The TS Memoir of a Misogynistic Novelist

After sleeping for a while and checking the time, it was already past 3 PM. I didn’t live a particularly routine life, but waking up at this hour was quite late for me.

As I tried to cope with the headache from the hangover, I noticed that I had apparently slept without even changing out of my clothes. I washed my face with cold water and changed my clothes. After tidying up the messy room, it was almost 4 PM. When I checked my smartphone, I saw messages from Professor Seo and Seo Jae-Ah.

Professor Seo’s message contained details about the interview schedule and information, while Seo Jae-Ah sent me her written novel.

I checked Professor Seo’s message first, and the date was sooner than I had expected. Next Thursday… and since today was Wednesday, it meant that it would be happening right away in a week. This interview spot was probably a fill-in, likely because the originally scheduled writer had some issue, and I was taking their place.

By the way, the journalist’s name sounded somewhat familiar. Jin Seo-hye…? I felt like I had heard that name before, but I couldn’t remember. It was unlikely that any name I recognized would be a good thing. I started to feel a bit anxious.

I searched the internet to see if there were any articles written by that journalist, but there were hardly any results. Was she a newcomer? I found two or three articles, but nothing particularly strange stood out.

In the end, since I couldn’t find anything specific, I decided to stop worrying about the journalist and looked at the novel Seo Jae-Ah had sent me. It was a fairly substantial short story. After taking the time to read the entire story, I managed to get a sense of it.

Although reading just this one story wouldn’t allow me to grasp everything about Seo Jae-Ah, it still revealed more about the author than I had anticipated.

However, what I saw was somewhat different from what I had imagined. The direction in which she chose me as her tutor didn’t seem like a very good choice. Well, it was better to discuss such things in person.

I felt a bit anxious about Friday.

So, I needed to prepare.

~

On Friday, after having lunch, I naturally headed to the meeting place, which was the university’s study room that I had informed Seo Jae-Ah about beforehand. I thought it would be hard to book a place during exam season, but thanks to Professor Seo, I was able to reserve a convenient location.

While heading to the study room, I heard a voice.

“Oh, senior.”

I had only one person in this university who called me that.

I ran into Muk Ha-neul, who was carrying a quite heavy-looking stack of books. Despite having had such incidents in the past, it seemed she still hadn’t severed ties with me.

“Oh, hey.”

As I returned her greeting, Muk Ha-neul smiled brightly.

“What brings you all the way here?”

“I have some things to do.”

“Oh, I see.”

Muk Ha-neul seemed to want to say more, but I decided to ignore it and tried to walk past her.

Just as I passed Muk Ha-neul, a loud noise suddenly came from behind. It was the sound of books falling. Muk Ha-neul had tripped.

“Ouch….”

Even for me, it was impossible to pretend I didn’t see her in this situation. Ultimately, I took a deep breath and began to help pick up the books.

“Thank you, senior….”

“It’s nothing.”

I found it a bit annoying that there was no obstacle or slipperiness, yet she still tripped, and she didn’t seem to have hurt herself. After gathering all the books, I carried most of them and spoke.

“Fortunately, there’s still some time.”

“Where are you going?”

“Are you going to help?”

“Yeah.”

“Um… I’m heading to Professor Yoon’s office.”

“Where’s that?”

“It’s in the same building as Professor Seo’s office.”

Fortunately, it wasn’t too far away.

“I don’t have to carry so much, you know. I’ll carry some more.”

“It’s fine. What’s a girl doing?”

Upon hearing that, Muk Ha-neul’s expression slightly stiffened. Perhaps I hadn’t managed my expression well.

There was hardly any conversation while we walked to the intended location. Muk Ha-neul remained silent, and I didn’t have anything particular to talk about. Only after we arrived did she finally speak up.

“Thank you for carrying them, senior.”

I was glad she knew enough to express her gratitude.

“It’s nothing.”

“Um, can I ask what brought you here today?”

I clearly remembered that I had deflected mentioning it earlier. I felt a bit irritated for a moment but just told her.

“Professor Seo asked me to tutor his kid. Nothing special.”

Upon hearing that, Muk Ha-neul’s expression stiffened slightly, and she asked.

“Is it a girl?”

“It’s a boy.”

I couldn’t help but feel amused at the way Muk Ha-neul visibly relaxed at my answer.

“Oh, I see.”

“I’m going now.”

“Oh, so will you be coming here regularly from now on?”

“Maybe.”

Without waiting for her reply, I turned away. From behind, Muk Ha-neul shouted, “I’ll see you later!”

I didn’t respond.

