ikigai | enhypen ni-ki

4

"What were you thinking suggesting something so expensive to the boss?" I asked Lena with a raised voice.

"Who cares? That brazen idea got approved!" She says going through my closet trying to find clothes that I could potentially use in my one month stay in Paris.

One month is a lot of time for a vacation for someone like me. I've only been out of the country for a week but never more than that.

Plus it's too expensive in my opinion just thinking about the hotel stay and the food. But here I am packing a month's worth of clothes for a trip, or should I say a trip that I would write about in my next book?

"Why would she even approve of this?" I asked Lena and stared at her back still trying to pick out my clothes.

"I told you didn't I? Your the first ever romance-centered writer under Phenom! Yes you maybe be an experiment to them so why not make the most of it?"

"I still don't get it"

"You're an investment, to say it simply, and we just have to see if you're worth the money and time Phenom spent on you"

"What if i'm not?"

Lena stops facing my closet and looks at me.

"You are."

Two words, just two words that were enough to lighten my heart. Two powerful words: I am.

I am thankful that this newly assigned manager of mine is my manager. We're just like best friends. She's 21 and I'm 22. She's newly hired and so am I. She's supportive when others aren't.

I guess it was for the best that Lena is my manager, because if it was any other employee of Phenom they wouldn't have payed attention to me because they would be more focused on authors who publish much better books which for them is not romance, not me.

Surprisingly my flight would be the day after today so Lena is currently helping me pick out clothes. Miss L has arranged the flight and the hotel, and eventually gave me pocket money for me to explore Paris.

'Have fun'

'Don't think about it too much'

I remember these words from yesterday's dinner with Miss L. Which completely aligns with my beliefs as an author. That I don't choose my ideas, they choose me and my job as an author is to make it into reality.

I have the talent to make it into reality.

Looking back on yesterday's dinner she asked me what is it that made my last book successful. She asked me to reflect to who I was before that book, who I was when writing the book, and who I was after that book to see if anything has changed for me.

Writing "All My Firsts and Never My Last" was fun and filled with excitement. I loved my characters as much as I loved writing them. I loved them as if they were real. I loved their story as if it was my own.

Actually, maybe I loved it because parts of the book was my own story.

Here I am again reminded of Miss L's words to me last dinner: 'You are young and have lots of things to experience. If you gain experience I think you'd be able to write more.'

I think she's right.

She hit the nail on the head.

I could only write "All My Firsts and Never My Last" because I myself have experienced that highschool sweethearts trope.

Maybe it is experience that makes man a great storyteller.