“Bom. There is something you must keep in mind.”
“What is it.”
“One day, your jealousy might hold you back.”
Inside the forest, Li Hwa said during her romantic advice to Bom.
“My jealousy?”
“Yes. Jealousy. Jealousy blurs a person’s eyes, blocks their ears and clouds their mind. It is the most spiteful power that causes misunderstandings.”
“Ah…”
“But do you know what the funny thing is? The thing about jealousy, is that it’s not something I do but it’s things that others do that pulls it out of me.”
“You mean it’s not something I can control.”
“Yes… Telling you how dangerous jealousy is will be pointless unless you put it down yourself. But I’m sure you won’t be able to, right?”
Bom nodded with a bitter smile.
“Something happened already.”
“What was it?”
She explained what had happened with Yeorum and Li Hwa let out a solemn lament.
“Oh no…”
“What should I do…”
“What can you do about jealousy itself? It simply happens because you like someone.”
Reminiscing in her younger days, Li Hwa added.
“It is normal to get angry and that is unavoidable nor should it be avoided. But you must listen carefully. Open your eyes wide. Then you can avoid making mistakes.”
“…”
“Do you get it? When you’re jealous, you must open your eyes and your ears.”
Looking at the wrinkled eyes of the old lady, Bom nodded.
Thanks to that memory, she was able to endure it a little bit more.
.
.
.
What’s wrong with this kid.
That was what was on the mind of Carrot Girl.
When her eyes were drooping low, she appeared gentle. Suiting her pen name, broccoli, she resembled herbivores from animals and especially ones like koalas and deers.
And yet the same deer was pointing its antlers at her.
“What are you trying to do right now?”
“…”
“What’s with that way of talking to someone who was trying to help behind your back? Do I look easy just because I’m smiling and talking to you?”
As soon as she finished her words, Carrot Girl felt extremely strange.
The bloody look on the eyes of the writer, Broccoli, vanished and her eyes returned to the docile look. An appearance so gentle and delicate…
“Sorry…”
“Is sorry going to cut it?”
“I’m seriously sorry. I was just surprised by the word movie…”
It was bizarre.
It was really really strange, but as she looked into the eyes of Broccoli, Carrot Girl felt a bizarre inspiration surging up. Quite different from the inspiration she had felt when looking at Yu Jitae, this was closer to romance than horror.
The sensation she was feeling from the eyes of Broccoli, was the emotions of a royal princess whose country had been taken away from her.
Is she jealous yet intentionally hiding it? Thinking that, Carrot Girl looked into her eyes but that didn’t seem to be the case.
There had been opportunities for her to be the scenario writer of several dramas and had supervised various actors. If that was acting, she should be a Hollywood actress.
“…”
It was perhaps the same principle as how Carrot Girl had felt a strong image of a tyrant when looking at Yu Jitae. Since Yu Jitae, who appeared to be in his 30s, had no way of being a tyrant at a different place, the imagery of the girl in front of her losing her country should also be a mere illusion.
However, it was enough to feed her inspiration and there was already a book finished inside her head.
“Hmm. Alright. I’ll let you off this time.”
“Thank you.”
“So you were asking what was up between me and Jitae-ssi right?”
“Yes. And I also wanted to hear what you meant by a movie.”
Broccoli asked with a calm and questioning voice, as if she was sincerely curious.
The emotion of a royal princess losing her country…
Was it jealousy…?
This refreshing stimulus was exciting the mind of the lunatic writer and so Carrot Girl decided to stimulate the opponent even more.
“I’ll speak casually since I’m older than you. How do you write when writing a novel?”
“…I write what’s on my mind.”
“You must be the same type as me then. I write based on inspiration but my head was blink until recently. Because of that, I was very temperamental but I felt a strong sense of inspiration when seeing Jitae-ssi a few days ago.”
“Ah…”
“That’s why I asked him to meet me for a bit. That’s all.”
“Jitae-ssi doesn’t meet people easily though…”
“Is that so? Yeah, he didn’t want to see me either at the start.”
“Then?”
“I added a condition. That I would help with the movie adaptation of your novel.”
Her lips twitched before coming to a close and Broccoli calmly nodded with slightly wider eyes. At a glance, she seemed surprised by the great fortune.
At the same time, her eyes jerked and the moment Carrot Girl saw that, a surge of inspiration hit her mind once again.
There were two books in her mind now.
Was it jealousy? Probably not. Her eyes had twitched for a split second so Carrot Girl disregarded it.
“So what. Do you have any problems with that?”
“No.”
“And what’s your relationship with him? Are you lovers or something?”
“We’re a family. Distant relatives.”
Saying that, Broccoli stealthily asked.
“What did you do together?”
“What else would we do? We had a meal together, and walked around at night.”
“Like a date?”
“Close, I would say? A man and a woman meeting and having a meal together – that’s a date.”
Broccoli’s eyes convulsed yet again as Carrot Girl got another set of inspiration. Characters, complications, background information and lines – everything popped up in a row.
This would be enough for three books.
“But why are you asking that?”
“It’s nothing… Did you get enough inspiration?”
“Of course. Your Jitae-ssi is like a painting and it feels good to just look at him. Aggressive, indifferent and somewhat like a tired soldier. But at the same time, he’s hard to understand… It’s my first time feeling like this.”
“He’s handsome right?”
“No? There are tons of people that are more handsome than him.”
In response, Broccoli gently laughed saying, ‘He is though…’ so Carrot Girl returned a light smile and added.
