The Empire of Senses (2)
The Empire of Senses.
The legendary Japanese film released in 1976. A film that pushed sex, death, and love to their extremes, it still lived on in film history as a controversial work.
Anyone who claimed to know a little about art couldn’t just breeze past a theme like this. So I picked three works from independent magazines: Cooking, X, Murder; Blue Sunlight; and The Touch of Evergreen Skin. By the standards of unpublished writers, they were good pieces, of course, but more importantly, they felt freshly artistic.
That was how the three feeds came to be. The The Empire of Senses (1) “Taste” feed held the review of Cooking, X, Murder; The Empire of Senses (2) “Dazzle” held the review of Blue Sunlight; and The Empire of Senses (3) “Softness” held the review of The Touch of Evergreen Skin.
Still, man, social media really was terrifying. I’d never even glanced at Enstar before. Yet that morning alone, I must have gone in and out of it dozens of times. Every small increase in followers or likes lifted my mood, and before long I had muttered to myself over lunch, “Why aren’t the follow-ers going up?”
“Huh? What was that?” Yang, my senior, asked around a mouthful of rice.
“Ah, nothing.”
I needed to watch my mouth. If my seniors found out, anonymity or not, I’d be done for. Still, I suppose I was a modern person after all. A mere twenty-four hours after making the account, I was already starving for followers.
Forget lofty reasons. I just wanted more followers. My instincts wanted attention.
Then, one afternoon while I was deep in work, a DM arrived on the Soop account.
“!”
A familiar account. It was Park Jeong-shin.
[Are you MHS?]
…What a ghost. How had he figured it out? In the world of social media, beating him was impossible.
I’d better confess voluntarily.
[Yeah.]
[LOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL I knew it. From the thumbnail to the very last image, it was completely my style, so I knew it was you. Ooooh, and you’ve got double-digit followers already after just one day? As expected, I taught you well.]
[Is that a lot?]
[At this stage, that’s a solid start.]
[I’m not really sure. I still need more, though.]
I slipped the words out casually.
[Could you get me some followers?]
Exactly.
Park Jeong-shin, as expected, was sharp when it came to this sort of thing.
[If I don’t have to reveal my name and it can be mostly literature readers, sure?]
[You need my novel, don’t you?]
Fine, fine. I’d do it. [Yeah.]
[LOL. Good. Wait half a day.]
[You’re doing a live broadcast?]
[That would be too crude.]
So he knew that much.
[I’ll do it elegantly. Wait for it.]
That afternoon, Park Jeong-shin posted a new story and feed entry on Enstar.
He tagged the Soop account in that post, along with every publishing house, reading group, and academy account he could find. Park Jeong-shin had always poured his soul into social media, and his reach was more impressive than I’d expected...
Et cetera. The comments exploded.
What made me laugh the hardest was this:
But the next day, something unexpected happened.
Someone sent me a DM.
[Are you with ZZ?]
The content was impossible to ignore. I replied at once.
[No, I’m not.]
[Ah... I’m a freelance editor who works with ZZ, and while we’re revamping it, the works we planned to run overlap with the works in your “Empire of Senses” series....]
Overlap with the titles ZZ planned to publish in its renovation issue?
[Can you prove it?]
[Yes.]
The other person sent me a screenshot of an email.
It had been sent by Jang Hee-soo to an editor, and it contained the list of five novels to be included in the revamp.
Cooking, X, Murder.
Blue Sunlight.
The Essence of Disguise.
The Chronicle of Count Orhan.
The Touch of Evergreen Skin.
The date was a month earlier. There was no sign the image had been tampered with.
“…Jang Hee-soo isn’t ordinary either.”
With that kind of eye, she’d be an ace anywhere she went in publishing. At any rate, if I pretended not to know, ZZ’s revamp would be blown apart. At best, they’d just be accused of copying Soop. At worst, the blowback might hit me too. I might even wind up carrying the accusation that I’d stolen ZZ’s information and gotten there first.
Sounds absurd?
On social media, accusation alone was enough to make someone guilty. That was simply how it worked. But for now, the disadvantaged party was, in any case, Jang Hee-soo.
“Hmm. What am I supposed to do with this?”
Should I press forward and ruin ZZ? Because Soop had nothing to lose?
No.
The problem wasn’t that I had nothing to lose.
I had a great deal to do with Soop. Right. I’d decided. For the time being, I had no choice but to coexist with Jang Hee-soo.
[You can contact the ZZ side, right?]
[Yes.]
[Then how about we handle it like this?]
─┼
The moment Jang Hee-soo discovered the Soop account, she was shocked.
No, shocked didn’t even cover it.
Her head rang as if someone had struck it. “Who the hell is this person?”
These were works she had chosen after combing through dozens of independent magazines. She had agonized over them for months, then agonized again.
And then, in one day, some account called Soop had posted a feed series about them.
And it had done so in an extremely attractive way. At first, she thought another independent magazine was messing with her.
But no clear evidence turned up.
Then the only thing left was an appallingly unlucky coincidence.
Her face stiffened like a plaster statue.
No matter how she turned it over in her mind, she couldn’t find an answer.
Should she contact Soop?
Ask them to post a notice saying they had nothing to do with this side?
Why the hell should they do something that annoying?
Then should she choose a different set of works for ZZ’s revamp?
Was that even possible now?
Could she still meet the printing schedule that had already been locked in?
It was a situation so suffocating there was no answer to be found anywhere. Then, just then—
Vrrrrr. Vrrrrr. Vrrrrr.
