A month had passed since I entered middle school. I was living a laid-back life to the point where I couldn’t even remember what happened on the second day of school.
“Hey, Kang Sik. We’re friends, but aren’t you being a bit too uptight?”
“Oh, no, I mean, I can’t accommodate all the suggestions.”
“But still, can’t we work something out?”
“…Donghoo, c-calm down, this is a notebook game.”
“That’s what’s driving me crazy!”
Kang Sik, a genius game developer who created an AAA-level game and won the GOTY award. His notebook game was ridiculously fun, proving that the genius developer title suited him perfectly.
It was just a simple game where you moved a stickman on a notebook. How could something so simple be this entertaining?
I wanted to make in-game purchases, but Kang Sik’s game philosophy was strict.
“I-I don’t want the paid currency to affect in-game performance…”
“What if I buy you cup noodles? Or a chicken burger? How about a Big Mac?”
“Well, then… I could add custom options for capes and weapon appearances…”
“…You really are strict.”
“S-Sorry, Donghoo, no matter how much you’re my b-b-best friend, this can’t happen.”
Even while stuttering, his eyes sparkled whenever he talked about game management. It showed that he had a genuine interest in his field. Having a clear goal made a person quite admirable.
Glancing quickly, I logged into my FaceTom account.
5,000 followers. Less than a month since I created it.
It was an impressive figure despite just posting my face without any interaction.
‘Compared to my previous life, this feels a bit pathetic.’
Back then, social media was booming. Now, it was still in its early stages of explosive growth, so it was only natural that I felt overshadowed.
‘If there are popular kids, maybe around 30,000 followers?’
I decided not to start on Cyworld anyway, as it was clearly going to fade away soon. Plus, making money there was tricky.
“Donghoo, aren’t you sorry for Kang Sik? Stop whining and pass your turn. The break is short enough as it is.”
While I was lost in thought, Kim Min-hyuk butted in.
Kim Min-hyuk. The guy who kept hounding me to be friends after getting beat up a few times by Park Whatever’s gang. He never really did anything bad, so I just let it be.
‘Thanks to him, the police got involved and sorted things out.’
After I made the self-proclaimed top dog of the Shinbit group throw up, he had planned to rally upperclassmen to come and beat me up.
But that plan reached my ears thanks to Kim Min-hyuk’s snitching, and those wannabe thugs had to meet with the police before they could get to me.
The age of accountability for juvenile delinquents was up to 14. Some of those coming to rough me up were in the third year of middle school, so they quickly ended up at the police station.
There was even a third-year middle schooler, so they quickly transferred the case to the police station.
This news even reached the school, leading to internal disciplinary action.
‘Still, it ended well without anyone getting hurt.’
But the problem came after that.
Maybe because they were a group of delinquents living in the romantic era.
It turned out they had stolen bikes and motorbikes, making the incident even bigger.
Through this matter, the police came rushing in like a stampede.
Unintentionally, this became a chance for the delinquents to get a good cleaning.
When I look at Kim Min-hyuk, who is engrossed in the notebook game next to me, it’s a bit bizarre.
“Do they even know that it all started because of you?”
“Started? What’s that? You’re using hard words again.”
As Kim Min-hyuk said that, he rolled the dice.
He rolled a twenty-sided die, and the number that came out was 17.
“Yay!”
With this, he could monopolize the vein where iron ore comes from.
By the way, I tried to bribe him with a Big Mac to claim that.
Damn.
‘What’s so fun about this notebook game?’
Na Kang-sik, you’re a genius in game development.
‘But you’re really handsome and cool.’
Sometimes, when I’m playing like this, my old, shady self from my previous life resurfaces.
Being handsome allows me to keep in touch with Shin Ye-rim regularly.
Every time I make eye contact with the girls in class, there’s this squealing sound.
To think I’m actually living the light novel life I used to only imagine.
A thrilling yet oddly gloomy feeling tried to rise but vanished.
‘Let’s think positively.’
Thinking negatively wouldn’t change anything.
“By the way, have you all decided what CA activity you’re going to do?”
At Kim Min-hyuk’s words, I realized, oh right, there’s that.
‘It’s still the time of having Saturdays off.’
The five-day school system started in 2012.
Before that, we had to come to school every other Saturday.
Usually, we only had morning classes, replacing lessons with club activities.
“Ah, I’m going to go into computers.”
Kang-sik definitely looked firm since he already had his career path set.
His eyes said he wasn’t planning to change at all. The problem was that with that confident developer vibe, it looked a bit funny.
“Dong-hoo, how about you? I’m planning to go with you.”
“Um, for club activities…”
In the past, I was just put in the library club.
I liked reading books in the library.
But since it was a rare chance for a new life, I wanted to try something new.
‘How about broadcasting dance… no, a band? Should I join the band?’
The band club.
It was a position that always featured prominently during the long-standing talent shows during school trips or festivals.
