Chapter 132 – Please Believe Me (2)
Warm sunlight seeped through the kitchen window like a thin veil.
Min-hyuk took the last spoonful from his rice bowl and slightly lifted his head.
Across the table, Mrs. Hong Mi-seon was eating breakfast neatly as usual.
The side dishes were ordinary.
Rolled omelette, stir-fried anchovies, a few pieces of kimchi, dried seaweed, and soybean paste soup.
Familiar menus.
But.
‘Home-cooked meals really are the best.’
Where else could you find such a feast?
It was so good that even a famous rapper made a song about it.
While Min-hyuk was happily eating his breakfast,
Mrs. Hong Mi-seon casually asked,
“What are you going to do during the break, Comic artist Kang?”
“Me? I have to prepare the next work.”
“If you work without resting, New Chance will be happy.”
Min-hyuk shrugged, then hummed lightly and answered,
“Ah, this time the serialization won‘t be with New Chance. It’ll be on Bluehouse.”
“Bluehouse? That portal site? Do they do comics there too?”
“Yes. It‘s called webtoons. There’s a dedicated site for serializing on the internet.”
Mom‘s spoon paused for a moment.
When a somewhat serious expression appeared on her face, strength unconsciously entered Min-hyuk‘s hand.
‘As expected, she doesn’t like it?‘
The contract with Bluehouse was like winning the lottery for Min-hyuk.
But from his mother‘s perspective, it might look like her son was suddenly jumping into an unfamiliar market instead of sticking with stable printed comics.
Moreover, because of the risk in this contract, he had agreed to receive a lower page rate than what New Chance had offered before.
He was worrying about how to persuade her when,
Mrs. Hong Mi-seon smiled brightly and said,
“Ah, I think I heard from your uncle that Seung-heon is serializing there. Right?”
“Yes. He is.”
“Then, just work hard on your preparations.”
“That‘s it?”
“Why? What‘s wrong?”
“No, I just thought you might have more questions.”
Then, Mrs. Mi-seon tilted her head and said,
“My son will figure it out and do well on his own. What else would I be curious about?”
“Uh……”
She stood up from her seat, patted Min-hyuk‘s shoulder a couple of times, and said,
“Son, can you do the dishes? Mom has to go to work.”
“Have a good day.”
Bang!
The sound of the door closing echoed, and the house became quiet.
Shaaaa!
He turned on the water and stood in front of the sink to wash the dishes.
A somewhat dazed expression appeared on Min-hyuk‘s face.
“Mom really…… has changed a lot.”
If it had been the old mom, she would definitely have reacted conservatively to something like this.
She would have said things like “Wouldn‘t it be better to stay at your original job?” or “They’re paying you less right away, and jumping in for the future is a bit……”
The kind of things people commonly say.
But Min-hyuk had already proven himself over time.
That he was serious about comics and that he had the ability to actually succeed.
Mrs. Hong Mi-seon‘s change was surely because of that.
Once again, he realized how much comics had changed.
‘Well, now I just have to do well.’
A good environment and parents who believed in him.
There was no longer any excuse for Kang Min-hyuk when it came to making comics.
“Huuuuu. It‘s about time.”
After finishing the dishes, he looked at the clock.
10:55 a.m.
It was almost time for the appointment.
Min-hyuk went into his room, turned on the computer right away, and logged into Late-On.
Then……
Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
The familiar alarm sound rang nonstop.
[Kim Rok-hee]
“hey hey”
[Oh Dong-gyo]
“Hehe, Min-hyuk-kun is last again.”
[Kang Min-hyuk]
“Isn‘t the appointment time not here yet……”
Oh Dong-gyo, Kim Rok-hee, Han Yu-ra, and even Oh Seung-heon.
Everyone had logged into Late-On since early morning.
The reason they had gathered this early in the morning was……
- During the break, let’s share our work through Late-On.
- Okay. We’ll give and receive feedback in the chat, and share what we worked on that day every single day?
- Yoshi! Let’s fight!
It was thanks to the promise they had made before the break.
If they worked from home instead of school, they could easily become lazy.
To prevent that, they promised to encourage (what they called encouragement but actually read as surveillance) each other through Late-On and exchange feedback there.
Of course, the person who had actively supported this system the most was,
[Oh Seung-heon: Kuuuugh, I finally have work comrades! I don’t have to be lonely anymore!]
