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Chapter 4…
The third floor of the annex building at Seonjin High School.
Although it was connected to the main building by a skybridge, few students ever came here.
The farther down the hallway you went, the quieter it became.
“Here it is.”
Minjae stopped in front of the classroom at the very end of the corridor.
A piece of paper with [Stock Investment Research Club] scrawled on it in marker was taped to the door.
Not even a proper club sign.
Nice.
The less flashy it was, the less attention it attracted.
It was the perfect place for me to quietly sharpen my blade.
Slide.
Minjae opened the worn sliding door.
“Guys, I’m here.”
The room was smaller than I’d expected.
Several desks had been pushed together to form a central table, and two old computers with bulky CRT monitors sat in the corner.
Three people were already inside.
“Oh, Minjae hyung, you’re here?”
“You’re late today. The water for the cup noodles already got cold.”
The club members casually turned toward the door.
But the instant their eyes landed on me standing behind Minjae, every movement in the room froze.
The chopsticks holding cup noodles.
The hand flipping through a newspaper.
Everything stopped midair.
“…Kang Sunwoo?”
Someone absentmindedly spoke my name.
This school had been founded by my grandfather.
My aunt was the chairman of the school foundation, and even the principal treated me cautiously.
For someone like me—a notorious troublemaker—to suddenly appear in a dusty club room tucked away in the annex…
It was probably more shocking than seeing a ghost.
“So… everyone, you’re surprised, right?”
Minjae awkwardly stepped forward to break the silence.
“Sunwoo said he wants to join our club, so I brought him over. You all know him, right? Kang Sunwoo from our class.”
The members looked as though they couldn’t believe it.
Without bothering to explain myself, I simply gave them a slight nod.
“Hello. I’m Kang Sunwoo from the second year. I look forward to working with all of you.”
At my greeting, they awkwardly stood up.
None of them knew whether they should greet me back or pretend I wasn’t there.
Reading the atmosphere, Minjae quickly began introducing everyone.
“The guy holding the cup noodles is Park Donghoon, a first-year. He’s good with computers.”
“H-Hello, Sunbae…”
“Hi.”
The chubby freshman hurriedly set down his chopsticks and bowed.
“And the guy with the glasses is Jung Jinsu, another second-year.”
“Nice to meet you.”
The second-year avoided eye contact while greeting me.
They all looked incredibly innocent.
Put nicely, they seemed simple and honest.
Put less kindly, they looked like students who had wandered into this club simply because they had nowhere else to go.
But none of them were the person I was looking for.
“And…”
Minjae turned toward the window.
Naturally, I followed his gaze.
“The person by the window is our club president, senior Han Jaeyi. She’s a third-year.”
Han Jaeyi.
The moment I heard her name, a faint smile appeared on my lips.
Just as I thought. She’s here.
In the future, Han Jaeyi would become the manager of the largest private equity fund in Yeouido.
People would describe her as someone driven by sheer obsession to overcome the handicap she’d been born with.
Yet the girl before me looked nothing like that future reputation.
Even so…
Thirty years from now, many graduates of Seonjin High School’s Stock Investment Research Club would go on to become major players in Yeouido.
The club itself would continue to exist all those years.
If I could establish a connection with her now…
“Kang Sunwoo?”
Han Jaeyi smiled warmly and extended her hand.
“I’m Han Jaeyi, the club president. I’m a third-year.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Sunbae.”
“You can just call me noona.”
Unlike everyone else, she accepted my greeting without showing the slightest surprise.
She was so calm that I almost felt awkward instead.
“Minjae said you want to join the club? Did you wrap things up with your previous club? As you know, joining multiple clubs can cause problems.”
“I’ve never joined one before.”
“What? Is that even allowed?”
Han Jaeyi looked genuinely surprised.
The others, meanwhile, wore expressions that practically said,
Well… it’s Kang Sunwoo.
“But as you can see, our club doesn’t have much.”
She looked around the room with a bitter smile.