Now, it felt like I could actually do something.
“…Should I join the band club?”
“A band? Do you know how to do anything?”
“I’m… the vocalist?”
“Really? Then I should join the band too.”
I let out a hollow laugh at Kim Min-hyuk’s spontaneous decision.
“You haven’t changed at all, huh?”
+++++++
At the moment Kim Donghu was deciding on Saturday activities, ST Entertainment’s scout Jin Kyung-mi was staring intensely at her computer screen.
“Kyoung-mi, what are you staring at so hard? People have been calling you for ages.”
“Oh, I’m sorry! I think I’ve found a truly outstanding talent.”
“Outstanding talent? Who?”
Drumroll.
Instead of answering, Jin Kyung-mi showed him the screen.
The boy on the screen looked ridiculously young.
He looked like a middle schooler, just at the age where baby fat starts to fade.
But the potential in that face was insane.
There was no way to easily define what he looked like.
Describing it as captivating would be the most accurate.
It was something beyond just being good-looking.
It felt like a jewel shimmering in front of my eyes, constantly changing its light.
“How can a person’s face look like that?” I wondered.
Maybe that’s why I thought,
“Did they really not edit this?”
It felt way too unreal.
Having been in the entertainment industry for a long time, such thoughts couldn’t help but cross my mind.
How many times have I gone to meet a ‘face genius’ only to not recognize them right in front of me?
In a world where everything’s edited, for someone to take it this far was outrageous.
“That’s outrageous! No matter how young he is…”
“I felt that way at first too, so I checked the images and everything, you know? But they say this isn’t edited.”
“What?”
“They say it’s his real face.”
“…Is there really a kid that looks like this in Korea?”
“I’m telling you.”
“But why didn’t you reach out to him?”
“I blocked him, like, totally cut off messages, and… he even disabled comments to keep people from knowing how handsome he looks.”
“Then we just have to go find him directly.”
“I was gonna get approval for that… So can we go?”
The team leader, overhearing Jin Kyung-mi, laughed in disbelief.
“Why are you still sitting there? Are you crazy?”
“Yes! I’ll go get him right away!”
And it wasn’t just ST Entertainment thinking like this.
YK and JHY Entertainment were on the same page.
The so-called three major agencies were all checking out Kim Donghu’s FaceTime account.
Not only that, but the three major acting agencies—CyberusQA, Seed & Tree, and Full Ready—were also looking at Kim Donghu’s account.
All of them were aiming for one place.
Shinbit Middle School.
Six agencies started to move toward that direction.
+++++++
After school, on the way home.
“Kim Donghu! If you’re gonna join the band, you should’ve told me first!”
“If you were going to do it, you should’ve told me!”
“No, whether you tell me or not, you’re just into broadcast dance anyway?”
“Come on, that’s funny. Why would I? What’s your basis?”
I was being tormented by Shin Ye-rim.
For the record, Shin Ye-rim was supposed to transfer to our class soon after the invaders were swept away.
The main cause was being in the same class as Park Seok-gu.
They had split his gang across multiple classes.
“Hey, do you know how to play any instruments?”
“Nope.”
“If you don’t, then how are you coming?”
“Then what about you?”
“Me? I’m going to apply for vocals.”
“Then I guess I’ll do piano and keyboard.”
“But you just said you can’t play.”
“I can do up to Czerny 30.”
Back in the day, I was active in piano, taekwondo, and Kumon.
It seemed like Shin Ye-rim had learned piano among those.
“Impressive, seriously…”
But every time I leave school, I feel like we’re oddly close, right?
We might as well be hugging; the distance was pretty minimal.
“Kim Donghu, you’re super popular on FaceTom, right?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, with your face, aren’t agencies reaching out to you?”
“I blocked the whole chat.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s annoying.”
I had opened it for about a week.
But way too many useless messages came in, so I just blocked everyone.
The advertising scene wasn’t active yet, so it was a dead period for messages.
Ignoring it all was the right move.
“SNS is going to take a bit longer to grow.”
Just in case, I had also set up a YouTube channel.
Back then, privacy wasn’t a big deal, so I couldn’t post vlogs yet.
But the thought crossed my mind to upload some gaming content.
‘If we’re talking gaming, I could just upload that next year.’
LoL.
A colossal game that unified all games in South Korea since 2011.
With the knowledge I had in my head, I was confident I’d become a ranked player quickly.
‘But that’s a story for later.’
For now, nothing much would happen, I thought as I tried to move on.
Suddenly—
Ring, ring, ring.
A phone call came out of nowhere.
“Huh?”
It was a number I didn’t recognize.
“Hello?”
– Hey, weren’t you curious about me? Isn’t it right for me to call first?
“Uh…?”
But it was a familiar voice I had heard many times before.
My childhood crush’s voice came from the phone.
– Kim Donghu, you’ve lost it.
Said in a strangely mature tone.
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