Still By Your Side | JJ Project

Still By Your Side

Tired dropped JinYoung on the back seat of the spacious car that came to his house to pick him up. The night had been way too short for his liking. The young author knew that no other than himself was to blame for his tired state of mind. If he would have acted like most people around him, he wouldn't be this tired. Like them he could have closed his laptop between ten and twelve o'clock at night, put it in some corner far away from him to disconnect from his current project and find some sleep. However, JinYoung wasn't someone who was able to do such a thing. The dark-haired author had been too captivated by his own story that he couldn't help but to continue writing. Even back in his high school days he practised this excessive and (sometimes) arduous writing habit. A habit which caused him lots of problems as he missed (or better said overslept) many due-dates for important papers, meetings and exams at school. His way of working had even caused him trouble with his publisher and his editor not so long ago. Although the student knew that his publisher doesn't like seeing his unreliability, he never had even heard a single word about it from the staff or the big boss of the small publishing company during the past two years he had worked with them. The reason for this was his currently ongoing fantasy series: Astrinale.
The first book in this series immediately had touched the nerve of interest of his country. In less than two weeks had his book earned the title of a bestseller in Korea. People abroad soon fell in love with his story too. The demand to know how the story will continue was high. Now, almost one years after his debut it was time to let his story continue. Just a bit over a week ago the second part of the series had been released. Unfortunately this meant, that he had less time for his studies and his story as he needed to promote his newest book (despite already achieving sales records).

JinYoung hated these public appearances like the plague. The very thought of being the centre of attention intimidated him. When his first book had been published, he was able to avoid doing any kind of the promotion. Although magazines and television stations wanted to interview him and drag him in front of their cameras he didn't follow their requests even once. He didn't have to either as his publication company promised him to not make him promote his own books while he was still in high school. This promise had even been written down in their contract. They even promised to keep his identity hidden from the outside world so he could spend his last high school years in peace. Because of that promise he was given a good sounding pen name and they didn't put a photo in the short biography, which one can find in the back of every book. This helped him hide his true identity from the public. However, now that he was an university student, his company thought that he needed to promote his newest book. Apparently it was his duty as a writer to do so. Without much hesitation they booked several events which would take place in the next couple of weeks.
Today there was 'only' an autograph session at the Kyobo Bookstore in Gangnam on his schedule. The whole event would be two hours long. What made this event so special was that this would be the first time JinYoung would show himself to the public. This was a big deal. Such a big deal that people on the street and even news magazines were talking about nothing else since the official announcement of the event was published.

Just when JinYoung wanted to close the heavy door of the car, to hide himself from the maliciously bright sun rays, his manager prevented him from doing so and kept the door wide open.
"Nervous?" he asked with an incredibly joyful expression on his face.
JinYoung immediately turned his head and muttered something unintelligible. The manager smiled when he saw the young author's reaction to his question and patted him in an encouraging manner on his shoulder.
"You can do it! Believe me! This will be over in no time and who knows, you might enjoy it in the end," he said which let JinYoung sigh loudly. It was obvious that he didn't believe his manager even one bit.
"If only everything was as simple as writing these books. Hyung, do I really have to go there?" the young student asked with hope in his voice. His manager looked at him with pity in his eyes, shook his head and told him that he had no other choice than to attend this event. Another sigh escaped JinYoung's throat before the manager grabbed the door and shut it close.