NOVEL WEB Chapter 7
Thursday had arrived. Was it because of the story I heard yesterday? I wasn’t feeling well. My entire body ached and I felt dizzy. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like I had a fever. As long as it wasn’t a contagious illness, I was okay. It was bearable. I couldn’t skip the interview just because I was feeling this way. This was an important opportunity not just for the orphanage but for me as well.
I took a shower and left the house after taking some painkillers I kept at home. I hadn’t eaten breakfast. It would have been a big deal if I ate something and then ended up throwing up.
I thought the interview would be at the TTBS broadcasting station, but it turned out to be a rented studio. It was unlikely that a mere novelist like me would do the interview at such a prestigious place. If it were just a one-on-one interview, it would have probably taken place in a café or some other suitable location, but since they were gathering multiple novelists for a joint interview, it seemed they rented a studio for that purpose.
When I arrived at the designated studio, I saw several novelists whose faces I recognized. Naturally, since I only knew them by face, we didn’t properly greet each other; we merely nodded at one another.
While sitting at my seat, enduring the pain in my head, someone came over to greet me.
It was Senior Su-Young.
“Hey, Seol-guk. You still have that expression that looks like you’ve eaten shit.”
“…Hello, Senior.”
As I mentioned earlier, there were no close women in my department other than Muk Ha-neul, who was the only exception. However, Senior Su-Young sometimes chatted with me because she used to date Gang Hwa-won.
“I heard Hwa-won called you a girl, is that true?”
“That’s a misunderstanding.”
“Is it Ha-neul? It must be Ha-neul. There’s no other girl who’d follow you around like that.”
While Senior Su-Young’s assumption wasn’t incorrect, I felt a sourness in my mood and chose to remain silent. Even now, I couldn’t understand why I had accepted Ha-neul’s proposal.
After all, I was a man. Regardless of my views on women, I had physical desires and felt attraction toward the opposite sex.
Ultimately, I too was just a man who couldn’t resist those urges. I felt a sense of shame about myself.
Still, if we’re talking about Muk Ha-neul, she wasn’t a bad woman. She was obedient to my words and didn’t have any strange ideologies.
It was just that being a woman was the problem.
That doesn’t mean being a man would have been any better. The existence of a woman ultimately is just that—a being born from a man’s rib.
“By the way, I didn’t expect you to come out to a place like this.”
“You know my circumstances.”
“Well, even so, you know TTBS’s tendencies. I can’t really remember who it was, but I heard one of our juniors in the department is your assigned reporter? If it’s your junior, they’re not going to write a good article about you.”
I stayed silent. Honestly, that part worried me. I wasn’t planning to hide my views on women, but TTBS was a broadcasting station with a strong PC tendency. If the reporter working there was even my junior, the chances of them writing a positive article about me were near zero.
Yet, the reason I came to this interview was that I had already made a promise, and it was too late to cancel it. It had been nearly five years since I last saw them, so I assumed they’d have forgotten me.
In fact, if there was any grudge at all, a grievance the size of a college debate would have dulled after five years. Hadn’t Muk Ha-neul also forgotten by three years? Yoon Sua seemed like she hadn’t forgotten, though.
A good memory for a sparrow.
Anyway, given that more than five years had passed, if the reporter Jin Seo-hye wasn’t involved in that incident, it likely wouldn’t matter. Considering Senior Su-Young didn’t bring it up, she probably wasn’t involved.
Moreover, since this was a public setting, I thought it was unlikely for personal feelings to be brought into it.
No matter how much of a woman she was, she should have that level of intelligence.
Let’s believe that she does.
And as always, I learned that expecting something from a woman returns nothing.
~
The first impression was nothing special. She had a moderately polished, youthful face, a designer-style bag that looked luxurious but wasn’t, and a generic suit. Jin Seo-hye gave off that kind of vibe. She didn’t seem to have any distinctive features, nor did she openly show any hostility toward me.
“Hello, Author Seol-guk. I’m Jin Seo-hye.”
“Hello, I’m Seol-guk.”
“I didn’t expect to meet a senior from the same department here.”
“I was surprised too.”
It seemed that Jin Seo-hye knew me, but fortunately, it didn’t appear she held any deep grudge against me.
The interview flowed reasonably well. Surprisingly, Jin Seo-hye claimed she had read all of my works. It was only a short story and a novel, but considering that this was an impromptu interview, I hadn’t expected much, and she seemed to possess qualifications as a reporter more than I anticipated.
More than I anticipated.
We first talked about various trivial matters, and then the standard questions came to an end. It was time to suitably discuss “The House of Love.” As I was pondering how to bring it up, reporter Jin Seo-hye unexpectedly asked a question.
“By the way, Author Seol-guk, your name is quite unusual. Do you know how your parents came up with that name?”
…For an orphan like me, it was unexpected to have the topic of parents brought up first. This was information that someone from the same department would likely know, unless they were truly unaware of me.
But I held back for now. I needed to discuss being an orphan anyway, and promoting the orphanage was more important. Perhaps she really didn’t know.
“…I’m sorry. The truth is, I’m from an orphanage, so I don’t know the exact origin of my name. Looking at the characters, it indeed reminds me of Kawabata Yasunari.”
Usually, when talking about something like this, the other person apologizes with a stiff expression, feeling sorry for their question. But Jin Seo-hye was a bit different.
Jin Seo-hye was smiling.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I must have forgotten since it’s been a long time.”
This implied she had originally known. The atmosphere felt unusual.
“I received a message from Professor Seo. Yes, it was about the orphanage, right?”
“…Yes, that’s correct. Since I’m from an orphanage, I thought it was the right thing to share my story in this meaningful setting.”
“Would it be okay if I ask a question before you share that story?”
…I felt uneasy.
“…What’s your question?”
“Your debut novel, ‘The Uterus of a Boy,’ received good evaluations and garnered some public success, didn’t it? Recently, though, there have been controversies about the misogynistic expressions in ‘The Uterus of a Boy.’ What do you think about that?”
…So, this was the direction she was taking. I had anticipated this topic to some extent. If she thought she could hurt me with such attacks, she was gravely mistaken.
“To some extent, it was intentional. Of course, for women, it could be unpleasant, but the expressions in ‘The Uterus of a Boy’ merely pointed out issues that certain women possess. Fundamentally, the crimes and immoral behaviors depicted in the novel were all based on real events and statistics. While there might have been some exaggeration or characteristic figures included, I believe that’s an inevitable sacrifice made to showcase the theme of the novel.”
“Are you claiming that the misogynistic expressions and situations in ‘The Uterus of a Boy’ are fundamentally real?”
“It seems you’re misinterpreting my words.”
“I apologize. If it sounded that way, I will retract it.”
Jin Seo-hye did not display any apologetic expression. Looking back now, I should have left right then.
“If that’s the case, then the protagonist being abused by their mother, who says things like, ‘You should be aborted,’ was based on a real incident, wasn’t it? For instance.”
“Such as?”
In that moment, Jin Seo-hye’s face, which previously appeared so innocent, twisted sharply as she revealed her hatred towards me. It was amazing acting. To think she had hidden such animosity until now.
Jin Seo-hye had crossed the line.