Chapter 31: What Happened to the Building?
“So… you’re saying you actually got an award at the Korea University Hackathon? And you won the gold… prize?”
Professor Min Dong-won trailed off in disbelief, looking at the Minister of Science and ICT Award in his hand and then back at the two of us.
His usual poker face had completely crumbled.
“Yes, we proudly represented Hanyeong University and brought back this honor.”
“Thank you… for your hard work.”
“So, this means we’re exempt from assignments and exams, right?”
“Yes, of course. I made that promise myself.”
“Hehehe, thank you very much. Then we’ll be on our way.”
Click
As Song Dae-woon and Lee Ji-won left the professor’s office, Professor Min Dong-won leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the desk.
It was his habit whenever he encountered a problem he couldn’t quite solve.
“They really won a prize at the Korea University Hackathon? And even won the gold prize…?”
It was hard to believe.
The Korea University Hackathon wasn’t just any competition.
As the competition is hosted by one of Korea’s top universities, the prize money is not only great, but also very prestigious.
The event was so competitive that people often say that the Korea University Hackathon is a ‘feast for the established (veterans)’.
Korea University Hackathon was a place where experienced startups participated after thorough preparation.
“But those two… what are they?”
Obviously, the two of them were just ordinary students taking classes to earn credits, showing no interest in ‘starting’ a business. So how did they manage to beat all those seasoned veterans?
“They say, ‘A tiger father does not beget a dog son’ 1(호부무견자 (虎父無犬子): ‘A tiger father does not beget a dog son’ – This is a Korean proverb meaning that a great father will have a great son). This must be the famous Buksan family genes at work.”
At that moment, Professor Min Dong-won became even more convinced of Song Dae-woon’s true identity.
“I’ll have to keep a closer eye on him from now on.”
With that thought, he opened his personal diary and began writing something down intently.
A café near Hanyeong University.
After leaving the professor’s office, the two of us decided to grab a coffee nearby since we had some time to kill.
“Phew… I can’t believe how those four days flew by. It was a whirlwind of a weekend.”
“Don’t you feel a bit disappointed?”
“Sure, I do. It was fun in its own way.”
“No, I meant, aren’t you disappointed we didn’t go to K-Startup? You could have done it if you’d wanted to.”
I pursed my lips at Lee Ji-won’s question.
To say I wasn’t even a little disappointed would be a lie, but I didn’t regret my decision either.
The whole reason I entered the hackathon was that I saw it as a unique experience that could only be had during my university years and the reason I poured my heart into trying to make the best of ‘Thumbs Up’ because, from the start, I saw a golden light in Lee Jang-won’s idea.
More than anything, though, I wasn’t particularly interested in running a business.
But money? That was a different story.
That’s why I ‘invested’ in Lee Jang-won.
The golden light I saw back then gave me confidence that it wouldn’t be a wasted investment.
“It was a really valuable experience, but starting a business? That’s not for me. Lee Jang-won, though, he’s different. He’s got the natural instincts of an entrepreneur. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to invest in him.”
And I meant it.
Competing with students from other schools, sharing passion and energy, and eventually becoming comrades who cheered each other on—participating in the hackathon was a unique and joyous experience.
I found myself thinking that, even if it was a bit late, I was glad I decided to become a university student.
Bzzzt
Seeing my phone violently vibrating on the table, I apologized to Lee Ji-won as I picked it up.
“Sorry, I need to take this call.”
“Go ahead.”
“Hey, Joo-hee-ya. Me? I’m at The Hideout café. What? You guys are coming here?”
Lee Ji-won stared at Song Dae-woon with a curious expression, looking at him thoughtfully.
As she looked at that strange guy engrossed in his phone call, Lee Ji-won fell into deep thought.
‘Who exactly is this guy?’
Everything about him was shrouded in mystery.
The more she got to know him, the more she felt like she was falling deeper into a labyrinth.
It all started with mild jealousy and curiosity.
She had never seen her grandfather praise someone so much before, especially someone outside the family.
– ‘Hahaha, Song Dae-woon, was it? That kid’s responses are priceless. He’s got guts, that’s for sure. He’s going to make a big splash one day. I completely lose track of time when I’m talking to him. Hahaha, it’s rare to meet such an interesting young man at my age.’
His words were full of praise.
It had been a long time since her grandfather had shown such a bright smile and the whole family found it intriguing.
– ‘Do you really like that young man so much, Father?’
