Chapter 262 – Episode 262 – The Protagonist Is Targeted (2)
“Were you warming up?”
“Oh, Harin. Yeah. I’m almost done stretching.”
I hurried down to the gym, and there was Minjia, already changed into her workout clothes, warming up.
“Sorry. I’ll go change quickly too.”
Juharin apologized to Minjia and then went straight into the locker room to change.
Leggings, a sports bra, and a cover-up t-shirt.
“Hoo.”
Once I was in my usual workout attire and warming up like Minjia, she approached and asked, looking curious.
“But Harin, why were you so late?”
The original workout appointment was for 4 PM. However, Juharin received Minjia’s call at 4:20 PM.
I quickly got ready and rushed to the gym, but now, after changing, I was a full 30 minutes late.
It was almost the first time I’d been this late, so Minjia was looking at me with a curious expression.
“Ah, well, actually…”
My novel’s performance was tanking, so I was looking at the most popular works and got late…
Ugh.
No matter how I thought about it, it wasn’t a very good excuse, but I couldn’t lie either.
Harin had no choice but to answer Minjia’s question about why she was late honestly.
“A novel? Ah…! The new one you said you were writing?”
“Yeah. I wrote it for a contest, but the response is terrible.”
Until recently, Juharin hadn’t told Minjia that she was writing a novel.
It was her little secret dream that she was keeping to herself, but because Jia kept persistently asking what she was going to do, she ended up telling her.
She was a friend I’d known for so long. Once I told her, it was kind of a relief to have someone to talk to about it.
“But didn’t you say that one went to the bestsellers list last time?”
“Yeah, but… the rankings are the same as before. No, they’ve actually dropped. I’m barely hanging around in the 90s. I think I need to write a new one.”
“Hmm.”
Minjia rested her chin on her hand at Juharin’s words.
She wasn’t someone who read novels a lot, but she did read them occasionally. There were quite a few interesting novels, so they were really good for leisure time.
Especially after finding out that Harin was writing novels, she talked about them quite a bit, so Minjia had some knowledge about novels.
“Hey, still. It might suddenly go up later. There are more novels that rise in the rankings later than you think.”
“That’s true, but that’s for novels with good recommendation counts or readership rates. I have neither.”
“So you’re already going to scrap it? It’s the new one you just wrote. Isn’t it a waste?”
“I can’t help it. It doesn’t look like there’s any hope even if I write more.”
Minjia shook her head at Harin’s self-deprecating words.
“Ugh, no wonder you seemed a bit down today.”
“Really?”
“Your face looked like someone who was having indigestion. Hehe, even now.”
Minjia chuckled slightly to lighten the dark mood, and Juharin pouted her lips slightly.
For some reason, Jia’s words made her think of the few comments people had left.
‘Tch, is the plot really that bad…?’
I put a lot of thought into what I wrote…
“Haa, I don’t know.”
It seemed like the conversation was going to get long, so Juharin plopped down on the gym mat.
At this time, there was no one working out in the employee gym.
Actually, it was because Harin was working out at this time that other employees were deliberately avoiding it, but anyway. When Harin worked out, she could use the gym almost like she had rented it out.
Minjia looked at Harin, who had a rare gloomy expression, and asked.
“Oh, by the way, isn’t the one you wrote this time an internet broadcast story?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
“Maybe the genre is the problem…”
Juharin’s eyes narrowed at Minjia’s words.
“Hey, you said you liked internet broadcast stories.”
“Ah, I didn’t know you’d write one… I didn’t even know you were writing novels back then. No wonder you kept asking what streamers usually do.”
“Ugh.”
Juharin clutched her slightly stung chest and thought of the novel she was currently writing.
[The World’s Best Streamer!]
It was a very simple and clear story about an ordinary female protagonist who becomes a successful streamer. It mainly focused on comedy and daily life… but there were many comments saying the plot and development were strange.
“Hey, then how about trying a chaebol story… hmm, maybe not.”
“A chaebol story? What would I know about that? Maybe Arim Unni would…”
“Tsk, I guess…”
Minjia smacked her lips and said.
“Anyway, then try writing something completely different. Like, an isekai story.”
