The FreeChat That Changed Everything

Time sped by, and before I knew it, we were in the middle of December.

During that time, a few important things happened to me.

The first was that my business corporation in the United States, Another Technology, and my investment corporation, Zero Investment, were finally ready.

Normally, getting all that processed in the U.S. would take three or four weeks, but Vincent had poured in an obscene amount of “expediting fees” and pressured the officials by threatening to sue them for neglect of duty, so everything was handled in no time.

America really did seem like a place where money and the law were the scariest things of all. Korea was probably the same way, too.

Second, there was the winter break ceremony on December 21.

And finally, today, December 22.

It was moving day at last.

Our new apartment was still empty, with no furniture delivered yet.

"Ooh... ooohhh...!"

Seohee spun in a circle in the middle of her room, letting out a cry of sheer emotion.

"M-Mom! You really mean this is my room?! For real?!"

"How many times do I have to tell you? Yes. Why are you so happy?"

"Because I love it! My room feels bigger than the house we used to live in!"

As she said that, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Seohee snuck a glance at her mother.

"Mom, Mom! Then can I put a wardrobe in my room now? The bed goes here, my desk goes there, and the wardrobe over there! ...And my vanity goes here!"

Whipping her arms around as she mapped out the room in the air, Seohee was promptly scolded by her mother.

"What does a high school student need a vanity for? And why do you need a wardrobe? You’re already using a clothes rack just fine!"

"Aaaah! Fine, I’ll give up the vanity, but can I at least have the wardrobe? Huh? I’ll even find a used one if I have to! Wouldn’t fifty thousand won be enough?"

"Good grief. Even used wardrobes are expensive. That wouldn’t even cover the delivery fee. And do you even have fifty thousand won?"

"...Oppa?"

Seohee looked at me pleadingly, asking for help.

Her desperate expression almost tripped me up, but I felt like I should go to my father first.

I crossed over to the balcony, where he was standing alone, looking out the window.

"...…"

"...…"

I came up beside him, but he said nothing.

Then, after a while, he finally spoke.

"The house is spacious... and the view is good. The windows face south, and my workplace is close too."

"Do you like it?"

"I do. Really."

Tap.

He gave my shoulder a light pat. He didn’t say it, but I could feel the meaning behind it: Thank you.

"Let’s move into an even bigger house later."

Soon enough.

I swallowed the rest of that sentence for the time being.

"A bigger house? What for... This is enough. More than enough. Your mother and I—we’ll make sure we protect this place no matter what, so we never have to feel guilty toward you and Seohee again."

"...…"

As expected, my father still seemed to carry a lot of guilt for taking responsibility for my grandfather’s debts.

Whenever I saw him like this, I felt a small temptation.

The temptation to show him how much money I really had and tell him he didn’t need to worry.

...But not yet.

I was sorry to my father, but I didn’t want to reveal that I was rich just yet.

More precisely, I didn’t want to say something like, “I made it through stocks.”

I want to tell him I made money through apps and business.

That was why I was doing the app development myself instead of leaving it to Zero.

I wanted to be a son my father could be truly proud of.

Maybe that was a somewhat selfish desire of mine.

As I was thinking that, Seohee came out onto the balcony and said, "Dad, Oppa! The moving truck is downstairs! Mom said she’s ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠going to watch them carry the furniture, so we can go somewhere else and come back when the move is done!"

Then, lowering her voice, she asked, "There’s a StarCafe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nearby. How about we wait there?"

"StarCafe? You want to go there?"

"Yeah...! There’s something I’ve really wanted to try, but it’s way more expensive than canned coffee...!"

StarCafe was expensive, huh... Well, right now it was basically positioned as “premium coffee,” with prices at least twice as high as most coffee franchises.

"Sure, let’s go to StarCafe. Oppa will buy."

"Really? Yesss!"

"Are you okay with a café, Dad?"

"I’m fine anywhere."

So we left the apartment together—Seohee, my father, and I.

Then Zero spoke to me.

It seemed the review results were finally in, and launch preparations were complete.

Launch it. Ah, and not just for Apple phones—make sure it works perfectly on other smartphones too, like the “Blueberry Phone.”

Good. Start it.

