Chapter 42: The Week That Broke Him

After collapsing in his studio and being rushed to the hospital, Lee Junghyuk finally came to his senses that night after receiving an IV drip.

“Author! Are you feeling a bit better?”

Having been contacted by Lim Sunghui, CEO Hong Juhui hurried to the hospital.

It was she who had immediately moved Lee Junghyuk, who was receiving an IV drip in a corner of the emergency room, into a private room.

“Ah. Ahem. Some water, please.”

Because Lee Junghyuk had turned off his phone and spent the past week alone in his studio watching Godflix, it had been nearly a week since he’d last opened his mouth to speak.

If not for Lim Sunghui and Jung Taemi stopping by to bring him some dessert,

Lee Junghyuk might have been left unattended until the assistant writers came by.

He’d hit the back of his head when he collapsed, but a CT scan showed nothing serious, just a mild concussion.

“You really shouldn’t turn off your phone when you live alone. You could’ve been in real danger.”

“Sorry for making you worry.”

Lee Junghyuk managed to reply, his voice completely hoarse and cracked.

Hong Juhui was about to scold him a bit more, but she closed her mouth when she heard his metallic-sounding voice.

“What in the world were you doing to end up like this? The doctor said it was malnutrition.”

“Ah. I did eat… sort of.”

In truth, during the free viewing period, Lee Junghyuk had thought even the time to eat was a waste, so he’d subsisted on cup ramen or heated up frozen dumplings.

Watching dramas, he’d get by with one meal a day, and this was the result.

“You told us to take it easy, but you ended up overdoing it yourself?”

“We should have at least made sure you ate, even if we couldn’t help with the writing.”

Lim Sunghui and Jung Taemi were looking apologetic and miserable, even though it wasn’t their fault.

Seeing this, Lee Junghyuk felt like he was making them uncomfortable and had to reassure them several times that he was fine.

It was Hong Juhui who firmly stopped the two from taking turns nursing Lee Junghyuk at the hospital.

“Author, are you really going to be okay? I asked the administrative office and they said you can hire a caregiver.”

“I’m not even in critical condition. I’ll be fine, really. I’ll keep my phone on, just like you said, Director.”

“Then I’ll come again early tomorrow. Don’t think about anything, just get some rest, okay?”

“Yes. I will.”

After making sure Lee Junghyuk was lying down in bed, even Hong Juhui left.

Night fell, leaving Lee Junghyuk alone.

He’d never imagined he’d be staying in a private hospital room, but now that he was here, it actually felt quite comfortable.

A private fridge, sofa, TV, bathroom—it was like a cozy studio apartment, just without a kitchen.

But he couldn’t fall asleep easily.

Partly it was the nurses coming in every two hours to check his blood pressure, monitor the IV, or change the dressings,

But mostly it was because the dramas he’d watched on Godflix for the past week kept drifting through his mind.

He’d watched a total of six dramas.

Out of the fourteen works with ratings between 2.5 and 3.0 available in the Gold tier, he’d watched six, excluding  and .

There was the medical drama , the period drama .

 was a traditional historical drama, and there was the courtroom action series  and a chaebol romance called .

And lastly, the noir series .

With each show running from 12 to as many as 20 episodes, he’d spent nearly 20 hours a day just sitting and watching dramas.

But they were all so perfect and entertaining that he hadn’t even noticed the time fly by.

‘I did jot down the plot summaries and character maps for each episode, at least…’

Once the one-week free viewing period ended, he would have to repurchase the dramas to watch them again.

For , , and , which required a lot of research, he’d probably need to buy them again, but for the others, he thought he could reconstruct them just from his notes on the plot and characters without repurchasing.

The problem was,

“To do all that, even ten bodies wouldn’t be enough.”

Just watching the dramas had sapped so much energy, and when he thought about having to write them out, it made his head spin.

Suddenly, he recalled what Cheon Nayoung had said at the barbecue place.

She’d told him to take care of himself when fortune was on his side.

He didn’t really believe the part about ghosts causing mischief, but he couldn’t help but think that greed—having seen such good works on Godflix and not being able to share them with the world—could easily come back to bite him.

But to just give up and not write them—

“Ugh. What a waste.”

Because of that, even with just a mild concussion and malnutrition, Lee Junghyuk couldn’t rest easy in the hospital, tossing and turning through the night.

---

“What is all this?”

Wearing sunglasses, Seo Ji-won came to visit the hospital room and let out a sigh at the scene before her eyes.

And for good reason—the private hospital room was filled with baskets of fruit and flowers.

It seemed Director Hong Juhui had purposely spread the news everywhere.

That the author of  had poured his soul into the script and ended up hospitalized.

Because of that, even production companies and actors’ agencies who hardly knew him sent gifts.

I was eating the abalone chicken porridge sent by Ahn Yooseok, lightly greeting her with the IV still in my hand.

“Wow, Author, you’ve gotten so skinny in no time.”

“My weight’s the same.”

She went on about my dark circles reaching my chin and my cheeks thinning, giving me a headache with her nonsense.

“Is this enough? You should have something tastier. I’ll order for you. How about eel?”

“No, don’t order anything. Actually, since you’re here, have something to eat.”

I pointed to the table at the back.

It was loaded with food deliveries from Hong Juhui, Park Sangtae, and Director Jang Byunghyun.

Everything from gourmet lunch boxes to eel rice, chop steak, grilled short ribs, braised octopus—everything good for regaining strength.

