Chapter 122

“Then Editor, what do you think should be done with these soldiers?”

At Author Na Bit’s question, I was rather flustered.

What should be done?

If she was asking for a better development, nothing particularly came to mind.

In the work, those soldiers solemnly sacrificed themselves and opened the protagonist’s path.

So there was no need to do anything else with them.

They had served their purpose for the development, and giving them any more narrative would be superfluous.

“No, I think it is good as it is.”

“……?”

“I do not think there is any need to touch it. In terms of development, or as a device. What I said was just…….”

Feedback that went back and forth like this.

To cover my mistake, I chose my words.

Then my eyes met Author Na Bit’s as she looked at me.

That author was observing me with clear eyes.

“……It was just something that included my personal feelings. Please ignore it.”

Feeling as if something had been seen through, I gave up making excuses and spoke honestly.

Author Na Bit looked at me like that for a moment, then smiled faintly.

---

We talked about the work for a long time.

When our conversation ended, the street outside the window had already gone dark.

And in front of me were 2 empty coffee cups; in front of Author Na Bit was a plate with only traces of strawberry cake left.

“Haa, thank you so much. Editor.”

Author Na Bit spoke with a much brighter face.

“Thanks to you, I feel certain now. I think I was right to change the ending.”

If we were only considering the work’s completion, yes, but whether the publisher would like hearing this was another matter.

“I hope the conversation goes well with your current editor too.”

“Ah, yes…… It should…….”

When I brought up reality, Author Na Bit became tense again.

She looked like she wanted to hide somewhere, but since she had already done what she had done, surely she would not disappear even in this situation…….

In many ways, may you be strong, comrades of the publishing company.

It was when I was slowly preparing to get up.

“Um, Editor.”

“Yes?”

“The ‘personal feelings’ you mentioned earlier. May I ask what they were?”

“……?”

“Ah, I am not trying to pry into your private life. I have just been curious for a while. Even if I write to show a red apple, there are always readers who focus more on the plate or fork instead. So I wondered why they do that, and what you said earlier felt similar to that.”

“…….”

What do I do?

I had become the kind of person who ignored the author’s intent and nitpicked after fixating on something trivial.

“Earlier, yes, I was a little.”

“Ah, I do not mean that is bad. It is the opposite, actually.”

When I became awkward, Author Na Bit hurriedly waved her hand.

“Sometimes there are readers who interpret things in far greater ways than I intended, so I think it is good for the work to expand that way too.”

“There are often cases where you stumble into something that way.”

“Right. If I just keep my mouth shut there, readers will think I intended it all the way to that point.”

Author Na Bit did not decline a windfall she had stumbled into.

At the sight of Author Na Bit smiling while pretending to be a schemer, I too ended up laughing.

Yes, readers’ individual perspectives were also an important element in completing a work.

Even when looking at the same work, readers each discovered different things.

One reader watched the protagonist’s growth, while another focused on the theme that pierced through the beginning and end of the work.

Another reader might even create romance between characters from a single line of text.

Like this, there was one work, but the meaning of that work expanded infinitely through its readers.

Knowing this habit of readers was also a great asset for an author.

Perhaps because of that, Author Na Bit showed interest even in the “personal feelings” I had revealed.

“Did you perhaps recently read a cold-hearted war novel?”

“No, that is not it.”

I gave a hollow laugh at the guess Author Na Bit had tossed out casually.

Then, out of loyalty as a former editor, I took that bait.

“Recently, by chance, I came to know people who do something similar.”

“Soldiers?”

“Similar.”

“Are you close to them?”

“No, not at all.”

At my quick denial, Author Na Bit looked at me in puzzlement.

At that, I shook my head again.

Because they were not people with whom closeness or lack of closeness applied.

We shared hardship in one building and shared life and death, but in the end, it was only a cooperative relationship where our interests aligned.

It truly was not a relationship where I could discuss personal closeness.

At my firm denial, Author Na Bit asked back.

“You came to know them recently and you are not close to them, so why did personal feelings form……?”

Exactly……?

I nearly answered in a dazed tone, then came to my senses.

Then I searched inside my head and brought out a more rational answer.

“The work those people do is not universal. So I think it bothers me.”

“What kind of work do they do?”

What kind of work?

“It is difficult to tell you specifically, but it is dangerous, has no completeness, and cannot be predicted. People are doing work where they can be badly injured or perhaps even die, and at least they are paid a lot, but even that is all hazard pay, and no matter how much they suffer, they cannot receive recognition, and rather only get cursed at, and there are almost no visible results. It is the kind of work that is good for ruining the body and mind.”

After saying it, I realized.

That I thought the Bureau was truly strange.

And Author Na Bit became serious along with me.

“Is it legal work……?”

“It is legal work.”

“Is it work that absolutely must be done?”

“It is work someone has to do.”

“Answer, firefighters?”

“No. Firefighters need better treatment.”

“Ah…….”

Come to think of it, the work of Bureau agents was similar to that of firefighters too.

The problem was that they were firefighters in an extreme situation where large wildfires broke out almost every month.

Where obituaries from the team next door were heard every time one was about to forget.

Where personnel were not replenished.

