Mr Mermaid | LK Adaptation

Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Ideals and Pursuits

Lisa produced two manuscripts from the things she experienced at the Sports University. The first manuscript was the report on the National Sports Employees Communications Exchange, while the second was an introductory piece on Jungkook. The length of the second manuscript was ... 3 times that of the first manuscript.

She had maintained an objective and fair approach in writing the article, but the end result was like a brain-dead diehard fan gushing over their idol. Lisa was rather resigned about it. Jungkook was not perfect — for instance, his habit of 'teasing reporters' just could not be helped — but she could not write about those things.

She had depicted Jungkook as a 'top scholar among athletes'. Even after removing the qualifier field of 'swimming', when taking the entire professional sports circle into consideration, Jungkook was still deserving of the title of 'top scholar', without question.

An athlete who did not skip classes, had no failures, excelled in every class, while guaranteeing his performance in his sport at the same time — how refreshing! How inspirational!

When she was done with her manuscript, Lisa proudly looked it over twice. She decided that when this manuscript was published, she would first send a copy to Jungkook.

Teacher Taeyang was out for an interview, so Lisa could only go out with a colleague, Eunha, for lunch. Eunha was a Chinese Language major, and she was a fresh graduate just like Lisa. They were also the only two girls among the new hires of their news agency this year. The newspaper agency had given all of the hired fresh graduates a deadline to report for duty. Lisa had indulged in a period of wild fun before graduating, only reporting in for duty right before the deadline was up. In contrast, Eunha had reported in two months in advance.

In short, she had put in much more effort than Lisa.

This was why although they were both newbies, Eunha had already been at Sports Weekly for more than half a year and had more experience than Lisa. Her role in the agency was as an editor. All manuscripts the reporters wrote had to pass through the hands of an editor. For instance, the two manuscripts Lisa had written would first have to be sent to the editorial department for an editor to write a reasoned recommendation for it, After that, a meeting would be called for a selection of the recommended manuscripts. Once the chosen news manuscripts were confirmed, the editors would have to edit the manuscripts according to the quality of the manuscript and the requirements of the publication layout.

In this time and day when paper media were heading towards an inevitable decline, the selection and editorial work involved with producing news had not become any more streamlined. If some change had to be pointed out, it would be: there were fewer and fewer people willing to work for a newspaper agency ...

Neither Lisa nor Eunha planned to eat at the canteen of the newspaper agency. They were girls, after all — they were pickier. The two of them exited the newspaper agency's office building and made their way through two small lanes to enter a street lined with restaurants. Lisa had an arm hooked around Eunha's, and the two girls chatted as they walked. Eunha told Lisa that she had highly lauded Lisa's manuscript on Jungkook when she had written her recommendation for it, so it was likely that the article would be published in the very next issue. Lisa was very happy to hear that, and she proclaimed that she must treat Eunha for their meal.

She did not particularly care about her commission for the manuscript; she was just especially hopeful that this manuscript would be published — it was fine even if she wasn't paid for it!

Lisa and Eunha were discussing what to eat when they passed by a western restaurant. An inadvertent turn of Lisa's head caused her to look through a clear floor-to-ceiling window to see someone.