chapter 149

    tl: ksd

    at baekhak arts middle school’s creative writing department, there lives a beast.

    whenever the beast roars, everyone trembles in fear.

    that’s because this beast had once served as the minister of culture.

    and the beast’s roar goes like this:

    “hey!”

    park chang-woon, the literature teacher with disheveled white hair and a beard resembling a lion’s mane, roared in a gyeongsang dialect.

    the booming voice of the old man echoed throughout not just the teachers’ office but all the way into the hallway.

    “what nonsense is that! why’s a perfectly healthy kid skipping school?!”

    moon in, who had just heard the roar up close, casually wiped the spit from his face with his blanket.

    and without any sign of fear, he answered calmly.

    “well-”

    of course, it wasn’t exactly a situation where he needed to respond.

    park chang-woon, with a look of realization, continued speaking to himself.

    “ah! you said the script you wrote as a side gig got invited to the cannes film festival, didn’t you?!”

    “well, it wasn’t really on the side-”

    “if a novelist writes a movie script, then that’s a side gig! what else could it be when your main job is writing novels?”

    moon in, about to say, ‘if you put it that way, it sounds like i got into cannes with a script i wrote with my toes’, stopped himself.

    between the thick white eyebrows, the sharp, glaring eyes were fixated on him.

    eyes filled with madness, as if they were about to shoot out laser beams.

    those eyes seemed to say that if anyone dared to talk back, they’d be torn to pieces.

    moon in conceded.

    “yes, well, i suppose so.”

    at that moment, the old man burst into a laugh, as wild as it was grand.

    “kuhahahahaha-!”

    the old man leaped to his feet, laughing uproariously, and everyone around him pushed back with a ‘ugh!’ sound.

    it wasn’t just the teachers from the creative writing department in the office. people from many departments had come to see the screenwriter who had been invited to the cannes film festival.

    from the departments of modern dance, music department, fine arts department, korean traditional music department... they were all top talents in their fields, but today, they all retreated under the pressure of park chang-woon’s overwhelming presence.

    in particular, the head of the theater and film department looked as though, if no one were watching, he might bite into his handkerchief and burst into tears.

    but the madman park chang-woon, showing not an ounce of mercy, proclaimed to the world with the confidence of a ruler.

    “cannes, huh... for a ‘local’ french festival, it’s decent enough!”

    the head of the theater and film department nearly fainted.

    “fine! with that kind of achievement, it’s acceptable to miss the great baekhak arts middle school’s creative writing classes!”

    with those words, the old man dramatically pulled out a wooden stamp and brandished it proudly.

    thump. thump.

    the stamps landed on the field trip application and attendance approval form.

    it was just another ordinary day in baekhak arts middle school’s creative writing department.

    ep 9 – sound

    even though a former minister of culture, now a literature teacher at an arts school, had made some comments that seemed to downplay the cannes film festival...

    on the flip side, the fact that they were making such a fuss in the creative writing department, not even in the theater and film department, only highlighted how prestigious the cannes film festival really was.

    thus, what happened at baekhak entertainment was no less dramatic, if not even more so, than what happened at baekhak middle school.

    “here’s your water, great actress kim byul.”

    kim byul took the bottle of mineral water with a displeased look.

    her expression wasn’t sour because it was a brand she didn’t usually drink, but because the person handing her the water wasn’t her manager, but the company’s ceo.

    that’s right. baek seung-won, the ceo of baekhak entertainment, had appointed himself as kim byul’s one-day manager.

    he wasn’t doing it to post a video on the company’s youtube variety show, nor had he made some strange bet with anyone.

    he just showed up on his own and decided to play one-day manager.

    that made him seem even crazier.

    “um... ceo-nim? you can stop now...”

    “stop what?”

    “the one-day manager thing...”

    “hey, kim star. if you stop being so damn good at acting, i’ll stop too.”

    kim byul felt like biting her tongue and passing out.

    but what was even stranger was that everyone else was accepting this as totally normal, except for kim byul herself.

    “haha, our ceo-nim is something else.”

    hearing someone else speak the thoughts that had been vaguely forming in his own mind felt refreshing.

    perhaps because the boy was a novelist, his words were quite well-crafted.

    and those words resonated deeply.

