Notes from the Last Story: A Story That Breaks the Difference Between Real and Fake
Introduction
Notes from the Last Story begins with a teacher who was once an author but hadn't written a single word in many years. He had given up on the thought of writing, believing he no longer had the power to write, and he couldn't even try because of an incident that happened along his path. He can't even imagine being an author anymore, though he wrote only one book in his life. He calls himself a book writer, but he isn't a bright one — he is a professor at a college. One day, he meets a boy who writes stories for his assignments, a boy who always sits on the back bench. When the boy submits his writing, the professor finds it very curious, because the storyline is too good — the boy has a distinct writing style, and his stories make the reader curious to know more.
The Professor's Hidden Motive
The professor thought he could take this person under his wing and turn him into a better author, since he himself could no longer become one. He realized he could gain something from this too — if he made this boy a great author, he could call himself the boy's master and gain some publicity and recognition for himself as well. With that thought clear in his mind, he decided he would teach this boy and shape him into an author.
Mun Ho decides to personally mentor the boy
His real motive is selfish — he wants credit and publicity as the boy's mentor
The Beginning of a Dangerous Bond
But this turned out to be the teacher's biggest mistake. When he started teaching the boy, he offered him money and even his own house, where they would teach and learn how to write and improve together. The boy gave him a new story every day, and these stories were so gripping that he would add elements that felt too real to be fiction — it seemed like he was writing about his own life. As the teacher read these stories, he noticed that the boy had befriended another student in the back row, seemingly just to get close to him and meet his family, because the boy felt jealous — he believed this other student had everything he didn't. So the boy became close friends with him and even visited his house. Seeing that family made the boy feel like this was the "right" family, and his curiosity, his wishes, and his search for a perfect family made him want to be part of it. But to stay close to them, he needed to help the family's son pass a very difficult coding exam — if he didn't, he wouldn't be able to continue writing his assignments. He told this to the professor, who initially said there was nothing he could do. Later, though, the professor decided to help by giving the boy the exam paper in advance, letting him pass so he could go on living with that family. And so they passed, and the boy moved in with them.
A Family Secret Emerges
Their life together began, and they lived like a happy family — they even had a maid. Then it was revealed that the maid and the father were secretly involved in a relationship that no one was supposed to know about. This excited the professor's curiosity even further as he read the boy's assignments, drawn deeper into their private lives. At one point, the professor felt it wasn't right to keep reading about someone else's private matters and told the boy he wasn't interested in continuing to read or teach him anymore. But then the student called him urgently — a car accident had happened, and the student revealed that the girl involved was someone the father had been in love with. This pushed the story into a tragic turn. The student then told the professor: the father in the story was, in fact, his own father — and when the professor finally saw him, he realized the father was none other than his own former classmate, the very man who had once destroyed his writing career, discouraged him, made him suffer, and left him unable to write for years.
A Shocking Discovery
The professor became more determined to uncover everything about this family, especially since the man behind it all was also the husband of a woman who had been his college crush. Now he wanted to protect her as well. The story accelerated as they tried to identify the culprit, who turned out to be the father himself. They also discovered that his son and daughter knew about their father's wrongdoing — he wasn't just involved with one woman, but with many, and he was the one responsible for the accident. The professor wanted the father sent to jail, but the student pointed out there was no evidence to prove it. The professor then suggested they create the evidence themselves. The mother, it turned out, had known about her husband's secret for a while but chose to protect the family by hiding it. The professor didn't want the husband to remain with his wife.
The Story Becomes His Own
The student's father then fell ill and was hospitalized, meaning the student could no longer write more assignments or visit the father's house. The professor felt helpless, not knowing what would happen next in the story, and grew increasingly desperate to know how it would continue. The student told him: "The story is yours now. You are the author of this story, so do whatever you want with it — it's yours to shape as you wish."
A Desperate Race to Save the Family
Later, the student warned the professor that the father was planning to kill the entire family and burn down the house. Terrified, the professor rushed out of his own house, drove as fast as he could to reach them, and called the fire brigade and the police along the way. When he arrived and began knocking on the door, desperate to break it down and save the family, he discovered there was no fire and no such incident had occurred at all. Then the boy appeared from behind him and said, "My friend, what are you doing here?" — and a woman also appeared, asking, "Are you Mun Ho?" The professor was left completely shocked.
The Twist — None of It Was Real
Everything changed in that moment — the story wasn't true, and neither were the characters. It was all fabricated. The accident that had happened earlier was a real incident, but the boy had used it as the seed to build an elaborate, fictional story around — and it was pure luck that helped him weave it into something so convincing that it made the professor believe it was really happening. The boy then posted on social media, portraying himself as an innocent victim, claiming his professor had encouraged him to investigate the family and write about them, and that the professor had even given him the exam paper. Now the professor was furious — the boy had made him lose everything. His relationship with his wife was also strained because of it. The professor was destroyed from every angle.
Why the Boy Did It
Some time later, the boy called the professor and explained why he had done all of this. Years earlier, when the boy was young, Mun Ho and his wife had visited an orphanage during a children's event. During that visit, Mun Ho had spoken to the boy and made him happy, explaining what a story is and how stories are formed. The boy had been deeply moved by those words. Later, his wife told him that the boy wanted to meet him again to thank him for his time, but the professor dismissed it, saying he had no interest in meeting a foolish boy who didn't even understand what a story was — he felt the boy had nothing worth telling him. All along, though, the professor had secretly been searching for a story of his own, having lost his ability to write and having nothing left to say. The boy's entire mission, it turned out, was to make the professor believe so completely in a story that he could no longer tell what was real and what was imagination — and he succeeded.
A New Beginning
After some time had passed since the incident, Mun Ho was working in a library when a boy walked in and said he wanted to buy his book. When the professor looked up, he saw it was the same boy — and the boy told him he had a new story to share. After a long, thoughtful silence, the professor finally asked him: "What is it?"
Final Thoughts
The professor is a smart man — he knows the boy has real skill, the kind of talent that can make someone believe a story is real when it's actually imagination. He knows that whatever story the boy has next will likely be incredible, despite everything cruel the boy has put him through. His professionalism and talent as a writer are undeniable. Now the professor finds himself wanting to know what's going on in the boy's mind, curious about his next story. The man is completely broken — he has lost everything he once had because of this boy — but even now, nothing matters more to him than the story and the book itself. When he listens to the boy's stories, he feels free again. He even tells his wife that he feels something new and full of energy whenever he's around the boy. It seems the boy has completed his true mission: to reignite a spark in a man who had turned to stone — a man whose hands had become stone, whose pen had become stone, unable to write on soft paper — and finally broke through that stone nature.
