Gwak Joon replaced his greeting with just a nod. He started walking without even telling Daemyung to follow him. Daemyung followed him without a word. They turned left after the hardware store. There was an apartment complex at the end of the residential area. Gwak Joon seemed to be heading there.

They didn’t talk at all in the ten-or-so minutes they were walking. Daemyung just followed Gwak Joon. Fortunately, he was used to him being so quiet. At first, he was worried that he disliked him. After finding out that it was just Gwak Joon’s personality, he no longer found it an inconvenience. It wasn’t like he didn’t talk at all. He was someone who talked more than anyone when it was necessary.

“Were your parents okay?”

He seemed to be asking about the fact that he was sleeping over.

“Yes.”

“Then that’s good.”

Before they entered the apartment complex, they visited a fried chicken store. There, Daemyung saw a big pot with boiling oil. A kind-looking old man shook the oil off the fried chicken and droplets of oil fell into the pot. Daemyung gulped when he saw that. He suddenly remembered that he was hungry.

They bought three fried chickens before going. They entered an apartment that said ‘201’. They met a grandma holding a baby on the elevator. Daemyung smiled at the baby and the baby smiled back at him.

The elevator stopped on the third floor. Daemyung waved at the baby before following Gwak Joon out.

“Is this your house?” He asked Gwak Joon who proficiently opened the cover of the electronic door lock. Gwak Joon replied as he typed in the passcode.

“No.”

The door opened. Daemyung blinked several times as he entered. If this wasn’t his house, then whose was it? He could see a pair of worn-out slippers, a pair of shoes with a bent nose, and a pair of yellowed trainers in the shoe rack.

“Come in.”

Daemyung took his shoes off and tidied them before going in. In the living room, there was a three-person sofa, a wall-mounted TV, and a row of bookshelves. In front of the shelf full of books was a tower of new books. While Gwak Joon went to the kitchen, Daemyung had a look at those books. Novels, poetry books, essays, travel journals, philosophy books, and even memoirs - books from a variety of fields boasted their thickness and weight like the walls of a castle.

The row of bookshelves continued into the veranda that was connected to the living room. Daemyung poked his head into the veranda to follow the books. Again, there was a tower made of books in front of those shelves.

“It looks like he’s out right now.”

“Who is?”

“The owner of the house. Do you want a drink?”

“I’m fine with water.”

“You can sit over there.”

Daemyung sat in front of the piles of books.

“Can I have a look at these?”

“Yeah. But watch out. They’ll fall over if you take the lower ones.”

Daemyung briefly imagined what would happen if the piles of books, which was taller than his sitting height, fell on him. Then, he grabbed the book on the top of the pile. It wasn’t that he had a hobby of reading, but he did become interested after seeing books piled up like jenga. He wondered if the owner of the books finished them already. He carefully opened the book so that he didn’t put any creases on the spine. The first page was very stiff. It looked as though it was never opened. Perhaps the owner was someone that sold books?

“Here.”

A cup of water was suddenly pushed in front of his face. Daemyung put down the book and received the cup. The water was teeth-freezing cold. He felt that the heat from summer had subsided a little after drinking it.

“Do you drink beer?”

“A-a little.”

“Let’s just drink one glass.”

He flinched because he drank a lot yesterday, but also thought that just one glass of beer wouldn’t do him harm. They drank beer with the chicken they brought. On TV, there was a drama airing. Daemyung looked at the electronic clock on one side of the living room. It was 10 p.m.

“Oh.”

Suyeon appeared on the screen. Now that he thought about it, today was the day the first episode of the drama Suyeon was a part of, went live.

“Do you know her as well?”

“Yes. She’s the instructor for our acting club.”

“Is she well-behaved over there?”

“W-well behaved, you say?”

Gwak Joon shook his hand as though he didn’t need the answer before drinking beer. Daemyung saw that he frowned a little. Perhaps he had a bad relationship with Suyeon?

Just as the Suyeon on TV was watching the car leaving with a yearning expression, Daemyung heard the door lock opening. When he had a look at the door, he saw a man with a stubble come in. He looked exhausted as though he had stayed up the whole night.

