Real Man

Chapter 6

It was just as Jo Eun-ah had said.

When Yoo-hyun entered the building of his department, he didn’t see any students who greeted him warmly.

Maybe a slight bow from his juniors in the same major?

He didn’t expect much, but it felt even worse when he saw it for himself.

Inhyun University was not known for its humanities department.

It was more famous for its engineering department.

And since it was not in the Seoul area, its ranking was also low.

The number of Inhyun University business students who got hired by Hansung was very few.

Of course, at that time, Yoo-hyun didn’t have any seniors who could help him.

And Yoo-hyun, who studied hard all the time, didn’t bother to take care of his juniors either.

He didn’t care about the people around him and only focused on moving forward.

It was like seeing Yoo-hyun at his company.

‘It wasn’t the right way.’

He thought it was the best at that time, but it wasn’t when he looked back.

He shouldn’t have been obsessed with getting a job right away. He should have mingled with more people.

And he should have learned how to take care of people naturally.

Also, he should have broadened his horizons.

‘Don’t just work all the time.’

He wanted to change right away, but it was exam season and he didn’t have much contact with the people in his department.

He could only end it with a slightly more friendly greeting.

Yoo-hyun came out of the department building and sat on a bench on campus.

Students wearing different clothes passed by in front of Yoo-hyun.

As he sat quietly and watched them, he noticed a certain pattern.

Their small movements and actions were like traffic lights, giving him living information.

He suddenly wondered what it would have been like if he had continued studying psychology.

He wasn’t the type of scholar, so he wouldn’t have achieved much.

And he wasn’t the type of person who cared about others, so he wouldn’t have been good at counseling either.

“I guess working at the company suits me better.”

He chuckled.

As he was sitting there and thinking about random things, someone called him.

“Hello, Steve.”

“…”

It was a foreigner with a tall height and blue eyes.

“What are you doing here? Do you have someone to wait for?”

He was clearly pointing at Yoo-hyun and talking to him.

Steve was the English name that Yoo-hyun used at his company.

Did he start using that name from then on?

He recognized his face, but he wasn’t sure who he was.

Whatever.

Yoo-hyun naturally replied in English.

“Hello. I’m just looking at the people passing by. This is a great place to relax and kill time.”

“Wow, how did you improve your English so much?”

“Uh… I guess it got better because I worked hard?”

“Really amazing. Your vocabulary and pronunciation are so good that I would think you’re a native speaker. How did you do that?”

He couldn’t help but laugh.

He completed his MBA program at Stanford University in the US.

What if he couldn’t speak English then?

That would be ridiculous.

After talking to him for a while, he remembered who he was.

His name was James.

He was an English teacher as expected.

Even after finishing his course, he followed him persistently and tried to be friends with him.

Thanks to that, they had a pleasant conversation and even went to play billiards together.

They became close friends.

‘I didn’t even meet anyone from my department…’𝓃օ𝑣𝖊𝑙𝖇i𝐧.𝔫𝘦𝒕

There was a clear reason why he met James.

It was because he was a helpful person.

He was a perfect textbook for studying English conversation without spending any money.

Judging from their conversation, Yoo-hyun at that time could laugh and talk enough.

He just chose his people carefully.

‘Sigh.’

Yoo-hyun sighed inwardly and reached out his hand to wrap up their conversation.

“James. It was really fun thanks to you.”

“No problem. Steve, let’s see each other again.”

James looked surprised by the handshake, but then smiled brightly and left his seat.

He had a nice conversation, but Yoo-hyun felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

He remembered how he struggled to move forward back then.

He only took the people who were necessary and drew a line with those who he thought were unnecessary.

These actions made his already scarce relationships even more fragmentary.

In the end, there was not a single person left who sincerely stayed with him.

“How did I live like that?”

Yoo-hyun muttered as he watched the setting sun.

He didn’t want to take the same bus back.

He felt like the same routine would repeat itself.

Instead, Yoo-hyun walked to find a different route.

It was a time when he couldn’t check the map on his phone or any other device.

He just walked wherever his feet took him.

It was an inefficient thing to do, but he felt refreshed because he did something he didn’t usually do.

Trudge trudge.

His knees didn’t hurt even if he walked for a long time.

His young body was definitely different.

Bang bang bang bang bang.

He looked around at the loud noise and saw that there were construction sites everywhere.

It was a large-scale apartment development project that covered a wide area.

There were apartment sales information posters all over the road.

‘Woosang Construction? Why does the name sound familiar…?’

It was definitely not a major construction company.

He had never seen it in Seoul, so maybe it went bankrupt later.

“Ah… right. Woosang!”

He was right.

The company went bankrupt due to a massive fraud in apartment sales.

The damage amounted to hundreds of billions of won.

It was still in his memory, so it must have been big news.

He heard that there were quite a few people he knew who were affected by it because it was near his hometown.

‘You should have done some research. Idiots.’

He thought something similar at that time.

It was because he had no direct connection to it.

“Wait.”

He realized that knowing the future had some useful aspects.

It was because he could avoid these landmines.

He had risen to the president of Hansung Electronics 20 years later.

