I arrived at the front gate of KAIST. Just thinking about how this place was filled with the brightest minds in Korea made me feel a bit intimidated.
*"I used to be smart too…"*
It wasn't that I was bad at studying. In fact, when I put my mind to it, I was actually pretty good. The problem was my obsessive nature.
*"If only I hadn't gotten hooked on games..."*
Whatever I started, I had to see it through to the end. So of course, I took gaming to the extreme too. In my senior year of high school, all the passion I should've put into studying went straight into gaming. Naturally, I bombed the college entrance exam.
My family wasn't well-off enough to afford a gap year for another try, so I ended up settling for a school that matched my grades. Thankfully, I had studied decently up until my second year of high school, and managed to cram hard during the last three months before the exam. That barely got me into a university in Seoul, which was a huge relief.
A message came in from Park Min-seok:
> [Wait at the front gate. Someone from the lab will come pick you up.]
> [Okay.]
Park Min-seok had made the connection for me, but he wasn't coming all the way from Seoul to Daejeon to act as a middleman. His job ended at the introduction.
While waiting for the guide, I looked around. The campus was quite large, and being a Sunday, it was nearly empty.
Every now and then, a student would pass by on a bicycle—mostly guys, fitting for Korea's top tech university.
A group of guys walked past.
"Wanna hit the PC bang after lunch?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Hearing that even geniuses went to PC bangs made me feel an odd sense of camaraderie. Damn games… I'd even ruined my college GPA because I couldn't quit them.
"Excuse me."
I turned around, startled by a female voice.
Standing there was a petite woman with a modest appearance and thick, high-prescription glasses that distorted her face a bit.
"Yes?"
"Are you Mr. Kim Jaegu?"
"Yes, and you must be from Professor Lim Yonghan's lab?"
"That's right. I'm Han Kyung-ah."
She gave a polite bow. I nodded in return.
"I'll take you to the professor's office. Please follow me."
Han Kyung-ah walked briskly ahead with her short legs. Even then, her pace matched my casual walking, so I kept up easily.
The campus was spacious with lots of greenery—great for a walk. After a while, breathing in the fresh air, we reached Professor Lim's office.
Han Kyung-ah knocked on the door.
"Professor, your guest has arrived."
*Click.*
The door opened to reveal a professor with a notably bald forehead. He extended his hand with a warm smile.
"I'm Professor Lim Yonghan from the Computer Science Department at KAIST."
"I'm Kim Jaegu. I came through Mr. Park Min-seok's introduction."
"Please, come in. This way."
I followed him in and sat on the guest sofa in his office. Han Kyung-ah closed the door and sat beside the professor.
He gave a friendly smile.
"You want to commission something?"
"Yes. I want to create an automated stock trading program."
"What kind of program?"
"One that calculates stock prices, volumes, and trading intensity. When I input the predicted buy/sell prices of five stocks, I want the program to calculate the profit ratios and trade the most profitable one automatically."
"So the predicted prices are entered manually?"
"Yes."
"I've outlined the necessary parts here."
I handed over a file containing five pages of A4 paper, something I had checked five times to make sure nothing was missing.
The professor read it carefully and then handed it over to Kyung-ah.
"Doesn't seem too hard. Kyung-ah, take a look."
"Yes, professor."
She read the file seriously, flipping through the pages three times without a word.
Then she looked up.
"You said you want a mobile app, right?"
"Yes."
"Are you using the Daebak Securities app by any chance?"
"Yes."
"Hmmm…"
She rested her chin on the back of her hand, frowning slightly. Professor Lim spoke up.
"What do you think? Doable?"
"A week should be enough."
"There can't be any bugs or errors. That's absolutely critical."
I stressed this point, more than anything else.
Professor Lim laughed and slapped his thigh.
"Don't worry. When it comes to thoroughness, Kyung-ah is the best in our lab."
"You're exaggerating…"
Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"It's true."
"I'm not creative, though…"
"Creativity is one thing. Being detail-oriented is another. So, how about it? Want to take it on?"
After a moment's pause, Kyung-ah looked up and met my eyes with a nod.
"You said the pay is 2 million won, right?"
"Yes, of course."
"I'll do it, professor."
"You sure? Can you handle it?"
She pouted slightly, her high-prescription glasses making her eyes look small—almost like a cartoon duck.
"Good. Ask if you need help."
The professor gathered the documents and returned them to the file.
"Kyung-ah will handle this project under my supervision. Is that okay with you?"
If the professor was overseeing it, that was more than enough.
"Yes."
"How about the deposit?"
"Let's split it—half now, half on completion. Also…"
I paused until both of them were focused on me. This was the most important part.
"There must be absolutely no bugs or errors."
"Don't worry."
