Big Life Chapter 2.2

Chapter 2 part 2 – It’s an Incredible Gift

“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 Jaein. 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.

Chapter end