Her freelance editor, with whom she had worked for years, called her. “Yes. Editor-nim... yes. Yes, I saw it. Haah... I don’t even know what to do either... What? You contacted them?”
She shot to her feet.
“What did they say? ...Huh? Really? Already? I-I’ll check it myself.”
Jang Hee-soo hung up and went into Enstar.
Once she found the Soop account, there was already a notice posted there in image form.
The first image.
White background, stern black letters.
I received a DM from an anonymous tipster.
Anonymous. Tipster. DM.
There wasn’t a single word in it that failed to draw attention.
Something like this had gone up on a newly rising Enstar account?
People would be unable to resist looking.
I heard the Empire of Senses series overlaps with the lineup of a certain independent magazine scheduled for a revamp release soon.
Soop is not affiliated with any independent publisher,
and I would like to state that this incident is entirely coincidental.
At the end, it even lightened the tension with: Everyone seems to have a similar eye for people.^^;;
“Haaah....”
Jang Hee-soo covered her face and let out a long breath. “I thought I was going to die.” She took off her glasses and pressed hard at the corners of her eyes. She did not trust the animal called human beings. But this time, she was insanely grateful to Soop.
In this barren world, there was actually someone this warm and ethical.
She couldn’t just sit still.
Jang Hee-soo sent Soop a DM, explained her situation, and thanked them. [You saved the breath that nearly left ZZ’s body.]
When she wrote that line, oddly enough, tears almost welled up. But Soop did not answer. Maybe this person doesn’t do private conversation.
[Would it be all right if I post a ZZ notice about this? I think it’d be better if both sides put something out.]
She asked for permission politely, and all that came back was a thumbs-up emoji.
What a clean way to handle things.
She immediately posted a notice on ZZ’s Enstar account.
ZZ had nothing to do with Soop, and the post also thanked Soop for their swift response.
The core independent-magazine readers following ZZ saw it, and of course they were swallowed up by Soop as well.
─┼
A month passed.
I kept updating the feed steadily, and Soop showed a steep growth curve.
Every time I looked at the account, I found myself smiling with satisfaction. And there was one more thing.
The literary world had begun to recognize Soop.
Soop did not yet have enough followers to shake the entire literary establishment, but that wasn’t the issue.
What mattered was the situation itself: an obscure independent-magazine piece was being illuminated.
That alone could not be ignored.
Today there was a meeting for Editorial Team 1.
The meeting ended without incident, and then, all of a sudden, Team Leader said, “Have you all seen the Soop account?”
“Of course. Everyone’s been talking about it lately.”
I answered lightly, almost playfully.
The reason I was acting this way was Senior Kim. He knew about what had happened between me and writer Yomo. See? Even now he was staring at me with a faint, suspicious look in his eyes.
Senior Yoon said, “Getting the algorithm right for the people doing Bookstagram and was a stroke of genius. Ah, Team Leader. I heard sales for the independent-magazine market have gone up a lot too?”
“So they say. Even established writers are buzzing about it.”
“I think Soop was built as a perfect trinity. The eye-catching title Empire of Senses, the attention-grabbing works themselves, and then the outrageously good interpretations on top of that. Beautiful.”
“I agree,” I chimed in when Senior Yang spoke.
Senior Kim narrowed his eyes at me.
Team Leader said, “Anyway, this trend is meaningful. Team Leader Jang from PR has been thinking hard about how to use it. In fact, they wanted to interview the account owner, but the Soop account refused. Said the timing wasn’t right.”
That was true. I had refused.
Senior Yang suddenly burst out laughing. “Haha. What is he, some god’s son? ‘The time is not ripe yet.’”
“Independent-magazine fans are treating the account like a god, though, aren’t they?” Senior Kim said, still looking only at me. “Independent magazines have never become this famous. Everyone’s desperate to know who Soop is, Mok.”
“Yes.”
“Any critic around you who seems likely?”
“No, not at all. I’m curious myself, Senior.”
After the meeting ended, Senior Kim trailed after me on my way back to my seat.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“Soop.”
“No, it isn’t. I’m busy. I’m already working two jobs as an office worker and a critic. And look at me.” I tapped my chest firmly. “Do I look like the type to do something like that just because I’m hung up on followers?”
“...Well. You’re not that kind of character.”
Ah, Senior Kim.
He simply didn’t know me well enough.
“Sigh... then who is it? I was sure it was Mok Hyunsun.”
After he left, looking puzzled, Team Leader came to me.
“Mok, to the editor-in-chief’s office.”
The editor-in-chief wanted to see me.
I looked at the calendar, thinking of the publication date and schedule for the summer issue of Gyeongseong Geul.
...The timing lined up perfectly.
It meant the time had come.
No, let me put it more properly.
The time was ripe.
Shortly afterward, I went to the editor-in-chief’s office.
Editor-in-chief Im received me despite his busy schedule.
“You called for me?”
“Yes. Sit down.”
We sat facing each other on the sofa.
He sounded me out. “There’s been a lot of talk lately because of Soop. Are you aware of anything?”
“No. Not at all.”
He did not ask whether it was perhaps me.
Even though he was likely suspicious enough already. But he would understand. Even if Mok Hyunsun were Soop, there was no way I’d admit it at this point.
Instead, he said, “The literary world has begun paying attention to independent magazines. It’s highly unusual. And perhaps... people are curious about how many quarterly magazines, especially the Gyeongseong Geul summer issue, will respond to this situation.”
Exactly...!
I clenched my fist secretly.
This was it.
This was what I’d been waiting for.
The current I’d created with Soop.
It was time to ride it.