Brother, Am I Cute? [EN]: Chapter 10

“Really, it’s not possible?”

“It’s not. Well, unless Siha wants to. Siha, do you want to take a picture with this older sister?”

“Ah, ah.”

Nod, nod.

I looked at the woman.

“But please don’t upload or share it anywhere.”

“Yes, I understand. You’re just so cute, I wanted to take a picture with you. Do you happen to have a personal Instagram?”

“Um, no, I don’t.”

“Ah, that’s too bad. If you ever make one, please make sure to call it ‘Siha’ in English.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Your name is Siha too, so pretty.”

She crouched down and made a V sign.

Siha also raised his hand.

I held both my phone and the woman’s phone in my hands.

“Say cheese. Kimchi [a traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented vegetables, such as napa cabbage and Korean radish].”

“Kimchi!”

“Ah, ah.”

Click. Click. Click.

She looked at me as if she was dumbfounded.

“How many times are you going to take a picture?”

“Ah, it’s just a habit without me realizing it.”

When I take pictures of Siha, pressing the button becomes a habit.

I handed her the phone.

“Could you possibly take one of us too?”

“Of course.”

I hugged Siha.

Siha turned his head to the side and made an awkward V sign.

“Kyaa. So cute!”

Click, click, click, click.

Hey? You’re taking just as many pictures, you know?

You’re even changing the angle to take pictures.

The friends next to her seem embarrassed and pat her back.

“Stop it, you crazy girl.”

“Ouch! It hurts. It hurts.”

After receiving the phone, I parted ways with them.

It was really chaotic.

“Siha, those older sisters were funny, right? Older sister. Older sister.”

“Ah, ah.”

“Older sister.”

“Ah, ah.”

Siha struggled, asking to be put down.

Siha, whose feet touched the ground, wiggled his butt and walked.

I guess he’s in a good mood because he took pictures.

Or maybe he’s in a good mood because he was surrounded by older sisters?

“Hyung [Korean term for older brother or a close male friend]!”

Or is it because he took pictures with me after a long time?

Only Siha would know.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Matching Siha’s pace, I walked slowly.

The place we arrived at was the KI Media office.

Looking inside, it looked very neat.

“How did you come?”

The first person who saw me spoke.

“I came to see Section Chief Hong Jin-soo. We arranged to meet today. If you say Lee Si-hyuk, he’ll know.”

“Ah. Si-hyuk… He’s in the CEO’s office right now. Please wait a moment.”

After saying that, the woman left.

But…….

‘Why is everyone looking at me?’

Curiosity, subtle resentment in their gazes.

There seem to be various emotions, but if there’s a common point.

‘Why do they all look so haggard?’

At that time, Siha called me.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

He raised his arms and asked me to hold him.

I hugged Siha as he was.

Then the gazes looking at me softened a little.

Indeed, Siha’s cuteness gives an oasis to these desert-like faces.

“Oh! Sorry. Did you wait long? No. Why are you all standing like this? You should at least seat them in the conference room.”

“It’s okay.”

“Okay. Let’s go into that room.”

I went into the conference room with Siha.

It was quite a large room for three people.

“Everyone’s just sensitive. Team Leader Han Tae-sung suddenly quit, so the work has tripled. People will be hired soon, so the atmosphere will improve.”

“Ah, so that’s why……”

“Ah, ah.”

It was understandable that their faces were haggard.

They probably knew the situation, but it was inevitable that they would feel a subtle resentment towards me.

I think I would have resented it a little too.

“Then shall we write the contract?”

“Of course.”

It was the contract I saw back then.

Setting of publication rights and transfer of copyright property rights.

Each consisted of two copies.

One for me and one for the publisher.

The unit price was 2,500 won [Korean currency], and the manuscript was paid one month after delivery.

The contract fee was 500,000 won in advance.

I carefully checked and signed.

“I’ll transfer the contract fee to your account right away.”

“Thank you.”

Hong Jin-soo checked the account number on the contract and immediately deposited the money.

With this, the contract is over.

Now, what we need to talk about is the translation direction of this book.

“Do you have a desired translation direction? Whether to translate it by preserving the original or to adapt it to be more Korean style.”

Section Chief Hong Jin-soo’s eyes lit up.

“Is this really your first time working?”

“Well, you have to say these things in advance to avoid conflicts and reduce time loss.”

“That’s right. What I want is for Korean people to read it easily. If that’s possible, I think we can fully capture the feeling of the original author.”

“That’s a difficult request.”

“Haha. Let’s adjust that part with an interim check.”

“Okay. ‘Golden Hourglass’ is a good title. Is the protagonist a doctor? Is the title made by comparing it to the golden hour [the critical period for treatment after a traumatic injury or medical emergency]?”

“Are you able to deduce that far?”

“I just thought of it intuitively.”

“I’ll send you the scanned copy as a file. It’ll probably be easier to work with.”

“Thank you.”

I talked a little more with Hong Jin-soo about the direction and atmosphere, and then got up from my seat.

Siha was playing well alone with his penguin bag.

“Ah, ah. Aaaah? Ah, ah.”

I wonder what kind of conversation he’s having so diligently.

If you listen quietly, it sounds like Morse code.

Hong Jin-soo said.

“Then would you like to see a little bit of what the editorial department does? It’s really nothing special.”

“Haha. I don’t know if I’ll be hated even more.”

“Well, there won’t be any malice.”

“Siha, let’s see what the uncles do while they work.”

“Ah, ah.”

We came out of the conference room.

Glance, glance.

Everyone seemed to be very conscious of us while working.

When our eyes met, they quickly turned their heads to the monitor.

‘Interesting.’

Hong Jin-soo introduced me to several places.

I glanced at the computer of the person who had a resentful look earlier.

Roughly guessing, he seemed to be a deputy here.