[Kim Rok-hee: What the hell, that’s scary. Why is Oh Seung-heon like this?]
[Han Yu-ra: Agreed.]
[Oh Seung-heon: Hey! Put yourselves in my position! Working alone all the time is insanely lonely! I’m being chased by deadlines, but no one empathizes with me!]
[Kim Rok-hee: Wow, bragging that you’re a pro comic artist. We still have to go through the screening.]
[Oh Seung-heon: T-that’s not bragging……]
[Kim Rok-hee: Uuu, my stomach hurts.]
[Oh Dong-gyo: As expected from a popular comic artist…… gaslighting……]
[Oh Seung-heon: I said it’s not!]
The harmonious(?) conversation going back and forth.
Watching it, the corners of Min-hyuk’s mouth twitched upward.
[Kang Min-hyuk: Alright, alright, stop chatting and let’s start working. Share what you worked on before you sleep every day. If you need feedback, just talk to each other. You all remember, right?]
[Oh Dong-gyo: Yoshi, ganbare!]
[Kim Rok-hee: Huuuuu…… Work again, it’s work again……]
[-Han Yu-ra has changed her status to ‘Working’.-]
[Kim Rok-hee: Look at Yu-ra being so sharp.]
Min-hyuk let out a small sigh and changed his own status to ‘Working’ as well.
Then…… he stretched and opened a Hangul document.
[TL Note: Hangul documents (.hwp or .hwpx) are files created with the Hancom Hangul word processor, primarily used in South Korea.
They can be viewed and edited using Hancom Office software, the online Hancom Web Hwp editor, Microsoft Word (with converter), or various free viewer]
The file name was ‘Bluehouse Project Planning.hwp’.
As the name suggested, it was a document created to organize the new project plan.
“Huuuu, let’s get started.”
Tap tap tap! Tap tap tap!
Min-hyuk quickly typed out the thoughts he had roughly organized in his head.
First, several prerequisite conditions.
[The current market is the early stage of webtoons, not yet the golden age.]
[Most works are daily life comics or gag comics…… and there is also a tendency to replace the role of YouTube.]
[Following the current trend might give stable results, but it will be difficult to create a ripple effect. The work I plan this time must expand the pie of the webtoon market itself…… and create real impact.]
[Fantasy or modern fantasy has many difficulties when it comes to weekly color work.]
Tap tap tap! Tap tap tap!
He considered the current market situation and future trends.
The limits of the human resources Kang Min-hyuk currently had, what he could learn through this work……
And, crucially, what role this work could play for the platform called ‘Bluehouse’, among other factors.
He weighed various elements.
‘Through this work, I have to show it. To New Chance and to Editor Pan Hee-hyun as well.’
Why the comic artist Kang Min-hyuk, who had won the Bucheon Comic Awards in printed comics, deliberately chose the medium of webtoons.
What kind of future this artist was dreaming of in webtoons that made him choose this medium.
And he had to make other comic artists and publishing companies feel its appeal when they saw it.
To do that……
He first had to think about the ‘characteristics’ unique to webtoons that printed comics did not have.
The most commonly mentioned one was,
‘In webtoons, scrolling itself becomes the timeline.’
The directing where scenes flow continuously without breaks as you scroll down.
This created a unique rhythm different from printed comics, where the timing was controlled by turning pages. This was also why the characteristic long vertical scroll format was born.
In contrast, the webtoons of this era……
Were simply made by stretching squares wide for readability in a web environment.
That was why, when preparing this work, Min-hyuk planned to show the basic techniques of scroll directing as effectively as possible.
This future concept would later influence other comic artists……
And could even accelerate the development speed of webtoons.
For that, the choice of genre was quite important.
Fantasy, martial arts, slice-of-life, gag, and even other minor genres.
Webtoons were a medium where countless things could be serialized without restrictions.
However, there was only one genre that satisfied all the conditions Min-hyuk had in mind while also allowing him to grow as an artist.
‘Horror comics.’
He had come up with this idea thanks to a legendary artist from the early days of the webtoon market.
Horror Tiger.
Originally a programmer who made games, but also talented in drawing and storytelling…… a versatile named artist who had serialized webtoons.
He had challenged many different genres during his career, but the work that left the biggest impact was this horror webtoon.
‘He was the first artist to perfectly understand and use the concept that scrolling is the timeline.’
He didn’t just approach webtoons with traditional comic techniques.
