Chapter 311:
-Swish.
The protagonist turned his head with a wary expression.
[…?]
But there was nothing there.
Only a pile of books that had fallen from the shelves.
-Flutter. Flutter.
The pages of the open books fluttered in the wind that came from somewhere.
Only then did the protagonist relax his face and pat his chest.
[Phew, I’m getting paranoid.]
Some of the audience snorted as they saw the caption that cleverly mistranslated ‘Did I see something?’ into English.
-Swish.
As the protagonist looked around the foreign language book corner, the pile of books behind him started to move again.
[It’s quiet here.]
As the protagonist muttered to himself, the books on top of him began to float in the air one by one.
Books that flapped their covers like stingrays.
Unaware of that, the protagonist walked with a lamp in his hand.
‘What is this. What is this.’
‘What are those books?’
‘Hey! Look behind you, you jerk!’
The audience clenched their hands with anxious expressions.
They had watched for the past 50 minutes how the protagonist had suffered because of the books.
He almost suffocated from the sand that poured out of the books.
He was chased by venomous snakes that came out of the reptile atlas.
He sided with Captain Hook and got beaten up by Peter Pan and Wendy.
‘Behind! Behind!’
As the audience shouted, the books that flew threateningly reached the protagonist’s back.
They buzzed behind his back as if they were estimating their prey.
And then.
As if he felt a subtle feeling, the protagonist stopped his steps and swallowed his saliva.
He then turned his body sharply.
[…?]
At that moment, the books flew up to his head at a very fast speed.
All he could see was the pile of books from before.
But.
[The books are empty…?]
The books had shrunk a lot.
And the books that glowed eerily in the lamp light began to surround the protagonist ominously.
He moved towards the pile of books…
[No.]
…when he turned his body again.
The books that followed him like stalkers and his face met.
After a second of silence.
[Aaaaaaah!]
[Aaaaah!]
The human and the books screamed from both sides.
The protagonist swung his sword that he got from Captain Hook like crazy, and the startled books ran away and hid.
The murmurs of the books hidden in the dark echoed in the theater.
[Scary!]
[See. The rumor was true. There’s a scary human wandering around the library.]
[Look at the ink on the tip of that sword. Is that our blood? Aaaaaah!]
The protagonist retrieved his sword with an awkward expression and asked the books hidden in the dark.
[What are you talking about? Scary human?]
[Aaaaaaah!]
[…]
The protagonist snorted and showed his annoyance at the sight of the Spanish book that screamed first and then looked.
He raised his hand to his waist and said.
[Come out. I won’t hurt you.]
[Can you promise?]
[I promise.]
[Okay… then I’ll come out…!]
[Wait.]
The German book said in a husky voice.
[We have the upper hand. If you move even a little when we come out…]
[Come out now.]
[Yes.]
Hello, this is Copilot. I’m here to help you with your web novel editing task. 😊
First, I’ll translate your text from Korean to English using one of my internal tools. Then, I’ll edit and correct the sentence structures, words, and paragraphs as needed. I’ll also provide some feedback and suggestions on how to improve your writing. Ŗ
Here is the translation of your text:
The audience laughed at the sight of the German book that suddenly changed its attitude.
Soon, the books that were rustling showed themselves.
When the book was opened, something like a breathing hole between the cover and the paper moved like a mouth.
[Who are you?]
[I’m a German book! Guten Tag!]
They each greeted him enthusiastically in foreign languages.
Soon, the conversation between the protagonist and the foreign books continued.
[Why are you hiding here?]
[There’s a rumor that a scary human is roaming around.]
[A scary human?]
It was a story that the books in the library were in a panic because of the news that a human called ‘book killer’ was wandering around.
The protagonist’s expression became serious.
He was tired of being misunderstood, and he realized that the stories he heard were not directed at him.
[There’s one more person in the library.]
The first day of his job as a security guard.
Everything started when he opened a mysterious book called .
The protagonist’s height, which was 5 feet 9, shrank to the size of a hardcover book like Alice in Wonderland.