“Our funding was cut a long time ago, and these computers are so outdated that actually trading stocks is out of the question.”
Rather than feeling embarrassed about how shabby the club was, she sounded more worried that the new member might be disappointed.
“So… if you still want to join, I won’t stop you.”
She looked at me carefully.
“But… are you really sure?”
I silently studied her.
Unexpected.
She was completely different from the ruthless woman I’d known in the future—the one who would stop at nothing to succeed.
Yet…
That sense of responsibility.
That determination to protect a dying club until the very end.
I don’t dislike this version of her.
If someone with that kind of responsibility became one of my people…
There would be no more reliable ally.
“Yes.”
I answered without hesitation.
“This is exactly the place I’ve been looking for.”
After exchanging introductions, we left the club room and headed back toward our classroom.
Minjae chatted nonstop beside me.
He still hadn’t calmed down.
“Seriously, you made the right choice. Everyone was worried the club would disappear.”
“Disappear?”
“Yeah. School rules say a club needs at least five members. If we fall below five, we lose our funding… and eventually our club room.”
He let out a relieved sigh.
“But now that you’ve joined, we’re exactly five people. You’re literally our savior.”
I chuckled as we walked.
“Other than the club president, nobody seemed particularly interested in stocks.”
“Ah… well…”
Minjae scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“The truth is, no one wanted to join, so Jaeyi noona accepted pretty much anyone. Those first- and second-years you saw? They really don’t care about stocks. They’re just here to kill time.”
“What about you, Minjae?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Did you join because you’re interested? Or did someone drag you into it?”
His eyes lit up immediately.
“Me? I’m really interested. It’s fun.”
The unexpected answer made me laugh.
“Fun?”
“Yeah. Why are you laughing?”
“Because hearing someone describe the stock market as ‘fun’ is pretty funny.”
The stock market was a battlefield.
A place where some people cried tears of blood while others shouted with joy.
Calling something like that “fun”…
Yet Minjae was completely serious.
“Don’t you think so? The IT bubble forming and bursting… companies rising and falling… it all starts in the stock market. Isn’t it amazing how you can actually see the world’s changing trends reflected in numbers?”
I quietly looked at his profile.
Definitely a model student.
He approaches it academically.
Not out of greed.
Out of pure curiosity.
So the class president had this side to him.
I wonder what he ended up doing in my previous life.
Just then, Minjae looked at me as though he’d suddenly remembered something.
“By the way… why did you join our club? You always said club activities were too much trouble.”
His eyes were full of curiosity.
Well, of course they were.
The school’s famous outsider and third-generation chaebol heir had suddenly walked into a club that was on the verge of being shut down.
I shrugged casually.
“It wasn’t that they were troublesome.”
“It’s just that no matter where I went, people always felt uncomfortable around me. I figured it was better not to go anywhere.”
“So you’ve changed your mind now? Why?”
“Hmm…”
I smiled.
“I just have a feeling that thirty years from now, this club will become legendary.”
“…Legendary?”
Minjae repeated the word as though I’d completely lost my mind.
Instead of answering, I simply smiled and kept walking.
That’s right.
Right now, they’re just a bunch of nobodies gathering dust in an abandoned corner of the school.
But someday… graduates of Seonjin High School’s Stock Investment Research Club will dominate Yeouido.
The next morning.
The only sounds around the breakfast table were the clinking of chopsticks and spoons.
Everything looked the same as always.
Yet Father’s empty seat felt enormous.
Across from me, my younger sister Seona absentmindedly poked at her rice.
“Kids.”
Mother was the one who finally broke the heavy silence.
Both Seona and I looked up.
Setting down her spoon, she spoke calmly.
“I’m going back to the company starting today.”
Seona’s eyes widened.
“The company? Dad’s company?”
“Yes.”
“It’s where your father devoted his entire life. I can’t just leave it alone.”
“B-But, Mom… you’ve never worked before.”
