She felt confused. When she saw him a few times recently, she didn’t think much of it.
He was only a salaryman at a small company.
That was how she saw him at first. However, that was because Cha Yeoreum was unaware of all the facts.
He fixed major server problems.
He also now worked as a consultant.
At the time, she had no idea how much Woosung had accomplished. Now she knew.
Presenter.
Speaker.
He was a big deal. Cha Yeoreum shook her head. Yang Jungsuk thought.
‘So they used to date?’ It was obvious. They used to date. He had a competition. ‘Is she just playing me?’
Yang Jungsuk’s imagination ran wild as Woosung continued.
“GTT is a plugin for Visual Studio. The program is designed as a screen test tool. It’s currently being used by Nuri Finances’ HTS project and has shown to be effective. It’s easy to use. The code is available for free at Github and Source Forge.”
Woosung continued comfortably. Park Jonghyun, Yoon Chanjong, and Cha Yeoreum still couldn’t believe it. They all stared at Woosung in silence.
“If you want to become a contributor, please provide additional codes at Github. Microsoft is also interested in this project, so it would be beneficial for all of you to take interest as well. Now, let’s get to the practical side and some examples. Next please.”
The screen changed to the next slide. Woosung looked like he was in control of the entire conference.
“10:5. Before we applied the agile method, it used to take 10 days to develop a new function. now, it only takes 5 days.”
Cha Yeoreum’s heart continued to pound hard. She looked around to see if anyone noticed her state, thankfully no one was paying attention to her. She looked again at Woosung as she bit her nails.
“If you aren’t sure about this plugin, just try it.”
Woosung continued. Cha Yeoreum gripped her hands tight.
***
After lunch, Woosung left the hotel for a walk. He planned to stay to listen to Hong Soobum’s presentation on “The future of the mobile world.”
Since his presentation, his phone was ringing nonstop.
“They must’ve been really shocked.”
Park Jonghyun and Yoon Chanjong kept calling him, but he didn’t answer. Then, a text message arrived.
“Where are you?”
Three words.
It was from Cha Yeoreum.
“Cha Yeoreum…why?”
They haven’t contacted each other since they broke up.
“Maybe she saw my presentation?”
His phone rang again. He sat on a bench and, alas, he answered. Park Jonghyun asked to meet him and they all ended up at the hotel lobby. Park Jonghyun along with Cha Yeroeum, Yoon Chanjong, and Yang Jungsuk asked.
“This is crazy. You were awesome. Did you ask Microsoft to participate? Come on! Tell me. How did this happen?”
Woosung took a sip of his coffee and answered. “I developed a program needed at work. When I uploaded it, I got an email from Microsoft. They asked me to speak at the conference.”
Park Jonghyun couldn’t believe it. “You developed this?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible. Don’t you remember what you told me when we were still at school? You said you hated developing programs.”
Woosung remembered the conversation. It was true, but he needed to earn a living, and he ended up becoming a developer.
“That’s right. I remember.” He said with a laugh.
“Now you made a program and Microsoft calls you? How could I believe that?”
“I guess it sounds impossible.”
“Hey!” Park Jonghyun yelled at Woosung’s mocking tone.
They have known each other for many years. Woosung continued to laugh.
“So you’re saying you studied really hard after you landed on your job, and your skills improved this fast?” Yoon Chanjong asked this time.
He was asking seriously. Woosung tried to give an earnest answer. He knew this day would come when he needed to have a logical explanation.
“Something like that. Before graduation, I realized how lacking I was. I could see other classmates getting jobs, but not me. Since then, I studied nonstop. All day, every day.”
“You are lying. I remember drinking with you all the time around that time.” Park Jonghyun glared at him.
Woosung didn’t realize he would ask this. He was now sweating.
“Oh…well, I studied when we weren’t drinking.”
“Was there ever a day when we didn’t go out for a drink? We went out every single day.”
Woosung laughed awkwardly.
“R…really? Haha. Hahaha…”
He wanted to get out of this situation as fast as possible. Cha Yeoreum just stared at him with her lips shut. Thankfully, someone came up to Woosung.
“Oh! Wow! This is a pleasant surprise. I was just about to call you.”
“Oh…hello, sir.”
Jang Gwanchul greeted him. “Sir? Come on! Call me brother.”
He was covered in gold. Gold necklace and rings…His hair was spiked. He looked like a typical gang member.
“Alright, big brother. What are you doing here?”
Checking the time on his Rolex, Jang Gwangchul grabbed Woosung.
“Hahaha, I’m here for the seminar. It’s time to go now. Come with me. I have someone I want you to meet.”
Woosung checked his watch too. It was time for ‘The future of the mobile world’.
“Um…I need to go to a seminar.”
“Are you talking about ‘The future of the mobile world?’”
“How…”
“Right? I knew it. Let’s go. I will explain on the way.”
He wanted to leave his friends anyway, so Woosung followed. However, everyone else also stood up.
“Great. We were going to attend that same seminar anyway.”
“Oh! Are these your friends?”
Woosung nodded and Jang Gwangchul laughed.
“Hahaha. That would make you my friends too then. Let’s all go together.”
“The next seminar will start in 10 minutes.”
“The next seminar will start in 10 minutes.”
The loud announcement hurried them.
***
Hong Soobum’s presentation was genius. He talked as if he could see the future. Everything he predicted all came true. Woosung knew this and couldn’t hide his shock.
“In the future, you’ll be able to do everything in your hand. Mobile! We’ll be able to connect to the internet, monitor our health, and control the entire house in our hands.”
He was right.
“iPhone. It isn’t a popular thing yet, but Apple made a statement when it released it. They promised to change how people saw and used phones. iPhone will become a portable computer for everyone. PDA? That’s garbage.”
It was incredible. Woosung didn’t want to miss a thing. Jang Gwangchul asked.
“What do you think?”
“It’s amazing.”
“Haha, you think so too?”
The idea clearly took Jang Gwangchul’s interest, which meant one thing: It was going to generate a lot of money.
“Are you thinking about investing?”
“No, I’m already an investor of it.”
“Oh!”
“He told me he wanted to make something, so I told him I will give him the money to do whatever he wanted to do.”
“Just like you did for me.”
Jang Gwangchul smiled. “Exactly. I told him to consider me his older brother.”
“You must have a lot of little brothers.”
“Hahaha. You need to diversify your portfolio.”
Woosung looked at Hong Soobum again. He was most likely working on Coconut now. He wasn’t aware Jang Gwangchul was an investor.
“We have already entered the mobile world. The only thing left to decide is whether to become part of it or become left behind. You need to choose now.”
That was the end of the presentation.
