“Uwah, uwah. Let me see!”
When the message was forwarded to her watch, Kaeul started reading out the words written on the invitation.
“Thank you for submitting your valuable manuscript for this summer’s horror novel contest…”
As she mumbled through the words of the invitation with her clear voice, the kids that had gathered nearby started becoming more excited. Sitting on Yu Jitae’s lap, Gyeoul turned towards him with a bright smile while Yeorum tapped Bom on her back as a way of telling her, ‘Not bad’.
“…Congratulations to Author [Hair Colour Broccoli] for the award and…”
But the moment her pen name was mentioned, Bom flicked her head towards Yeorum, who then looked off into the distance.
“Whose pen name is that lol.”
Regardless, her mouth did not know hot to stay quiet and babbled on.
“Yeorum.”
“What’s wrong.”
“Do you want to die?”
“Sorry…♥”
“Is that all you have to say?”
When Bom acted annoyed with a slightly serious yet joking countenance, Yeorum returned a sneaky smile while supporting her bust with her arms.
“Wanna touch my titties?”
Episode 78: Regarding Romantic Feelings (2)
In the New Era, Korea became the centre of horror literature. It was because there was an especially large amount of spirits and ghost-type monsters alongside intellectual and demonic monsters in Korea.
From an era where ghosts had simply been an object of imagination, it became so that there were now several people who had seen real ghosts. Although they did exist, only few things were revealed about these bizarre monsters, thus leading to a new horror boom.
Besides, it was now an era where both interpretation and translation were perfect thanks to the increasing development of magic engineering so each genre of literature tended to gather to one specific place. And ‘horror literature’, which was on the minor side compared to other genres, just happened to be treated as a major genre in Korea thanks to a lot of media traction.
[International Horror Literature Exhibition of South Korea]
Receiving an award in a contest like that was an honour a lot greater than Yu Jitae had initially thought.
Out of thousands and tens of thousands of manuscripts that had flown over from all across the world, only 13 of them got an award. Although the final evaluations weren’t out yet, it was enough to make Bom absurdly happy.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all!”
Kaeul brought her spoon to her mouth like a mic.
“Miss Yu Bom! How do you feel!?”
He wondered what this sudden role play was, but Bom in her good mood gave a wide smile suitable for an interview.
“I feel amazing.”
“You’ve been working very hard for it. Uhh… what was it called again? Anyway, do you think 1st place will be possible?”
“That will probably be difficult, I believe.”
“Why do you think so? You wrote very very well, so have more confidence in it!”
“You didn’t read it though, did you?”
“Aht, hehe…”
Bom thought to herself before replying.
“It will be hard. There is someone who came first for five years including last year and the year before.”
“Hukk, really? For five years…?”
“Nn. She’s really famous. You probably know her name as well.”
Bom said while looking at both Yeorum and Kaeul.
“I don’t know shi* about that.”
“Unn. Me neither!”
“No. You probably do. She’s called Carrot Girl. Don’t you know?”
“Carrot Girl? Ah…!”
Seemingly realising something, Kaeul gave a clap.
“Isn’t she really famous? Like, I saw her name on a lot of romance novels!”
“Right. She’s a romance novelist. There have been several movie, drama and manga adaptations of her novel… She’s the most famous writer in Korea.”
750 million e-book downloads.
Korea’s best romance novelist with a legendary record of selling 28 million hard-copies worldwide.
Although Yeorum didn’t show it on the outside, her unforgetting memories clearly remembered that name.
How would she ever forget it?
[The House Owner’s Dangerous Secret]
[Author: Carrot Girl]
Carrot Girl… It was the author of the paranormal romance book that she had stealthily borrowed from Bom’s room a few months ago.
This damned author had written a horror novel pretending like it was a romance novel, but she was so good at writing that Yeorum had knocked on the door of Yu Jitae’s room in the middle of the night, thinking that he might be a ghost too.
She also discovered later how her name was often mentioned in a fair bit of shoujo manga as the writer of the stories.
“Oi. Yu Bom.”
“Nn?”
“Then why is that bastard writing a horror novel? She’s a shoujo manga writer, isn’t she?”
“Is she? I looked it up but she was originally a horror novelist but it didn’t make her much money apparently. She probably came back after a huge success with romance novels.”
“What a dog-ass bastard. You better smack her away. Her writing was freaking annoying.”
While the kids were chatting to each other assuming what the award Bom will be getting was, Gyeoul was sitting in the corner not knowing what was going on and was simply blinking her eyes. She looked back at Yu Jitae but noticed that his eyes were hazier than usual.
“…”
Yu Jitae was quite confused.
Bom receiving an award with her novel? It was extremely hard to believe.
Since he had personally read the novel she had written in the 6th iteration, plus had given it to a professional for a diagnosis, he knew Bom was not talented at writing novels.