In particular, he was looking at about 20 new books.

It seemed like he was reviewing whether this was suitable for Korea.

If you were to review all of that, you wouldn’t be able to do any work at all.

Even if you do your usual work and read one book a day, it would take 20 days.

‘Should I try to alleviate some of the resentment?’

I went closer to the deputy.

“Can I help you? What you’re looking at right now doesn’t seem to fit Korea.”

“Huh?”

The deputy looked at me with a wary expression.

“I think you are looking at novels, if you want to classify only the ones that seem to be average, you can look at the ones that are well-written.”

Of course, there are not many people who can grasp what is well-written in English original books.

That subtle nuance, tone, atmosphere, etc.

That was also a part that required the realm of ‘imagination’.

But right now, I can see it very well.

Based on that standard, how to select.

The knowledge of English that comes to mind surged and harmonized.

“Can I take a look for a moment?”

“Oh, sure. Go ahead.”

Since finding and reviewing articles takes a very long time, the deputy easily agreed.

I quickly scanned about 20 pages of the scanned copies.

That’s enough to see.

In an instant, about 20 books were opened and closed.

Among them, I selected stories that were modern and that Koreans could relate to.

In fact, there were quite a few cases where books that were not popular in the United States succeeded in Korea.

“About 5 of them have comfortable writing and are okay. Unless you’re looking for a masterpiece, you can just review these.”

When I took my hand off, the deputy was startled and started reading one of the five books.

“Huh……”

I smiled and stepped back.

“Has the work decreased a bit?”

“What criteria did you use to classify this……”

“Ah. Sorry. I was curious about what other people do.”

“Wait, just a moment.”

The deputy followed me, having finished a very long task in a short time.

Everyone was interested in this commotion, moving their hands and eyes while pricking up their ears.

I just found that sight funny.

“Ah, ah.”

Shake, shake.

Siha showed his palm to the deputy and shook his head.

The deputy and Siha’s confrontation.

The deputy couldn’t do anything.

“Hey, little one. I’m just going to pass by for a moment.”

“Ah, ah.”

“Ugh. I’m not in a situation to play with you. But the kid is so cute.”

I left the deputy, who was seriously contemplating, and looked at the work of other people.

One employee seemed to have been waiting for me and put strength into his shoulders.

He showed a firm will that he would not be pointed out.

Just by looking at it, he was doing proofreading work.

Thud. Thud.

The feast of letters passed by in front of me.

I couldn’t help but frown at the disturbing parts.

“The interpretation of the word ‘committed’ here is wrong. I think you translated it as ‘devotion,’ but this word is originally ambiguous to express in Korean. If possible, it’s better to explain it in more detail like this. Excuse me for a moment.”

Dada, dada, dak.

The employee’s eyes widened as I corrected it like this.

“Oh? It’s natural?”

“Right? Isn’t it better to be natural than a little stiff? Even translators don’t know and pass it by.”

“Wow. Thank you so much.”

At that time, an editor called me.

“Hey. Can you take a look at this?”

It was the part where the translator had underlined the place the editor pointed to.

A sentence that makes no sense at all.

This is because the words in the original book were too difficult, so they were vaguely passed over.

In that case, they underlined it and sent it because it was important.

It was a very troublesome thing for the editor.

“Wow. That’s severe. The subject and predicate are playing separately. The one next to it is the original text, right? Let’s see. Let me see the author’s resume.”

He had a degree in electronic engineering.

Then he did technical descriptions or translations.

Something sparked in my head.

The mismatched sentences that were not understood between sentences were re-established.

“Maybe this author wrote it with this meaning. It was difficult because he used the semiconductor process as an example.”

In an instant, I created a sentence.

“Oh?! This is it!”

Before I knew it, people were crowding behind me.

“Wow, is this possible?”

“He’s a beginner translator?”

“Isn’t he a natural-born editor?”

“I also had a pretty difficult manuscript among the translators……”

“Wait a minute. Si-hyuk. Question here.”

At that time, Hong Jin-soo came out and glared.

“Hey. Who’s trying to make our Si-hyuk work? Si-hyuk is a translator. Is he an editor? Everyone go back to work. It’s enough to have reduced this much time. First of all, Si-hyuk. Would you like to see what I do? Originally, you have to do the work of a high position to see the whole thing.”

At that time, other employees protested.

“Wow. Section Chief. Then you should look at my work. Originally, the work done from the bottom is the first step.”

“No. You have to see it from the middle to see both up and down.”

“First of all, Section Chief. Our Si-hyuk? Take your hand off his shoulder and talk.”

Hong Jin-soo frowned.

“What are you talking about? I’m the section chief. Section chief.”

“Wow, you told us to treat each other like family. Now you’re pressing down with your position.”

“Can’t help it. We have to step down because we have no power.”

Hong Jin-soo said.

“These guys?!”

I smiled bitterly and looked for Siha.

‘Ah, where is Siha?’

When I looked closely, Siha and the deputy were still facing each other.

The difference is that the deputy was squatting down to match Siha’s eye level.

“You don’t know how much work your brother has reduced. He reduced 20 books to 5 books. All you have to do is look at one book a day, check the copyright, and sign the contract.”

“Ah, ah.”

“I’ll bet my reputation on giving this kind of work to your brother.”

“Ah, ah.”

“How about it? It’s a great deal, right? So can you move aside now?”

Shake, shake.

“You’re pretty good, huh? Okay. I’ll talk to the section chief or the CEO about the unit price. You don’t know how unusual it is to receive the original translator’s unit price, not a rookie, right?”

“Ah, ah.”

“So. I’ll talk to them.”

“Ah, ah.”

Siha was doing sales to the editor.

I laughed at the thought of Siha becoming a salesperson.

Maybe our Siha has a talent for sales?