There was no reason to wait if everything was ready.

This was a business venture whose success was already guaranteed.

The move ended sooner than I’d expected. We’d thrown out most of the old furniture from our previous house, so there wasn’t much to carry over.

As soon as the move was done, my father went back to work. My mother, exhausted from worrying over the move, fell asleep in her room.

Seohee, since the move finished earlier, had been decorating her room nonstop and still hadn’t come out.

To call it “decorating,” though, it was really just deciding where to put a tiny mirror and a cactus pot. We didn’t have much furniture.

I’ll have to buy her a wardrobe and vanity later, as a surprise, without Mom knowing. She really did seem to want them.

Thinking that, I asked Zero, How long has it been since the app launch?

Download count?

...3,420? Across Apple phones, Blueberry Phones, and all the other smartphones?

Even though it hadn’t even been an hour since launch, that still felt too low.

The download count seems way too small. Is there a problem?

Hmm...

With Zero saying that, I did feel a little relieved.

But because I was still human, I couldn’t help feeling impatient.

If we advertised, word would spread much faster...

That said, I didn’t really want to put ads on buses or billboards or anything like that.

It wasn’t stylish.

I wasn’t exactly tempted to advertise on TV, radio, or the internet either.

I needed something more natural—something that could spread by word of mouth quickly, just like Zero said. Ah.

Zero, can you post something on an American internet community or something? About FreeChat?

At my words, Zero paused to think, then answered.

Zero understood my thoughts immediately, as always.

Some people might call posting fake reviews on a community board underhanded.

And they wouldn’t be wrong. It was cowardly, dishonest, and deceptive to consumers.

But it wasn’t illegal, was it? It’s not like I was selling something bad.

If I do it, it’s romance.

Maybe later I should make and sell an app that identifies fake reviews, too.

Don’t make it obvious that it’s advertising. You know what I mean, right?

California, USA — Ivy League S University Dormitory

The three of them came back from being out late, laughing as they pushed into their dorm room.

And the moment they entered, they heard their other roommate, Mike, let out a sigh.

"Hoo... Shit."

...

...

...

The three college students assumed Mike was angry at them for coming home late.

He did that a lot, after all.

Ron, one of the three who came in late, asked Mike, "Uh... Mike, something wrong? If you’re mad because we’re late again—"

"No, it’s not that. It’s just that living expenses are too high. The phone bill, especially, is killing me. Since I switched to an Apple phone last month, it’s been coming out to 110 dollars every month, and I’m reaching my limit. I can’t even pick up more part-time work."

At Mike’s words, Ron asked back, "Your phone bill is 110 dollars a month?"

"Yeah. Thirty for data, forty for basic calls, twenty for unlimited texts... and once taxes and fees are added in, it comes out about like that."

"Why don’t you switch carriers?"

"Apple phones only work with American Telecom. It’s a monopoly."

"A monopoly? That doesn’t sound very American. The Blueberry Phone is still the best."

"Smartphones are Blueberry Phones."

"But honestly, if I had the money, I’d want an Apple phone."

"I know, right."

The other two friends, stretched out on their beds, jumped into the conversation.

Mike asked Ron, who was lying down on his bed, "Isn’t the Blueberry Phone’s plan expensive too?"

"Yeah, but not 110 bucks. More like 80."

In reality, Apple phones were mostly used by what people called “early adopters.” Or by the children of rich families.

Out of fifty students in a lecture hall, only two or three would have Apple phones.

And maybe seven or eight out of the fifty used Blueberry Phones or other smartphones.

That didn’t mean Apple phones weren’t popular, though.

No, if anything, Apple phones were incredibly popular. They were ranked number one as “the Christmas gift college students want most.”

In fact, Apple phones had sold one million units in just three days after launch.

It was the kind of item tens of millions wanted, but only a few million actually had.

Still, a monthly bill of 110 dollars was obviously a burden for Mike.

He stared at the statement like he wanted to bore a hole through it.

The thirty dollars for data and forty for basic calls are one thing, but I just don’t get the twenty dollars for texts. Why the hell are texts this expensive?

"If only text messaging were a little cheaper, Apple phones would be pretty nice."

Hoo.

Mike lay back on his bed and turned on his laptop.

