing uncontrollably.

“R-Ruined? That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?”

“Fine. I’ll correct myself. You didn’t ruin the whole script. You ruined half of it.”

“That’s not true either!”

“Alright. You didn’t ruin about half of the script.”

The implication, of course, was that he’d still ruined the other half.

Moon In, who could tolerate jabs at his character but not insults to his writing, couldn’t let this go and pressed her for details. Kim Byul then proceeded to point out exactly which parts of the script Moon In had “half ruined”.

“The script you wrote is a good story to read.”

“And?”

“It’s not a good story to act out.”

This was not Moon In’s home ground; it was Kim Byul’s.

Every word that came out of Kim Byul’s mouth was a critical hit.

The characters were too complex, their personalities couldn’t be expressed through dialogue alone, there were missing stage directions essential to the script, and the narrative unfolded through the protagonist’s inner thoughts rather than through interactions between the characters.

“Do you know what happens to films like that? They turn into those mass-produced indie movies where, out of the 60-minute runtime, the main character spends 55 minutes in silence, then suddenly bursts into tears in the last 5 minutes, emotional music swells up, the credits roll, and the audience walks out with a big question mark over their heads!”

“……!!!”

Kim Byul’s angry finger jabbed at the amateur screenwriter’s pride.

This was a devastating blow, carrying the resentment of all the actors who had suffered under the whims of “art-sick” writers.

Moon In was on the verge of coughing up blood, but he couldn’t bring himself to say, “Take back what you just said…!”

The truth was, her words had struck a nerve.

In novels, it’s fine to write complex, enigmatic characters. After all, the ones who have to act out those characters are imaginary creations.

But in movies? Real people have to perform. And those people could suffer due to the writer’s perfectionism.

Moon In vaguely realized this.

That realization silenced his protest.

So what came out of the boy’s mouth was not a defense, but an excuse.

“B-But Director So Tae-woong said he’d take care of the film adaptation…”

“Oh, really? So you’re admitting that Director So is a better storyteller than you?”

“Acting guidance? Fine, let’s do it. Lead the way, Senior Kim.”

“Great!”

Kim Byul stood up to lead Moon In to the filming set.

Up until a moment ago, her face had been adorned with a bright and cheerful smile.

But the moment she turned her back on Moon In, that smile transformed into something far more sinister and cunning.

‘Just as planned.’

Without ever uttering the words, “Please help me”, Kim Byul had managed to get Moon In to help her on his own.

Now, hadn’t Moon In effectively landed in the palm of her hand?

That’s what Kim Byul thought, smiling like a mischievous little devil.

However, had she known just how long this “acting guidance” would last, it’s a smile she never would have worn.

This was three months before the filming would wrap up.

*****

If you enjoy this novel, please review and rate it at Novelupdates. Thanks! 😊

Join our Discord to receive latest chapter announcements or to report mistakes: https://discord.gg/GGKyZWDuZM