Department Head Ma Jong-Goo answered the phone, but he only appeared in the office an hour later. He couldn’t really be blamed because he was in the midst of a meeting with another writer when he picked up the phone.

Naturally, he immediately rushed back to the office, but it seemed that the meeting place was a bit far away because it still took him an hour to arrive despite rushing over as fast as humanly possible.

Eventually, he arrived at the office drenched in sweat.

Ma Jong-Goo then made a beeline for the President’s Office.

The president started yelling at Ma Jong-Goo the moment he stepped into the President's Office, and even the employees seated at the other end of the office could hear the president’s shouts, loud and clear.

“You better take responsibility for this loss!” said the President.

“Aargh!” cried Ma Jong-Goo in agony.

The clamor lasted for a while. The door to the President’s Office eventually opened, and a limping Ma Jong-Goo emerged from beyond the door. It seemed that the president had kicked his shin.

Ma Jong-Goo slowly approached Park Kyung-Soo. Upon arriving next to the latter, Ma Jong-Goo sounded defeated as he muttered, "Use your phone and call."

"Huh? C-call who…?"

"Ha Jae-Gun! Call him! He must have blocked my number because he isn't picking up!" Ma Jong-Goo yelled and slammed his fist on the table.

At Ma Jong-Goo’s sudden outburst, Park Kyung-Soo fumbled through his bag for his phone. Ma Jong-Goo sat in his seat and ruffled his hair up with both hands in frustration.

***

Meanwhile, Ha Jae-Gun headed back to his family house in Suwon and rang the doorbell of the house. A few moments later, he soon heard Ha Jae-In's voice through the intercom.

— Who is—Is that you, Ha Jae-Gun?!

Ha Jae-In’s voice abruptly disappeared the moment she recognized that the visitor was Ha Jae-Gun. It was clear she was rushing over here, and Ha Jae-Gun was right because he soon saw her opening the door for him.

Ha Jae-Gun entered the house with a wide grin.

"Is there something going on? You didn't even call before coming here."

"Nothing, I just wanted to visit, and it's your day off as well, right?"

"Ha. Was this why you called last night to ask about my day off? Did the sun rise from the west today? I've been asking you to come back often so much before, but you’re only doing it now?"

Ha Jae-Gun chuckled in response. He had been living as an unknown writer for so long, so he didn't really have the guts nor confidence to face his family all this while.

It was the reason he hadn’t accepted most of her invitations to come back home.

However, things were different now.

He had been seeing great responses from Records of the Murim Master and his latest release, Records of the Modern Master. Thanks to that, Ha Jae-Gun was able to live a better lifestyle and could return home proudly and of his own accord.

He came back home to give his mother some pocket money and inform them of his improving situation.

"Where's Mom and Father[1]?"

"Mom is at the salon, and Dad has been on the day shift since yesterday."

Ha Jae-Gun's father had lost his job three years ago due to company restructuring, and he had been working as a security guard at an apartment complex. He was on repeated day and night shifts, but he had never been absent and was always working aside from the public holidays.

"Did you have breakfast already?"

"Of course, look at the time. Oh wait a minute, I've got a call," said Ha Jae-Gun as he pulled out his phone. However, one of his eyelids twitched when he saw the caller ID.

The call was coming from Haetae Media's Park Kyung-Soo.

He could already deduce what it was about, so he smiled faintly.

"Hello?"

— Good morning, Writer Ha; this is Haetae Media's Park Kyung-Soo.

"Hello. Why did you call?"

Ha Jae-Gun had skipped the greeting and went straight to the point coldly. Park Kyung-Soo also addressed the elephant right away, and the conversation was exactly as Ha Jae-Gun had expected.

— Um, it's about the contract conditions you mentioned before. I think we should meet and discuss this further, but we should be able to meet most of them for you. If you have time today, I would like to schedule a meeting with you.

"I have made myself clear that day. You should have given me a reply before the day ended that day. However, it has been more than a week since then."

— U-um… we needed time for an internal discussion, so…

"It doesn't concern me what meetings Haetae Media needs to conduct internally. The point is that you didn't give me a reply within that day. If there's nothing else, I'll be hanging up."