“Isekai? I tried it.”
“Really? How was it?”
“114 pre-orders for 40 chapters. A flop.”
“Hmm…”
Even thinking about it now, there was no answer. Since it wasn’t popular in a modern setting, I naturally tried my hand at an isekai story, but it flopped even harder than the modern one.
At this point, I wondered if I just didn’t have the talent…
“But why did it flop? There must be comments or some kind of reaction.”
“Ah… they said the plot and development were bad?”
“Plot and development?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.”
Minjia thought hard about something and then said.
“Then how about getting a part-time job?”
“A part-time job?”
“Yeah. They say that social experience helps with writing novels. You’ve never had a part-time job before, have you?”
“Huh? Uh…”
Juharin’s daily life was simple.
A repetition of studying and exercising.
The only thing she had done socially was the orchestra activities she did with Jinhyun and Eunju in the past?
In middle and high school, she really just repeated studying at school and studying at home. It was the same now that she was in college.
That’s why she was graduating early in three years, finishing this year, instead of the four years it usually took. Now, if she just went to school a little more this month, college would be over. There was still some time until graduation.
Still, she had saved a year, so her parents had given her a chance.
Next year, do whatever you want, and if you achieve something within that year, we’ll let you do whatever you want and won’t bother you.
So, she was dreaming of success with her only hobby, novels, and writing them in her spare time, but something just wasn’t working out.
“A part-time job… I was just going to focus on writing novels.”
“Hey, what’s going to come out of sitting at your desk all day? And you live alone, don’t you need a part-time job to pay rent?”
“It’s okay. I’ve saved up some of the allowance my parents have given me so far.”
“Oh, that’s why you’re a gold spoon.”
Minjia shook her head.
“Anyway, next year, try doing a part-time job, even a little, and go on a trip.”
“A trip?”
“Yeah. You need to go to many places to get inspiration, right?”
“But can you go on a trip while working part-time?”
Juharin tilted her head. Minjia clicked her tongue and said.
“It doesn’t have to be a long overseas trip, even a day trip in the country is good. Or, right. You have a friend who runs a cafe.”
“Jinhyun?”
“Yeah, yeah. If you ask him, you can work at his cafe and have flexible shifts, right? And he’ll give you a better hourly wage as a friend bonus.”
“…That’s a bit much.”
“Hey, what’s there to be sorry about? Or you can ask him to introduce you to another part-time job. There are a lot of places hiring for weekend part-time jobs these days.”
Juharin thought, “Hmm,” and then nodded.
“Okay, I’ll try something next year.”
“Hehe, good thinking. Actually, being a streamer is the easiest, I’m telling you, you’d be successful if you streamed.”
“That doesn’t really suit my personality… Anyway, thanks.”
Minjia smiled happily at Juharin’s words.
“Hehe, I don’t know what to do with myself, being praised by the great Harin.”
But with those words, Harin jumped up from her spot.
“Okay, let’s start working out now.”
“Huh?”
Minjia was flustered by Harin’s sudden change in attitude.
But without time to think, Harin continued.
“We spent another five minutes talking. I’m sorry for being late today, so I’ll teach you extra hard. And add an extra hour.”
“Uh, that…”
“You were trying to drag out our conversation until the end of our workout time, weren’t you?”
Juharin glared at Minjia with a fierce look, seeing that she wasn’t answering clearly.
Minjia flinched, looking guilty.
“…Was it obvious?”
“Very.”
“Then if we just skip it today…”
No way.
Juharin immediately grabbed Minjia’s hand and forcibly pulled her up.
“Aaaah!”
******
Swish, swish-
“Hoo, that’s refreshing.”
After showering at the gym and changing into her regular clothes, Juharin immediately saw Minjia off and then returned to her room, showing the miraculous extravagance of turning on both the heater and the fan at the same time.
Then, she lay down on the bed, took off her socks, took off her pants, and took off her underwear.
Thud-
Swish, swish-
“Hoo.”
After taking off all the clothes she was wearing, she put on dolphin shorts and a simple t-shirt right over her bare skin.
Juharin found this very comfortable. It might be cold since it was winter, but the heating was so good.