Horror Tiger understood very well that webtoon readers would view it on mobile devices or computers.
Knowing that early webtoon viewers could insert HTML code, he used his coding knowledge to add BGM between scrolls, use various effects for sound effects, and even techniques that forced the scroll to move.
And that fit perfectly with the horror comic genre.
The horror comics that Horror Tiger drew at the time frequently appeared on real-time search rankings.
All kinds of celebrities shouted it out, and even Scott McCloud, the master of comic techniques, mentioned his work in his book as “the future of comics.”
Moreover,
‘The basic techniques used in horror comics are still immature at this point.’
Another charm was that horror was a genre Min-hyuk had never tried before.
Methods of creating mystery, techniques for evoking fear, and so on.
There would be far more to learn from attempting something completely new than repeating a genre he had already done.
The only slight problem was,
‘If I overuse scroll directing recklessly, there will be issues when serializing on New Chance. That sense won’t be conveyed properly either.’
Because of these constraints, he would have to think carefully about where to strike the right balance in his work.
There were many restrictions and few references.
No matter how you looked at it, this would be an extremely high-difficulty challenge.
But……
Thump! Thump!
Precisely because of that, Min-hyuk felt his heart racing.
Whether it became porridge or rice, if he could somehow overcome this wall, he was certain he would grow one step further as a comic artist.
‘Don’t overthink it. Just charge forward.’
Tap tap tap!
Min-hyuk’s hands began flying fiercely across the keyboard.
He poured out ideas for the horror comic as they came to him.
He wasn’t afraid of failure.
He etched the scenes floating in his head onto the screen through his fingertips.
When several rough ideas had come up,
Min-hyuk immediately thought of the next thing he needed to do.
‘First, the key visual.’
In the end, the most important thing in a horror comic was how overwhelmingly the visual of the ghosts appearing in the story could strike people at first glance.
Min-hyuk connected his tablet and opened Photoshop.
For ease of editing, speed, and coloring……
From this work onward, he would have to do full-scale digital work.
Tap tap tap! Tap tap tap!
Min-hyuk’s arm began gliding across the tablet.
***
Late at night, the street was letting out a deep breath.
Streetlight flickered in the wind, stretching shadows, and beneath it Mrs. Hong Mi-seon walked along humming a tune.
In her hand was a black plastic bag, and the warm heat of freshly boiled gukbap rose from it.
“Huuu, it’s cold.”
Watching her faint breath spread, a smile unknowingly spread across Mi-seon’s face.
And for good reason……
- Oh my, Mi-seon unni, I heard your son won the Presidential Award?
- Jackpot, total jackpot. Isn’t he becoming a world-class comic artist? Will he win the Nobel Prize or something?
- Is there even a Nobel Prize for comics?
- How would I know? Ahahaha!
After Min-hyuk won the Bucheon Comic Awards……
Colleagues who heard the news through the media had been sending congratulations almost every day.
Although some time had already passed, it gave Mi-seon one firm conviction.
The conviction that everything she had poured her body and soul into raising Min-hyuk had been the right thing to do.
The confirmation that her own life had actually held more meaning than she thought.
A sense of pride as hot as the gukbap in the bag.
Once again, she felt grateful to Min-hyuk for stubbornly walking the path of comics despite her opposition.
A little later……
“Min-hyuk, Mom’s home. Let’s eat dinner~”
Even after Mi-seon entered the living room, it was quiet.
She carefully opened the door to Min-hyuk’s room and stepped inside.
Creak.
The computer screen showed the screensaver, and Min-hyuk was slumped over it, asleep.
It looked like he had fallen asleep while working.
Mi-seon smiled and approached, shaking Min-hyuk’s shoulder.
“Min-hyuk, wake up and eat first.”
The moment she said that,
“Uuuu……”
Min-hyuk flinched and accidentally bumped the mouse with his elbow.
The screensaver turned off.
And on the screen, an image appeared.
“Eh, eh……”
Instantly, Mrs. Hong Mi-seon’s eyes widened.
“Kyaaaaaaaah! G-G-Ghost!!”
A scream loud enough to make one lose their breath echoed throughout the house.
_____________________________________________
TL Note:
This novel is fully completed.
You can either:
- Unlock this novel individually through its Collection "Comic Artist" and access all remaining 68 Chapters for only $3
- Or join the Premium Tier ($7) for access to all 6 novels and ongoing updates
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/Vritratls
____________________________________________