Where sometimes, they had to silently watch citizens burn to death in the wildfire.

While I nodded to myself, Author Na Bit asked again.

“What part of that bothers you, Editor?”

“Generally everything bothers me. Because I wonder whether that is truly work a person should be doing.”

“Aha…….”

Manager Kwon Mu-seop had said that.

Think about why your seniors are enduring.

If you understand that, you endure with them, and if you do not, then that is as far as you go.

After hearing those words, I had thought about it several times, but I still did not know.

Why do you people stubbornly stay in your places while repeatedly boiling and cooling like that every time?

You are not in a position where you are tied down unwillingly like me.

He said if I did not understand it, that was as far as I would go, but regardless of whether I understood, I had to endure anyway.

So I was in a position where I could never understand you, who endured of your own will.

Author Na Bit thought deeply about something, then opened her mouth again.

“Editor, do you think their situation is unjust?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“Are they being forced to do that work?”

“I do not think anyone does that work because they like it.”

“Can they quit that work on their own?”

“Yes. If they make up their minds.”

“But why are they continuing to do that work?”

“Probably because of responsibility, mostly.”

Author Na Bit asked me questions one after another, then thought something over again.

After a while, Author Na Bit, having finished organizing her thoughts, said to me,

“So in other words, there is extremely dangerous work, and although they do not have to do it, there are people who have taken it on because of responsibility. And because you feel their situation is unjust, you emotionally identify with the soldiers in the novel too, Editor?”

“…….”

“Editor.”

“Yes.”

“Are you truly not close to these people?”

Author Na Bit repeated the question she had asked before.

I was rendered speechless as I was.

There had been no lies in what I had said to Author Na Bit so far.

The people of the Bureau and I were not in a relationship where closeness or lack of closeness applied.

I truly thought so.

That was the same even now.

But the conversation I had continued with Author Na Bit pointed to an entirely different fact, so amid bewilderment, I had no choice but to acknowledge it.

“It seems I have become fairly attached to them…….”

“Right?”

At my honest confession, Author Na Bit nodded.

And I let out a sigh at my belated realization.

Somehow…….

So that was why.

Why the way the Bureau operated had been especially sickening to me for the past few days.

Without realizing it, I had been bothered.

By Kwak Jae-gyeom being stuck in the Bureau.

By Cha Si-eon putting his life on the line at every turn.

By Baek Sa-ra going out on exploration missions again.

By Kwon Mu-seop receiving the autopsy results of an old colleague.

In other words, I had come to dislike them doing the work they had always done.

Literally because I had become attached to them.

Once I realized that, I felt strangely hollow.

In the meantime, Author Na Bit said,

“But I think it is naturally good.”

“Yes?”

“The people you mentioned, Editor. They are literally heroic, and extremely cool.”

“No, they are not necessarily…….”

I was aghast at Author Na Bit’s words.

Heroic, of all things.

It was only because I had spoken of the good parts, but they were a group for whom compromise over human lives came naturally.

They were also very irritable people whose attitudes flipped like turning over a hand depending on the situation.

But even so, they endured in that boiling place.

In the end, I tried to deny Author Na Bit’s words, then stopped.

Instead, after some inner conflict, I added this.

“There is a little of that side to them.”

---

4 months was not a short time.

Unfamiliar things became familiar, and strengths and weaknesses were generally grasped.

And it was time enough that becoming attached could not be helped.

After parting with Author Na Bit, I contacted Jae-gyeom.

The Bureau did not leave me to go out alone.

There was almost no possibility, but if I got into even a traffic accident, it would be a major problem.

So today too, I had come out with Kwak Jae-gyeom, and Jae-gyeom had decided to wait at another nearby café so I could meet the author comfortably.

I had told him in advance that it might take a long time, but I had made him wait too long.

It was when I sent Jae-gyeom a text and waited at the café.

“You are Mr. Seo Do-un, correct?”

A woman spoke to me.

She was a young woman with unusually black pupils and a tear mole.

She was a person whose long, narrow eyes and glamorous features drew the eye, but since my name had suddenly been called, I was only flustered and asked back,

“Who are you?”

“My name is Kim Ji-an.”

The woman, Kim Ji-an, revealed her name and held out her smartphone screen to me.

“…….”

What Kim Ji-an showed me was a photo.

A photo of the woman in front of me, Kim Ji-an, taken together with the Head of the Research Division, Acting Team Leader Oh Tae-o, and others.

Is this person part of the Bureau?

No, if she were from the Bureau, there was no way she would approach me like this.

I looked once over Kim Ji-an’s shoulder.

Wondering whether there were more companions of hers in the café.

But there was no one else watching this way.

While I looked around the café, Kim Ji-an flipped the smartphone screen and showed me a new photo.

“Do you remember this child?”

What Kim Ji-an showed me was a photo of some girl.

A girl who seemed to have just become a middle schooler…….

“Lee Sol……?”

I barely recognized the girl in that photo.

The gap of 4 months was too long for me to immediately recognize a child I had seen only twice.

And when I recognized Lee Sol in the photo, Kim Ji-an grabbed my hand and said,

“Please help.”

Kim Ji-an’s hand that touched mine was cold.

And trembling desperately.