Real Man

Click.

Yoo-hyun opened the self-introduction file.

He had accumulated a lot of certifications for random things, formal volunteer work experience, and also unnecessarily high English scores.

He also had a record of his school life and reasons for why he joined the company, to name a few details.

This was the cover letter that he had revised thousands of times as an applicant.

Yoo-hyun’s life at that time could be summarized with just a glance at the contents of this file.

Then he looked through the closet and found a pile of notes.

All his studying materials were filled out without a single blank space, and in between them there were some nosebleed marks.

“I lived a very hard life.”

He lived in such a way that was pitiful to see.

Rather than admiring such passion, his heart simply felt heavy.

He felt this way because he knew better than anyone where all this passion would lead to.

Records on his cell phone showed that he had very little interaction with his friends, if there were any.

None of his schoolmates or seniors contacted him.

From the moment he got the job, he gunned straight for his goal.

What could have made him become like this?

Why was he so hung up on money and success?

Yoo-hyun went through his memories one by one.

It probably started when he was on vacation from the military.

On that day, he returned home with a happy heart and then witnessed his father arguing with debtors while his mother cried until her eyes were swollen.

Then as he looked around, he saw foreclosure tickets all over the house.

And all that remained for them was debt.

The large garden from Yoo-hyun’s childhood times and the apple tree that he planted when he was young… all of them completely disappeared into his memories.

It was then that he realized.

That money was very important… and he carved that idea into his chest.

From then on, Yoo-hyun’s life of living freely and without big goals had suddenly changed.

He changed departments at school to get a better job and somehow struggled to get a scholarship to pay for that education.

All he could see was the road to success, which was actually very narrow.

“…”

That painful memory that changed his whole life had now faded away.

Perhaps whatever emotions he’s feeling right now will also slowly fade away.

The desperate desire to live life differently may also escape his mind and he could end up repeating the same mistakes over again.

That can’t be.

“No. Of course not.”

Yoo-hyun straightened his back and put his hands on the keyboard.

He closed his eyes and looked through his memories of the past 20 years.

The memory of joining Hansung Electronics until the day that he became a CEO went through his mind like a panorama.

These were moments that he thought were great enough to boast.

He thought that his life record could become a model to help other people find the right direction.

However, as he looked back, it just seemed like a history of regret and a record of the wrong choices that must be corrected.

No matter how much he persisted on the road to that success, it was all useless.

That is because, in the process of achieving that success, he could not hide the fact that many people were badly affected by Yoo-hyun’s choices.

Yoo-hyun also knew this.

He just turned a blind eye to it.

After all, Yoo-hyun considered everyone merely as colleagues.

Each one was either a competitor or just a tool to be used to succeed.

– I admit it. You’re really talented. If I had used that ability not only for myself but also for my colleagues, I would have lived a better life.

The words left by the only boss that Yoo-hyun respected, crossed his mind again.

Whenever he remembered those words, the boss’ face, who previously kept nagging him, came to mind.

But now, he couldn’t even see him if he wanted to.

“Why didn’t you tell me a little more before you left?”

However,

Yoo-hyun suddenly realized something.

He is alive too.

Then what?

This meant that there were still opportunities.

It’s like he was instantly doused in cold water.

With a straight face, Yoo-hyun straightened his back and sat down.

Even if this was all a dream, he had to change it.

Whether it is the CEO Han Yoo-hyun, or the new employee Han Yoo-hyun, or even just as an individual, he wouldn’t want to live a life that made everyone unhappy as he did in the past.

Now, he has gained determination not to delay or run away any longer.

Tap tap tap.

As he typed on the keyboard, a path opened up on the screen.

He wasn’t sure what to do specifically.

What was certain was that he shouldn’t walk down the same path again.

From this day on, he would not live a life that runs forward only for money or success.

An inclusive life.

He won’t live a lonely life without a single person to sincerely have a conversation with.

A life full of people’s warmth.

He wanted to live a life that would help others.

Yoo-hyun didn’t take his hands off of the keyboard for a long time, rewriting his history in Hansung.

By the time he was done, it was already night.

Yoo-hyun got hungry and went in search of the side dishes sent by his mother, so he opened the door and went outside.

He walked down from the fifth floor and walked on the concrete floor.

As he opened and closed his hands and breathed deeply, warm fresh air entered Yoo-hyun’s lungs.

It smells like it did in the past.

As he walked a little, he saw a hill going up the narrow road.

He climbed the hill and from there he saw the whole neighborhood at a glance.

Under the dim street lights, he could vaguely see the low densely-packed buildings and some broken concrete walls.

The sight of old cars parked on the side of the road and the old style of signboards on the buildings overlapping each other made him feel nostalgic.

His memories were still vivid.

This definitely felt like how it was in the past.

Beep. Beep.

The sound of a car honking late at night with people shouting back and forth could be heard.

“Shut up!”

“This bastard!”

He turned his head towards the sound and saw a car stopped at the top-most part of the hill.

The driver seemed to be unable to maneuver around the street because it was a narrow street with cars parked on either side.

Then other cars on the inclined part of the road couldn’t see why the car had stopped.

Yoo-hyun was aware that something was wrong.

It was just that one car…

From where he was observing, it looked pretty simple.

At first, it may look daunting, but with just a little change, the whole problem could be fixed completely.

Then it hit him. Yoo-hyun’s life was like that too.

