11
ch 11 ## A Surprise Gift for My Daughter (2)
At that same moment.
Inside MoonStory's office—
"What the hell?!"
Someone suddenly shouted at the top of their lungs.
The entire office erupted into chaos.
"What happened?"
"What was that?"
"Did someone spend hours proofreading only for the program to freeze before hitting Ctrl+S?"
"Did the stock market crash? Did a company get delisted?"
The editors immediately began murmuring among themselves.
The culprit behind the shout...
Shin Mijeong looked around awkwardly.
Her face instantly turned bright red.
"I-It's nothing. Sorry."
Once everyone realized it wasn't a real emergency, they returned to their seats, muttering to themselves or sighing in
relief.
Embarrassed, Mijeong bowed her head and sat back down.
But...
"This is insane! Absolutely insane!"
She still couldn't calm down.
Her eyes were fixed on one thing—
A CocoaTalk chat window.
And naturally...
One person immediately noticed.
"Hey, hey."
"Did the author of Only 10 Seconds as a Genius Idol message you or something?"
As expected, it was Han Gyeongseon.
There was only one thing that could make Shin Mijeong this excited.
He knew it.
"Senior!"
"It's huge news!"
"The author said he's already started working on a new project!"
"A new project?"
Gyeongseon's eyes lit up.
But at the same time...
"Already?"
"They just signed the contract."
Only 10 Seconds as a Genius Idol wasn't even finished yet.
Granted, the author already had more than 160 chapters completed.
Even with daily uploads, that was enough for over five months of serialization.
Compared to authors who wrote live every day...
He had an enormous buffer.
Yet...
He'd started another project immediately after signing.
Honestly...
Gyeongseon wished Yoon Seongjun would devote himself to Only 10 Seconds as a Genius Idol for a little longer.
"I hope he writes it for a long time."
"Really stretches it out."
After all...
MoonStory had already paid him an advance.
Naturally, they hoped the novel would generate huge profits.
But more than that...
As a reader...
Gyeongseon simply wanted to enjoy it for as long as possible.
"Senior."
Instead of responding directly...
Shin Mijeong sent him today's manuscript.
"The author sent these chapters today."
"Want to read them?"
"...Three chapters?"
"He did three today?"
Among web novel writers...
Writing one chapter per day was considered standard.
Industry slang called it "one-bak."
Two chapters in a day became "two-bak."
Three chapters...
"Three-bak."
"Yeah."
"But honestly..."
"That's not even surprising anymore."
"He wrote ten chapters in one day before."
At this point...
Yoon Seongjun seemed more like a writing machine.
Thinking that...
Gyeongseon immediately opened the manuscript.
He devoured all three chapters in one sitting.
"...This is crazy."
"It's even better."
Normally...
After a major highlight like the music festival performance...
A novel's momentum would drop.
Instead...
The opposite happened.
The protagonist and Ethereal attracted even more attention.
Most importantly...
"The protagonist isn't just using his ability to survive anymore."
"He's actively taking control as an idol."
That completely changed the story's direction.
Creating fresh anticipation.
Making readers eager for what came next.
"And he's still got that lovable airheaded charm."
Most importantly...
"The writing itself has rhythm."
"It flows so naturally."
Despite reading three chapters in a row...
Not once did he stumble.
The story simply carried him along.
"Exactly."
"You can tell the author is genuinely enjoying writing it."
Experienced editors could always tell.
Whether an author had struggled through every sentence...
Or written effortlessly.
A web novel was ultimately the author's creation.
Their emotions inevitably seeped into it.
When a story was forced...
Readers felt the strain.
But when the author enjoyed writing...
Readers naturally followed that rhythm.
"You can tell just from reading."
"Even if the author starts another project..."
"His love for this novel hasn't faded at all."
And the biggest reason?
"He said he wrote it for his daughter."
Yoon Seongjun adored his daughter.
Only 10 Seconds as a Genius Idol existed because of her.
Even after finishing it...
That affection would never disappear.
"So..."
"If he's already talking about another project..."
"Doesn't that mean he'll stay with MoonStory for his second work too?"
The two editors slowly smiled.
"I told you!"
"If I hadn't convinced the department head and signed him..."
"This would've never happened!"