Her voice trembled ever so slightly.
It seemed she was afraid that, after losing Father, Mother was now throwing herself into another difficult path.
Mother smiled bitterly before gently reassuring her.
“Your eldest uncle suggested something else…”
“But I think differently.”
“How could I leave the company your father protected all his life in someone else’s hands?”
Hearing that, I sneered inwardly.
As expected. Kang Taeyong really did make that suggestion.
A professional management system.
On the surface, it sounded reasonable.
In reality, it was just an obvious scheme to plant his own people inside the company.
If Mother had shown even the slightest weakness…
She would have taken the bait.
But just like in my previous life… Mother made the same choice.
That was a relief.
History hadn’t changed.
She was preparing to become the Iron Lady once again, ready to walk a road covered in thorns.
Quietly setting down my glass of water, I spoke.
“You made the right decision.”
Mother and Seona both looked at me.
“You’ll do well, Mom.”
“I’m sure Father would’ve wanted this too.”
“…Sunwoo.”
“And once you let someone else handle what’s yours…”
“Before long, it stops being yours.”
“It’s better if you manage it yourself.”
My support visibly eased the tension on Mother’s face.
“Thank you.”
“Hearing my son say that gives me strength.”
She picked up her spoon again.
The atmosphere became noticeably lighter.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“Do I happen to have a stock brokerage account under my name?”
Mother stopped halfway through ladling soup.
She looked at me in surprise.
“A brokerage account?”
“I think you do.”
“After your father passed away, we sorted out some inheritance matters…”
“And your grandfather also left some shares to you and Seona.”
Then she asked with concern,
“But why all of a sudden? Do you need money?”
“Oh, no.”
“I’m not planning to touch the stocks inside.”
“I just need the account itself.”
“The account?”
“Yes.”
“I joined a school club recently.”
I pretended to be a little embarrassed.
“It’s called the Stock Investment Research Club.”
“…The Stock Investment Research Club?”
Mother’s eyes grew round.
Seona looked at me with an expression that clearly said,
You?
Which made sense.
I’d spent the last two years at school like a ghost.
“They said it’d be helpful if I had a brokerage account under my own name.”
“I won’t touch the stocks already inside.”
“I was wondering if I could just use the account itself.”
“Or… if it’s easier, you could open a new one.”
The moment I finished speaking, Mother’s face brightened.
It wasn’t because of stocks.
Or money.
She was simply happy that her son had joined a club and wanted to spend time with friends.
“Our Sunwoo joined a club?”
“Yeah.”
“A friend asked me to join.”
“Good.”
“You made the right choice.”
“I was actually considering transferring you to another school.”
Some of my cousins had enjoyed flaunting their family’s status at school.
I never had.
The attention I received at that age had only been painful and overwhelming.
Back then… my mentality really was weak.
I only made my parents worry.
Mother smiled in relief.
“Of course you can use it.”
“It’s yours. You don’t need my permission.”
“But wouldn’t it be easier to open a new account?”
“I think so too.”
“Then I’ll prepare the consent forms and ask Secretary Kim to take care of everything.”
“Thank you.”
I quietly picked up my spoon again.
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep my expression under control.
Perfect.
Even if I’d simply asked for a brokerage account, Mother probably would’ve agreed.
But this way, I’d also eased one of her worries while she was about to throw herself into managing the company.
And now…
I’d finally have the means to make money.
Now I can really begin.
Joining the Stock Investment Research Club hadn’t only been about Han Jaeyi or completing Kim Seokjun’s assignment.
I also needed an environment where I could invest in stocks.
Knowing the future meant nothing if I couldn’t turn that knowledge into capital.
If I’d suddenly said I wanted to start investing, people would’ve been suspicious.
Now that I’d joined the club, that problem had solved itself.
All that remained…
…was to profit from the future I already knew.
Time to finish breakfast and get to school.
I poured my rice into the soup and started eating.
