Chapter: 04
Unlike the laptops of the future, Yoonseul turned on a clunky laptop with thick bezels and searched the internet for the drama competition hosted by DBS Broadcasting Station.
When she checked the deadline, it was next Friday.
In the past, one week before the deadline for the Min Sara competition, Sara had taken her laptop without saying a word, claiming that she had gotten into a minor accident, and returned it damaged.
The laptop would not even turn on, and she claimed that the USB drive Yoonseul had plugged in for backup had been completely destroyed without leaving even a trace.
That was how Yoonseul’s chance at the DBS drama competition was senselessly lost.
But a month later, when the winning entries were announced, Sara’s name was proudly displayed at the top.
[Grand Prize
Insomnia – Min Sara]
Only then did Yoonseul realize that Sara had deliberately stolen her work.
She could never forgive the woman who had stolen her chance to achieve her dream.
When Yoonseul contacted the broadcasting station and said she would reveal the truth, it was Junghee who stopped her.
Junghee tearfully pleaded with her to let it go, saying that doing so would not only result in Sara’s award being revoked but would also require them to pay damages.
Unable to refuse Junghee’s desperate pleas, Yoonseul had no choice but to remain silent.
However, there was no way Sara, who had won with a stolen work, could properly write the story that followed.
‘Yoonseul, can’t you help Sara just this once? It would be such a waste to throw it away like this. It’s not just for Sara. Mom really wants to see the drama you wrote on television.’
After winning the competition, the copyright to Insomnia had already become the property of the broadcasting station and Min Sara.
Therefore, if Sara could not write the rest of the work, Insomnia would simply disappear without ever seeing the light of day.
‘Isn’t that better than the work never seeing the light of day at all?’
After Junghee repeatedly persuaded her through tears, Yoonseul had no choice but to become Sara’s assistant writer and continue writing the drama.
“Ha…”
Yoonseul violently shook her head, casting away the horrifying memories.
With cold eyes, Yoonseul turned on the laptop and opened the Insomnia folder.
She quickly read through the synopsis and script.
The script displayed on the screen was the early revision draft.
The version that had actually aired was the final version created after nearly a year of countless meetings and endless revisions with the broadcasting station’s producers.
Fortunately, after returning to the past, the contents remained vivid in Yoonseul’s incredibly clear mind.
Throughout the weekend, Yoonseul even sacrificed her meal times and completely rewrote the scripts for Episodes 1 and 2 of Insomnia.
Then, once the final version was complete, she submitted it not to the DBS drama competition but to a storytelling competition hosted by Hansan Media, a subsidiary of Hansan Group.
At the same time, she saved the extensive materials for Insomnia and every backup file to an online cloud.
On the laptop itself, she left only the early revision draft—the version that Min Sara would steal.
“Make sure you steal it again this time, Min Sara.”
The next morning, Yoonseul was startled awake by the vibrating alarm.
She opened her eyes wide.
At the same time, she imagined that she could smell disinfectant, and fear struck her like lightning.
“Ha… ha… ha…”
Breathing heavily, Yoonseul quickly turned her head and stared at the wallpaper pattern.
It wasn’t a white wall.
The wallpaper had tiny square patterns arranged at regular intervals.
“This isn’t a hospital. It’s my room.”
Yoonseul muttered to herself as though reassuring herself.
Only then did her rapidly beating heart begin to calm down little by little.
Yoonseul reached out and turned off the vibrating phone, then looked at its screen.
[Is our Seul awake? There’s no fine dust today, and the weather is really nice. Have a good day at school and take care of yourself ♥]
It was a message from Taekyung.
In the past, he had sent her messages several times a day.
Even though he was a busy office worker, she had been deeply touched by how considerate he was, contacting her every single day without fail.
She had thought it meant that he loved and cherished her.
But it had merely been bait to keep the fish from leaving his fishing grounds.
[You have a good day too, Taekyung ♥]
Furrowing her brow deeply, Yoonseul reluctantly pressed the send button.
It was necessary to maintain the image of the innocent Min Yoonseul who was still in Woo Taekyung’s palm.
“I’ll be off to school.”
Yoonseul left the house, boarded a bus, and headed to Korea University, her alma mater.
The campus she encountered again after traveling ten years back into the past was filled with all the youthful memories of her university days.
As she walked down the hallway toward her classroom, a familiar voice came from a distance.
“Yoonseul!”
