People always like to rank things.
Girl groups are no exception.
Every generation of girl groups has its top 3.
However, these rankings are not decided by album sales alone, nor solely by the girl group’s skills; only the public’s perception is the truth.
Thus, a girl group ranked fourth could employ comment manipulation to pull down the third rank and claim a spot in the top 3.
This was often the case with Baekhak Entertainment.
Because they were always pushed aside by the three major entertainment companies led by artist-turned-CEOs, they always seemed to produce girl groups that lingered around the fourth rank.
But ‘Benivis’ was different.
That was a secondary matter.
Gu Yu-na became Min Hyo-min’s ‘literature teacher.’
Even I, a self-proclaimed expert on Gu Yu-na, had not anticipated that she could teach anyone. However, surprisingly, their lessons went smoothly.
The sight of the two girls sitting side by side in the club room, looking into a book and engaging in lengthy discussions, had become a part of their daily routine.
“Can a novel even be ? It seems like a hodgepodge of nonsense…”
“…That’s intentionally written that way.”
“Structure, skeleton, or plot. It’s written relying on thoughts and senses without those foundations. You might think, is this even a novel? But if your thought doesn’t end there and reaches the point of thinking about what a novel is, then you’ve read the book well.”
“Ah~ I completely understand.”
Despite her playful tone, Min Hyo-min wasn’t learning literature as a joke.
You could tell by looking at her book.
Min Hyo-min’s novel was tattered with fingerprints, underlines, and notes, like a veteran actor’s script.
It was truly deplorable to see the act of daring to use colored pencils on sacred books, like a pseudo-heretical, heterodox, and disorderly behavior, but I let it slide seeing her passion.
(It was clear she had learned this terrible attitude from Gu Yu-na.)
Anyway, Min Hyo-min’s passion for literature continued not only at school but also in the studio of a variety show, which coincidentally happened to be a literature variety show we were filming.
Park Chang-woon, who had somehow become a semi-regular member of ‘Let’s Become a Novelist!’, exclaimed lightly.
In his hand was a manuscript by Min Hyo-min.
“You’ve improved a lot?”
Smiling brightly, Park Chang-woon stroked his sage-like beard and asked.
“No, I’m not just saying it. You’ve really improved a lot. Have you been studying hard? Who taught you?”
Min Hyo-min answered with a shy smile.
“I learned a lot from Yu-na…”
“She didn’t bite you, did she?!”
“Why would you say that about Yu-na! Teacher!”
“Oh, I’m just kidding. Kidding. Don’t hit me…”
The camera quietly shifted angles and captured Gu Yu-na as the playful banter between the two continued.
Gu Yu-na, who had been the cute mascot of the broadcast, was now starting to become a major topic of discussion.
Inspired perhaps by ‘Log Costume Headbutting’, PD Shim Yeon-ho, who had been demanding a fashion show of costumes like deer, giraffe, and Tyrannosaurus from Gu Yu-na, now focused on her literary prowess.
Directed by the PD, the MC interviewed Gu Yu-na.
“Yu-na, you taught Mr. Hyo-min? Really?”
Gu Yu-na, wearing a full-body bear costume, peeked out her face and nodded expressionlessly.
The MC exclaimed in admiration.
“Wow! Then who taught you literature, Yu-na?”
Gu Yu-na pointed a finger and poked me.
While the MC exclaimed as written in the script,
I sighed quietly to myself.
That was the problem.
Gu Yu-na’s teaching methods for Min Hyo-min were…
Too much infused with my own influence.
Gu Yu-na isn’t ‘normal.’
To elaborate carefully, it means she’s slightly off from ordinary people.
To some, Gu Yu-na’s aspect might appear as a disability or a deficiency.
But to me, that was what made her ‘special.’
Because I don’t read Gu Yu-na’s peculiarity as aggressive behavior like others do, but through her cold, indifferent literature.
There was beauty in it.
So, in my view, it was a kind of talent.
Words like psychopath or autistic can’t clearly explain Gu Yu-na’s traits. Those terms are under-researched, inaccurate, and overly tainted by the media.
Thus, the Gu Yu-na I recognize is a type of person who might find it hard to understand others, yet is internally complete.
Gu Hak-jun agreed with me, but Min Chae-won considered her daughter fortunately to be a mild case of autism that didn’t need hospitalization, and a psychopath who was overcome by education.
But Gu Yu-na is just Gu Yu-na.
I liked her literature.
But at some point, it felt like it had disappeared.
Gu Yu-na handed me her work as if handing in homework.
It was a short story she had written with Min Hyo-min.
The plot, theme, development, characters, ending…
“Yeah. It’s good, but…”
Yes. It lacked nothing. It was perfect by my standards.
After all, it was written in my style.
But this wasn’t a piece I had written; it was Gu Yu-na’s.
That meant, at some point, Gu Yu-na had started writing in my style.
The novels of Gu Yu-na I knew contained the kind of innovation that made me exclaim right after finishing, “What kind of novel is this!”
What followed was predictable. We fought over it. Through that, we grew. That was the nature of Gu Yu-na’s novels.
Wasn’t this too tainted with my own color?
Recently, the ‘unease’ I felt had gradually become clearer.
The name of that emotion was ‘regret’.
Of course, I don’t think it’s bad that Gu Yu-na has matured early and fits in with others. Making friends from a young age, learning how to deal with people, and blending healthily into society is naturally a good thing. It would likely be a happier path for Gu Yu-na.
For whatever reason, it would be a pity for Gu Yu-na’s literature to disappear from this world .
Then there is one way.
Just as I taught Gu Yu-na my way of writing, this time, I should teach her the ‘Gu Yu-na style of literature.’
The literature of that time, of Gu Yu-na, still existed within me.
Feeling a dark impulse within me squirm tumultuously, I opened my mouth.
It was Gu Yu-na herself who had implanted that darkness, so I had no particular hesitations.
“Why don’t we write a novel together?”
Yu-na asked without hesitation.
“Sure. What’s the theme?”
“Human deconstruction.”