Suddenly, the characters and monsters from the book came out.
He wasn’t surprised by the talking books, but he was worried that there was one more person in the library.
‘Who the hell are you?’
‘The old librarian looked suspicious. Is it him?’
‘Is it a twist that the protagonist has a split personality?’
The audience started to make guesses.
Meanwhile, the keyword ‘New Black’ had completely disappeared from their minds.
They only immersed themselves in the movie.
[But why do you look like books?]
[Huh?]
[The characters from Peter Pan or The Emperor’s New Clothes came out and moved around.]
[Oh. That exhibitionist author?]
A snicker of laughter escaped from the audience.
They remembered the visual of the king who marched with his important parts cleverly covered, saying ‘Look at Jim’s clothes!’
The foreign books laughed and said.
[We are books without stories. All we have is…]
[Grammar, words.]
[We don’t have much to show.]
The OST that was playing in the background changed slightly.
As the tone of the conversation between the protagonist and the books gradually changed, the audience noticed that it was ‘musical time’.
[But we have words. Various words.]
Like an animated movie, the books leaned their heads one by one to the protagonist and greeted him in different languages.
[And we have songs too.]
Soon, the books started to sing a line each.
They sang a French chanson, a Mexican-style song that sounded like a man with a poncho.
And then, the song started in English.
We don’t have a story to show
Or a protagonist
But we have plenty of dreams
As the lyrics of ‘Thousand Dreams’ continued, the books surrounded the protagonist and sang.
They put sunglasses on the book and asked ‘Do you want to travel?’
The protagonist was dazzled by the colorful performance of the books.
They grabbed his hand at the end of the paper and danced a waltz.
It was a cheerful and uplifting song.
‘Nice.’
‘I have to download this when it comes out.’
‘I have to find out the title. It sounds like Thousand Dreams from the lyrics.’
The five books sang to the protagonist.
[…]
The protagonist stared blankly at them.
Unlike the original musical, the protagonist of the movie was a teenage genius pianist.
But one day, he lost his parents and siblings in an accident caused by a drunk driver.
He barely recovered, but his hands were broken and his dreams were taken away.
What we have is
Hundreds of words
And thousands of dreams
And a shabby bookshelf
The audience burst into laughter at the sudden change of attitude from the German book.
Other books began to rustle and reveal themselves.
When he opened one, something like a breathing hole between the cover and the pages moved like a mouth.
[Who are you?]
[I’m a German book! Guten Tag!]
They greeted him cheerfully in different languages.
He soon struck up a conversation with the foreign books.
[Why are you hiding here?]
[We heard there’s a scary human roaming around.]
[A scary human?]
They told him that the library books were panicking because of a ‘book killer’ on the loose.
His face turned serious.
He was fed up with being misunderstood, and he realized that the rumors were not about him.
[There’s someone else in the library.]
It was his first day as a security guard.
Everything started when he opened a mysterious book called .
He shrank to the size of a hardcover book, like Alice in Wonderland.
Characters and monsters from the books came to life.
He wasn’t fazed by the talking books, but he was concerned about the other person in the library.
‘Who the hell are you?’
‘The old librarian looked fishy. Is it him?’
‘Or is it a twist that he has a split personality?’
The audience tried to figure it out.
They had forgotten all about the ‘New Black’ keyword.
They were fully absorbed in the movie.
[But why do you look like books?]
[Huh?]
[The characters from Peter Pan or The Emperor’s New Clothes came out and moved around.]
[Oh. That exhibitionist author?]
A snort of laughter came from the audience.
They recalled the image of the king who paraded with his privates cleverly hidden, saying ‘Look at Jim’s clothes!’
The foreign books chuckled and said.
[We are books without stories. All we have is…]
[Grammar, words.]
[We don’t have much to show.]
The background music changed subtly.
The tone of the conversation between him and the books shifted, and the audience realized it was ‘musical time’.
[But we have words. Various words.]
Like in an animated movie, the books tilted their heads one by one and greeted him in different languages.