When I checked the time on my smartphone, I realized I was slightly late. I hurriedly made my way to the study room. As I arrived, I caught sight of Seo Jae-Ah looking at her smartphone.

“Did you come?”

“Ah, sorry. I got a bit held up.”

“It’s okay.”

Jae-Ah didn’t seem to mind that I was late.

“Actually, I saw. You helped Ha-neul, right?”

“You know Muk Ha-neul?”

“I’ve met her a few times at my dad’s office. Are you two dating?”

Dating? No. That kind of relationship definitely wasn’t the case. Muk Ha-neul might have some feelings for me, but not me for her.

Just because I didn’t like girls didn’t mean that I liked boys. However, I wasn’t in a position to have the luxury to love someone.

Of course, Muk Ha-neul was an attractive woman. For a girl, she was obedient and reasonably intelligent. While her body might have left a bit to be desired, her face was pretty, as Jae-Ah had said. However, I found it hard to see Muk Ha-neul as the ideal type I was looking for.

“Wow, you don’t care about someone pretty like Ha-neul?”

“I only like women who write better than I do.”

“Is there even such a person in the world?”

“If you look for it, there might be.”

“No, who would your ideal type be if it’s someone like that?”

“Touché.”

I brushed aside Jae-Ah’s teasing and we got started with the tutoring. I first printed out and lightly annotated Jae-Ah’s novel and handed it over.

“I’ve corrected minor typos and grammatical issues. I’ve added some comments, so give it a read.”

“It’s more detailed than I expected.”

Once Jae-Ah received the story, she read the printed pages with a serious look on her face. After reading it all, she had a puzzled expression.

“Guess you’re not an author for nothing.”

“Why the long face though?”

“…Just because.”

“I get the gist of it. Shall we start for real now?”

“Alright.”

“Put that printout away. That’s based on what Professor Seo and your dad want, so it’s not needed right now.”

At my words, Jae-Ah looked puzzled and surprised.

“What do you mean?”

“Of course, if you’re going to major in Creative Writing later and want to stand in the literary scene, then it would make sense to follow what I’ve organized in that printout. That’s likely what the professor and your dad expect too. But you’re not aiming for that, are you?”

“…I’m not?”

“What you want to write isn’t pure literature.”

Jae-Ah visibly flinched and looked shocked. I could feel that vividly in her novel. She was awkwardly trying to mimic pure literature while, in the end, her writing was that of someone desiring genre.

“How did you know? Can you tell that from just one story?”

“It’s obvious. I might not know what genre you’re aiming for, but reading it would reveal that you aren’t writing for the literary circle. The professor probably noticed that too.”

“Does Dad know?”

“That’s why he sent me to ask a few things.”

However, what Professor Seo likely didn’t anticipate was that I had no intention of going along with his wishes.

“That’s right. I don’t want to write like my dad.”

“Why not?”

“It’s… not fun.”

I smiled with a sense of regret. Well, that wasn’t incorrect. That was essentially Professor Seo’s doctrine. Stories weren’t supposed to be fun. Reading them was supposed to be painful. Writing them was no different. I couldn’t deny that I shared some sympathy with those sentiments based on what I learned from him.

Kafka said, “True reading is reading books that can pierce and wound you, it must surely be an axe for the frozen sea within us.”

I felt this in my bones every time I wrote.

If you were to ask me to write entertainment or genre fiction purely for fun, I wouldn’t do it even if a knife were at my throat. That’s not what true literature is.

But that didn’t mean I intended to deny Seo Jae-Ah’s writing. Everyone had the freedom to write what they want and express themselves. Even if it was a wrong path, the choice was theirs.

So, I fully intended to help Seo Jae-Ah take risks, fail, and break down as much as she needed. She was still young enough to try, fail, and break down. She had time to rise again.

“True, in the end, you should write what you find fun, right?”

For that purpose, I spent a few sleepless nights reading web novels for the first time in my life. Although it was entirely for Jae-Ah’s tutoring, I couldn’t deny that I found it entertaining.

“To be honest, I don’t really know what kind of story you want to write. I haven’t read much, and of course, I’ve never written anything like it. So for this tutoring to go well, both you and I will have to study a lot. But I’m not going to deny the writing you want to do. So I want you to tell me first.”

What do you want to write?

After hesitating for a while, Jae-Ah finally spoke in a small voice.

“…This.”

Since I didn’t hear her well, I asked again.

“What?”

“Ge-geography….”

“I’m sorry, is my hearing bad? Could you say that one more time?”

“Geography!”

Hearing those words, I nodded. Ah, geography.

Erm, geography?

…?

“What is geography?”

The tutoring was starting off on the wrong foot from the very beginning.

---