NOVEL NEXT 28
Jo I-ruk.
Thirty-five years old.
A run-of-the-mill long-term student, currently in his eighth year preparing for the bar exam.
The first year, he rationalized it as being a rookie. He decided he needed to go to Seoul and study while attending high-quality lectures.
With his parents’ steadfast support, he’d been in Noryangjin for seven years now.
These days, even his parents rarely call to check in, and he nervously checks his bank account each month, trembling at the thought, “What if they don’t deposit money this month?”
And so, day after day.
After forcing himself to digest words that seem like they’ll be etched into his eyes from reading them so much… he returns to his pathetically humble bed.
– The eldest son of the Jo family. I named you ‘I-ruk’ hoping you’d achieve great things.
As he tosses and turns, unable to sleep, his father’s aged voice, now with more gray hair, echoes in his ears.
– Don’t worry too much if things aren’t going well. Hmm? You’re just in your cocoon stage now. One day, you’ll spread your wings and soar high.
At times like these, Jo I-ruk wanted to strangle himself.
He’d always been the top student in his rural village, constantly praised by the village elders. When he got into a university in Seoul, his parents slaughtered their cow, the family’s greatest asset, to throw a village feast.
After studying law at Korea’s top university, he, like everyone else, drifted into preparing for the bar exam after graduation.
Eight years had passed in this way, wasting time.
Jo I-ruk habitually pulled out a book, but suddenly felt nauseous and closed it.
‘I must not be feeling well today. Sigh… Can I cover the remaining material if I wake up early tomorrow? Or should I skip lunch on the weekend to somehow reach this week’s goal….’
As he lay down and closed his eyes, everything went dark. Jo I-ruk suddenly thought it resembled his future.
He was now too old to be hired as a new employee at a company.
There was no way back.
Yes. Either live like this forever, or pass the exam….
Thinking this way made his head throb. Jo I-ruk pulled the blanket over himself.
His exhausted body quickly fell into sleep.
The next day, another miserable day begins. He opens his book at the study room, but all he sees is white paper and black letters.
‘Damn it. I can’t concentrate at all.’
Finally, Jo I-ruk abruptly stood up. He was feeling a bit peckish after skipping breakfast.
He trudged towards the food cart in front of the study room.
“…One fish cake, please.”
As he chewed on the fish cake, the sign for a PC room flickered in his vision.
‘……Should I start working hard from tomorrow? I can’t concentrate today anyway, and it feels like a wasted day.’
Self-justification reared its head. Just as he finished his fish cake and was about to slurp down the broth.
“Excuse me.”
“?”
He turned to see a woman he’d never seen before.
She had been standing at one end of the food cart from the beginning, but he never expected her to suddenly speak to him.
“What? Who are you?”
His tone came out gruff involuntarily. He was just starting to wonder if she was from some religious group.
“Nice to meet you, Jo I-ruk-ssi.”
The woman called his name.
“…….”
Jo I-ruk blinked for a moment and thought.
Am I dreaming right now?
Otherwise, this situation doesn’t make any sense. It’s bizarre enough for a woman to talk to a stranger at a food cart, but she even knows his name?
At first, he wondered if it was some kind of pickup attempt, but he knew he wasn’t in any condition for that. Jo I-ruk knew how to look in a mirror.
An overwhelming sense of unreality took over Jo I-ruk’s body.
‘Gasp, could it be?’
Jo I-ruk recalled the numerous media he had consumed over the years.
In cases like this, it usually boils down to one thing.
Jo I-ruk asked with a solemn expression.
“…Am I destined to save the Earth?”
“Pardon?”
“Or, or is there a secret about my birth…?”
“What?”
“Ah, ah, never mind.”
Seeing the woman’s expression that clearly said ‘What are you on about, you nerd?’, his face flushed red with embarrassment.
No, but come on. When a beautiful stranger suddenly appears and says ‘There’s something you need to do with me,’ isn’t this usually how it goes…?
“Then, how, how did you know my name…?”
“It was written on your book.”
“Ah.”
Jo I-ruk looked at the book sticking out of his bag. The name ‘Jo I-ruk’ written in marker was clearly visible.
His face burned with embarrassment. How mortifying.
‘I guess my social skills have hit rock bottom after studying for the bar exam for so long. What was that? Secret of my birth?’
He wished there was a mouse hole he could hide in.
“I’m not sure if you’re destined to save the Earth, but you might be destined to save me. This is who I am.”
The woman, who had smoothly ignored Jo I-ruk’s nonsense, handed him a business card.
Song Woo-yeon.
CEO of
The business card, which looked like it belonged to a respectable member of society, made Jo I-ruk feel intimidated.
Moreover, CEO? Wasn’t that a position about a billion light-years away from Jo I-ruk himself?
Feeling like he’d met someone from a different world, his posture naturally became more polite.
“Ah, um, yes, Song Woo-yeon-ssi…. But what business do you have with me?”
As he asked awkwardly, Song Woo-yeon smiled gently.
“I see from your book that you’re preparing for the bar exam. Is that right?”
