Chapter 28: What Kind of Magic Is This?
Seocho-gu Banwha High School in Seoul.
Cha Jeong-an, who had just started her second year and was adjusting to her new class, had been preoccupied with a lot of thoughts lately.
“What do others think of me?”
She believed she had become somewhat friendly with her classmates, but there was still a sense of distance.
“It feels like they’re just being polite… and when I try to get closer, there seems to be a wall between us…”
Being highly sensitive to others’ perceptions and having a strong desire to be liked, she constantly wondered how her friends viewed her.
Lost in these thoughts throughout the morning, lunchtime suddenly arrived and her teacher dismissed the class
“That’s all for today. Enjoy your meal.”
As the Korean language teacher exited the classroom, the students simultaneously grabbed their phones. Cha Jeong-an did the same and noticed an unfamiliar push notification.
“Huh? What’s this?”
[‘Thumbs Up_official_BanwhaHS’ has started following you.]
It was an alert that the [Thumbs Up_official_BanwhaHS] account had followed her on Stargram.
She had received a follow request from this account earlier that morning. Normally, she would have ignored it, but her curiosity about the “BanwhaHS” tag made her accept the following request, which was just now approved.
“What kind of channel is this?”
There was only one post on this mysterious private account.
[Who at your school likes you? ‘Thumbs Up’ will tell you.]
The text was rendered into an image without any additional explanation, except for a single link at the bottom.
Just as she was about to hit the back button, she hesitated.
“Could there really be someone in our school who likes me…?”
Unable to resist her curiosity, Cha Jeong-an clicked the link instead of the back button. This action opened a simple website in her browser. If there had been a complex registration process, she would have closed the page immediately. But since it only asked for her name, grade, and class information, she completed the registration.
Immediately, a question popped up on her phone screen:
[Who is the most handsome guy in our class?]
- Kim Min-woo
- Cha Min-hyeok
- Park Jeong-min
- Oh Kang-jun
“Wow… it really works?”
Cha Jeong-an was taken aback when the names of the boys in her class appeared on the screen. She took a deep breath, glanced around to ensure no one was watching, and gently tapped on the name of Cha Min-hyeok.
“No matter what, Min-hyeok has the best-looking face.”
Surprisingly, she found the service quite entertaining. There were many interesting questions, and it was more engaging since the names of people she actually knew were included.
“Jeong-an-ah! Let’s go eat. The line should have been shortened by now.”
Startled by her friend’s call, Cha Jeong-an quickly stuffed her phone into her pocket and stood up.
“Oh, I’m so hungry. Let’s go eat quickly.”
Then she headed to the cafeteria with her four friends.
Cha Jeong-an and her friends sat down at an empty table, their trays filled with rice and side dishes. Just then, one of her friends held up her phone.
“Hey guys, look at this! I got a follow request from an account called ‘Thumbs Up’ on Stargram. It’s so funny.”
“Oh? I followed them back too.”
“Me too, me too!”
Cha Jeong-an was surprised to hear that not only her but also her friends had followed the same account.
“Did you all take the quiz too?”
“Of course! There were so many interesting questions. What kind of questions did you get?”
“I was asked who the most handsome guy in our class is.”
“Wow, that’s a pretty interesting question for someone who’s not really into boys.”
It was the age when everyone was quite interested in the opposite sex. The girls’ eyes sparkled as they pressed Cha Jeong-an for more details.
“So, who were the options?”
“Kim Min-woo, Cha Min-hyeok, Park Jeong-min, and Oh Kang-jun.”
“Holy moly! That’s a major showdown!”
“What showdown? No way. Min-woo is definitely the most handsome one.”
“Nah, Kim Min-woo is okay, but Oh Kang-jun is even better.”
As they giggled and chatted excitedly, one of the girls looked at Cha Jeong-an.
“So, who did you vote for?”
“Me? Th-that’s a secret.”
“Aww, come on! Who is it? Tell us, tell us!”
Ting ling!
Just then, Cha Jeong-an’s phone buzzed with a notification, giving her a chance to pried her clingy friend off her lap.
“Huh…?”
“What is it? What’s going on?”
Noticing Chae Jeong-an’s flustered expression, the girls asked.
“Someone voted for me.”
“What do you mean ‘voted for’ you?”
One of the friends snatched the phone from Chae Jeong-an’s hand.
“Wow, you were voted the cutest girl in the class?”
“Ahhh! No way! Really? Let me see it!”
“Wow, even three people picked Jeong-an-ie? Who are they?”
“I don’t know. Hehehe. Look at these cute kids. They don’t usually talk to Jeong-an-ie, but secretly they think she’s cute?”
Cha Jeong-an’s cheeks turned as red as peaches at her friend’s teasing.
“This is so much fun. I have to try it myself properly later.”
“Me too. I’m so curious. Who likes me? Or what do they think of me?”
“Speaking of which, I’m really curious now. Who are the three people who voted for Jeong-an-ie? Maybe it’s Baek-ho?”
“No way. Not him. I don’t think Baek-ho has ever talked to me.”
“You never know. He might be secretly liking you behind your back.”
“Ahem. Enough with the nonsense. Let’s head back to the classroom now that we’re done eating.”