If I was going to work hard, I’d need to fill my stomach first.Chapter 4
The third floor of the annex building at Seonjin High School.
Although it was connected to the main building by a skybridge, few students ever came here.
The farther down the hallway you went, the quieter it became.
“Here it is.”
Minjae stopped in front of the classroom at the very end of the corridor.
A piece of paper with [Stock Investment Research Club] scrawled on it in marker was taped to the door.
Not even a proper club sign.
Nice.
The less flashy it was, the less attention it attracted.
It was the perfect place for me to quietly sharpen my blade.
Slide.
Minjae opened the worn sliding door.
“Guys, I’m here.”
The room was smaller than I’d expected.
Several desks had been pushed together to form a central table, and two old computers with bulky CRT monitors sat in the corner.
Three people were already inside.
“Oh, Minjae hyung, you’re here?”
“You’re late today. The water for the cup noodles already got cold.”
The club members casually turned toward the door.
But the instant their eyes landed on me standing behind Minjae, every movement in the room froze.
The chopsticks holding cup noodles.
The hand flipping through a newspaper.
Everything stopped midair.
“…Kang Sunwoo?”
Someone absentmindedly spoke my name.
This school had been founded by my grandfather.
My aunt was the chairman of the school foundation, and even the principal treated me cautiously.
For someone like me—a notorious troublemaker—to suddenly appear in a dusty club room tucked away in the annex…
It was probably more shocking than seeing a ghost.
“So… everyone, you’re surprised, right?”
Minjae awkwardly stepped forward to break the silence.
“Sunwoo said he wants to join our club, so I brought him over. You all know him, right? Kang Sunwoo from our class.”
The members looked as though they couldn’t believe it.
Without bothering to explain myself, I simply gave them a slight nod.
“Hello. I’m Kang Sunwoo from the second year. I look forward to working with all of you.”
At my greeting, they awkwardly stood up.
None of them knew whether they should greet me back or pretend I wasn’t there.
Reading the atmosphere, Minjae quickly began introducing everyone.
“The guy holding the cup noodles is Park Donghoon, a first-year. He’s good with computers.”
“H-Hello, Sunbae…”
“Hi.”
The chubby freshman hurriedly set down his chopsticks and bowed.
“And the guy with the glasses is Jung Jinsu, another second-year.”
“Nice to meet you.”
The second-year avoided eye contact while greeting me.
They all looked incredibly innocent.
Put nicely, they seemed simple and honest.
Put less kindly, they looked like students who had wandered into this club simply because they had nowhere else to go.
But none of them were the person I was looking for.
“And…”
Minjae turned toward the window.
Naturally, I followed his gaze.
“The person by the window is our club president, senior Han Jaeyi. She’s a third-year.”
Han Jaeyi.
The moment I heard her name, a faint smile appeared on my lips.
Just as I thought. She’s here.
In the future, Han Jaeyi would become the manager of the largest private equity fund in Yeouido.
People would describe her as someone driven by sheer obsession to overcome the handicap she’d been born with.
Yet the girl before me looked nothing like that future reputation.
Even so…
Thirty years from now, many graduates of Seonjin High School’s Stock Investment Research Club would go on to become major players in Yeouido.
The club itself would continue to exist all those years.
If I could establish a connection with her now…
“Kang Sunwoo?”
Han Jaeyi smiled warmly and extended her hand.
“I’m Han Jaeyi, the club president. I’m a third-year.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Sunbae.”
“You can just call me noona.”
Unlike everyone else, she accepted my greeting without showing the slightest surprise.
She was so calm that I almost felt awkward instead.
“Minjae said you want to join the club? Did you wrap things up with your previous club? As you know, joining multiple clubs can cause problems.”
“I’ve never joined one before.”
“What? Is that even allowed?”
Han Jaeyi looked genuinely surprised.
The others, meanwhile, wore expressions that practically said,
Well… it’s Kang Sunwoo.
“But as you can see, our club doesn’t have much.”
She looked around the room with a bitter smile.