A famous novelist of the time had said after reading her novel.
– She appears to be completely untalented.
– The characters are dead. The narration is weird and the main theme of the story is gloomy and without any message.
– Especially, the emotions of the characters are very very weird. Here they are laughing, and they cry and suddenly get mad. I don’t think there will be many people understanding these characters.
The ‘Bom’ back then was the same person as her current self. So how could she receive an award with a novel?
– But some parts are also normal… Writers with a slightly strange mentality tend to write like this.
When Kaeul made an ugly look with her face and called it the ghost’s face from the side, Bom giggled.
There was one thing that was different from the previous iteration: the current Bom smiled very often. Did she change from living a daily life?
Her past of living like a hikikomori compared to her joyous present – it was evident that she had somehow changed.
“Ohhh. I just looked it up, but there is a thing called a Gold Prize,” said Kaeul with flickering eyes.
By nature, gold was the best colour was it not?
“I hope you get the Gold Prize!”
But when Bom told her that the Gold Prize was one level below the Grand Prize, Kaeul became slightly disappointed.
Regardless, her wish came true.
A few days later.
After the end of the final evaluation, the formal invitation letter to the rehearsal of the awarding ceremony arrived at the house, and written on it were details about Bom’s award.
[Hair Colour Broccoli: Gold Prize]
The Grand Prize went to Carrot Girl but that had nothing to do with her. Carrying the letter she jumped out to the living room and hopped around in joy.
***
After the end of the rainy season; late summer as the heat started to die down.
The Horror Literature Institution located in Mapo district of Seoul was busily preparing for the awarding ceremony rehearsal. In the basement parking lot of the large building were countless sedans driving by and several famous writers were heading to the venue in groups.
Today was a rehearsal but since it was a fairly renowned event with quite a bit of attention worldwide, there were a lot of eyes on it. Several news articles had been written already and looking at an article with Bom’s pen name, a group of writers chatted to each other.
“You know this person.”
“Huh?’
“The one getting the Gold Prize this year. This person is a new writer right?”
“Probably? It’s my first time hearing that name.”
“I guess. A unique pen name like this should be hard to forget.”
Uhahahat. They heartily laughed out loud.
“…”
Coincidentally, Bom was walking out of a car and heard it while Yeorum, Kaeul and Gyeoul next to her all heard it too. Bom glared at Yeorum from the corner of her eyes as Yeorum supported her chest with her hands and pushed it forward. The smile on her face was so annoying that Bom was this close to actually pinching it, but soon decided against it.
Bom, heaving out a sigh and shaking her head, had black hair. It was because she didn’t want to become a laughing stock in front of a camera.
Yeorum, Kaeul and Gyeoul were all wearing a mask and a cap each.
“Oi. By the way, is it fine to have your hair black?”
“Nn. It’s fine.”
“Hmm…”
“Nothing happened yet. Don’t worry about it too much.”
Licking her lips, Yeorum gave a nod.
Yu Jitae wasn’t with them.
He told them there was an urgent task and said he would be thirty minutes late. ‘An urgent task in this important situation?’ thought Yeorum but Bom said it was fine.
She knew that him calling something an ‘urgent task’ meant it was extremely important, so she did not delve deeper into it.
The hatchlings headed to the waiting room of the rehearsal venue. The waiting room was literally a room and ten or so out of the 13 awardees were seated already. Most of them were chatting with their managers, families or staff members so it was quite bustling with noise.
Finding a seat in the corner of the room, Bom, Yeorum, Kaeul and Gyeoul were chatting about what Bom would say after receiving the award.
That was when a middle-aged Asian man who appeared to be in his 40s entered the room after carefully pushing the door open. He said several things to the staff before stealthily heading to one of the awardees sitting next to the window and lowering his head.
“Umm, nice to meet you.”
“Ah, yes. Who could you be…?”
“I’m the manager of the writer, Carrot Girl.”
“Ahh, yes yes. What is the matter…?”
“Umm, you see.”
Sweating profusely and seemingly troubled, he started laying out explanations and cautiously asked if the awardee could yield the position next to the window. The awardee dumbfoundedly rolled their eyes but soon agreed and meekly moved to a different spot.
People started clicking their tongues and whispering to each other after the manager walked out of the room.
“She’s doing it again.”
“I heard last year was also ridiculous right? She flipped everything or something.”
“That’s nothing. That person is…”
It was already famous what kind of person ‘Carrot Girl’ was but still oblivious to it, Bom was blinking her eyes when a loud and sharp voice of a woman resonated from outside the waiting room.
– It was you who wanted me to come! I said I didn’t want to come!
Kwang!
The door was pushed open with a deafening thud as a woman with an orange hair walked in with her heels creating loud clicking sounds. She was in late 20s but her crumpled and discontent face appeared a lot younger due to her being a superhuman.
