“Hey. I’m not your boss or anything, so you don’t need to greet me like that. You look about twenty years younger than me at a glance though. How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-six.”
“Wow. Really over twenty years younger.”
The representative nodded at my words and sat down on the bench next to me.
“Are you an employee for Team Leader Jung’s personal project?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes.”
Since I didn’t know exactly what Jung Yoonseo had said, I decided to just agree unconditionally.
“It’s unusual for Team Leader Jung to show interest in something like this. Haven’t you heard anything?”
At the representative’s words, I smiled awkwardly. Right. What crazy bastard asked for something like this. When I just smiled without answering, the representative chuckled, shrugged their shoulders once, and stood up.
“I figured you wouldn’t know. Well, if you’re twenty-six you’d be a new employee, so what would you know, right?”
I kept smiling and nodding. The representative seemed to think about something for a moment, then pulled out a bunch of materials from the backpack they’d brought. The representative was wearing black sneakers with comfortable slacks and a t-shirt with a backpack slung over their shoulder—definitely not someone who looked like they’d come to a business meeting. I’d at least matched my appearance with a shirt and slacks, but from what I’d glimpsed reflected in a window earlier, at best I looked like a new employee, and in reality my appearance was awkwardly amateurish, like a college student at most.
…Do people normally dress like this for meetings?
While I was lost in thought, the representative handed me all the materials they’d taken out and gestured toward the restaurant with their chin.
“Let’s go in first. Team Leader Jung made a reservation, so we should be able to go right there.”
“Yes.”
I took the materials and hurriedly followed behind the representative.
“There should be a room reserved under Jung Yoonseo’s name—could you check for us?”
At the representative’s words, the staff smiled and guided us to the room. The restaurant was a modern Korean restaurant. After entering the inner room and sitting awkwardly, the representative patted my back. It seemed to mean I should relax.
“Hyun-ssi, don’t be nervous. You’ve read the book, right?”
“Yes. I’ve read it.”
“I don’t know why Team Leader Jung became interested in that book… I read it too. I came because it was Team Leader Jung’s request, but honestly I’m not sure about the artistic merit of that scenario. How should I put it—rather than saying the ups and downs of the protagonist’s life are bad, it’s more like it’s just a record of one person’s life as is.”
It was true. To call it a story, it was nothing more than a record of Kang Seojin’s life as it was.
“And conclusively, among the introduction, development, turn, and conclusion of the scenario, there’s no conclusion. Realistically depicting one person’s life—it’s not a biography or historical story, and in a modern piece, something like this doesn’t seem usable as a scenario. Still, there might be parts that can be salvaged through adaptation, and we could try an experimental approach as a one-person play. What did you think, Hyun-ssi?”
I felt strange at the representative’s words.
From what Jung Yoonseo had told me about the scenario, the scenario itself was an experimental work that had barely been released to the market. Because of that, Jung Yoonseo had to contact the publisher directly to barely obtain the scenario. The reason it didn’t come up even when searching was probably here.
I didn’t know how my life could have been written as a book, but the very existence of that book should have felt extremely creepy, yet it just didn’t feel real at all. It should have been normal to feel chills and displeasure, but I didn’t feel that way.
However, it was a very strange feeling for a third party to judge the presence or absence of story value in my life. Even though I knew that most people’s lives had no introduction, development, turn, or conclusion as stories, and weren’t particularly interesting in themselves.
“…I didn’t find it that interesting either.”
The representative opened their mouth as if to say something, but just then the door opened.
“Ah, you’re here? Hello.”
“We’re a bit late, aren’t we? Hello.”
I also stood up from my seat and bowed in greeting. One woman wearing semi-formal attire and one woman wearing a comfortable hoodie and long skirt entered the room.
“Then this person is…”
“Yes. I’m Kim Seju, the theater company representative, and this is Lee Hyun-ssi, an employee from Team Leader Jung’s side.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Siyoung, the team leader at the publisher, and this is the writer.”
While the team leader in formal wear and the representative exchanged greetings, the writer next to them and I greeted each other awkwardly. Following Jung Yoonseo’s words, I’d considered the possibility of them being an actual acquaintance, but the moment I saw the writer’s face, there was no one I remembered.
“Hello.”
We exchanged greetings side by side and sat down. The food the representative had ordered in advance came out one by one.
“Let’s talk while we eat.”
At the representative’s words, the team leader smiled cheerfully and picked up their spoon. The writer next to them glanced at me for a moment, then turned their eyes away.
“I heard you wanted to discuss that scenario.”
When the team leader brought it up, the representative nodded.
“Ah, Team Leader Jung contacted us first, so we reviewed it once and prepared some materials on our end—would you like to see them first? Looking at it, we could set up a small stage in a one-person play format. Of course, we’d need to do some adaptation.”
“We’d have to adapt it. By the way, how did you find this scenario? I’m the team leader and I didn’t even know something like this had been published. The writer isn’t originally a scenario writer either.”
“Team Leader Jung found it cleverly. Team Leader Jung must have seen some potential in this scenario. Team Leader Jung’s eye is renowned regardless of field, so we’re thinking about it seriously too. We prepared materials in advance—how about this format?”
The representative handed the materials they’d prepared to the team leader. I sat quietly throughout. The writer sitting across from me was the same. Still, I at least glanced around while eating, but the writer in front didn’t even give the food a glance. Our eyes met occasionally, but they seemed to have no great interest in this situation itself. Despite the possibility of their scenario actually being realized.
“Then how about this direction for adaptation? We completely cut out the childhood story at the beginning and create some introduction, development, turn, and conclusion…”
“Ah, how about this? We create an entirely new story for the incomplete latter part and make it a bit more positive.”
Meanwhile, the representative and team leader were even discussing the direction of adaptation.
“What do you think, Writer-nim? Do you have any thoughts on the direction of adaptation?”
The representative looked at the writer and asked with a smile. The writer smiled and said firmly:
“No.”
“Ah, so you haven’t thought about it separately.”
“No, that’s not it—I won’t adapt it.”
Silence fell over the room in an instant.
“…It’s not that your scenario isn’t good, Writer-nim, but to change it into theatrical form, adaptation is unavoidable.”
“I won’t make it into a play either. I had no intention of showing this scenario to the world.”
At the writer’s words, silence came again. I hesitated, then asked:
“…May I ask how you came to write this scenario?”
The writer silently stared at me quietly. After a long while, the writer’s mouth opened. Without realizing it, my heart was beating fiercely.
“It just came to me.”
“Was there a person who inspired you?”
I felt my tone becoming sharp without realizing it. But I didn’t have the presence of mind to refine my tone.
“No.”
“Does that make sense?”
“I wanted to write a story that simply depicts one person’s life. Of course, it’s a fictional character that doesn’t actually exist. Though it might contain bits and pieces of experiences from people I’ve met so far—”
Without realizing it, I cut off the writer’s words.
“But what if that person isn’t a fictional character?”
“Then are you saying I saw someone’s life and transcribed it as a scenario exactly as is?”
I was at a loss for words.
Naturally, Kang Seojin didn’t exist in this place.
Just as Lee Hyun, Eun Haejin, Jung Yoonseo, and Cha Hyunwoo didn’t exist in the place where I used to live.
“…Well, since we’re talking about possibilities… That’s about the direction of adaptation, right, Hyun-ssi?”
The representative tried to soften the atmosphere with those words. I was barely able to nod after a long while.
“I’m sorry. This is… my first time at a meeting like this.”
“Being full of passion isn’t a bad thing.”
“By the way, Writer-nim, do you not agree to staging this scenario?”
“No.”
