The Thief's Heart Still Yearned

[Part ① · The Sultry Temptress]

David Victor asked,

"—How long has it been since you woke up? Were you secretly spying on me?"

Jack denied it at once. "No! I wasn't secretly spying on you! I just woke up openly, like someone jolting awake from a nightmare. I didn't see anything, and I didn't hear anything!"

"Really? Is that really how it happened?" David Victor spun his chair around. As if by magic, his body stayed perfectly still while the chair glided right up to Jack Martin.

The writer furrowed his brow and shook the tools of his trade in his hand, two pens tucked between the fingers of his right hand. He covered his heart with his other hand, as if swearing an oath.

"To tell you the truth, I think writing is a very private affair. It's common for the first and second drafts to be rejected. It's also commonplace for publishers to rename a revised manuscript and steal it. And it's only natural for the things we've worked so hard to write to end up being used by editors to wipe their asses."

"Whenever that happens, I feel an indescribable guilt and shame deep down. So an author's raw, unpolished first draft is like his ass. Would you casually bare your ass for anyone to see?"

Jack pressed his lips together and widened his eyes. Like a little kid in kindergarten answering a teacher's question, he cautiously shook his head.

David Victor's expression changed from stormy to sunny. He gently clapped his hands—

—the papers on the desk fluttered shut without a breeze, like obedient little puppies, and slipped into the envelope on their own.

"Not bad! Not bad at all! Jack! You're really something!"

The unexpected praise left little Jack confused. He made a request