He knew the relations with China, Japan, and the US at least.

And he had some useful information in his head about the economic trends based on big cycles, the movements of exchange rates and raw materials, and the future growth industries.

He couldn’t predict the ups and downs of stocks or real estate like a ghost, but he could make big bets.

‘Just investing in stocks…’

He clearly remembered this part because he was a newbie in society who cared about what others thought.

There were many seniors who cried or laughed because of their fund or stock investments.

He could sell what was falling now or buy what would rise later.

He could use the money he earned to buy real estate at the right time and build a building.

That was one way to do it.

No, he could make more money by investing in foreign stocks.

He had information about the companies that were doing well in the world 20 years later.

Especially if he invested in venture capital firms that became unicorns, he could easily make hundreds of times more money.

Buying cryptocurrency was another way to do it.

His thoughts followed one another.

Before he knew it, he didn’t see the surroundings and only thought about money.

He wasn’t much different from Yoo-hyun in the future.

Yoo-hyun shook his head violently as he realized that.

“No. No way.”

He had vowed not to live a life chasing after success and money.

Did he already forget that?

That’s why people say that people don’t change.

Money?

He made enough money to see for himself.

He lived well without envy from others.

But there was nothing left.

Even if he had money, he didn’t know how to use it properly.

Rather, he became more selective of people because of money.

A new life given to him again.

This time, he didn’t want to live a life chasing after money.

Of course, if there was a really necessary moment, he could make money too.

But even then, his goal should not be money, but people.

‘People over money.’

It was also what his father said before.

He decided to live a different life and change himself.

To do that, he thought that he had to put even small actions into practice.

‘Send greetings to my loved ones every day.’

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He didn’t do this before because he said he had no time.

He didn’t meet them because he was busy with work, so they gradually drifted apart in his heart too.

It was just a phone call, but he couldn’t do that simple thing.

Yoo-hyun took a deep breath and held his phone in his hand.

He called his mother first.

“Hi, Mom. I just called. Yes. Mom, your side dishes were delicious. Thank you so much. No. Haha.”

-Oh… okay.

Was his son’s gentle voice too unfamiliar?

His mother’s answer sounded awkward to him.

“Okay. I’ll come down tomorrow, Mom. I miss you. Bye.”

-I’ll wait for you.

But as the conversation went on, the voice on the other end of the phone became brighter.

He could tell that she was smiling, even though he couldn’t see her face.

He felt a smile on his own face too.

Next was his father’s turn.

He was sure that his father would be surprised when he answered the phone.

They didn’t have a good relationship and rarely called each other.

The sparse call history with his father on his phone confirmed his memory.

Ring ring ring.

The phone rang and his father’s curt voice came through.

He used to hate that voice, but now it sounded warm to him.

-What’s up?

“Dad, I’m planning to come down tomorrow.”

-Tomorrow?

“Oh, are you busy?”

His father hesitated at his question.

-Well, I am… but just come anyway.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. I miss y…”

Click.

His father hung up before he could finish his sentence.

He didn’t think his father was avoiding him on purpose.

He just wasn’t used to talking to his son yet.

He decided to improve his relationship with his father when he went down this time.

After calling his sister, he called his friends.

Kim Hyun-soo, Kang Jun-ki, Ha Jun-seok.

These three were his hometown friends who had been close since elementary school.

They were the ones who helped him when he was struggling.

They had a lot of memories together.

He thought they would always be together when they grew up.

He recalled his childhood memories and called them one by one.

They all had the same response: ‘What’s up with you?’

It made sense.

He had been busy studying after he finished his military service and didn’t see them much.

He probably didn’t call them much either, judging by the lack of call records on his phone.

But friends are friends, after all.

They teased him for sounding like an old man with his awkward tone, and laughed at his lame jokes.

He felt nostalgic even from their trivial conversations.

Their voices sounded young and unfamiliar, but he tried to talk more casually on purpose.

“Come on. I’m buying. Just show up.”

-Really? You? Did you win the lottery or something?

They seemed amazed that he called them personally and offered to buy them drinks.

It was funny to see them act so surprised as if they had made an appointment.

He made a promise to see them when he went down and ended the call.

He had used studying as an excuse not to see them, but he had even less time after he joined the company.

His friends who were barely making ends meet gradually drifted apart from him.

He regretted it after it was over.

He realized that having three true friends was a success in life, as the old saying goes.

He didn’t know that back then.

“I know now.”

Yeah, he knew now.

The relationships that he took for granted, like family and friends, were the most precious ones.

He knew that he had to cherish and maintain them more closely now that they were close again.

He had officially finished what he had to do now.

He was done with his librarian job at the library, so he didn’t have to go to school unless he wanted to get his diploma.

If it was like before, he would have been busy preparing for the Hansung Electronics interview, but he didn’t need to do that now.

He was already the president of the company, after all.

He was confident that he knew more about experience, skills, and company affairs than the interviewer did.

He also had a lot of experience as an interviewer himself, so he could handle any situation well.

More than that,

‘What am I going to do after I join Hansung?’

That was his real concern.

He remembered the funeral scene of his colleague Kwon Se-jung and boarded the bus.