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm the one who discovered him first and kept in touch with him!"
Naturally...
The two immediately started arguing over who deserved more credit.
---
[Aunt Harim: Author!
Aunt Harim: Good luck with your new project! Hahaha.
Aunt Harim: If you ever get the chance, please let me read it!]
It was another message from Editor Shin Mijeong.
And even...
[Message from a user who isn't in your contacts.]
[Add Friend / Block]
[Editor Han: I heard about your new project.
Editor Han: I'll always be cheering for you!!!]
Even Editor Han Gyeongseon had contacted him.
"...I'm not writing another web novel."
Hmm.
They seemed to have misunderstood completely.
I'd said I was working on another piece.
I never once said it was a new web novel.
Somehow...
Just like Only 10 Seconds as a Genius Idol...
Another misunderstanding had snowballed out of control.
I probably should clear it up.
But...
"...It's fine."
I'd already written five complete works for Siwoo.
If they ever asked about this "new project" later...
I could simply show them one of those finished stories.
"Phew."
For now...
I wanted to focus entirely on writing my play.
I'd always lived according to a strict weekday routine.
Weekends were more flexible.
I still woke up and slept at the same time.
But what I did varied.
Usually...
I spent time with Siwoo.
Did housework.
Finished leftover office work.
Or went for a light run.
Today, however...
Siwoo had gone out with Harim.
There was no urgent office work.
"Hehe."
"I already started the laundry before going out!"
"Aren't I the best daughter ever?"
Thanks to Siwoo...
The housework was finished early.
After a light run...
I sat down in front of my laptop.
"Phew."
After signing with MoonStory...
I immediately began studying playwriting.
Since I knew almost nothing about the genre...
I searched online.
Visited libraries.
And read several famous plays.
"Most of them were recommendations from Yongsu."
His recommendations had been invaluable.
Each one was worth studying.
Now...
I finally had a decent understanding of the genre.
"And seeing an actual play..."
"Then reading its script afterward..."
"Helped even more."
Thanks to the script book Siwoo had bought for Witnesses.
I could compare the written text with the actual performance.
See how dialogue and stage directions became living performances.
"Now..."
"It's finally time to write."
The first question was simple.
What should I write?
"Well..."
"The keyword is already decided."
It was part of the National Theater's keyword project.
My assigned keyword was—
School.
So I began drawing a mind map.
Bullying.
School violence.
Invisible hierarchies.
Immaturity...
Looking at it...
I couldn't help sighing.
"...Nothing but negative words."
Those were exactly the kinds of stories people associated with schools.
Just like Witnesses...
Movies and plays had explored those themes countless times already.
"If I write the same thing..."
"It'll just feel predictable."
"Besides..."
"I can't write about things I don't truly understand."
Thankfully...
Siwoo didn't seem to have experienced those problems.
Every evening she told me everything that happened at school.
What she'd done.
What she'd talked about with friends.
Listening to her...
She genuinely seemed happy.
Of course...
Maybe she'd hidden something from me.
But if I knew my daughter...
She would tell me.
She trusted me more than anyone.
"Right."
"I should find the core theme from Siwoo's own stories."
Her everyday conversations...
Were much more familiar to me than the incidents reported on the news.
So I searched through those memories.
Looking for something worthy of becoming a play.
"Dad."
"Isn't it funny how much tone changes things?"
Then...
One particular conversation suddenly came back to me.
"Tone?"
"Yeah!"
"A classmate suddenly messaged me asking if I had a minute."
"Through CocoaTalk..."
"They sounded really cold."
"But when we met in person..."
"They just wanted to become friends."
"The exact same words..."
"Feel completely different depending on whether they're sent as a message or said face-to-face."
The moment I remembered that...
"This is it."
My fingers began flying across the keyboard.
The theme I'd chosen was—
Communication through text messages.
School was a place where immature children gathered.
A social environment.
Naturally...
Misunderstandings would arise through communication.
Just as Siwoo had said...
Students today preferred communicating through messaging apps.
That's why "phone anxiety" had become such a common phrase.
This generation had grown accustomed to interacting through text.
They even preferred videos with subtitles.
But...
Text carried no tone.
No emotional nuance.
The exact same sentence...
Could be interpreted in completely different ways.
