Nabi seriously wanted to disappear in her seat right now.
She could already feel the awkward air being constructed between the three of them.
Jay sat in front of her, his egoistical persona still in check, while Scoups sat on the table next to them with his phone out, pretending that he didn't know Nabi and Jay. But Nabi knew that his phone was just an excuse for a cover where in fact he is probably listening to the conversation Jay and Nabi are having, which actually makes Nabi want to jump out of the window from frustration.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Nabi said tiredly, rubbing her forehead, "You want to kill off the main character by magically giving him a heart attack in the middle of the night for no reason?"
"Yup. That's right," Jay confirmed, crossing his arms across his chest as he leaned back into his chair, looking proud of himself.
Meanwhile this news has been the most ridiculous thing Nabi has heard all year, never minding the fact it's only been six days since the new year has started.
"But. . .why?" Nabi asked, bluntly, not being able to mask her shock with politeness anymore.
All what Nabi and Jay have been doing for the past twenty minutes is going back and forth over the same idea, which is Jay wanting to kill off the main character of his web series, the very same web series which is currently ranked third in Korea.
"Why not," Jay shrugged his shoulder, "He's getting boring. I'm sick and tired of writing the same old sappy goody shoes dialogues. He also looks like a lovesick puppy who can't get over the ex who dumped him. It's annoying."
Nabi stared at Jay open mouthed, unable to believe her own ear.
"But you built him," Nabi pointed out, the disbelief evident in her voice,"You literally created him and drew him and gave him all of his physical attributes. And now you want to kill him off?"
"Why can't I? If I knew how much annoying he would get, I would have never created him," Jay told her like its no big deal.
Nabi put down the pen she was holding gently in the table and took a sip of her iced Americano, closing her eyes as if that will help with the mental stress she is going through as of the moment.
Went Jay was first discovered by Nabi's boss and given to her, she was reluctant to take him. He was only twenty at the time and Nabi knew that working with young people would only lead to more stress and more work for her. Not only would she have to push him to commit to his deadlines, she practically has saved his web series from dropping its ratings by making sure he stays away from destructive ideas.
The problem with Jay isn't that he is young, although his young antics do create problems every now and then, the major problem with Jay is his lack of focus on motivation. Jay is a very good writer and a phenomenal drawer and his story development is also very good. However Jay looses interest in his story as quickly as he gains interest in it.
One day he would come with a perfect plot twist and two weeks later he would get bored of it and refuse to go along with the story, wanting to make another plot twist with zero context.
If Mia gave her stress then Jay gave her extreme hyper stress.
If it wasn't for the fact that Jay's story is currently ranked at third in all over Korea and is the company's highest rated story, Nabi would have had him switched to another editor long time ago.
Not only does editing and publishing Jay's story pays well, it also helps raise Nabi's value as an established editor in the industry.
"Okay. Let me get this straight. You are not killing the main character off," Nabi told him sternly.
Because Jay is younger than her and reminded her of her brother, Nabi often ended up dropping the honorifics around him.
"What! Why? It's my story," Jay protested.
"And when you sighed with the company, you sold 70% of the copyright shares to us," Nabi told him swiftly,"So we get to have the final say in this situation."
"Therefore, I'm sorry, but I am not going to let you kill the main character," Nabi decided.
"What! But! I-" Jay tried to speak but Nabi swiftly cut him off, saying, "However, I can let you change the character's personality if you want."
Jay narrowed his eyes into tiny slits and and stared at Nabi, sounding cautious when he asked, "What do you mean?"
"You said you were sick of the character right? The same old goody two shoes thing," Nabi said, twirling a pen in her hand as she quickly thought of something, "Instead of killing of a character, why don't you change the person's character. Make him more aggressive and mean."
Jay thought over it for a while, his eyebrows furrowed together, the expensive watch on his wrist still shining under the cafe lights as he clearly considering what Nabi's idea.
"How will I do that?" Jay asked, a bit clueless.
Another flaw with Jay is that he is a bit. . . well he is a bit slow up there. Jay may be a wonderful writer and drawere but he was slightly lacking in the idea department. Sometimes Nabi wondered if she should tell him hire a ghostwriter to do his job for him. Or better yet, whether Nabi should offer herself as his ghostwriter.
"The character's current persona is kind and good. He helps everyone, he sees the good in everyone, he always thinks positive. However if you want to change his personality into something for agressive, I want you to make such a situation which would change his life. For example, since he is poor and his parents are in debt, maybe have loansharks brutally murder his parents. Or since he wants to be a police officer, show a situation where corruption in police in shown and it ends up ruining his current life," Nabi told him.
"For a character change, you need to have an event which is either very drastic, disturbing or extremely saddening. Try to make it so that the readers feel melancholic. And to show the change in the character, do a time skip of a couple of years, "Nabi said.
Jay thought over the proposal for a minute, "So. . .you're saying instead of killing him, I should change who he is. But what event would change him so much?"
"That's your job not mine," Nabi told him, mentally exhausted from her long day. She took the one final sip of her iced americano, hoping it would help soothe her growing headache.
"Alright, alright, I got it. No need to be feisty darling," Jay drawled, frowning slightly.
Nabi didn't bother responding to his comment. It wasn't as if he was going to listen to her anyways.
"Okay. That's it. I want to meet again in a week so you better come up with an idea till then," Nabi instructed him, not really leaving room for discussion. Nabi knows from experience that Jay needs to pushed to work. He would not listen if you ask him to do it. The only way to get something out of Jay is to order him to do it.
"Why one week? That's so fast," Jay complained.
"Because I need to make sure you're on track," Nabi told him, "You have an entire week. That's more than enough to come up with something nice," Eunae told him.
