Big Life

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 : It’s an Incredible Gift (2)

“That damned old man… Sorry, it looks like you wanted to do a good deed, but it’s all a waste . I purposefully put them over there . ”

“Purposefully? I thought that these belonged to your dad? Aren’t the laptop and the glasses all of your dad’s treasures?”

“They’re all trash! Do whatever you want with them . Those are garbage that won’t sell anywhere . ”

He tried to shut the door .

Jaegun hurriedly held on to the door that was about to close and continued .

“Wait, what about Rika then?

The man looked at me with surprised eyes .

”Wait, how do you know that cat’s name?”

“It’s on the collar . Isn’t this your cat? I don’t know about anything else, but you should at least keep her . ”

The man smiled coldly and lifted his left hand . Only then, did Jaegun realize that his arm was in bandages .

“That damnable cat was the one who did this to me . I tried to bring her back, but this is what I got . That cat; leave her on the streets for all I care . ”

“W-wait . ”

Jaegun resolutely held on to the door and asked the death-glaring man:

“One more question; what was your father’s job?”

It was a question asked thinking about Seo Gunwoo from his dreams . The man lowered his head and sighed before he spat out .

”A writer . ”

“Writer? A writer? He was a writer?”

“Yes! A writer! Now just leave me alone!”

-BLAM!

He shut the door . Rika was crying from the shock from his roughness .

‘To think that he was a writer…’

He supported himself on the rails; he had trouble standing . How could he have inherited the dead writer’s memories?

“Meow . Meow . ”

Jaegun looked at the crying Rika .

He suddenly remembered a theme from an occult book that he once read; a cat could be a bridge between the dead and the living .

“Rika, you know something, right?”

“Meow . ”

Jaegun sank to his knees . He had actually waited for an answer from a cat . A cat . He felt as though he lost himself . Is this what a madman feels like?

Lost in thought, he arrived home .

‘What? How did I come back?’

He didn’t remember leaving the subway; he didn’t remember leaving the bus station; he didn’t remember anything . Staggering as he walked, he stepped down the stairs to his room .

‘What could be in the labtop?’

He was very curious about the writer Seo Gunwoo . He only had some fragments of his memories, and he didn’t know very much about him . Before he even took his clothes off, he took out the laptop . When he plugged it in and pressed the power button, it thankfully booted .

‘Wow, this is really old . ’

A hollow laugh came out of him as the labtop finished booting and came to the home screen .

The hard drive had only 256MB of RAM . On top of that, the memory space had 40 Gigs of storage . Also, it was running Windows 98 . It was something that people would refuse to use for free .

‘There’s nothing in here . ’

He couldn’t find any information about the writer . There was no search history, nor was there programs except the common writing one .

Jaegun opened his own computer and he connected it to the internet . Then, he searched up the name: Seo Gunwoo . There were way too many people . Jaegun put in Seo Gunwoo’s birth and death date . Still, nothing happened .

‘Did he use a pen name?’

It was a world where writers used a pen name instead of their real name . Even he used one himself .

Anyway, since there were no results for Se Gunwoo, that could only mean two things: either he used a writing name or he didn’t have any released work .

-Wiiinnnngg!

The phone vibrated his entire body . On the phone’s screen, it showed: Ha Jaeyn . It was his three-years-older sister .

Jaegun didn’t pick up the called right away and hesitated . Due to her phone call, reality came rushing back to him . There was no good news to give to her . Even so, she would worry if he didn’t pick up . She was one that still considered her 27 year old brother, a child . Jaegun finally picked up the phone with a sigh .

“Hey . ”

-You picked up? I was just about to hang up because I thought you were sleeping . ”

“Nah . I was awake . ”

-Did you eat?”

“Of course . ”

Jaegun suppressed his grumbling in his belly .

-What did you eat?”

“I ate stuff . Stop asking me . I’m not a child anymore . ”

-Of course, little brother . ”

“Hey, hey . ”

His sister laughed across the phone . Then with a serious voice, she continued .

-You’re coming home tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah . ”

-Good . At least come and see our dad . He’s getting up there in age . ”

“Okay . ”

“What’s with your weak voice? Did something happen?”

She asked worriedly .

Jaegun felt bad, but he just couldn’t continue the conversation .

“Sorry, I’m just at a deadline right now . I can’t talk; I’ll see you later . ”

-Beep!

He cut off quickly . It was her sister who supported him writing every time . Therefore, she didn’t call again .

‘Sorry . ’

Her sister liked to call herself “gold miss . ” However, he knew better . He knew that she didn’t have time to date because of trying to keep up with her poor family .

‘This isn’t the time for this . ’

Jaegun turned on the computer and opened the word program . In his eyes, the book he just wrote came up .

‘What now…’

It didn’t look like a book, but rather, a jumbled cluster of sentences .

He scrolled up to the top; he was going to read it once more .

‘Hmm . ’

Jaegun’s face started to grow paler as he read on .

He didn’t think it was perfect, but to think it had this many issues . Mistakes that he didn’t see yesterday seemed to come up .

‘At this point, this information is unnecessary . The readers will be bored here . Delete everything . ’

‘This is a point where the main character learns a new skill and matures . This doesn’t have enough . It needs more detail . ’

‘How could this girl slap the main character like this . Is she crazy? She needs to get on her knees and beg . ’

-Tap! Tap! Taptap! Tap!

His ten fingers flew around the keyboard .

When was it; the last time when he was this motivated . He couldn’t even remember . A feeling that he didn’t have before urged his fingers on . It felt as if they had wings .