Then he logged onto an internet community he visited often, planning to vent his frustration by posting there.

Something like, “I’m an Apple phone user and my bill just came in today. It’s insanely expensive. Isn’t American Telecom basically robbing us? What do you guys think?”

But before he wrote anything, one post caught his eye.

...

...There really is a free texting app?

Then that meant texting was free as long as you had a smartphone.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

This is... huge!

Of course, most people still used feature phones. A few days earlier, in class, my professor had said that about 15 percent of Americans currently used smartphones, while 85 percent still used feature phones.

Globally, he’d said, smartphone use was only about 5 percent.

But he also said smartphones were surging fast among younger people and high-income users.

And sure enough, from what I could see, more and more students were using smartphones little by little.

Especially Apple phones. I’d switched from a Motorola to an Apple phone myself just last month.

That’s why the professor said that if you were going to buy stocks, you should buy smartphone-related stocks.

Since he taught economics, stock market talk came up in class from time to time.

In that sense, “free texting for smartphones” was definitely meaningful. If you used a smartphone, there was no reason not to use it.

It was FreeChat, right? If it’s free, let’s download it. If it’s in the App Store, it’ll be a safe app anyway, so there’s nothing to worry about.

Mike went into the App Store and searched for FreeChat. At the very top, he saw a simple blue speech-bubble icon.

Don’t pay for texts. Use FreeChat.

FreeChat

Developer: Another Technology

He tapped “Install,” and the download spun into action.

The installation finished in no time. When he launched the app, a clean white screen appeared.

The app design is incredibly neat.

That was Mike’s first impression of FreeChat.

It asked, Please enter your phone number for verification.

Mike entered his number. A verification text arrived immediately.

...How is it this fast?

Once verification was complete, the contacts stored in his phone automatically synced. His girlfriend Roa’s number was there, his parents’ numbers were there, and even the numbers of the friends he shared the dorm with—the bastards who felt like enemies—appeared too.

Next to everyone’s name, though, it said, “Not registered on FreeChat. Invite your friend!”

I should tell Roa to download it too. Is this where I hit Invite?

Mike tapped Invite to FreeChat on his girlfriend Roa’s number. A text was sent automatically.

It was... faster and easier than any app he had used so far, almost on a different level.

A few minutes after his girlfriend replied—

Pop!

[Roa (Active)]

Her name changed from her number to Roa, and Active appeared beside it.

Half in disbelief, Mike sent a message to that name.

"...My God."

It really works.

Still muttering to himself, Mike turned to Ron.

"Ron! You’ve got a Blueberry Phone, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then you need to download this app... FreeChat."

"What is it?"

"A free texting app. It works on both Apple phones and Blueberry Phones."

“Free texting? Hey, Mike. Even if you hate Ron that much, pulling an obvious scam in our faces is a bit much.”

“Scary, scary. They say your friends are the most dangerous.”

“Hey, you Motorola losers, shut up for a second. Ron, did you download it?”

“Hold on... is this FreeChat? The one with the green logo?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Hurry up and get it.”

And a little later—

Ron asked Mike, sounding puzzled, "What the hell... I really can send texts for free? Mike, you got my message, right?"

"Yeah, I did. ...Looks like it really works on both Blueberry Phones and Apple phones."

“It really does free texting?”

“Holy cow.”

“Does it not work on Motorola phones?”

“Seems like it only works on smartphones.”

“That’s so messed up.”

“Should I switch to a smartphone for Christmas too?”

“Blueberry? Apple phone?”

“If I’m buying one, wouldn’t an Apple phone be better?”

While the friends were chattering away,

Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

One by one, green lights lit up beside the numbers in Mike’s FreeChat.

Looking at the names, they were all friends using smartphones.

Maybe because word spread quickly among college students, everyone seemed to have downloaded it and logged in already.

And then there was this, too.

[Dad: Hey, son! So you downloaded FreeChat too!]

My God—his dad knew about it too.

If even Dad is using FreeChat... then everyone except people in prison must know about it by now.

At this rate, wouldn’t everyone in America who used a smartphone end up using FreeChat?

No.

Wouldn’t every smartphone user in the entire world end up using FreeChat?