“But he is sexy.”
Her smile vanished.
Was this jealousy? No, she looked surprised and her gentle demeanour was still there, same with her relaxed breath and gaze.
“Do you like Jitae-ssi by any chance?”
She did like him as her muse.
It made her realise that Nietzsche, Rilke and Freud weren’t all competing for one woman’s attention for nothing. A muse created a storm in one’s mind just with their existence alone.
She just found it a shame because he was as closed off as a fortress.
“…To be frank, he was appealing.”
Broccoli didn’t say anything back.
Her eyes simply remained on Carrot Girl for a few seconds after the conversation, with the quivering covering a large portion of the muscles around her eyes.
“I see…”
Seeing that gave her the fourth inspiration of the day.
It was crazy… Is there something special in their blood?
She wanted to say something more but Bom had already turned both her face and her body around. For some reason, she gave off an aura that made it hard to approach her.
With Carrot Girl still feeling regretful, the awarding ceremony began.
***
After all the arranged performances came to an end, several renowned horror novelists gave their speeches and the actual awarding ceremony started after that.
– We will now announce the winner of the Silver Prize award. A story of both comedy and chills – the story of ghosts seen by an athlete. Ghost of the Field!
– Writer Evil9. Please come up to the stage!
The announcer called the pen name of a writer as the awardee climbed the stage and received a plaque alongside a cheque for the prize. Around ten writers received their awards in a row going from the bottom. The camera filmed them one by one and at last, it was Bom’s turn.
– We will now be announcing the winner of the Gold Prize award. An ardent revenge of a vengeful spirit. A shocking work of twists upon twists – Out of Sin of Daybreak!
– Writer Hair Colour Broccoli. Please come up to the stage!
‘It, it’s coming. It’s coming…!’ Kaeul and Gyeoul slapped Yu Jitae’s arms from the sides. Walking up to the stage, Bom received her plaque, bowed to the people and stood in front of the microphone.
– Are there black broccolis these days?
Wahaha. A laughter broke out.
Wearing a crimson dress amplified her black hair and made it glow as Bom calmly started reading her lines. It was a fairly common award acceptance speech: It is an honour to receive such an important award. Thank you. I worked hard but will continue to try harder and create better novels…
But Kaeul, listening to the speech, widened her eyes into circles.
“Huh? What’s wrong with her lines?”
“Why.”
“That wasn’t the original script though… Ah, it’s finished already…”
After saying her lines, she elegantly covered her chest and bowed before the flashing cameras.
“What was it then?”
“It was like, about a horror human being in our house, and teasing ahjussi.”
“Okay.”
“The way she put it was really funny… Why didn’t she do it?”
Nnn? In doubt, Kaeul scratched her chin like a monkey.
Yu Jitae looked into Bom’s eyes. Now that he thought about it, there was something else that was also strange.
It was that Bom had never looked at him a single time.
***
After the awarding ceremony, Yu Jitae sent the kids back home. There seemed to be an afterparty which only allowed up to one guardian.
Looking back, it was strange.
Has she ever not looked at him before for an extended period of time? Especially when it was something grand like an awarding ceremony?
Bom was sitting in the banquet hall, drinking champagne with other writers. Bom in her red dress under the yellow spot lights appeared like a painting.
“Bom. Congratulations.”
He walked up to her and said that as Bom turned towards him with a smile in response.
“Thank you.”
“You did well saying your lines without shaking.”
“Right. I thought I would get nervous.”
She was back to normal again however. Was he misunderstanding it then?
In any case, there was something he had prepared for this happy occasion.
“Bom.”
“Yes.”
“I have a gift for you.”
This morning.
Director Kang Yungoo of Hinari Pictures came looking for him in person. Hinari Pictures was the world’s most renowned horror movie production company, known for several megahit movies like Blue Day and Necklace.
After reading the manuscript, Director Kang Yungoo stated that there was a definite possibility of it being adapted into a good movie. It had already been confirmed by the company thanks to the support of Carrot Girl.
“What is it?”
“Ohh. You’re here!”
Carrot Girl, who happened to be nearby, discovered Yu Jitae and walked up to him with an amiable smile. She then stood next to Yu Jitae in an extremely natural manner.
“Are you telling her now? What should I do. I accidentally spoiled the fun already!”
She then blabbered as such, and started saying words that Bom could not understand – words that were shared only between Yu Jitae and Carrot Girl.
As Bom indifferently stared at her, she took a paper bag out of her Hermes Birkin bag. It was the contract document with her company.
The protagonist of today, Carrot Girl, was together with one of the main stars of the day, Broccoli, and thus had naturally gained the eyes of a lot of other writers nearby.
Although Yu Jitae was slightly annoyed by the fact that Carrot Girl had told Bom about it already, he nonetheless gave the business card to Bom and Bom gazed down at his hand with an indifferent look on her face.
“Hinari Pictures. Do you know?”
“Yes. It’s a famous horror movie production company.”
“Yeah. She suggested your novel to the company. They went through it a few days ago and the result came out this morning, that they will help with the movie adaptation.”
After Yu Jitae’s words, Carrot Girl made a ‘V’ with her fingers next to her eyes, while murmuring, ‘I had to use a bit of my powers’.
“She supported your work but it’s fine to say that it’s something you earned with your own hands, since the company liked your manuscript as well.”
“…”
“Here you go. This is my gift.”
Raising her eyes from his hands, Bom looked into his eyes.
“…”