Chapter 133: Chapter 133 – A Sparkling Gem (2)
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
“Now, we’ll be taking some time to introduce ourselves to the new member of the club,” Mr. Moon said as he sat on the chair that he dragged out from behind the podium. With the exception of Bo Suk, everyone nodded enthusiastically. It was a sign of experience.
“Bo Suk Noh.”
“Yes?”
“You choose.”
While she responded confidently to Mr. Moon, she was puzzled by his choice of words. At that, Mr. Moon explained by using the club members as an example, “You may choose to write your self-introduction out if you don’t wish to speak in front of people. What’s it going to be?”
“Uh… I’ll write it out then.”
“Good. We have a stack of papers over there. Feel free to take as many as you need.”
“Yes, Mr. Moon.”
At that moment, Sun Hwa raised her hand and asked, “What about us? What are we gonna do?”
“The same thing,” Mr. Moon answered with a smile.
“Again?!” the club members roared. Who would’ve thought that they would be writing yet another self-introduction?
“It’s not just Bo Suk’s first time meeting you guys. There’s no such a thing as one-way traffic in interpersonal relationships, so you guys should rightfully introduce yourselves to her.”
“I guess that true…”
“But what about you, Mr. Moon?”
“I already did it. While I stood behind the podium.”
Bo Suk studied the expressions on the veteran club members’ faces timidly as they grew darker and darker. She must have felt uncomfortable. While looking at her intently, Juho opened his mouth and said, “Fine. It’s not even that difficult anyway. Besides, I’m confident that I can do a better job the second time.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself now. What are you going to write about this time, seasoned mackerel?” Mr. Moon asked.
Springing up from her seat, Sun Hwa took the initiative to take a sheet from the stack of papers. Bom followed immediately and grabbed enough paper for herself and Bo Suk. Juho and Seo Kwang took out their own as they had some left from the year before. At that moment, Baron stood tall from his seat.
“Are you going to write, Baron?”
“Yeah. I am in the Literature Club after all. It doesn’t hurt to write from time to time,” he answered as he closed his sketchbook and placed the paper on top of it.
“What do I write? Ugh, I’m gonna end up being a master in self-introductions at this rate,” Seo Kwang grumbled as he picked up his pen. Self-introductions had been a struggle for him since the previous year.
“Don’t you have more to write about than last year?” Juho asked Seo Kwang.
“Eh?!”
“You have a goal now.”
Having understood Juho, Seo Kwang gave no response. What Juho said didn’t necessarily apply only to Seo Kwang. From Sun Hwa, who had watched Bom quietly as she had written a self-introduction that had been nearly identical to hers, to Baron, who was writing his very first self-introduction, everyone had to have evolved as writers, hence they were capable of writing better self-introductions.
“Well, same goes for you too, doesn’t it?” Seo Kwang said quietly
“Huh?!”
Seo Kwang’s voice was filled with playfulness.
“What do you think about introducing your second name? Pretending you’re Yun Woo, that is.”
“That doesn’t sound bad.”
“OK. Get set. Write!” Mr. Moon shouted.
At that moment, Juho stopped him as he was about to rush out of the room.
“Mr. Moon?”
“Yes?”
“May I go to the computer room when I’m done?”
There was a story that Juho had to write, and the computer room had become an environment safe enough to write in. Besides, he would be in school only for so long.
In response to Juho’s question, Mr. Moon nodded enthusiastically.
“Sure, as long as you don’t half-ass your way through.”
“Of course not.”
As he stepped out of the room, Juho picked up his pen immediately and began to write, starting with his favorite genres of music, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Heavy Metal, and the songs by the woman with the guitar.
“He’s so fast…” Bo Suk murmured, and Juho’s hand came to a sudden halt.
“Did you say something?”
“Huh?” she asked while wearing a flustered expression. However, Juho resumed as if nothing had happened.
“I am on the faster side. You see, I happen to be somewhat of a decent writer.”
“… Right.”
“Don’t mind him. He’s like that,” Sun Hwa said as she finished the first line of her self-introduction. Juho flipped to the next page.
“Don’t even dare to mimic him. It’s not possible,” Seo Kwang said to Bo Suk. To which Bom answered, “I heard it’s still good to write without hesitation. You know, not being afraid when you write.”
‘Are they telling me to mimic him or not?’ Bo Suk asked herself with an even more confused expression on her face.
Then, Baron chimed in to clarify, “In other words, write whatever the heck you want.”
“Ah. I see.”
As per the advices she had received from the club members, she immersed herself in thought. Unfortunately, her attention was short-lived as she looked up at a member putting down his pen as if he had finished writing.
“Well, bye now,” Juho said as he rose from his seat. There were ten pages worth of writing on his desk.
“Revealing your true self, I see. How did you manage to hold back for so long?”
“I didn’t have to. I just took it slow, that’s all. Besides, isn’t it better for you that I’m not here?”
Juho was referring to the new volume of ‘The Language of God,’ to which Seo Kwang answered, “Godspeed, my good sir.”
With his peer’s support, Juho picked up his notebook and writing tools.
“Take your time,” Juho said to the new member, and then walked out of the room and closed the door.
By the time his footsteps faded away completely, Bo Suk opened her mouth and asked, “Just how good of a writer is he?”
Locking eyes, Sun Hwa and Bom thought simultaneously, ‘As good as Yun Woo, probably?’
“We got his autograph.”
“An autograph?”
“He’s Juho Woo. You know, the author of ‘Grains of Sand,’” Bom said with a mischievous smile.
As the freshman expressed her unfamiliarity with it, Seo Kwang explained in a friendly manner, “Most freshmen don’t know about the book, most likely.”
Just as he had said, all of the posters had been retrieved in order to make room on the bulletin board for flyers containing information about after school classes.