She was none other than Carrot Girl herself.
While everyone’s eyes were on her, Carrot Girl took deep breaths in and out. When the same manager from before grabbed her by the arm in a flustered attempt to calm her down, she flicked her arm and shook his hand off.
She appeared very upset and turning around, she glared at her manager.
“Manager. Why do you always do this?”
“M, Miss. That’s because…”
“How many times have I said it? I told you I had to take time off tonight!”
“No that’s, I did contact them but…”
“Do you even know how important that meeting is? If I’m even five minutes late, it will drench my face with ink. Can you take responsibility for that!?”
“P, please calm down… the Institution did say that they will make the rehearsal fast…”
“Enough! Go and tell them to be faster thanks.”
“O, okay.”
“The lack of inspiration is driving me crazy already. If you keep working like this, I’m not going to write again. You guys are not the only management company.”
When she shouted, “What are you doing!? Hurry up and go right now!” the manager in his 40s quickly left the room with beads of sweat.
She turned around as the people, whose eyes had been fixed on her, quickly looked away. A different manager gave empty laughs before apologising to the surroundings and leading her to the cushion placed next to the window which the previous manager had prepared.
Clicking her tongue, Carrot Girl walked noisily with her heels before finding the girls of Yu Household staring at her.
Although their faces had been covered with a mask, each person had an aura that was difficult to hide. Their bodies, eyes and the shape of their faces were all like a ray of light shining outward.
“Who are these girls?”
Pointing at the four seasons with her finger, Carrot Girl asked her manager.
“An idol group here for a performance?”
The manager frantically shook his hands and exclaimed.
“N, no no! She’s the writer, Hair Colour Broccoli, the winner of the Gold Prize.”
“Ah. That broccoli…”
Carrot Girl looked at Bom. She glanced past her hair before giving a grin.
“More like a tyre…”
Saying that, she went to her seat and sat down as the surrounding people distanced themselves away from her. For a short while, the waiting room was filled with silence but people started chatting to each other again once she was engrossed in her watch.
“That f*cking bi*ch. Look at the way she talks…”
Yeorum who belatedly understood Carrot Girl’s words murmured to herself.
“She freaking called your hair colour a tyre just then right?”
“Yeorum. Calm down.”
“Her own stupid head looks like bird crap. Wish I could rip her damn mouth out.”
Yeorum swore looking at the yellow and red hair pin on her carrot-coloured hair, and Bom had to tell her it was fine.
“I know right. Why does that ahjumma say whatever she wants to? So annoying…”
But even Kaeul chimed in and glared at Carrot Girl with a frown. It was different from her usual self, so Bom had to soothe her with an awkward smile.
“It’s alright, Kaeul.”
“You feel bad right, unni…?”
“I’m fine. I heard other people talking about it, but she apparently has quite the personality.”
“But even then…”
It was when Kaeul was complaining that the door of the waiting room was pushed open.
Thinking that it was her manager coming back to the room, Carrot Girl glared at the door with wide eyes but the one that came in wasn’t her manager.
Tall height, large body – it was a man who appeared extremely vicious. ‘Shi..’ grumbled Carrot Girl when her eyes met with the man’s for a split second.
In that instant, Carrot Girl was so surprised that her body froze right on the spot.
“Sorry for being late.”
“It’s alright. Come here.”
While Yu Jitae was giving coffee to the kids, the manager hurriedly came back for Carrot Girl, telling her that there was a place she had to go to.
“Huhh? O, okay.”
Carrot Girl walked outside in slow strides and conspicuously looked at Yu Jitae until the door closed behind her. With a gaze as if she was honouring something great, as if she was moved by something.
Feeling that gaze, Yu Jitae turned towards her for a bit but soon forgot about it. When he turned his head back to the kids, he found Bom directly staring at the door.
“What’s wrong.”
“Nn? N, no it’s nothing.”
“Why. Do you know that woman?”
“No. It’s just…”
“She’s Carrot Girl apparently. She’s a freaking crazy bi*ch,” said Yeorum. Her voice that abruptly jumped out was a bit loud and the bustling waiting room suddenly turned quiet, amplifying the sound of someone’s laughter that followed it.
One of the other writers, who had accidentally laughed, embarrassedly lowered his head.
They sat there waiting until one of the staff members ran into the room and shouted.
“We will start the rehearsal in 5 minutes!”
*
Sending Bom to the stage, Yu Jitae stepped outside for a bit and contacted the Association. That was when a middle-aged man walked towards him from a distance and bent his back.
“Hello sir?”
“Ah, yes.”
“I’m a manager of the writer, Carrot Girl.”
He was wearing a very anxious-looking smile, which at the same time appeared very servile.
“Yes, what is it.”