The Last Day of 1996.
Lee Hyun-woo went to Myeong-dong.
He didn’t have any particular appointment; it was just to fix his hair.
‘No more orange color.’
He dyed it back to its original black, no longer wanting to stand out.
His orange hair had made it too easy to attract people’s attention.
By the time he finished dyeing, the streets of Myeong-dong were already filled with countless people.
It seemed they had gathered to commemorate the last day of 1996.
Most of them were young people like him,
‘I don’t feel much excitement.’
Was it because he had lived more than 50 years in his past life?
The passing of a year and the arrival of a new one had no impact on Lee Hyun-woo’s heart.
‘I shouldn’t be like this.’
Having returned to his younger years, he should live passionately, but it was unfortunate that he couldn’t.
So, he called someone he thought of.
“Min-woo!”
(Yes, CEO.)
“Call me hyung.”
(Ah, damn. It’s confusing.)
“At the company, I’m CEO; outside, I’m hyung.”
(I’m at the company though?)
“Huh? Why?”
(I came up with something fun, so I came over.)
Even though they take turns being on duty, they are on vacation until January 2nd.
It suddenly felt pitiful that Oh Min-woo had come to the office.
“You have no one to hang out with? If you’re bored, come to Myeong-dong. Let’s go to a club.”
(Ah, why are you like this? I really came because I thought of something fun.)
“What is it?”
(I tweaked the search engine a bit more, and it’s finding an enormous number of pages.)
“……”
The fact that this was considered fun made Lee Hyun-woo click his tongue again.
Then he thought of Oh Min-woo’s past character and smiled faintly.
‘He must find it really interesting if he’s refusing to go to a club.’
To define Oh Min-woo in one word, he is a free spirit.
If he doesn’t feel like working, he won’t, and conversely, if he finds work more interesting, he won’t come out even if coaxed to hang out.
“Is it that interesting?”
(I think I’ll surprise you later.)
“Alright, got it. Do your best to make me surprised.”
(You won’t be able to not be surprised.)
If tweaking the search engine felt like play to Oh Min-woo, it seemed best to acknowledge it.
In the end, Lee Hyun-woo hung up and pondered.
Who should he call this time?
‘Unbelievable. I have no friends to hang out with.’
How had he managed his relationships to end up like this?
But there were limitations.
Aside from Oh Min-woo, calling someone from work was almost taboo.
No matter how comfortably Lee Hyun-woo treated them, who would casually hang out with the CEO?
Nor could he call his celebrity friends like Kim Yoon-seon or Clones.
Year-end is a busy time for them.
‘Wow, living without maintaining friendships.’
It had been quite a while since he lost contact with childhood friends or college mates.
He couldn’t shamelessly call them out just for this, so in the end, only one person came to mind.
‘Ah-young?’
After much deliberation, he inevitably concluded that he had to call her again.
So he was about to dial her number when,
‘No.’
He had to stop.
From his faint memory, he recalled that her family celebrated New Year’s Day according to the solar calendar.
‘Damn, should I just spend today with family?’
Of course, that wouldn’t be bad, but in the end, his steps led him to Jungle.
He couldn’t suppress his rising curiosity about the search engine Oh Min-woo mentioned.
“Huh? Why are you here?”
“I was just curious.”
“You have no one to hang out with, huh?”
“No, I’m really curious. What did you find out?”
“Actually, I’ve been working on it since I got back from Jeju Island.”
Oh Min-woo was in the first group that went to the Jeju Island workshop.
So he must have done this right after arriving earlier.
“I thought about why people use search engines.”
“We found the answer last time, right? That’s why we have the knowledge service.”
“Yes, that’s a bit macro.”
“Then did you delve into the micro?”
“It’s hard to say it like that, but I focused on relationships.”
“Relationships?”
“Yes, relationships. Actually, even I sometimes feel lonely.”
“You’re not lonely; you just like playing alone, don’t you?”
“No. When I contact people, they don’t come out, and the ones I can call are limited, so I end up spending lonely nights.”
It felt like he was hearing story about himself, and Lee Hyun-woo flinched.
“That’s not loneliness; it’s boredom.”
“The two concepts are similar. Being bored with no one to play with is essentially loneliness.”
“Alright, let’s say it is.”
“Thinking about it, I wondered if I was always this way. I did have friends to hang out with at one point.”
“Suddenly sounds pitiful.”
“Listen to the end.”
Seeing Lee Hyun-woo constantly digressing, Oh Min-woo continued with a stern expression.
“So I started tracing my past. Then childhood friends came to mind. I suddenly wondered how they were doing.”
“Huh?”
“Huh? Did you already get it?”
“Something just flashed in my mind.”
“No way…”
“You mentioned relationships earlier. You thought of a search engine that finds the connections you’ve had, didn’t you?”
“Wow…”
Oh Min-woo was genuinely surprised.