If I wrote about those misunderstandings...
It could become an interesting story.
And more importantly...
"What if I applied that to theater?"
A play was also text.
But once performed on stage...
Those words gained emotion through the actors.
"What gives dialogue emotion..."
"Is the actor."
But...
What if the audience received the dialogue as plain text instead?
"What if..."
"Instead of speaking the dialogue..."
"It was projected onto the stage?"
The actors would express emotions only through movement and facial expressions.
Then...
"The audience would constantly have to interpret the characters' emotions."
They'd be forced to infer and deduce everything themselves.
It sounded exciting.
But...
Would it actually work?
I honestly wasn't sure.
I still knew so little about theater.
Still...
"It's my first attempt."
"So I'll do it my own way."
Without being trapped by convention.
I'd create it my own way.
Most importantly...
It was born from a story Siwoo had shared with me.
Even if it wasn't selected...
Simply letting Siwoo read it would already make it worthwhile.
"Alright."
"Before I start writing..."
"I need a title."
The title came instantly.
I began typing.
Title:
Message
It became the title of my very first play.
---
"Hey!"
"Rookie theater guy!"
The next day.
At Jogyeong Trading Company's cafeteria.
As always...
Seongjun and Jin Yongsu met for lunch.
"So?"
"Did you finish reading the plays I recommended?"
"Amazing, right?"
"Now you understand how incredible theater is?"
Yongsu threw an arm around Seongjun's shoulders while talking nonstop.
Ever since Seongjun started asking about plays...
Yongsu's former theater pride had completely resurfaced.
"Yeah."
"They were impressive."
"Ahem."
"Then show some proper respect to your senior!"
"When else are you going to have such a handsome and capable senior?"
Yongsu had graduated from university.
Seongjun had only finished high school.
Normally...
There should've been differences in salary and promotions.
But Seongjun's machine-like efficiency had erased that gap.
Yongsu never felt inferior.
Instead...
He genuinely treated Seongjun as his closest friend at work.
He was always inviting him out for drinks after work.
To Seongjun...
Yongsu was one of the few people he considered a true friend.
"So?"
"You said plays didn't seem that difficult."
"You don't still believe that, do you?"
Plays were unlike any other form of writing.
They needed literary quality.
But also technical precision for stage performance.
For beginners...
The hurdle was enormous.
You needed deep knowledge of theater.
And broad skills as a writer.
"You're right."
Seongjun nodded.
Then...
He handed Yongsu a thick stack of papers.
"What's this?"
"Let's talk about work later."
"Even dogs shouldn't be disturbed while eating."
"It's not work."
"Then what is it?"
"A play."
"...A play?"
"I wrote it."
"...You wrote this?"
Yongsu stared at him in disbelief.
He looked at the first page.
The manuscript followed proper play format.
"When did you even start writing this?"
"I guess..."
"Right after I started asking you about plays."
That had only been a few days ago.
He'd written an entire play...
In less than a week?
"You really wrote this yourself?"
"Who else would've?"
"Hmm."
"You didn't just throw something together, did you?"
There was genuine concern in Yongsu's voice.
Even professional playwrights struggled immensely.
There were countless things to consider.
"I told you before."
"Every single element in a play has to matter."
A play wasn't just literature.
It was a blueprint for actors.
Directors.
Stage designers.
Everything had to be clear.
Specific.
Understandable.
"It has to be literary..."
"And practical."
Judging by the page count...
It was a full-length script.
To Yongsu...
It looked exactly like the reckless work of an overconfident beginner.
"I worked hard on it."
"Please read it."
Seongjun offered no explanation.
He simply asked him to read.
"Hmph."
"Fine."
"Your senior will give it a thorough critique."
As someone who truly loved theater...
He intended to point out every flaw.
Even the tiniest one.
That's what seniors were for.
But a little while later...
"...Sniff."
Yongsu reached the final page.
And suddenly...
He started crying.
"Life is so unfair!"
"A guy who's handsome..."
"Good at his job..."
"And now writes this well too?!"
"What am I supposed to do?"
That day...
A strange rumor spread throughout Jogyeong Trading Company.
Assistant Manager Yoon Seongjun...
Had made his coworker Jin Yongsu cry during lunch.