The person running toward her with a bright smile was her classmate and best friend, Joo Arin.
In the past, they had been close enough to freely show each other their writing and exchange feedback without holding anything back.
But their relationship had begun to fall apart after Min Sara won the DBS competition.
Arin had also been opposed to Yoonseul marrying Taekyung.
‘You’re only twenty-three. Aren’t you rushing things too much? You’re going to spend the rest of your life with this person, so you should be careful.’
Back then, Yoonseul had been so blinded by Taekyung’s sweet deception that she couldn’t hear Arin’s words.
Eventually, after getting married, she had completely drifted apart from Arin.
Even so, Arin had kept Yoonseul’s request to remain silent about Sara’s actions all the way to the end.
Looking back, Arin had been a precious friend who was happier than Yoonseul herself whenever something good happened to her, and who cried alongside her whenever something sad happened.
This time, Yoonseul would never let go of that hand.
“Arin!”
Yoonseul stretched out her arm and waved enthusiastically.
She sat beside Arin during class and ate cafeteria food together with her in the noisy student union building.
It was the ordinary, dazzling life Yoonseul had longed for during her years trapped in the locked psychiatric ward.
“Yoonseul, are you going to attend the special lecture today, too?”
“What special lecture?”
“It had some title like, um, something about a global platform…”
“Ah…”
At this point in time, even the concept of global OTT platforms was unfamiliar.
People were skeptical about dramas and movies being released through some mysterious platform instead of terrestrial broadcasting stations or movie theaters.
Yoonseul in the past had felt the same way, and on top of that, she had been distracted immediately after Taekyung’s proposal, so she had missed the special lecture.
“This! Look.”
Arin showed her the notice for the special lecture on her phone screen.
[Storytelling in the Era of Global Platforms]
[Lecturer: Do Igeon, CEO of Dipflix Korea]
Do Igeon.
Yoonseul’s eyes widened when she saw the name.
Yoonseul knew exactly who he was.
When she was a freshman in university, she had worked with him on a short film as part of a group project for the class Media Content Production Practice.
She had later used part of the script they wrote then as the fictional film that appeared within Insomnia.
Perhaps that was why, the day after the first episode aired, she had received a call from an unfamiliar number.
He was the only person besides Arin who had realized that Insomnia had actually been written by Yoonseul.
—Wasn’t Insomnia written by Min Yoonseul? If something unfair happened to you, tell me. I’ll help you.
When he had extended a helping hand to her, Yoonseul had lied and said that everything had been her own choice.
Then he had coldly shot back at her.
—Min Yoonseul, do you realize that what you’re doing is deceiving the viewers? Your writing seemed so pure, but you’ve gotten pretty dirty without me seeing you.
His harsh criticism had viciously clawed at her heart.
Several months later, he had contacted her once again.
—If you’re really thinking about writing a work as Min Yoonseul, contact me here. It’s a place you can trust.
He had tried to introduce her to a production company, but Yoonseul had found it uncomfortable and burdensome knowing that he was aware of her shame, so she ultimately never contacted him.
‘Why did Do Igeon reach out to me twice back then?’
A question she had been unable to ask in the past surfaced belatedly.
“Yoonseul, what are you spacing out thinking about?”
“Huh? Oh, no. It’s nothing.”
At Arin’s words, Yoonseul shook off her thoughts and stood up.
After promising to attend the special lecture together, they each headed toward the classroom for their next class.
Yoonseul’s destination was the College of Humanities building.
Her classroom was on the sixth floor, so she approached the elevator and hurriedly stepped inside just before the doors closed.
‘I should’ve waited for the next one.’
The reason she immediately regretted getting on was because of the man standing inside.
Do Igeon.
The man who had been occupying her thoughts just moments ago was standing right before her as if by some miracle.
An imposing physique nearly 190 centimeters tall and a solid build like an athlete.
And a handsome face capable of instantly stealing everyone’s attention even among a crowd of actors.
He looked exactly as he had when she had first seen him as a freshman.
The only difference was that unlike his casual university attire, he was now a fully grown twenty-eight-year-old man who looked perfect in a modern, classic suit.
Without realizing it, Yoonseul lowered her head and moved to the diagonal corner behind him.
Fortunately, Igeon’s gaze was indifferently fixed on the floor indicator.
But when she thought about it, there was no way he could remember her face.
Even if he remembered her writing.
And yet
“Min Yoonseul?”