A program inspected by a KAIST professor? I could definitely trust it.
***
Since things wrapped up sooner than expected, I dropped by a department store.
*"Time to get myself a proper suit."*
I didn't want to keep wearing the ragged suit from that crappy company that dragged me down. I only owned two bargain suits from my time at Kangmyung Corporation.
*A man's suit is his armor.*
And I only had two of them—meanwhile, my ex-wife had so many clothes that her wardrobe overflowed into the storage room.
Thinking back, a man like me couldn't possibly keep up with such a spendthrift woman. I got mad at my past self for marrying someone just because she was pretty.
*"Kim Jaegu, you idiot. You married a face."*
How could anyone resist a pretty woman pretending to be kind and modest? Still, I thought of Ha-yeon, our daughter—who, thankfully, took after her mom's looks.
*"At least one good thing came out of it."*
My sweet little girl who used to always call out for Daddy. Would she cry and say I felt unfamiliar now?
I wanted to see her as soon as possible. Should I try applying for visitation rights again?
I remembered how she hung up coldly when I tried to call after getting out. The anger came rushing back. I called her number again.
> "The number you've dialed is unavailable. After the beep, you'll be connected to voicemail. Beep—"
Again.
> "The number you've dialed..."
And again.
> "Unavailable..."
"Damn it. Did she block me?"
What had I done wrong to deserve getting blocked like this? I felt heat rising to my forehead from the anger.
*"I was going to go easy on you… but you're just making me find more reasons not to."*
I wasn't planning to ruin her life, just let her live quietly. But if she's going to act like this, that's a different story.
The men's wear section at the department store was quiet. Probably because of the bad economy. The only people there were staff.
The cheaper suits didn't have good fabric and didn't fit well—they looked kind of awkward on me. When I was younger, it might've passed as charming. But now, approaching my late 30s, it just looked sloppy.
And since I was planning to start my own business soon, I needed a proper, well-fitting suit.
The suit my ex-wife bought me was so short it left my ankles cold. I couldn't stand the sight of it anymore.
I began browsing the racks leisurely.
*"Back then, I wouldn't have even dared look beyond the sale rack."*
Thanks to my ex, who always interrupted my shopping, this was the first time I was taking my time in the men's section.
"Welcome, sir! Are you looking for anything in particular?"
I had found a fabric I liked and was touching it when a friendly-looking staff member approached.
I handed him the suit I was holding.
"Can this fabric be custom tailored?"
"Custom? Oh… this one's imported directly from Italy. It might be a bit pricey. Would you like me to recommend something similar instead?"
He must've assumed I couldn't afford it—probably because of the cheap suit I had on.
I didn't blame him. Many people probably came in, looked at expensive suits, and left. If not for the ability my grandfather left me, I wouldn't have had the confidence to even ask.
"How much are we talking about, exactly?"
"At the low end, 2.5 million won. With extra options, over 3 million."
"Hmmm…"
I didn't put the suit down, so after a pause, he asked:
"Would you like me to give you a quote?"
"Yes, please."
"This way."
He brought over a catalog and wrote down my requests.
"A double-breasted suit, please. And I like this color."
I was going for the classy look, like the suits from *Kingsman*. After measuring me and noting my choices, he gave me a quote.
"3.17 million won. If you choose a similar, more affordable fabric—"
"I'll take it."
"Pardon?"
"That exact one. Let's go with that."
He looked surprised.
Was it that shocking?
I noticed the frayed cuff of my current suit.
*"Yeah, I guess I do look like someone who can't afford this."*
A shabby man ordering a luxury suit—no wonder he was taken aback.
"Thank you very much, sir!"
He bowed deeply.
"I'll re-measure you for accuracy then."
He returned with a measuring tape, smiling brightly.
***
The tailored suit would take two weeks.
Thankfully, my job didn't involve much customer service, so I had a lot of time to focus on stock trading.
*"This auto-trading stuff is no joke."*
Only four trading days had passed, from Monday to Thursday. And yet, my balance had already grown from 850 million to 1.14 billion won.
The power of compound interest.
But the bigger the amount, the higher the risk. I couldn't take my eyes off my phone while doing split-buy and split-sell trades in real time.
Every second counted to sell at the best possible moment.
*"If this hits 10 billion, I'll end up glued to my phone all day."*
For now, I had time since I didn't have many customer inquiries. But once Im Han-ul's business took off, I wouldn't have time for manual trading.
*"Hope the program is done soon."*
I wanted it today, honestly—but they said it would take a week, so I just had to wait patiently.
**Buzz—**
A message popped up.
*"Who's this?"*
I checked immediately.
> [Hello, this is Han Kyung-ah. The program development is complete.]
Now that's what I'm talking about.