“Our funding was cut a long time ago, and these computers are so outdated that actually trading stocks is out of the question.”
Rather than feeling embarrassed about how shabby the club was, she sounded more worried that the new member might be disappointed.
“So… if you still want to join, I won’t stop you.”
She looked at me carefully.
“But… are you really sure?”
I silently studied her.
Unexpected.
She was completely different from the ruthless woman I’d known in the future—the one who would stop at nothing to succeed.
Yet…
That sense of responsibility.
That determination to protect a dying club until the very end.
I don’t dislike this version of her.
If someone with that kind of responsibility became one of my people…
There would be no more reliable ally.
“Yes.”
I answered without hesitation.
“This is exactly the place I’ve been looking for.”
After exchanging introductions, we left the club room and headed back toward our classroom.
Minjae chatted nonstop beside me.
He still hadn’t calmed down.
“Seriously, you made the right choice. Everyone was worried the club would disappear.”
“Disappear?”
“Yeah. School rules say a club needs at least five members. If we fall below five, we lose our funding… and eventually our club room.”
He let out a relieved sigh.
“But now that you’ve joined, we’re exactly five people. You’re literally our savior.”
I chuckled as we walked.
“Other than the club president, nobody seemed particularly interested in stocks.”
“Ah… well…”
Minjae scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“The truth is, no one wanted to join, so Jaeyi noona accepted pretty much anyone. Those first- and second-years you saw? They really don’t care about stocks. They’re just here to kill time.”
“What about you, Minjae?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Did you join because you’re interested? Or did someone drag you into it?”
His eyes lit up immediately.
“Me? I’m really interested. It’s fun.”
The unexpected answer made me laugh.
“Fun?”
“Yeah. Why are you laughing?”
“Because hearing someone describe the stock market as ‘fun’ is pretty funny.”
The stock market was a battlefield.
A place where some people cried tears of blood while others shouted with joy.
Calling something like that “fun”…
Yet Minjae was completely serious.
“Don’t you think so? The IT bubble forming and bursting… companies rising and falling… it all starts in the stock market. Isn’t it amazing how you can actually see the world’s changing trends reflected in numbers?”
I quietly looked at his profile.
Definitely a model student.
He approaches it academically.
Not out of greed.
Out of pure curiosity.
So the class president had this side to him.
I wonder what he ended up doing in my previous life.
Just then, Minjae looked at me as though he’d suddenly remembered something.
“By the way… why did you join our club? You always said club activities were too much trouble.”
His eyes were full of curiosity.
Well, of course they were.
The school’s famous outsider and third-generation chaebol heir had suddenly walked into a club that was on the verge of being shut down.
I shrugged casually.
“It wasn’t that they were troublesome.”
“It’s just that no matter where I went, people always felt uncomfortable around me. I figured it was better not to go anywhere.”
“So you’ve changed your mind now? Why?”
“Hmm…”
I smiled.
“I just have a feeling that thirty years from now, this club will become legendary.”
“…Legendary?”
Minjae repeated the word as though I’d completely lost my mind.
Instead of answering, I simply smiled and kept walking.
That’s right.
Right now, they’re just a bunch of nobodies gathering dust in an abandoned corner of the school.
But someday… graduates of Seonjin High School’s Stock Investment Research Club will dominate Yeouido.
The next morning.
The only sounds around the breakfast table were the clinking of chopsticks and spoons.
Everything looked the same as always.
Yet Father’s empty seat felt enormous.
Across from me, my younger sister Seona absentmindedly poked at her rice.
“Kids.”
Mother was the one who finally broke the heavy silence.
Both Seona and I looked up.
Setting down her spoon, she spoke calmly.
“I’m going back to the company starting today.”
Seona’s eyes widened.
“The company? Dad’s company?”
“Yes.”
“It’s where your father devoted his entire life. I can’t just leave it alone.”
“B-But, Mom… you’ve never worked before.”
