A Remarkable Friend
I was just sitting in the Club Room doing nothing, watching news about JH Medical.
Then Seonghun-hyung, who had been watching me from the side, asked, “How is it? Feeling better?”
He was asking whether I was glad to see JH Medical, and Kang Sangyoon, brought down like this.
“Well...”
Surprisingly, all I could answer was, “Well...”
Even I found myself strange.
I had thought I’d be hopping around in triumph, thrilled that justice had finally been served, but I couldn’t.
I guess I’d become too immersed in the stories of startups that had gone under after falling for JH Medical’s schemes.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“You busy right now?”
“No. Why?”
I pushed my upper body up from where I’d been sprawled across the sofa and spoke to Seonghun-hyung.
He looked at me with a faintly guarded expression.
“You’re not about to suggest we go after some huge corporation again, are you? I’m honestly starting to get scared.”
“No, it’s the opposite.”
“Then what is it?”
“Let’s go have some fun.”
At my words, he stared at me blankly, as if he couldn’t make sense of what I’d just said.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It’s weird. You’re not the type to say, ‘Let’s go have fun.’”
“Even I need to rest when it’s time to rest. I’m not an AI.”
“Really?”
Watching hyung still suspicious of me, I burst out laughing.
“The others will be back after their part-time jobs anyway. Why don’t we go do a little coffice thing today?”
“We’re not even studying.”
“True.”
“Then we should call ourselves the café-office crowd, right? Come on, let’s go! Let’s head out first!”
Fortunately, Seonghun-hyung eventually believed I was being sincere and immediately started packing his bag.
Laughing, I got up too and packed mine.
“Hey, though. What if people start recognizing us on the street?”
“You think so?”
“We won awards at some pretty big competitions, and we’re the poor little geniuses the news keeps talking about. I’m sure there are plenty of people who’d recognize us.”
“Nobody said anything to me on the way here.”
“This is right by campus. At least one person will recognize you and come up to you! Man, I’m excited.”
Looking at hyung, brimming with confidence, I smiled.
I thought the way he took all of this in stride was pretty impressive.
“Okay. For every person who recognizes us, I’ll buy you a coffee.”
Who on earth was going to recognize me and actually come talk to me?
That was what I thought.
But I was wrong.
“Uh, aren’t you the guy who was on TV?”
Because even during that short walk to the café, people had already recognized us.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Wow, seriously? So you’re the one who listened to the lawyer and didn’t sign with JH, right?”
“I’m afraid I can’t go into the specifics.”
“Right, because of legal stuff? I’m rooting for you!”
After the person who had swooped in, said their piece, and vanished just as quickly, Seonghun-hyung and I fell into silence.
“You’re buying the coffee, right?”
“Uh... yeah.”
Even after we reached the café in that dazed state, there were people who recognized us there too.
“Oh! Aren’t you Kim Siwon, the engineering student?”
“Wait, aren’t you a senior from our department? I saw you on the news.”
More and more reactions starting with “uh” and “oh” kept coming, and even Seonghun-hyung, who had only been laughing at first, started looking a little flustered.
“You’re getting recognized way too much.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
It really must have been because we were around campus, since so many people recognized us.
And the people who recognized us even introduced us to those who didn’t know us.
“You don’t know them? They’re students in our university’s Computer Engineering department, and they’ve been on variety shows and the news a lot!”
What was even stranger was that everyone who heard that explanation would nod and go, “Ah—so those are the guys?”
Which also meant far more people were aware of us than I’d expected.
“The person who just came up to us was wearing a jacket from the College of Fine Arts.”
“Wow. Are we supposed to start dressing like guys from women-dominated departments now?”
“If you say stuff like that, what are the rest of us supposed to do?”
“What do you mean, us?”
“Whoa, you startled me.”
While we were exchanging greetings with the people who recognized us, the other members arrived at the café too.
“Hey. We’ve pretty much said hello to almost everyone in this café.”
“Ah. Because they all recognized you?”
“You’re not even surprised?”
“We just finished mentoring some juniors from our department on the way here.”
“Ah.”
The incident with JH Medical had definitely made us famous.
I wondered if there were many startups using a university club room instead of a shared office that had gotten this much airtime.
It was definitely an action that had brought us benefits far beyond simple revenge.
I hoped everyone was enjoying the change.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“What? Kim Siwon’s working from home today?”
“No, I think he went to do some interview?”
“Again today?”
“Yeah. I think he said he’d be meeting Professor Hwang Junhak after that to discuss something.”
“Really? He’s busy.”
Kim Siwon was clearly building a very capable public image.
Someone who had grown up in an orphanage, yet gone through the best elite track and become the head of a promising startup.
It was only natural that the members of TA Medical would trust and follow Kim Siwon.
But that didn’t mean everyone could feel nothing but unconditional affection toward him.
Because, as human beings, there were emotions people couldn’t help feeling.
“We’re kind of starting to feel like ‘Kim Siwon and the gang,’ don’t you think?”
Jealousy. Bitterness.
Those feelings, too, were naturally present inside TA Medical.
The one most affected by them was Choi Yeonghun, who had been stuck in second place year after year because of Kim Siwon.