“Hyung-nim. Eat some chicken.”

“Chicken, huh. The magical food that you can never get tired of. Rather than that, the one next to you is the one you talked about?”

“Yes. Daemyung, introduce yourself. This is the hyung-nim I subserve.”

“Why don’t you say that after you actually do something for me?”

The man took off his shoes, came into the house, and scanned Daemyung from top to bottom. Daemyung looked back at him in nervousness. The man looked ill with a thin figure and a pale face, but his eyes looked like they were filled with more life than any ordinary person.

“Hello. M-my name is Park Daemyung.”

The man’s gaze pricked him. When he smiled awkwardly and waited, the man grinned.

“This was unexpected. I thought that a doppelgänger would be visiting, but you’re the complete opposite. Ah, Daemyung, was it? Nice to meet you. I’m Ahn Pilhyun, and I’m the author of the books on the floor over there.”

Daemyung looked at the book that he picked up before. He saw that the author’s name was indeed Ahn Pilhyun.

“Urgh, why is it so hot still? Are you sure the sun has set?”

“I told you to stay at home.”

“Allow me to get some fresh air, will you? People need to go through photosynthesis to survive.”

“You aren’t going through any photosynthesis at night.”

“I can do it with moonlight. Inkslingers need moonlight rather than sunlight.”

Pilhyun sat down with a kind smile. Daemyung saw Gwak Joon relaxing his lips for the first time.

“You must be having a hard time, catching the eyes of someone like him. He’s quite a stifling fella, isn’t he?” Pilhyun asked as he gave him a chicken leg.

How was he supposed to answer? He couldn’t just reply yes, so was he supposed to laugh here?

“Why are you hesitating with something like that? You look very bold too.”

This was the first time someone called him ‘bold’. Daemyung smiled faintly before eating the chicken leg. It seemed that he needed more time to get adjusted.

“But why are you here?”

Hearing Pilhyun’s question, Daemyung blinked several times before looking at Gwak Joon. Gwak Joon was just watching TV with his usual slightly angry-looking face.

“I came because Joon-hyung told me to.”

“So you don’t know why you’re here?”

“I don’t.”

“Wow, how gullible. People will sell your organs you know? You just don’t know how scary he is, huh? Just look at him. He looks like the type of person to stab someone else with a smile on his face.”

“W-well, not….”

“From your tone of words, you agree with me to an extent?”

“Eh? N-no!”

“Then does he look kind to you? He doesn’t, does he?”

“....”

He didn’t say anything for a while and just sipped on some beer. He understood that the two were close. It was because they were close that they could make jokes like that. He glanced at Pilhyun. He was talking with Gwak Joon while drinking as though he never asked Daemyung the question.

They talked about the plot of the drama for a while before switching topics to discussing the difference between whole-fried chickens and batter-fried chickens. They switched topics so fast that he couldn’t keep up with them. It made him confused just listening to them.

“Daemyung.”

“Yes?”

“Why do chickens have two legs?”

“W-who knows?”

“Wouldn’t the world be more peaceful if they had three legs? Likewise, if people had three hands, their work efficiency should rise dramatically. But why did everything evolve into having bilateral symmetry and the number two?”

After thinking about it for a while, Daemyung answered,

“Perhaps it’s because two makes everything balanced?”

“You know about tripods right? The thing people use to put their cameras on.”

“...Yes.”

“Three makes things even more balanced. But why are there only two?”

Pilhyun seriously pondered about the rather random topic. Gwak Joon had crossed his arms and looked to be in thought as well. Daemyung couldn’t get a grasp on things. The conversation between those two was a mixture of jokes and serious conversion so he didn’t know which one to follow. He didn’t say anything and just quietly waited for the two to switch topics again. However, the two discussed the reason why people had two arms and two legs for more than ten minutes.

“Daemyung. Have you thought about it?”

That question came to him suddenly. Fortunately, he wasn’t sitting there absent-minded the whole time so he gave an answer.

“If people had three limbs….”

“If people had three limbs?”

“It’d be very inconvenient to sleep at night, so that’s perhaps why they disappeared? I think it would be very annoying every time you roll around.”