After drying off the remaining moisture on her body with the fan, she immediately turned off the fan and covered herself with the blanket.
Actually, now was the perfect time to write a novel, but she decided to rest for just 30 minutes.
“Come to think of it, was it the day after tomorrow…”
Juharin checked her schedule on her phone.
The day she had to go to the real estate office to sign the contract and deposit the last remaining security deposit was the day after tomorrow.
Room 403 in the villa near Jinhyun’s cafe.
Juharin thought about what Minjia had said.
‘A part-time job and a trip…’
Honestly, I didn’t know. It didn’t seem like it would be much different from just writing novels…
‘It wouldn’t hurt to try, would it?’
That thought suddenly occurred to her.
Since I had to go near Jinhyun’s cafe to get the seal anyway, it wouldn’t be bad to talk to Jinhyun once.
And see his face…
‘Come to think of it, I didn’t text him today.’
I used to text him every day around lunchtime, but time had disappeared while I was looking at popular novels, so I hadn’t sent one today.
It was a good thing.
I could surprise him by visiting the cafe the day after tomorrow, but if he wasn’t there, it would be a waste, so it seemed better to tell him in advance.
Juharin opened the messaging app and immediately sent a message to Jinhyun.
[Me: What are you doing?]
[Me: Have you had dinner?]
******
[DogeCoin 1,000,000 Sold]
“Bitcoin is God, and I am invincible.”
They say the world has to follow trends.
I think that’s very, very true.
Until now, I had only been making money through stocks using the Luck Tracker, but ha… how foolish I was.
‘Saa-jang-nim~ Welcome!’
From a few days ago, Yujeong’s friend, Shinah Lee, had been looking particularly happy.
I thought it was just because she had won the mint chocolate latte sales competition(?) with Yujeong, but that wasn’t it.
When I asked her why her smile was getting bigger every day, she said that Bitcoin had hit the jackpot.
‘How is it? This beautiful upward curve! Isn’t it deadly just to look at?’
I wondered if it was okay for her to say so openly that she had hit the jackpot, but anyway, I was surprised when I saw the growth rate.
There were coins that were rising by 50% to 100% every day, so I thought that if I had the Luck Tracker, I could make money much faster than with stocks.
‘As expected, the jackpot is in altcoins, Sa-jang-nim!’
Of course, very unfortunately, after saying that, Shinah suddenly looked like the world was ending two days later, saying that all the coins had suddenly crashed.
Anyway, the crash rate and growth rate that Shinah showed me back then.
I thought that if I had that, I might be able to make a lot more money before going to Las Vegas, so I started trading coins, and the speed at which they grew was much faster than stocks.
The market wasn’t good overall right now, but if I bought the coins that the Luck Tracker showed me, I didn’t have to worry about that.
‘No, if I do this for just a year, won’t I become the richest person in the world?’
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
While I was doing such destructive money copying.
Ding-
[Soojungie♡: We’re almost there!]
[Soojungie♡: Should we come up?]
I got a text from Soojung.
[Me: I’ll go out, let’s meet in front of the cafe~]
[Soojungie♡: Okay, come down slowly~♡]
Tonight, the four of us, Yewha, Soojung, Delia, were going to have dinner together.
I had watched TV with Delia at home last time, and they said that a young French-Korean chef had opened a restaurant nearby. So, we decided to make a reservation and go to that restaurant.
Since they were nearby, it would be good to go down first.
I put on a coat over my neat outfit and opened the office door.
Just as I was about to go out.
Ding-
[Juharin: What are you doing?]
[Juharin: Have you had dinner?]
‘Huh?’
I got a text from Harin too.
“Ah, come to think of it, I didn’t get a text today.”
Harin, who usually sent me a text around lunchtime, had sent one in the evening today, which was rare.
Next time, if she doesn’t send one, I should send her one first.
[Me: I’m about to eat now.]
I quickly typed a reply, not wanting to keep her waiting.
And at that moment, after sending a reply to Harin.
Ding-
[Jung Eunju: (Hamster waving hello emoji)]
[Jung Eunju: Jinhyun, are you free the day after tomorrow??]
At almost the same time, I received a message from another childhood friend.
Huh…?