“But there’s no helping it. Kim Siwon is the CEO.”
“He does all the work anyway. Didn’t Kim Siwon write our first product’s code all by himself?”
“A genius is a genius! They exist!”
The other members didn’t really feel anything negative about Kim Siwon getting attention.
Some thought about the money they’d receive after an exit, some about the recognition Kim Siwon was earning for his hard work, and some only looked at the practical benefits that would come to them under the guise of career development.
From the beginning, Kim Siwon had been doing the work of ten people on his own, so they acknowledged him as someone who deserved the same rewards as the rest of them.
“Exactly. He’s an incredible guy.”
But Yeonghun’s position was a little different.
For years, he had been trapped in the role of perpetual runner-up despite coming from a family and an educational background far superior to Kim Siwon’s.
Before he had even consciously recognized the emotion, inferiority had already been piling up somewhere in Choi Yeonghun’s heart.
“Seriously, what would we have done if Kim Siwon wasn’t the CEO?”
“Even if he wasn’t the CEO, he’d still have worked hard.”
“I don’t know how a guy who didn’t even take a single business administration class writes proposals so well. I want him to teach me.”
Everyone in TA Medical was showering Kim Siwon with praise, and Yeonghun began to feel uneasy.
He definitely liked Kim Siwon. He acknowledged him. And yet, he still couldn’t stop feeling disappointed.
If Siwon had just been someone who coded well, then Yeonghun could have recognized him as “a guy who codes well” and left it at that. But because Siwon excelled at everything on his own, the gap between them felt impossibly large.
“I think I’m done with my work. Is there anything else you need me to do?”
“Looks like nothing. Take care.”
“I’ve got a bus to catch anyway, so I should head out too.”
Kim Siwon was a crucial person the company couldn’t do without.
And Yeonghun was just some small, replaceable presence who wouldn’t be missed no matter when he clocked out.
He couldn’t shake off those thoughts.
The current Yeonghun was going through an internal conflict the Yeonghun from the previous life had never really faced.
He had moved beyond simply being motivated by the absurd gap between himself and Kim Siwon; now he was feeling helpless.
“Damn, I’m so pathetic.”
Yeonghun walked toward the school gate, feeling disgusted with his own inferiority.
“It’s good if the CEO does well. Am I seriously insane?”
He shook his head and trudged along without focus, when Kim Siwon spotted him from across the way.
He had run into him on the way back to the club room after finishing the interview earlier than expected.
“Oh? Yeonghun! Heading home?”
“Huh? Oh! Yeah.”
Yeonghun jumped at Siwon’s sudden appearance.
It felt like his negative feelings had somehow been exposed.
But of course, Kim Siwon had no such thought at all.
“I’m going to grab a burger by the student center. Want to come too?”
“Huh? Yeah. Sure.”
At Siwon’s cheerful invitation, Yeonghun automatically said yes.
And then he immediately began berating himself again.
He felt as if he’d been caught gossiping behind someone’s back.
That was just the kind of reaction someone full of perfectionism and principle would have.
“You’ve been really busy lately, haven’t you?”
“Me? Yeah, I have. But I need to be this busy for the company to run.”
Yeonghun awkwardly voiced concern, then immediately started struggling with himself again.
He felt like he’d said something fake without genuinely worrying about Siwon.
Of course, Kim Siwon still didn’t think anything of it.
He knew Yeonghun’s loyalty from the previous life, so there was no chance of him twisting Yeonghun’s words into something else.
“We’ve been hanging around together all the time lately, but it’s been a while since it was just the two of us having a meal, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah. It has.”
“Apparently people at a company are supposed to eat and talk one-on-one like this sometimes. That way, they can work through built-up feelings and misunderstandings and stuff.”
“Ah, uh. Really?”
Yeonghun had been planning to eat quickly and head straight home, but Siwon’s innocent eyes and enthusiastic tone made his negative feelings ease up a little.
He even began to think that maybe he really had been shaken by those “built-up feelings and misunderstandings” Siwon had mentioned.
“No, I’m free. We can talk as long as you’ve got time.”
“Really? Got it. I’ve got more than an hour free, actually. That’s a relief.”
Even now, Kim Siwon still didn’t notice there was a knot in Yeonghun’s heart.
He simply assumed Yeonghun had some third kind of concern.
Was product development difficult? Was there a bug they needed to fix? Were the three of them not doing a good enough job sorting out their roles and responsibilities?
“So that means we’ll have time for burgers and then even a café afterward, right?”
“Yeah. Oh, should I ask the others if they want to eat too?”
So, with a perfectly sincere heart, Kim Siwon turned on his phone screen and was about to open the group chat.
But the moment the screen lit up, Badugi was filling it from edge to edge, making an X with its paws.
Kim Siwon froze in slight confusion, unable to do anything, and Yeonghun hurriedly stopped him.
“Uh, I—I’ve got something to say, so let’s just eat by ourselves first.”
It was the first time Yeonghun had ever asked Kim Siwon to eat alone with him.
Even counting the previous life, it had never happened before.
Only then did Kim Siwon realize Yeonghun was a little different from usual.
“Yeah. Let’s eat outside campus and come back.”