He felt embarrassed after saying a weak answer, but the two listeners nodded.

“That’s plausible. If there’s a man who had insomnia due to having three legs, where would he go to get treated? A mental counsellor? Or would he have to amputate one leg?”

Then, the reply came from Gwak Joon.

“Sleep is an important problem after all. I think amputation is a better option if the medicine doesn’t work.”

“But if having three legs is the norm, you’d become a cripple the moment you’re left with two legs.”

“Then you’d have to cut it off and get a prosthetic leg for outside activities.”

“What if there’s phantom pain?”

“Then you’d need to go to the mental counsellor.”

“So having three legs and being insomniac at the same time is such a pitiful thing.”

“It’s a disability to not have something that you should have, but it’s also a disability to have something that you aren’t supposed to have. How about this? There’s a man with two mouths. One does the eating, and one has to do the speaking, but one day, the eating mouth wants to do the speaking as well.”

“Hm, I do need to write a one-shot sci-fi story, and that sounds decent.”

“Why don’t you treat me to a meal once you get paid then?”

“Hey, whose house do you think you’re freeloading in?”

Gwak Joon shrugged his shoulders and watched the TV. Silence took over the heated discussion from before. Pilhyun was writing something down on his notepad seriously. Daemyung stayed as quiet as he could and watched him.

Eventually, Pilhyun put down the notepad as though he finished writing things down.

“The three-legged man and his insomnia is quite interesting, isn’t it?”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

“I heard from Joon that your dream is to become a director.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what kind of directing you’re dreaming about, but if you really want to go that route, then you need to practice bringing out what’s in your head properly. It will help out a lot.”

“Bringing out, you say?”

“Yes. Whether it’s a movie, music, or writing, people that want to create something need that ability. Even if you can think of hundreds of ideas, if you can’t document them, then that’s just useless fantasy. It’s only when those ideas are put in a specific format that they gain value. It’s all the more important for a director, who needs to give out orders. If the captain does not know what to do, the wheel would turn all by itself, and the ship would be sinking in no time. If you don’t want to be third-rate like me, you should practice that starting now.”

Pilhyun stood up as he lamented to himself that he was a sad third-rate writer. He went straight into the main bedroom and closed the door. Gwak Joon, who was drinking beer, spoke to him.

“Quite chaotic, isn’t it?”

“Yes, a little.”

“You’ll get used to him once you talk to him a couple more times, so hold out until then. Also, he’s not like that all the time, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Uhm… hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask why you invited me here today?”

“I wanted to talk.”

“Talk? What kind of talk?”

“Anything, everything. When I see you fixing your scripts, I see talent in you. I don’t know about directing, but you definitely have a talent for writing. That’s why I called you here.”

Gwak Joon wiped off his fingers with some tissue before continuing to speak.

“Learn writing from that hyung-nim and I during the summer holidays. I want to recommend that you just bring some luggage here and live here, but you’re still a student, so let’s think about that later.”

“M-me? Writing?”

“I’m not telling you to become a novelist or something. I’m saying that you need to learn to write for the profession you want to become, so I’m telling you that you should learn it even if it’s for a short time. To be exact, we’re all learning together. I’m not that sociable, so I wrote everything by myself, but that’s not a good way of going about it. Become close to people that write. That hyung-nim has connections both in the movie area and the novel area, so he should help a lot for your future.”

Gwak Joon cleaned up the waste as he stood up. Daemyung quickly cleaned up as well.

“Edit your scripts like you always do and write a novel at the same time.”

“I can’t write things like novels.”

“You already completed your scenario, didn’t you? Write one based on that.”

Daemyung was rather taken aback.

“I don’t even read that much though.”

“There’s a lot over there. Read a lot regardless of the genre during the holidays. Reading is a force of habit as well. Once you get into the habit of reading, you’ll have no problems with reading anything. It’d be even better if you become addicted.”

While Gwak Joon washed the dishes, Daemyung cleaned the table. His mind was in a mess. The only thing he was sure of in this storm was that this was an opportunity that many never come again.