– ‘Like him? Bah, not exactly. I just find his antics amusing, that’s all. Ahem.’
But it was clear that he did like him.
This stirred up a strong sense of curiosity and a strange feeling of jealousy.
The grandfather she knew was always stingy with praise, prioritizing discipline and admonishment above all else.
– ‘Now that I think about it, I heard that guy goes to the same university as you, Ji-won-ie.’
Startled, Lee Ji-won asked her grandfather.
– ‘Grandpa, is the person you’re talking about a student at Hanyeong University?’
– ‘Yes, he’s in the business administration department, I think? I heard he transferred this year.’
– ‘Which family is he from? If I see him, I’ll be sure to greet him properly, Grandpa.’
– ‘Hahaha, family? What family? That kid grew up in a nursery and after racking up some debt, he spent a few years catching tuna in the Pacific Ocean. But here’s the strange part—where did he get that kind of money? Did he stumble upon a sunken treasure or something? Hahaha! Anyway, he’s an odd one, that’s for sure.’
Lee Ji-won’s perfectly arched eyebrows twitched at her grandfather’s words.
She had a million questions but chose not to press any further.
Her grandfather, Chairman Lee Seung-hwan of Buksan Group, didn’t appreciate being questioned too closely.
‘Same school, huh?’
Finding him would only be a matter of time and any curiosity could be satisfied by looking into it herself.
And a few days later, as if to prove the saying that it’s darkest under the lamp 2(The phrase “등잔 밑이 어둡다고” (it’s darkest under the lamp) is a Korean proverb that means something is often overlooked when it’s right in front of you), she discovered that they even shared a class together.
From that point on, she closely observed Song Dae-woon but found nothing particularly special about him.
‘Could Grandpa have been mistaken?’
She could say with certainty that when it came to assessing people, her grandfather, Chairman Lee Seung-hwan, was more discerning than anyone else.
There had to be something she was missing.
Then, a perfect opportunity presented itself.
– ‘Excuse me. Would you like to team up for the hackathon together?’
He seemed surprised by the sudden suggestion but he readily agreed.
‘What’s this? He agreed so easily? Does he have something up his sleeve?’
The Korea University Hackathon was a gathering place where the best and brightest from prestigious universities gathered in swarms.
Not only was the prize money substantial; but winning at this event made it much easier to secure government funding and investments.
The hackathon officially began.
Even during the crucial team-building phase, Song Dae-woon remained utterly unfazed.
‘Could he have already given up?’
Just as disappointment started to seep in, he spoke in a firm voice.
– ‘There is someone. Someone we absolutely need to bring on board.’
She was taken aback.
Because he pointed out a person no one else had even considered.
And his reasoning was even more surprising.
– ‘I don’t know. It’s just a hunch. I have a feeling that if we team up with that person, we’ll win.’
By then, she had half-resigned myself to thinking, ‘Fine, go ahead and do whatever you want.’
For the first time, she began to wonder if my grandfather could have been wrong about someone.
But as the midterm presentations approached, her thoughts began to change little by little.
‘Jang-won-ie… he is talented.’
To be honest, she hadn’t expected much given his academic background and his initial lack of confidence.
But Lee Jang-won turned out to be surprisingly skilled in many areas.
His coding abilities were excellent, but what stood out even more was his sense for user-friendly UI/UX design.
He mentioned that after countless failures since high school, he had learned what users liked almost instinctively.
Thanks to him, we managed to create a fairly impressive MVP in just two days.
During the midterm presentations, we received the harsh critique that our business model was lacking.
It wasn’t an unfair point.
After all, we weren’t trying to run a charity.
However, Song Dae-woon offered a slightly different opinion.
– ‘It’s not just the business model that’s the problem. We need a powerful move that can completely turn the situation around.’
After pondering for a while, he asked us to finish development by morning. We stayed up all night to complete the work, but eventually, exhaustion overcame us and we fell asleep.
And when we woke up, a small miracle had occurred.
– ‘Oh my God…’
She was speechless.
When we had gone to bed, the platform was a ghost town, but now, it was bustling with users.
What kind of magic had he pulled off?
Then she learned what he had done overnight and was astonished.
– ‘You actually did all that manually?’
Seeing him grinning with his bloodshot eyes betraying the sleepless night, she was at a loss for words.
Creating separate Stargram accounts for each school and manually sending follow requests—how could that have been an easy task!