Just as Ha Jae-Gun was about to hang up, the voice on the other line changed.

— Writer Ha, this is Department Head Ma Jong-Goo. I'm sorry; I should have called you immediately. Please give me a chance to redeem myself. We will treat you to the best of our efforts. We won’t disappoint you. Please don't hang up. Please, Writer Ha.

Ma Jong-Goo rambled on at the sound of light, afraid that Ha Jae-Gun would hang up on them. Ha Jae-Gun looked up at the yellowed ceiling and fell into deep contemplation. He couldn’t help but pity the man who was practically begging.

— Hello? Writer Ha?

"I'm thinking about it."

— Ah! I'm sorry. I'll wait patiently.

Ha Jae-In's face was obviously asking about what was going on based on the look on her face, but even Ha Jae-Gun ignored her and shut his eyes tightly.

Meanwhile, Ma Jong-Goo's rough and irregular breathing could be heard from the other side of the line as he waited for a positive answer from Ha Jae-Gun.

It was fortunate because Ha Jae-Gun soon answered.

"All right, let's meet up first." Ha Jae-Gun finally made his decision. "I believe that you won't disappoint me again, Department Head Ma."

— T-thank you! Thank you, Writer Ha. Thank you so much. What time shall we meet? I can go over to where you are.

"I'm currently at Suwon. I should be able to reach Seoul at around four or five in the afternoon—"

Ma Jong-Goo cut Ha Jae-Gun off in a hurry.

—Do you mean the same place in Suwon where you lived with your parents? I will go over there, I should be there in an hour.

When Ha Jae-Gun signed a contract for his debut title with Haetae Media, he put the address of his family house located in Suwon. Ha Jae-Gun made a sidelong glance at the wall clock and nodded while smiling bitterly.

"Sure, I'll be waiting then."

— Yes, I'll see you soon, Writer Ha.

Ha Jae-Gun hung up and slipped his mobile back into his pocket. As he grabbed milk from the fridge, Ha Jae-In, waiting behind him finally asked, "Was that the publisher? What happened? He seems to be desperate when asking for a favor."

"He's asking to sign my next novel, of course."

"...Your next novel?" Ha Jae-In swallowed down the words that were about to come out next. If she were to continue questioning, she might bring up his painful and sensitive past.

Ha Jae-In knew that Ha Jae-Gun was not popular enough for the publisher to so desperately try to sign his novels, so she became suspicious of that call earlier.

"I'll head to a cafe nearby when he arrives later. He said that it would take him around an hour to reach here from Seoul."

However, it turned out that the estimated time Ma Jong-Goo gave him was wrong because the doorbell rang after just thirty minutes or so.

Ha Jae-Gun checked the intercom and saw Ma Jong-Goo and Park Kyung-Soo standing outside while panting. They had definitely ignored the traffic lights and came over as fast as they could.

"I'll just stay in my room."

"Sorry, I'll end it soon."

"It's fine; take your time." Ha Jae-In then went into her room.

"Oh, my. Hello, Writer Ha."

Ha Jae-Gun opened the door. Ma Jong-Goo and Park Kyung-Soo were standing at the door politely while holding a box of Hanwoo short ribs gift set and a red ginseng gift set, respectively.

There wasn’t even a holiday today like Lunar New Year or Chuseok.

Ma Jong-Goo lifted the gift set in his hand and said, "We couldn't take our time to choose gifts since we're visiting at short notice, so I hope that they're to your liking."

"Thank you, I'll take it." Ha Jae-Gun’s attitude remained firm as he accepted the gift boxes from the men. Even during holidays, Ha Jae-Gun had never received gifts like this from the publishing company.

As far as he could remember, the best gift he had received was the tuna and spam gift set that most publisher companies often sent out to all of their contracted writers.

After receiving the expensive gifts, Ha Jae-Gun was finally convinced that his value as a writer had truly increased by a great deal.

"Please come in."

They had come all the way here, so Ha Jae-Gun thought that it would be better if they just talked in the house, where it was quieter and more comfortable rather than talking in a cafe.

Ma Jong-Goo and Park Kyung-Soo bowed at the invitation and took off their shoes before walking into the house and heading toward the living room.