Cha Jeong-an, laughing off her friends’ teasing, left the cafeteria and headed back to the classroom with them.
Once seated, Cha Jeong-an cautiously glanced around before taking out her phone and tapping away at something, focusing intently on the screen.
Meanwhile, similar scenes were unfolding simultaneously in high schools across Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.
***
“What? W-why is this happening?”
Lee Jang-won’s eyes widened as he stared at his laptop screen, which was now flashing with notifications.
An arm came around Lee Jang-won’s shoulder, offering comfort.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“Dae-woon hyung, is this a dream? Ouch!”
I flicked Lee Jang-won on the forehead as he rambled about dreaming.
“It’s not a dream…”
Lee Jang-won’s gaze shifted back to the laptop.
“The number of users online is unbelievable! Could it be… a virus?”
Lee Ji-won also widened her eyes in surprise as she stared at the web log screen. Considering she rarely showed emotion, it was clear how shocked she was.
“Oh my gosh! The number of visitors is one thing, but what’s with these unbelievable number of page views?”
“What on earth happened while we were sleeping? Now that I think about it, Dae-woon hyung, you didn’t sleep at all last night, did you?”
Their eyes naturally turned toward me.
“What kind of magic did you pull? How is this even possible overnight?”
“As you can see, it is very much possible.”
I replied calmly.
Their eyes remained fixed on me, unable to look away.
I felt the need to explain the all-nighter I had spent working tirelessly.
“Remember what I said? We need a powerful move to turn things around. Ultimately, we needed to prove that users actually want and enjoy our ‘Thumbs Up’ app. No matter how good the technology is, if the customers don’t want it, it’s useless.”
“So, what exactly did you do?”
“First, I listed the high schools with the most students in the Seoul and Gyeonggi region.”
“Oh?”
“Then, I started creating separate Stargram accounts for each school.”
As I continued explaining, I noticed their mouths slowly drop open.
And for good reason.
Staying up all night to do that was exhausting.
I thought I was going to die pulling that all-nighter off.
If it weren’t for my crazy work ethic, which even sailors would envy, I wouldn’t have dared attempt such a wild scheme.
“But, just creating an Stargram account wouldn’t have driven students to the webpage, right?”
“Of course not. First, I started by creating the Stargram accounts and setting them to private so no one could see the posts. That’s when the real hard work began… Whew… The method was simple: I began sending follow requests to students who seemed to be from those schools. I thought my eyes would pop out. It was no joke.”
“You did all that by hand?”
“What else could I do? That was the only way.”
Lee Ji-won shook her head in disbelief at the sheer absurdity of it all.
“Was there a reason you made the accounts private in the first place?”
“Of course there’s a reason. Imagine you walk into a restaurant, and there is no single customer inside. What would you think?”
“Well… maybe the food is not that good? Or something like that.”
“Exactly! That’s why I made the accounts private. As I sent out follow requests all night, many students started following back by morning. But I deliberately didn’t accept their requests until just before lunchtime.”
“No way?”
Lee Ji-won, realizing something, let out a quiet exclamation.
“Think back to when you were in school. When do students chatter the most? It’s during lunchtime. So, I accepted the following requests all at once just before lunch. This way, the notifications of the following approvals popped up simultaneously, revealing the previously private posts.”
“So, they must have clicked through those posts. All around the same time, right?”
“That’s right. The post served as bait. I openly wrote something like, ‘Want to know who at your school likes you? Click the link to find out.’ It was a blatant lure.”
“Wow…”
The two could only express their astonishment at the meticulous strategy I had executed overnight.
“Thankfully, it looks like the results aren’t bad at all.”
In my words, Lee Jang-won’s attention returned back to the laptop.
“Not bad? This is incredible! Oh my… The number of visitors already… Whoa.”
Lee Jang-won’s lips trembled slightly.
“Fifty thousand…”
“This is spreading like wildfire…”
Lee Ji-won, too, couldn’t hide her astonishment as she looked at the log metrics.
“Is fifty thousand a lot? We still have a whole day left. We need to keep gathering as many users as possible.”
“A lot? It’s a miracle that we’ve gathered this many users with an MVP!”
Uncharacteristically, Lee Jang-won raised his voice, unable to contain his excitement.
It was understandable.
Lee Jang-won had been passionate about entrepreneurship since he was young, constantly trying his hand at businesses big and small.
As a result, he had faced many ups and downs, ultimately tasting bitter failure in all of them.
Of course, he had no intention of giving up easily, but it was true that the lack of progress had dampened his spirits.
In such a situation, seeing the tangible results his service had produced made him feel like he was living in a dream.
“The real work begins now. The customer feedback board is filled with requests for improvements and changes. We need to address them quickly.”
Filled with newfound determination, Lee Jang-won nodded his head and pursed his lips.
“I’ll start working on it right away. We can implement the changes quickly.”
“I’ll help too. There are still some parts of the UX that need to be addressed.”
“Okay. I’ll keep bringing in more users. School is about to end, so we can attract another wave of users.”
Without a word, the three of us exchanged high-fives, our determination burning brighter than ever.
And time flowed like water, bringing us closer to the much-anticipated final presentation day.
It was time for our once-rejected ugly duckling to transform into a beautiful swan.
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