“Author, you’re so popular. Still, how can I take food from a patient?”

“If you don’t eat it today, it’ll have to be thrown out.”

“Really? Hm. Then I’ll try the LA galbi.”

Seo Ji-won sat at the edge of my narrow bed and began gnawing away at the ribs with gusto.

“You could eat over there. Why are you squeezing in here?”

“I didn’t come here just to eat. I came to see you, Author. Want a bite?”

Seo Ji-won suddenly held a piece of rib out in front of my mouth.

“Come on, say ‘ah~’.”

“I’m not a kid. You eat it. I’ll eat if I want.”

“A patient should just accept care quietly.”

“Why does everyone treat me like I’m in critical condition? I have hands and feet too, you know.”

I snatched a piece of rib from in front of Seo Ji-won with my chopsticks and popped it in my mouth.

The savory seasoning, neither too sweet nor salty, filled my mouth.

The tender meat made me feel instantly happier.

“You’re going to eat it all by yourself?”

“Let me have just one more. It’s good.”

Seo Ji-won pulled the lunch box to the outer edge of the bed and picked up another rib, holding it out to my mouth again.

“I told you, you don’t need to feed me.”

“Just try it.”

Dodging left and right to avoid being fed, I turned my head here and there.

“Ah, Author!”

In the end, Seo Ji-won grumbled, having dropped a rib on the sheets.

“Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry.”

“Who said you’re not a kid? You totally are.”

When I snickered, Seo Ji-won laughed along.

“Just like this, it’s almost like,”

“Almost like what?”

“Uh… never mind.”

Seo Ji-won’s face turned red.

Just as I was about to ask what she meant, there was a noise from outside.

Knock, knock—the person entering was none other than Jung Sejin, Ahn Yooseok’s mother and CEO of Mams Food.

“Oh, Director.”

“Oh! Hello.”

“Don’t get up, either of you. I barged in while you’re eating.”

Stopping us from standing up, Director Jung Sejin hesitated as she tried to put down the fruit basket she’d brought.

“Oh dear. I really lack sense, don’t I? If our author eats all this fruit, he’ll end up with a stomach ache.”

“Haha, not at all. Thank you.”

“This won’t do, hold on a second.”

Showing some skill, Director Jung Sejin borrowed a knife from the room next door and began washing and peeling the fruit she’d brought.

She expertly peeled winter apples and pears, even slicing up a melon.

All the fruits were high quality, fresh and sweet.

Director Jung Sejin didn’t stop there, moving around busily.

Maybe worried that, as a man, I wouldn’t be able to handle all the fruit, she went ahead and peeled the other fruit baskets and plated them, even sharing them with the nurses.

She was the perfect homemaker, living up to the name ‘Mams Food’.

I was set to be discharged the next day, and if it hadn’t been for Director Jung Sejin, I would have had to separate and recycle everything—what a headache that would’ve been. I was nothing but grateful.

“You’re doing all the hard work just coming to visit me.”

“You’re the one who had it hard, Author. I heard you collapsed from overwork?”

“Ah, haha. Is that how the rumor spread?”

I decided not to mention that I’d collapsed watching Godflix.

“Author. I worked myself to the bone when I was first starting my business, rowing hard while the tide was in my favor. If I could say something to my past self, it would be—never do that. Once your health is ruined, you can’t get it back. I was so busy rushing around that both my knees are now artificial joints.”

Director Jung Sejin laughed, recounting the pain of her surgery in detail.

“Al-alright…! I get it. I’ll take care of myself.”

Director Jung Sejin’s nagging was that of a true homemaker.

My knees, which had never ached before, started to throb in empathy as I barely managed to stop her.

“Anyway, Author, have you ever considered starting a business?”

“A business?”

“I heard from Director Hong Juhui that authors start businesses, run them, and all that.”

“Oh! I heard a fellow author became a creator too.”

Director Jung Sejin’s point was this.

You can’t do everything in the world alone.

You need to accept help when you need it.

Skillfully using those around you is a talent too.

And so on—very realistic advice.

“Hm. Actually, I have been thinking about that lately.”

It was in line with the thoughts that had been keeping me up at night since I was hospitalized.

I hadn’t considered tackling this dilemma through business, but from a businesswoman’s perspective, that seemed to be the answer.

“Anyway, if there’s anything I can help with, just let me know. Your skin looks so rough, I can’t help but worry.”

After Jung Sejin left, having nagged like a mom, I shared some melon with Seo Ji-won, who was still sticking around like glue.

“Author, I think being a creator sounds pretty good. I don’t know much, but I heard it’s where you guide assistant writers and work together?”

“Yeah, something like that. We plan the project together, and if they write the script, I review it.”

“That should make things easier for you, right?”

“It should.”

It was a good idea.

If I gave them the plot and character relationships from the Godflix dramas, they might not reach Godflix’s level of quality, but the scripts would probably be better than my previous ones.

“Author.”

“Yeah?”

“Should I sleep on the sofa in your hospital room tonight?”

“What?!”

“What if you collapse again during the night? You’re probably still running your brain at full speed. You’ll burn out.”

As I was lost in thought, Seo Ji-won suddenly made this suggestion out of nowhere.

“Are you serious?”

“Just kidding. I’ll get going, so rest up.”

Watching Seo Ji-won leave the hospital room with a sly smile, I was left speechless.

“What a dangerous joke to make.”