And the strategy of setting the accounts to private and targeting users during lunch breaks and after school to rapidly gain followers? It was brilliant.
The fact that he thought up and executed all of this in such a short time was incredible.
Of course, some might argue that his methods were unorthodox, even crude, but what did it matter?
The results speak for themselves.
However, the most shocking part was what happened after that.
It was already impressive when he suddenly started speaking fluent Arabic, but what truly left us in awe was what happened after we won the gold prize.
– ‘I’ll invest fifty million won, but in return, give me 10% of the equity. I’ll be your first angel investor.’
Despite the tempting offer of K-Startup, Song Dae-woon firmly shook his head.
Instead, he unexpectedly invested fifty million won in Lee Jang-won.
– ‘I’m investing in you as a person. You’re someone who can succeed at anything.’
It was astonishing.
There wasn’t a trace of doubt on his face.
It was as if he had glimpsed into the future and was certain that things would turn out that way.
He was a strange—no, a fascinating person.
Having been born into the prestigious Buksan family, she had lived her life according to the strict predetermined script since childhood.
She had never caused any significant trouble, nor had she ever rebelled.
Her focus was less on ‘others’ and more on how to earn recognition for her abilities within her family.
After all, she didn’t want to end up as the sacrificial lamb in some arranged marriage, like in a drama.
She had lived like that her entire life, but for the first time, she felt a deep curiosity about someone else.
She wanted to know more about this man, who was smiling so carelessly in front of her.
Lee Ji-won’s gaze lingered on Song Dae-woon with a thoughtful look.
“Ugh, noisy bunch.”
After hanging up my phone, I rubbed my ears roughly.
Ga-haeng, Yoo-jin, and Joo-hee had been nearby and insisted on coming over, so I just told them to do whatever they wanted and hung up.
“The same bunch who stormed into the classroom last time are coming here.”
“That’s fine. I have to go to class soon anyway.”
“Oh, really? That works out then. Anyway, good job surviving those four days of chaos. Hahaha. At least we both got out of taking the exam. We’ve escaped Professor Min’s clutches!”
Just then, the entrance café door swung open and I heard familiar voices.
“There’s Dae-woon oppa!”
“Wow, he’s with the goddess again.”
Ga-haeng and Yoo-jin ran over and greeted Lee Ji-won warmly.
Kim Joo-hee followed behind them, her face filled with displeasure for some reason.
“Hello! We met briefly before, right?”
“Yes, nice to see you again. I’m Lee Ji-won. What should I do? I’m afraid I have to go soon—I don’t have much time before my next class.”
“Oh, then you should hurry. Let’s have coffee together next time.”
As Lee Ji-won hurriedly gathered her things, she glanced at me.
“What are you doing after class tomorrow?”
“Me? Hmm, I don’t know. Probably just breathing?”
“Let’s have a meal together. I’ll call you.”
With those words, Lee Ji-won nodded a quick goodbye to the three others and left swiftly.
“Wow… she’s so cool and chic.”
“Dude, did you just get asked out on a date by the campus goddess?”
“A date? Get real. Stop talking nonsense. She just wants to grab a meal to celebrate finishing the group project.”
“Are you sure it’s not a date?”
“In what world is that how you ask someone out on a date? Do you guys think I have no sense of romance or something?”
“Well, that’s a relief then.”
I wasn’t sure what they were so relieved about, but just then, my phone vibrated again.
[Kim Jeong-nam of Namnyeo-chilse Real Estate]
“Hello, Kim So-jang-nim 3(김 소장님 (Kim So-jang-nim): Director Kim or Chief Kim, depending on the context; “소장님” is an honorific title for a chief or director. 소장님 (So-jang-nim) refers to the head or director of a specific department, office, or small organization. It can also refer to a manager, supervisor, or chief in certain contexts, especially in real estate or smaller businesses. “소장” literally means “chief” or “director.”). What brings you to call at this hour?”
Although we talked occasionally, it was unusual for him to call at this hour, so I felt a bit curious.
“What? What happened to our ‘Kkobil’ 4(The word “꼬빌이” (Kkobil-i) is a colloquial or affectionate term, likely a nickname, where “꼬” is a shortening or playful prefix, and “빌이” is derived from “빌딩” (building). The nickname refers to a “small building” or “little building” owned by the speaker)?”
‘Kkobil’ was the nickname I had given to the small building I owned.
“What’s been lifted? The restrictions?”
Chief Kim’s excited voice practically shouted through the phone.
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