[ARTICLE] "Healer" Seo Jung Hoo's backstory

The writer of Healer, Song Ji Na had promised that she’d post her scripts if the ratings went above 10%. Well, ep 10 did get to 10%, just in the Seoul metropolitan area though. So she posted the back story of SJH instead. Not all of it got implemented in the actual drama, but it’s still fun to read it. The following is my translation of her post and her note from her website, dramada.com.

SJN’s post:

For a moment… my brain had stopped working.

So all I’m doing is breathing.

Taking advantage of this little break, I’m posting this.

I had promised in a “light spirit” that I would release the scripts of “Healer,” which is currently on air, once the ratings reached double digits, and it turned out to be not that easy.

Then, episode 10’s rating made double digits for the Seoul metropolitan area, while the nationwide rating is still in single digits. Many people at dramada.com are ranting about the Seoul metropolitan area rating TT.

So I was befuddled for a while and decided to post a short note as an appetizer, while still looking forward to nationwide double digit ratings.

This note is something…

I had scribbled down for myself…

before Healer came to this world.

Before I start working on a project, I often write notes like this about each character from that character’s perspective. Then that character develops clearer.

What I’m posting today is one of those back story pieces of Seo Jung Hoo.

It’s short.

Also, the setting of Jung Hoo’s place from this note has been changed as the director found a place that worked way better.

A few other things also have changed as the drama started… At any rate, Seo Jung Hoo was born from such notes.

Then…

P.S. This note is not bound by any copyrights so feel free to download and read it.

Jung Hoo’s Behind Story

My house is on the 19th floor of a 19-story building in Songdo.

Thanks to my job, I was able to find out about it and get it dirt cheap. The whole building had been put up for auction, its registration process got complicated, and now it’s stuck with less than half of its lots being sold. The first ten floors did get occupied by a few stores and offices, but it’s totally empty from 11th floor and up. I had originally thought of selling the 19th floor off with some margin of profit, but it seemed unlikely that it’d get sold, and I actually came to like it a lot when I took a look at it one time out of boredom. So I decided to keep it.

It’s a space of about 200 pyeong (about 7,000 square feet) designed for office use. No partitions have been installed, so this huge space is practically empty except for a few pillars holding up the ceiling. I put in a king-size bed in there, set a couch and a computer desk somewhere next to it, also brought in a fridge, a microwave, and some exercise equipment, and left the rest empty.

I like my house. I like the fact that it’s so empty, and its view of the ocean in the far and the desolate, newly developed city right under my feet is to kill for. Also… I like the fact that it’s vacant.

At the end of this year, I’ll turn 28. To own “my own house” like this at my age. To have bought it with money purely earned by myself. Sometimes I get so proud of myself that it becomes difficult to contain my emotions.

I’m a courier. I’m quite expensive. I don’t take jobs for less than 10 million won (about $10,000 USD) each. I’ve been doing this since I was twenty years old, so I have over 8 years of experience. I’m quite competent, too. I complete my jobs with over 90% success rate. I take any job as long as it’s not about killing someone. I don’t care about morality or justice. That is my work ethic and justice for my clients.

It’s none of my business what my clients do with the items I steal for them once I hand them over. So it’s not fair to call me a thief or spy just because I steal or listen in on people. Like I said, I’m just a courier.

The secret of me being able to keep this job for almost ten years is my strict secrecy. The clients manage to find me under the codename “Healer” through their own venues of information, but all they can find is an e-mail address that leads to my intermediary. That intermediary selects (probably based on the reward amount and the ability to pay) which clients to work for and relays them to me. The intermediary delivers the clients’ instructions to me in the middle, and hands over the items to them and receives the reward for me as well. This way, the client can’t find out who I am, and I can’t find out who the client is. I’m not interested in finding out who they are, anyway.

My cell phone has only three phone numbers on its contact list. My intermediary, my minion, and a Chinese restaurant nearby. Period. I don’t keep family, partners, friends, or anything like that around. Didn’t I say already? I like empty.

My intermediary and I only contact via phone. We’ve never met in real life.

When I was twenty, my teacher, who was also my predecessor, gave me this job and I made my first phone call with the intermediary.

“Hello?”
When I hesitantly asked, a husky female voice asked back from the other side.
“It’s you?”
“Ah, I’m Seo…”
“I don’t need your name. Don’t ever tell me your name.”
“Yes.”
“Did your predecessor teach you properly?”
“Well…”
“Let’s try a simple one just to warm up. …do you speak any English?”
“Of course not”
“Do you even know what ‘warm up’ means?”
“Of course, I do…”
“Work on your English.”
“Yes.”
“About your first job. Can you crack safes?”
“I know the basics of it.”