[And we have songs too.]
Then, the books began to sing a line each.
They sang a French chanson, a Mexican-style song that sounded like a man with a poncho.
And then, the song started in English.
We don’t have a story to show
Or a protagonist
But we have plenty of dreams
As the lyrics of ‘Thousand Dreams’ went on, the books surrounded him and sang.
They put sunglasses on the book and asked ‘Do you want to travel?’
He was dazzled by the colorful performance of the books.
They held his hand at the edge of the paper and danced a waltz.
It was a cheerful and uplifting song.
‘Nice.’
‘I have to download this when it comes out.’
‘I have to find out the title. It sounds like Thousand Dreams from the lyrics.’
The five books sang to him.
[…]
He stared blankly at them.
Unlike the original musical, he was a teenage genius pianist in the movie.
But one day, he lost his parents and siblings in an accident caused by a drunk driver.
He barely recovered, but his hands were ruined and his dreams were shattered.
What we have is
Hundreds of words
And thousands of dreams
And a shabby bookshelf
Meanwhile, unlike the protagonist who was born with a genius talent, the books that each had a dream of ‘wanting to give joy to the reader!’ but could not achieve it because of their innate limits.
They were singing about their dreams.
‘Dreams are good, and achieving them is good, but don’t match your dreams and yourself,’ they comforted the protagonist.
The audience’s faces smiled.
‘I didn’t see the lyrics well… but it’s good.’
It was hard to grasp properly because of the subtitles that quickly passed by, but they had a rough idea of the nuance.
But it was a good song anyway.
It was a heavy topic, but it was thanks to the books that sang like fairies.
The melody was also fun and I wanted to hear it again.
‘I have to find this when I go home.’
‘When is the OST release? It’s really good.’
‘Isn’t this a number that wasn’t in the original? Who composed it?’
As they nodded their heads, thinking ‘I have to remember this part’, in their heads.
‘But where does the New Black song come from?’
While some of the audience had that question.
In most of their heads, the keyword ‘New Black’ was gone.
The time when the preview of ‘Nostalgia’ ended.
As the ending credits rolled, the audience began to walk out with a shaky step.
The part-timer who was standing next to the trash bin was curious.
‘Is it fun?’
There is a face that the audience makes when the movie ends.
They look slightly dazed as they come out of the movie and back to reality.
But this time, it was more.
There were quite a few audience members sitting with a wistful expression, looking at the credits.
“Hey, look at this. I didn’t eat any popcorn.”
“Uh, the cola is bland.”
If it was another time, they would have thrown away the empty cans and left, but the audience came out with cans full of popcorn.
‘It must have been really fun.’
The part-timer nodded.
Sometimes there were such things with really fun movies.
Then, the conversation of the people reached her ears.
“From today, this is my life work.”
“It’s so fun. Really. I’m going to the second round.”
“I’m going to bring my parents and watch it again on Chuseok. I have to book it for sure.”
“…This much, the word of mouth will be great, right?”
As the hallway was noisy with the talk about the movie, the distribution company staff with the ENG camera asked for an interview.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Oh, awesome!”
The people shouted with their thumbs up.
“The song is really good. I highly recommend it.”
“I saw the original musical in the US, and I think they did a really good reinterpretation for the movie version.”
“I’m going to see this with my boyfriend!”
Mostly, there were high praises for the song, and the conversation of the people who left the theater continued.
A group of friends chatted.
“The song was really good. Nothing came out yet?”
“Well, it’s the first release in Korea, so I guess not. There’s nothing on YouTube either. It’ll probably come out after the release.”
“It’s a shame when you see it first. Really.”
“Falling Stars was really good…”
As everyone’s eyes became hazy, someone said.
“I liked that, the song of the foreign language books.”
“That was awesome. I think people’s tastes will vary, but I liked that one after Falling.”
“But didn’t they say that New Black’s song came out there? It didn’t come out until the end, so I was surprised.”
“That’s right.”
As they nodded their heads, someone said.