However, their stories remained in the library. Although the number of visitors had decreased noticeably, they were available to be read at any time.
“You should go check it out some time,” he added.
Seeing that Bo Suk hadn’t written anything, Bom asked, “Are you stuck?”
“I just don’t know where to start. I was kind of distracted by Juho as well,” Bo Suk said as she followed Bom’s eyes looking at her paper.
She brushed her hand down the paper. It was a texture that she was unfamiliar with. Unless one regularly attended a private institute for writing, it was rare for them to get their hands on the graph-like, manuscript paper.
“As long as it’s about you, you can write just about anything. Things you like or dislike, or you’re good or bad at. You can also write about how you came to join the Literature Club, or what you were doing before joining the club.”
“You can also write about grilled mackerel,” Seo Kwang interjected all of a sudden. Threatening him so he wouldn’t interrupt, Sun Hwa asked Bo Suk, “Which club were you a part of in middle school?”
“I was part of Table Tennis Club.”
It was a rather unexpected answer.
“Table tennis, huh? Was it fun?”
“Yes.”
“That’s incredible!” Bom complimented, and Bo Suk waved her hand in denial.
Then, Sun Hwa added, “We have a Table Tennis Club, don’t we?”
With that, the freshman dropped her head slightly.
“I lost interest. I was scolded a lot for not trying hard enough back then.”
“Oh, no. You must have been pretty good then. That would explain why you were being scolded.”
“Not necessarily. I was actually mediocre,” Bo Suk said as she smiled quietly.
“A-ha! You’re the type who has to be above average with everything, huh?” Seo Wang asked.
“So, what brought you to the Literate Club?”
“I thought it would be a lazy club.”
“Ah.”
“I see.”
The three veteran club members glanced quietly at Baron, but he paid no attention to them.
“Do you not like to write?” Bom asked, but Bo Suk hesiated. Her reason for joining the club was too impure to say that she liked to write, and she was reluctant to tell a sophomore that she didn’t.
“You can do something else then”
“Something else?”
“Yeah, like Baron. He’s the sole artist in the club.”
“… I don’t follow.”
“It’s exactly as I said. Baron draws.”
While Bo Suk had been assuming that from his sketchbook or the conversation between the club members’, she barely managed to swallow the question, “Then, why isn’t he in the Art Club?”
“I’m not afraid to be an exception,” Baron told her, seeing the confusion that was obvious on Bo Suk’s face.
Although she didn’t quite understand how his answer was relevant to drawing, Bo Suk nodded quietly because it was apparent that Baron was the only exception that stood out in the room.
“I’ll just stick to writing,” she said.
Bo Suk had no intention of doing other things. If anything, she was planning on going with the flow. Though she had realized that she was not in a lazy club long ago, she didn’t try to change her mind. To her, being in the Literature Club was no more than participating in club activities. She didn’t feel the need to go out her way to reconsider her decision.
With the help of the club members, she barely managed to start writing. Thankfully, it wasn’t all that difficult once she actually started. The beginning was always the most difficult challenge. With that, the sound of scribbling filled about the room.
“All done?” Bom asked. She was in charge of collecting the papers and bringing it to Mr. Moon.
Nodding, Bo Suk submitted her paper.
“Juho took his paper, right?”
“Yeah, it’s not on his desk.”
His introduction had to be within his notebook, which he had picked up on his way out. It was a frequent occurrence due to his habit of taking every sheet of manuscript paper with him.
As Bom rose from her seat to go upstairs to the computer room, the freshman came into her view. She had asked how good of a writer Juho was. Unfortunately, it was a question that would take more than words to answer. Without seeing with her own eyes, she would have no idea how viciously and desperate Juho wrote. Handing her the stack of papers she had collected, Bom asked, “Do you wanna come with?”
“Huh?”
“Juho. Aren’t you curious? We can collect his paper too while we’re there.”
Although Bo Suk was no longer curious about Juho, she couldn’t turn down an offer from an upperclassman, so she rose from her seat.
“OK.”
“Do you know where Mr. Moon is? Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, thank you. I know where he is. I’ll be back.”
Although it was her first time going to the computer room, it wasn’t all that difficult to find. With a stack of papers in her hand, she walked through the hallway and made her way toward the computer room.
Upon arriving, she saw the computers lined up back to back through the windows. She contemplated knocking, but soon concluded that she might disturb him. As she opened the door quietly, she was welcomed by the vicious sound of the keyboard.
Things started to look better.
Juho was in the mid-to-late stages of writing the ‘Language of God.’ Conflict and resolution, and yet another conflict. The four companions were distinctively different from each other in both personality and wishes. They had different jobs, values, appearances, and names. Conflict existed at every corner.
Quietly, Juho took a deep breath. While writing ‘The Language of God,’ he was feeling a sense of bliss that he had never felt before. Because the world was so massive, he felt the need to match his pace to his work.
It was almost like stretching, like using muscles that he hadn’t been using. While massaging stiff shoulders accompanied pain and toil, the reward was refreshing. No matter how loud he shouted, it would be barely audible.
For that reason, Juho had to focus. Keeping the overall flow of the story in his mind, he marked his way through the forest with pieces of cloth. He didn’t forget nor lose anything. It was entirely up to him what kind of creatures lived in that forest or what kind of dangers or events awaited the companions.
He concentrated all the more. Broken branches, chipped rocks, unexplainable sounds, the beating heart. He wanted to embody them all in their purest forms in the world that he had created.
He wrote. He couldn’t afford to lose track of the characters’ mentality, so he examined his story carefully for any errors he might have overlooked.
Suddenly, the keyboard stopped making noise, and Juho glanced over his monitor.
There was a familiar face there. It was Bo Suk, the sparkling gem.