"Fine. Fine," Jay said, "I swear you're worse than my mom. If you didn't scold me so much, I would've considered asking you for dinner someday, you know."
Nabi, you had heard this at least a hundred times by now, started packing up her papers and said, "How nice. I appreciate your thought. You are free to leave now. I'll send you a follow up email later"
Jay scowled a bit but nevertheless got up to leave.
"I'll get going then," Jay said and Nabi hummed in response, busy packing her things away.
Jay walked away from their table only to return back within a few moments.
Nabi looked up, confused, wondering why he came back while waiting for him to say something to explain himself.
Jay, on the other hand, instead of saying something, only furrowed him eyebrows closer together and leaned in dangerously close to Nabi, making Nabi lean back a bit in reflex.
Just when Nabi though Jay was going to do something completely inappropriate, Jay whispered, "The man on the table next to us, the one with the black mask and beanie, he keeps on staring at you like a creep. Do you want me to scare him away?"
Nabi slowly looked towards the direction Jay was discreetly pointing towards only to see Jay pointing at the table Scoups is sitting at, who was very obviously trying to pretend as if he wasn't listening on to their conversation.
Scoups had his back unbelievably straight while he was neither scrolling through his phone or doing something else. His coffee has also long finished and it was obvious to anyone that Scoups is eavesdropping.
Nabi blinked and slowly turned her head back towards Jay's direction and blinked once more.
Surely things cannot get any more awkward than this right.
"Do you want me to scare him away?" Jay asked again.
Nabi tried to appear as if she were thinking hard and said, "No. . .it's okay. I'm leaving soon anyways. Don't worry."
"Are you sure?" Jay asked.
Nabi nodded and said, "Yeah. I'll be fine. I swear."
"Alright," Jay said, straightening his back as he slowly began to leave, not forgetting to glare at Scoups the entire time he was walking out.
It wasn't until around two minutes after Jay had left the cafe that Scoups decided to move back to Nabi's table, not before carefully looking around to make sure Jay has indeed left.
"I'm sorry the meeting was so long. We had some unpredicted. . .complications," Nabi told him as she began packing all of her belongings away, feeling a wave of tiredness hit her.
Jay's meeting took far longer than expected and the moon is now high up in the sky, having replaced the sun. All the streetlights are on and Nabi can hear the horns from the cars in the ongoing traffic outside.
"So. . .that was him, huh," Scoups instead said.
Nabi gave him a weird look, not really catching on.
"You client. He's a bit too comfortable with you, isn't he?" Scoups said.
Nabi rolled her eyes yet smiled at his protectiveness and said, "He's around the same age as my brother. Literally a kid. That's just how he is. Don't let it get to you."
"Then what was he saying to you when he came back?" Scoups demanded seriously.
Nabi smiled as she remembered the interaction. She couldn't help but laugh as the awkward tension in the air is now gone and Nabi could finally see how funny the whole situation was.
"Nothing. He thought you were a pervert staring at me and asked if I wanted to get rid of you," Nabi told him, still laughing.
Scoups looked at her with an expression that read something like "you can't be serious".
"He's the one who wrote it right. The story Unexpected Fate. He's the author of it, isn't he?" Scoups said.
Nabi looked at him with her mouth wide open, genuinely very surprised and asked with evident surprise in her voice, "You know who he is?"
Scoups gave her look as he to say 'stop being ridiculous' and said, "Of course I know it. Unexpected Fate is everywhere these days. It's the hottest item of the moment. I heard that its going to be made into a drama this year."
"Ah-that. We've been actually negotiating the contract terms with the broadcasting house. But nothing's decided right now. My bet is that the earliest we will even sign the contract will be late spring this year," Nabi told him, getting up from the couch.
"I didn't realize your company actually handled top writers. I thought it was just small writers," Scoups said.
Nabi frowned a bit and said, "I think I probably told you about him earlier. Didn't I? I'm pretty sure I did."
Scoups shrugged getting up from the couch as well and taking her hand in his, "Who cares? What matters is that my girl is the editor for Korea's hottest webtoon artist of the moment. Now that's seriously surprising."
Nabi smiled when she heard Scoups call her "my girl". If she were to admit it, her heart did indeed skip a beat in that moment.
"He's not the hottest webtoon artist of the moment. He's still at number three. Everyone speaks as if he's ranked at one. Besides, it's not like I wrote it. I just make sure he does his job properly," Nabi told him shrugging as she let him put his left arm around her shoulder as they walked out of the cafe.
"Hey, if we go by that logic then that means thatI don't deserve any of the credit Seventeen makes musically. After its Woozi who does all the producing and its Woozi and Vernon who do most of the songwriting," Scoups told her.
"That's different than this. You work in a group, I work alone. It works a bit differently." Nabi said and then changing the subject, she continued, "Anyways. Do you still have free time left? I'm a bit hungry."
"I have all the time in the world today for you," Scoups said, "What do you want to eat. I want to treat you."
"Hmmm," Nabi wondered for a while as Scoups began leading her to where he had parked his car earlier.
"I. . .want. . .Tteokbboki!" Nabi said, feeling excited just at the thought of eating the spicy rice cakes, one of her favorite dishes.
Scoups couldn't help but smile when he heard the excitement and happiness in her voice, "Tteokbboki? Alright. Whatever you want princess."
First of all, thank you so much for 200 plus views. This is truly crazy.
Did you all hear about Seventeen supposedly full album release in May??? I've been waiting for this for so damn long, I'm super excited. I really cannot wait for this. I hope everyone is enjoying their spring break, if you have it, and are having a great day. I'll try to update soon again!