“Are you stupid? That’s New Black’s song.”
“…?”
“You can tell by the voice, even if they sang it in English.”
“…!”
There was a moment of silence.
“That was New Black’s song? I thought an idol song would suddenly come out.”
“Me too. Me too.”
It was a problem of recognition.
There was no mention of ‘New Black’s song in the movie is K-pop’ in the article or the interview, but people automatically fit it in with keywords like ‘national pride, foreign director’.
Someone said.
“Then they got cursed for nothing.”
“But is it really true? Is that dream song New Black’s?”
As they typed ‘New Black Nostalgia’ in the search bar, an interview with the director called ‘Thousand Dreams’ came out.
“Was it real…?”
“I didn’t notice because there was no dissonance with the movie. The director’s words earlier weren’t lip service.”
“And New Black’s kid composed it?”
Their eyes were wide open.
It was strange to feel that a Korean singer, and an idol at that, had a song inserted in the movie version of a famous Broadway musical.
That’s why they thought an idol song would come out, saying ‘This is K-pop’.
But there was no dissonance at all, and it was a number that could have been in the original.
And the composition was also by a New Black member.
“He’s famous for composing, right?”
“But this is…”
Of course, ‘Composer Idol Universe’ was not unknown.
He made a name for himself by composing Wind Flower, which swept the first half of the year, and Nine, which was popular these days.
And online communities often talked about how much he made from royalties.
But a musical number was a different matter.
“It’s amazing.”
“Did he really do all of this by himself?”
That was the question that shook the minds of those who had thought he was just a music nerd who got help from others.
But they were not the only ones who reacted that way.
“Was that a New Black song?”
“I knew I recognized that voice. It was New Black.”
People who were heading home or entering restaurants held their smartphones and widened their eyes.
And then.
Bloggers who made a living out of movie reviews, as well as those who were interested in movies, posted their articles.
Title: [Preview] I went to see Nostalgia (spoiler alert)
Author: Movieismylife
Many of you are curious about John Edwards’ new film, Nostalgia. I went to the red carpet and the preview.
(Skipping)
They said there would be an idol song, and it was noisy all day longㅋㅋㅋ
You will all be surprised when it comes out. I was.
When ‘that scene’ came out, I was like ‘huh? huh? huh?’
Even after the preview, everyone was like ‘that was a New Black song?’ It was a song of such quality that it shocked me.
Especially the visuals were crazy, and I felt that Edwards was really a master when I saw that scene.
Personally, I thought the original musical songs were a bit boring, but I think New Black’s song and Falling Stars gave the movie a unique flavor.
Some of you may be worried about the idol song, but you don’t have to worry about that. +_+
[Comments]
-Thanks for the quick review!
-That’s awesome!!
-I want to see it so badㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Why are you all talking about falling stars
-But I’m curious about New Black’s song too. What is it that makes it so hot?
┕[Author] I think the song was really good, but it was also a twist. I never imagined it was a New Black song.
-Bella Page seemed to be stressed out by her recent film slump… I’m glad. How much do you think it will make?
┕[Author] If the word of mouth spreads well… I think it will do well.
Meanwhile, as more and more reviews saying ‘Falling stars and New Black’s song are amazing’ came up, people’s curiosity increased.
-The reviews are the best ever;
-It will sell well during the holidaysㅋㅋ Director’s patriotism+good movie quality=? I’m looking forward to it
-I want to know falling stars
-I’m more curious about New Black’s song. Why is it so full of praise???
-Didn’t they get cursed at in the article comments earlier?
-They got cursed, so their agency is doing some media play??
-I don’t know if it’s media play, but I have to see it
As the curiosity increased due to the preview reviews, the reservation rate of Nostalgia gradually increased.
And this news spread to the idol community as well.
-I’m curious about New Black’s song
-2222 Me too… What is it that makes it so praised
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋIt’s just media play, right? They’ve done it before, right??ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Their agency’s media play is 100%
-How can the reviews be all good?? That doesn’t make sense
-After buying tickets, now they’re doing media play… They’re too muchㅎ
-Didn’t they do media play with Lemon’s first week sales and grab Tenty and Tins by the hair?