The first job was more than just cracking a safe. I had to sneak into a huge mansion with high walls at Pyeongchang-dong, get past its line of security, and I had thought the house was empty, but the housekeeper came out from her midday nap, so I had to tie her down against my intentions, and I had put the obnoxiously barking Chihuahua in the trash can, but it escaped, so I had wasted time catching it again. That Chihuahua would run off when I went after it, then try to bite my heels when I turned around. When I finally made it to the objective, the safe, I had already spent all the time I was given. I didn’t have time to crack the safe. So I just took that whole safe that weighed about 20kg (about 44lb).

That almost cost me my job.

The intermediary viciously criticized me with no mercy.

‘The first thing about being a courier of the code name Healer is not leaving any traces. Besides, you’re a courier, not a burglar! Your predecessor just left me with this greenhorn of a pathetic thief? That bastard needs to be shredded to pieces and made into jerky for ruining my business!’

At the time, I couldn’t tell the difference between a courier and a thief. It took more than an hour to crack that safe, and there were wads of Korean and US money along with some stacks of bonds, and I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t supposed to take all those after working so hard to get them. So I was in a mental agony, asking myself about 99 times as I took the safe back to where it was. Why don’t I just take this safe and disappear? I could live comfortably for a few years with what’s inside.

It was good that I didn’t do that. If I had just quit then with that, I wouldn’t have been able to even keep an underground studio, let alone a house on an entire 19th floor as I do now.

Thanks to my reputation of not leaving any traces whatsoever and not touching even a single 1,000 won bill (about $1 USD) outside of the specified objective, I’ve experienced no shortage of customers despite my high fees. I even have quite a few regulars.

The reason why the intermediary asked about my English skills out of the blue was because of my equipment.

Somehow, she got her hands on all kinds of devices that were still under development and provided them to me with several upgrades. Because they are developed in the US, those smart devices only take voice commands in English. With the right pronunciation.

These devices don’t give a damn when I blurt out “Pahtterie (for battery)” in a hurry.

The smart glasses are usually clear but can change its color to cover my eyes when needed, and wearing them is like carrying an actual computer right before my eyes. The intermediary can also quickly analyze the information captured by those glasses and sends me updates accordingly.

For example, all security cameras connected to the police are the same as our own eyes, and once my glasses take a shot of someone, the face recognition program on my intermediary’s computer spits out all the information about that person in a split second. As long as she hacks into it, cracking someone’s car (as long as it’s a cutting edge, brand new car) or tracking the whereabouts of that car is a piece of cake.

My smart ring can touch any Bluetooth-activated device and control it, and my smart watch can work as an emergency aid…

Thanks to the fact that my intermediary is an early adapter with Otaku-like tendencies, I often feel like I’m a guinea pig for trying out new devices.

My intermediary and I split our fees exactly 50/50. I have no complaints about that.

She and I sometimes chitchat on the phone. There are times when she mentions her favorite songs or movies, and judging from their release dates, I suspect she’s an Ajumma in her 40s or 50s. One time, I called her Ajumma, and she got mad, so I decided to keep calling her that from then on.

However, her computer skills are quite something for an Ajumma. Some clients apparently had hired professional hackers to find her address, but they gave up after tailing her day and night as she led them all over the world. After all, the last address they got to was that of the hacker’s own house. If needed, she can easily crack the police server and find the right information. The dozen different identities I have were also created by her.

Sometimes, after our chats, there are moments when we run out of things to say and just breathe on, and that’s when I think,

‘Ajumma is alone, too.’

I have a dream.

In my house on the 19th floor, there is a huge picture that takes up one whole side of the wall.

It’s a picture of an uninhabited island that is about 2.5 hours away from Panama City by boat. It’s in the middle of a madly blue ocean, with dense woods, and I hear it’s even got a natural spring in the middle of the island. The price is $5.2 million USD. I’ll need more money to install a settlement on the island, plus to buy my own yacht, so I need at least $6 million USD to live on this island. My dream is to make that much money.

No matter how tough the job was that day, looking at this picture slowly fills me up with happiness. I just stare blankly into this picture and daydream about its sandy beach, building a dock there, setting up a cabin, and furnishing the inside of that cabin. By then, the gradually accumulated feeling of happiness just melts my whole body. To be honest… I don’t know what other forms of happiness may exist other than this.

Translated by: ruizaio at Healer soompi

Note: the original post has no pictures, I add the pictures for illustration

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