Honestly, he thought he’d have to explain a lot to Lee Hyun-woo.
But with a few conversations and keywords, he guessed it right away.
“This ruins my plan to surprise you. No, I’m the one who’s surprised. I won’t talk midway anymore.”
Complaining was useless.
Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes were already dreaming of something.
‘This is completely the concept of Face Note.’
But could it be feasible at this stage?
“To match the search criteria you want, it means people’s personal information needs to be stored somewhere.”
“Or?”
“Or create a platform for people to store their personal details.”
Not personal details like national ID numbers, but just recording their origins and schools to connect them on the internet.
“Yes, hyung has talked a lot about platforms to me. I got a hint from that too.”
This was true.
Having experienced the future, Lee Hyun-woo often explained the concept of platforms to his employees.
“How long do you think it’ll take to make?”
“Jungle is now big enough to get criticized if we release something hastily.”
“That’s true…”
“It’ll take some time.”
“Oh, really? That’s a shame.”
“That’s why I didn’t want to mention it early. I’m not a magic wand, and I’ve just started working on the anti-piracy program you mentioned last time.”
“Alright, alright. Take your time. I won’t rush you.”
Lee Hyun-woo couldn’t help but smile.
‘I have quite a few friends I want to see.’
It seemed he would soon meet his long-lost childhood friends.
So he wouldn’t be wandering on December 31st like today.
The new year finally dawned.
Lee Hyun-woo, who always turned off his phone before bed, turned it on in the morning and kept hearing missed messages.
The first message was from Kim Ah-young.
- Hyun-woo, 1996 was fun because of you. I hope 1997 will be fun for you because of me.
The time was midnight.
Lee Hyun-woo quickly replied.
- I’m looking forward to it!
Then came a string of messages like a candy chain.
Most were from colleagues at work.
Or people related to work.
‘Even Yoon-soo hyung sent one.’
While replying to each message, he heard his younger brother’s voice calling him for breakfast and went outside the room.
Although they didn’t celebrate the solar New Year, there was rice cake soup prepared for breakfast.
“Our eldest is twenty-eight now.”
“Right. The second one still has a long way to go, but the eldest should start bringing news soon.”
The prepared voices of his parents were also the same.
Lee Hyun-woo smiled and said,
“I have no plans to marry before thirty.”
“Did you see this morning’s newspaper? You ranked first as the top groom candidate again.”
“Mom’s starting to get a bit greedy because there’s nothing lacking in you.”
It wasn’t even a non-sequitur; it seemed today’s topic was bound to shift to marriage.
But his younger brother Lee Jung-woo caused trouble.
“Our hyung may be amazing, but he might date someone even more amazing, so you two should be prepared.”
“Huh?”
“Do you know something?”
“Jung-woo, don’t say strange things.”
Lee Hyun-woo stepped in to stop him, knowing who Jung-woo might be referring to.
But Jung-woo, already on a roll, didn’t stop.
“Our hyung might date the richest girl in the country.”
“The richest? Who is that?”
“Could it be… one of the girls who came to last year’s opening ceremony?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Jung-woo, please.”
“I’ll stop here. The rest, you two should find out.”
Immediately, his parents’ gazes turned to Lee Hyun-woo.
He couldn’t help but resent Lee Jung-woo for making things difficult and then slipping away.
“That kid’s mistaken. There’s nothing like that.”
“Really?”
“That’s a relief.”
“……?”
Hearing his mother’s words, Lee Hyun-woo momentarily had a question mark in his head,
‘It must be burdensome for them.’
But soon realized.
If the family is just rich, it might be fine, but a daughter of a conglomerate group was too much to handle.
Perhaps that’s why the topic changed direction.
Precisely, his mother intentionally turned on the TV.
It seemed like a move to divert attention from the burdensome reality of a conglomerate family.
As soon as it was turned on, a news segment his parents liked appeared on screen.
『Bohan Group, on the brink of bankruptcy!』
A major event occurred right at the start of the new year.
As Nostradamus, i.e., Lee Hyun-woo predicted, one of the giant groups was on the verge of collapse.
‘Is it finally starting?’
A small sigh escaped Lee Hyun-woo’s lips.
Although the turbulent 1996 had passed, the year 1997, which might be even noisier, had dawned.
On January 3rd, after an extra day of rest and returning to work,
Bohan Group, which was on the brink of bankruptcy, finally collapsed.
The media described the event with various phrases.
Power-related financial corruption, preferential loan fraud, systematic lobbying resulting in political-business collusion, and so on.
‘This year won’t be easy.’
Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes deepened as he scanned various news on the computer in the morning.
Suddenly, several goals he had set to minimize the impact of the foreign exchange crisis came to mind.
However,
‘It’s best to let things that will collapse, collapse.’
He thought there was no need to save something that was bound to fall.
Because if left alone, it would fester.