“…Yes. But why?”
“Oh, that’s perfect. As it happens, I need an employee to handle simple document work like organizing papers.”
“Pardon?”
“The previous employee suddenly quit due to personal reasons. So I need someone to work right away.”
Song Woo-yeon pulled out some cash from her wallet.
“How about doing a short-term part-time job for a week? The daily wage would be about this much?”
The cash she waved was exactly five 10,000 won bills. In a world where the minimum hourly wage isn’t even 5,000 won, this is a much higher rate unless she plans to make him work for over 10 hours.
Jo I-ruk wasn’t so out of touch with the world that he didn’t realize this. He knew it was quite suspicious for someone to suddenly approach him and offer high pay, saying “Won’t you work with me?”
“If you do well during this week, I might even hire you as a full-time employee. Oh, of course, only if you want to, Jo I-ruk-ssi.”
“…Let me ask you one thing.”
Jo I-ruk stared at Song Woo-yeon and asked.
“There are plenty of bar exam students around here. Why are you making this offer specifically to me?”
“Hmm, well. Shall we say I saw your potential?”
Not ‘I saw,’ but ‘Shall we say I saw’? She doesn’t even seem to be trying to hide that it’s a made-up excuse.
“A fortuitous coincidence… would that be an insufficient explanation?”
Song Woo-yeon grinned mischievously.
Jo I-ruk felt his already aching head throb even more.
‘Of course, it’s true that I haven’t been studying well lately, and I’ve half given up…’
But still, what kind of bolt from the blue was this? Jo I-ruk frowned deeply, wondering if Song Woo-yeon might be some new kind of con artist.
Nevertheless….
‘I’m wavering.’
The past seven years had been a constant repetition of the same routine. Jo I-ruk was exhausted beyond measure.
To the point where he thought it might not be so bad to be kidnapped and taken to a deep-sea fishing boat.
Jo I-ruk just wanted to disappear.
From the tomorrow of struggling with uncertain bar exam studies, and the reality of continuing to leech off his parents’ money.
“There’s nothing to worry about. If you want, we can even bring the police along. Oh, do you want to dial 112 on your phone and keep it ready?”
“…….”
“If you still don’t like it, well, good luck with your bar exam studies.”
Song Woo-yeon chuckled and pretended to turn away. She counted silently in her head: one, two, three.
“Where should I go tomorrow, and by what time?”
As expected.
When she turned her head, Jo I-ruk was looking at her with trembling eyes.
“…CEO.”
Okay, jackpot.
Song Woo-yeon grinned secretly, out of Jo I-ruk’s sight.
“You’ve made a good decision. And you can come to this address for work. By 9 AM.”
Song Woo-yeon showed him a paper with a simple map attached. It wasn’t far from where Jo I-ruk lived.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
Just before leaving, Song Woo-yeon paused, took out her wallet, and handed Jo I-ruk 50,000 won in cash.
“Use this to get a haircut first. I’d like you to look neat when I see you tomorrow. If it feels burdensome, well… consider it an interview fee.”
“…Yes! Thank you!”
As Jo I-ruk accepted it eagerly, Song Woo-yeon waved her hand and strode away.
“…….”
Jo I-ruk stood there for a long time like a statue, staring blankly at her retreating figure. He couldn’t quite grasp what had just happened.
A girl who looked like she could be a college magazine cover model had suddenly scouted him. She said she’d pay him 50,000 won a day for simple paperwork.
Not only that, she threw in an extra 50,000 won, telling him to get a haircut.
“Thank you, CEO!”
Jo I-ruk bowed deeply towards Song Woo-yeon’s disappearing figure.
When he finally raised his head, Song Woo-yeon had vanished without a trace. He checked the 50,000 won in his hand to make sure it was real.
‘Wow. What on earth is going on?’
He thought today would be just another day on the hamster wheel.
Jo I-ruk tried to remember the last time he had done anything other than studying.
‘Right. Let’s do this for just~ one week. If it doesn’t work out, I can always go back to studying, right?’
He hadn’t been able to concentrate lately anyway. He comforted himself, thinking it could be a change of pace.
A strange sense of anticipation stirred in Jo I-ruk’s heart.
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Song Woo-yeon, walking away without looking back, chuckled.
“Thank you?”
She couldn’t help but laugh, recalling the words Jo I-ruk had uttered while looking at her.
“…I should be the one thanking you.”
Song Woo-yeon recalled the man who had greeted her with his unkempt, disheveled hair.
Jo I-ruk.
Originally, five years from now, he would have given up on his bar exam studies after his parents passed away one after another due to deteriorating health.
Unable to find direction, he would have wandered aimlessly,
But ultimately, he would prove his abilities after joining
“Let’s work well together again, Team Leader Jo.”
He was the leader of the
“The world works in mysterious ways, doesn’t it?”
Who would have known?
That the real talent of Jo I-ruk, who had spent his entire life poring over dense text, would be none other than accurately reading ‘market trends’.
But, as Choi Yeo-hae said.
If you find a diamond lying on the ground, isn’t it human nature to pick it up?