His life was all in knots like a tangled bundle of thread so he wasn’t sure where or how to start. But if one looked at the bigger picture, the answer could have been very simple.

If he wanted to live a different life, then all he had to do was to change it.

That’s the only way he could throw away the bad choices he made in the past and act in a completely different way.

“Okay. I can change this one step at a time. I can definitely change this.”

Yoo-hyun’s promise flew up into the air.

That night, he slept soundly.

After opening his eyes, a pleasant feeling came over his whole body.

He didn’t feel any stabbing shoulder pain nor that annoying chronic back pain.

Yoo-hyun, who just confirmed that he was still in his body 20 years in the past, thought that it was really good to be young.

He may have improved his physical abilities in many ways, but it was still awkward to use this younger body.

Then, he suddenly had a question about it, ‘Can I play golf well again?’

He had many theories and moves that he thought he could try, but he didn’t know if his body would follow.

Yoo-hyun stood in front of the mirror and looked at himself with his arms wide open and moved them around.

He slowly turned his back around.

“I guess it might work?”

His body remembered the movement.

It was a little awkward at first, but as soon as he got used to it, he realized that his brain could control the movements well.

He shuddered at the thought that perhaps his body would also remember what he did in the past.

He shook his head.

That’s not possible.

He couldn’t repeat the same mistakes again.

But before that, Yoo-hyun had to sort out his current situation.

Yoo-hyun dressed up and headed to school.

It was his last semester and the final exams had passed, so he didn’t need to go to any classes.

However, there was work to be done.

It was to sort out the job at the library.

In fact, he couldn’t remember it much.

He only had a part-time job like this because he barely used any allowance and mostly studied to death.

Yoo-hyun felt excited on his way to school.

He had never gone back to school after graduating from there.

“What will it look like?”

While Yoo-hyun passed by the scenery visible through the bus window, he recalled old memories, but it was all blurry.

His memories were unclear with regards to what the building looked like, how the class was, and what club he had.

Of course, he didn’t think about any of his colleagues, juniors, or even seniors.

All he could recall was studying to death.

Though, he definitely remembered what department he transferred from.

That’s just because he read it in his self-introduction letter. Yoo-hyun entered the Psychology Department.

He thought it was fun to enter it at that time.

Additionally, it was relatively easier to be admitted into that department.

Everything changed after the transfer, but he had a lot of fun before.

‘I think I used to hang out with people.’

The memory of laughing and chatting with people on the lawn was rooted in his mind like a snapshot.

He arrived at school while recalling one or two of those old memories.

Through a narrow back door, he was able to see an old green building.

“Oh, that’s the management office.”

It was incredible.

He thought he wouldn’t have any memories of that place, but as soon as he saw the building, it suddenly surfaced from his mind.

He remembered drinking 100 won coffee from a vending machine on the second floor and lining up in front of the photocopier.

There were also times when he went around the building and waited for more than an hour to meet the professor in the wrong classroom.

Yoo-hyun turned his head around to look closely at the school’s surroundings.

There was also a pavilion on the pond and a wide lawn next to that.

He saw many students laughing as they passed by.

Suddenly, he recalled a memory of walking on the campus road 20 years ago.

He figured out how to get to where he needed to be first.

Yoo-hyun arrived at the library without relying on any of the signs.

Perhaps because it was a new building, but the exterior was more sophisticated than the other buildings.

As he walked through the entrance connected to the first basement floor, he remembered standing in line to study.

He also stayed up all night a lot.

Now, he looked to the side and saw the canteen.

Rounding the corner, he also saw another canteen.

This was where he used to eat three meals a day.

It was the perfect place for Yoo-hyun because it was inexpensive and it was open until late at night.

Speaking of late at night… he remembered staying at school and at work until very late.

What was it that pushed him to study so hard?

Looking at this situation, there definitely wasn’t any time for him to resolve any misunderstandings he had with his parents.

Yoo-hyun shook his head and headed to the library on the third floor.

Click.

He opened the library door using the key he found in his bag and passed through the gate with his student ID card.

The first thing he saw were empty tables.

There were so many tables in this library that it was more fitting to call it a reading room.

He sat in the librarian’s seat in the center and he noticed that he could clearly see all the tables surrounding him.

He then pictured random people sitting in those empty seats.

There was once a person who drew a line on the book so hard that the paper was torn in the middle. There were also people who kept dragging their chairs and being loud.

There was also that person who kept sleeping on the desk, and another one who kept fighting everyone over his seat.

“That’s right. I was observing people here,” he said as he recalled it.

Whenever Yoo-hyun got bored here, he used to observe people and infer their psyche.

It wasn’t that he was proud of his knowledge in psychology, or that he regretted not going through with it.

He was just curious.

The library was a great place to observe people who were working.

He had to always make sure no one took any books, no one kept the seat for themselves, and that no one ate in the library.

It was out of habit that he came to observe people and got more and more detailed information from that observation.

That’s when he realized it.

He had keen eyes for this.

At some point, he was roughly able to grasp someone else’s personality by just passing by them.

He spent one and a half years doing that in the library.

In that amount of time, thousands of people have passed by and thus so many different types of people were observed.

“So that’s why.”

Yoo-hyun smirked as he leaned on the chair.

He discovered his great strength in this unexpected situation.

It was the fact that he was good at observing people.

He could read people’s thoughts by looking at their facial expressions, attire, props, and desks.

Thanks to them, he was able to act according to their thoughts.

In other words, he was able to move sensibly.