-ㅇㅇ The reviews are all copy-pasted ‘New Black’s song is good too’
-Kyuho must have worked h
-New Black fans, cheer up. Your kids have a lot of enemies…
But negative comments swept the atmosphere.
When Soufflés posted one comment, ten rebuttals and ridicules followed.
The post was deleted by the administrator because of the flood of hate comments.
-Huh?
-It looks like something came up
-They said falling stars came out
-The director is really good at stirring things up, is he a sailor?
Official distributor channels and New Black TV, as well as the whole world, simultaneously uploaded the video of ‘Falling Stars’.
Along with the official English version sung by ‘Rupert Dean’.
[Rehyuk – Falling Stars (from ‘Nostalgia’)]
In Korea, there was a cover video sung by New Black’s Rehyuk.
They had drawn attention with their patriotic marketing all day long, and the reviews were also full of praise for the song.
People started to click on the link with curiosity.
Click-
As the views started to rise slowly.
New Black’s members were in Hongdae with the cast of Nostalgia.
I opened my mouth.
“Director.”
“Hmm?”
“People from other countries who visited Korea in the past left this review. They were surprised that we ate a lot.”
Junghyun smiled warmly and said ‘that’s right’.
“…”
“So please don’t look at us like that…”
The director and the other actors laughed.
They were happy to see us at first, but their reaction changed when they saw us eating meat endlessly.
They looked at us like we were amazing creatures.
‘We eat this much in Korea normally’ we said, and the interpreter told the cast ‘this is not a normal phenomenon’.
They laughed.
“You ate a lot too, interpreter.”
We said ‘woo woo’ in Korean, and she smiled and said.
“I ate about two servings…”
“Our last digit ends with 2 too!”
“The first digit was 2 too. 22 servings.”
We decided to change the topic with a cough.
We looked around the neon signs and buildings that filled the surroundings and said.
“This is Hongdae.”
“Hong-dae.”
They nodded their heads as if practicing the pronunciation like foreigners.
“Yes. It’s a place called Hongdae, where a lot of young people in Korea go. Rihyuk. Where is that place in LA?”
“Melrose Avenue.”
“It’s like Melrose Avenue.”
The content we were doing right now, after finishing our meal, was to introduce the famous streets of Korea.
“Wow!”
And as you can see, it was crowded with people.
“So pretty! So pretty!”
“New Black…”
“Hey! This is awesome. I’m in Hongdae right now…”
A camera for filming, some lights, and security personnel.
Every time we moved, dozens of people screamed or took pictures with their phones.
The sound of someone making a phone call, the sound of people saying you’re pretty and handsome, the sound of people’s conversations, etc. It was noisy.
It was twice as noisy as I expected.
“Bella unnie! You’re so pretty!”
I translated for Bella Page, who was curious when she heard her name.
She flicked her blonde hair behind her ears and smiled with her eyes.
“Thank you~”
The college student who held her hand looked like he was going to faint, and laughter erupted from everywhere.
The actors responded as if they were doing fan service, and we couldn’t focus on the names we heard.
“Shall we move to the place we booked in advance? It’s nearby…”
It was when we were about to move to the place where we decided to shoot the content.
“Excuse me!”
I saw a person running through the crowd.
My siblings and I blinked our eyes and looked at each other in surprise.
‘It’s Eunsung.’
‘It’s Mr. Eunsung.’
‘Why is he here?’
Our Ha Eunsung, who was wearing a stage costume, was running towards us cheerfully as if he was glad to see us.
He smiled brightly at me, not seeing the camera.
Why is he here?
But that wasn’t the important thing right now.
“Eunsung! If you don’t stop…”
“Ahh!”
Thud.
“He got caught by the security guard…”
The security guard grabbed Eunsung and pinned him to his side.
He rolled around like a rolled-up mat, screaming ‘Ahh!’ and laughter burst out from everywhere.