Her voice trembled ever so slightly.
It seemed she was afraid that, after losing Father, Mother was now throwing herself into another difficult path.
Mother smiled bitterly before gently reassuring her.
“Your eldest uncle suggested something else…”
“But I think differently.”
“How could I leave the company your father protected all his life in someone else’s hands?”
Hearing that, I sneered inwardly.
As expected. Kang Taeyong really did make that suggestion.
A professional management system.
On the surface, it sounded reasonable.
In reality, it was just an obvious scheme to plant his own people inside the company.
If Mother had shown even the slightest weakness…
She would have taken the bait.
But just like in my previous life… Mother made the same choice.
That was a relief.
History hadn’t changed.
She was preparing to become the Iron Lady once again, ready to walk a road covered in thorns.
Quietly setting down my glass of water, I spoke.
“You made the right decision.”
Mother and Seona both looked at me.
“You’ll do well, Mom.”
“I’m sure Father would’ve wanted this too.”
“…Sunwoo.”
“And once you let someone else handle what’s yours…”
“Before long, it stops being yours.”
“It’s better if you manage it yourself.”
My support visibly eased the tension on Mother’s face.
“Thank you.”
“Hearing my son say that gives me strength.”
She picked up her spoon again.
The atmosphere became noticeably lighter.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“Do I happen to have a stock brokerage account under my name?”
Mother stopped halfway through ladling soup.
She looked at me in surprise.
“A brokerage account?”
“I think you do.”
“After your father passed away, we sorted out some inheritance matters…”
“And your grandfather also left some shares to you and Seona.”
Then she asked with concern,
“But why all of a sudden? Do you need money?”
“Oh, no.”
“I’m not planning to touch the stocks inside.”
“I just need the account itself.”
“The account?”
“Yes.”
“I joined a school club recently.”
I pretended to be a little embarrassed.
“It’s called the Stock Investment Research Club.”
“…The Stock Investment Research Club?”
Mother’s eyes grew round.
Seona looked at me with an expression that clearly said,
You?
Which made sense.
I’d spent the last two years at school like a ghost.
“They said it’d be helpful if I had a brokerage account under my own name.”
“I won’t touch the stocks already inside.”
“I was wondering if I could just use the account itself.”
“Or… if it’s easier, you could open a new one.”
The moment I finished speaking, Mother’s face brightened.
It wasn’t because of stocks.
Or money.
She was simply happy that her son had joined a club and wanted to spend time with friends.
“Our Sunwoo joined a club?”
“Yeah.”
“A friend asked me to join.”
“Good.”
“You made the right choice.”
“I was actually considering transferring you to another school.”
Some of my cousins had enjoyed flaunting their family’s status at school.
I never had.
The attention I received at that age had only been painful and overwhelming.
Back then… my mentality really was weak.
I only made my parents worry.
Mother smiled in relief.
“Of course you can use it.”
“It’s yours. You don’t need my permission.”
“But wouldn’t it be easier to open a new account?”
“I think so too.”
“Then I’ll prepare the consent forms and ask Secretary Kim to take care of everything.”
“Thank you.”
I quietly picked up my spoon again.
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep my expression under control.
Perfect.
Even if I’d simply asked for a brokerage account, Mother probably would’ve agreed.
But this way, I’d also eased one of her worries while she was about to throw herself into managing the company.
And now…
I’d finally have the means to make money.
Now I can really begin.
Joining the Stock Investment Research Club hadn’t only been about Han Jaeyi or completing Kim Seokjun’s assignment.
I also needed an environment where I could invest in stocks.
Knowing the future meant nothing if I couldn’t turn that knowledge into capital.
If I’d suddenly said I wanted to start investing, people would’ve been suspicious.
Now that I’d joined the club, that problem had solved itself.
All that remained…
…was to profit from the future I already knew.
Time to finish breakfast and get to school.
I poured my rice into the soup and started eating.
If I was going to work hard, I’d need to fill my stomach first.