    “an illusion, huh...”

    it began to rain. a light, drizzling shower.

    raindrops gathered on the window, and so tae-woong pulled the lever behind the steering wheel.

    the wipers moved back and forth, sweeping away the rain.

    glancing at the passenger seat, so tae-woong saw that moon in had closed his eyes.

    it seemed he was listening to the sound of the rain.

    “fame is the same.”

    moon in continued speaking with his eyes closed.

    “you’ve said it yourself, director-nim. not to get too swayed by public opinion. that fame comes and goes, right?”

    “i did.”

    “just like you said, how fleeting is fame? in a world where if there are few viewers in the audience, and you’re a washed-up has-been, but if an invitation comes from france, suddenly you’re a big shot. in the end, fame is just another illusion, swayed by such things.”

    “......”

    “isn’t it?”

    so tae-woong didn’t respond.

    not because he thought the boy’s words were wrong, but because they resonated too deeply.

    the moment a person is most shaken is not when they hear something that goes against their inner thoughts. in those cases, whether right or wrong, it simply feels irritating and unpleasant.

    no, a person is shaken when they hear words that align with an inner truth they hadn’t fully realized themselves. such words are, in essence, an unspoken affirmation, “you are right.”

    and since so tae-woong was only human, he found himself shaken by the boy’s words.

    for a brief moment, it seemed as though a holy light was shining behind the blanket-draped boy, who had closed his eyes to better listen to the rain.

    so tae-woong asked, with the feeling of a mortal who had found a great sage:

    “then, what is not an illusion?”

    the boy replied without hesitation.

    “that which is within me.”

    “ah...”

    “when everything outside feels like an empty illusion, in the end, we can only turn inward.”

    “i see...”

    at that moment, the three people inside the car each had different thoughts.

    for so tae-woong, the illusions were money and fame. and what was inside him, what truly mattered, were films and art. thinking of that made his heart finally feel alive again.

    but for moon in, the illusions weren’t just money and fame. they included everything in this world. the only truth was the literature inside him, and yet, he was lost as to where that literature should lead him. to make matters worse, he was now grappling with the question of whether everything in this world was truly just an illusion. his second adolescence was proving to be even harsher than the first.

    and kim byul? she didn’t care about illusions or philosophical musings, she just wanted to win an award. but after weeks of fretting, she was exhausted. she was hungry. she just wanted to eat...

    as the silence continued due to each person’s own thoughts, moon in, realizing that he might have gone a bit too deep with his musings under the influence of the rain, awkwardly wrapped up his words.

    “so, what i mean is... whether we win an award or not, it doesn’t really matter... let’s just stay calm... that’s the point i was trying to make. haha.”

    “hahaha.”

    so tae-woong followed the boy’s laugh with a light chuckle, though inwardly, he was impressed by the insight the young boy had shown.

    and then, suddenly, so tae-woong realized something, that the conversation they had just had was somewhat pointless.

    when it came to the film industry, so tae-woong was an expert among experts.

    he wasn’t just one of those people invited to tv shows as “experts”- he was the real deal, with true expertise.

    therefore, even though he hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, he could make a rough guess about the outcome of the cannes film festival.

    he knew about the history of cannes, he understood the preferences of the jury, and he was well aware of the direction the festival was heading.

    from so tae-woong’s perspective, the idea of ‘sound’ winning the palme d’or was already out of reach.

    the grand prix and jury prize, which function as the second and third place awards, were also out of the question. ‘sound’ just wasn’t on that level.

    as for the best screenplay award, that was even less likely. cannes would never compromise its own authority. the moment they awarded a young novelist the best screenplay prize, screenwriters around the world would rise up in protest. if moon in had been white, maybe things would be different...

    so among these, the only one with a possibility of winning would probably be...

    “......”

    so tae-woong glanced at kim byul in the rearview mirror.

    the lead actress of ‘sound’, looking visibly tired, was dozing off leaning against the window, softly mumbling in her sleep.

    with a quiet smile, so tae-woong turned his gaze back to the road.

    through the mist, incheon airport was slowly coming into view.

    *****

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