Chapter 2

Time flows like water, and life is like a song.

When the camera returned to the head of the person named Yoon Hyun, he was already standing at the gate of Seoul National University, and the time had already reached the beginning of 2005.

"Having been used to calling it 'Hanseong' for so many years, it feels really strange to suddenly change it to 'Seoul'!" Yoon Hyun sighed with some emotion, then slowly entered this sacred school in the hearts of Koreans.

According to the Korean way of calculating age, he was already 20 years old this year.

In the previous 18 years, he spent 11 years completing elementary, middle, and high school, and then spent two years fulfilling the mandatory military service that troubles many men.

This semi-mandatory military service did not seem to increase his sense of identity as a Korean, but with his actual mental age approaching 50, he did not have any rebellious thoughts. Following the inertia of a shut-in, he managed to complete his military service before entering university.

However, this did not affect his admission to Seoul National University at all. In his previous life, he had squeezed through the narrow bridge of China's college entrance exam, and he always held a disdainful attitude towards the grueling Korean college entrance exam. This attitude even influenced the drill instructor of the company he served in. When the instructor learned that this usually quiet but diligent young man was calmly asking for leave to take the Seoul National University entrance exam, his mouth opened wide enough to swallow four eggs.

Although he appeared calm, Yoon Hyun had a natural tendency to get lost, which was particularly prominent in him. Not long after entering the campus, he found himself in an unknown place.

With no choice, he had to call for help.

"Sis! Where are you?" Yoon Hyun's somewhat helpless voice came through the phone.

"Busy! What's up? Aren't you supposed to be registering at school today?" On the other end, Yoon Hyun's sister, Yoon Ji-hye, sounded a bit impatient.

"What are you busy with?" Yoon Hyun asked politely, but he didn't really care what his sister was doing.

"Just tell me what you need!" Yoon Ji-hye clearly knew her brother never cared about her affairs.

"Can you send me Tae-hee's phone number? I'm lost on campus and want her to come pick me up." Yoon Hyun said without hesitation.

"Tae-hee? She's been so busy lately, I haven't seen her in a long time. Do you really think she'll be at school? Seriously!" Yoon Ji-hye was speechless.

"Then at least give me the number! Even Hyung-soo's would do."

"I'm not that close to Hyung-soo, why are you asking me? Fine, I'll send you Tae-hee's number in a text. Remember to say hello to her for me!" Yoon Ji-hye, clearly busy, hung up without further ado.

Soon, a text message with a phone number arrived. The owner of this number was the Tae-hee Yoon Hyun had just mentioned to his sister, Kim Tae-hee.

Actually, it was a fairly ordinary story. Many years ago, on a day when Yoon Hyun was in second grade, he was walking home from school when he happened to encounter several older students bullying a classmate. In Korea, it was quite common for seniors to bully juniors, and Yoon Hyun had not intended to intervene. He was about to sneak away when he was spotted by the older students.

The natural consequence was that he was pulled over and bullied as well.

"Hey, you're Yoon Hyun, right? I know you!" An older student looked at Yoon Hyun with a half-smile.

"Thank you for remembering me, senior. I'm really sorry." Yoon Hyun bowed 90 degrees.

"I heard you're a good student! Come on, let's exchange ideas. How do you study?" Another senior patted Yoon Hyun's shoulder in a seemingly friendly manner, which would have been very friendly if not for the force.

"Senior, you flatter me. I just like reading because I've always been in poor health." Yoon Hyun frowned slightly.

"Reading? What kind of books?" An older student snatched Yoon Hyun's backpack, opened it, and dumped the books on the ground.

When the books fell out, the narrow alley fell into a deathly silence.

"What are these?" The older students shouted in unison.

It was no wonder they were surprised. The few books that fell out of the not-so-heavy backpack were completely incomprehensible to them.

"That English one is Nietzsche's 'Philosophy in the Age of Greek Tragedy,' the Chinese one is Nan Huaijin's 'Miscellaneous Talks on the I Ching,' and the two Korean ones are 'The Republic' and 'Principles of Moral Metaphysics.'" Yoon Hyun said humbly. In fact, he had been familiar with these books for at least 20 years, or rather, 20 years in mental age. He carried them in his backpack purely to pass the time in class.

"You little brat, did you steal these from home?" An older student, feeling embarrassed by the blatant contempt, said angrily.

"Senior, I'm reading these books..." Yoon Hyun picked up the books one by one and explained what each book was about and how these ideas influenced human understanding of the world...

Desolation.

When Yoon Hyun packed the books back into his backpack and left calmly, the older students stood there like they had been struck by lightning, frozen in a daze.

For Yoon Hyun, this incident was just a brief moment of showing off, but one of the older students, who was particularly不服气 (unwilling to accept defeat), told his family about it at dinner. His name was Kim Hyung-soo. As the third child, he recounted the incident in a way that sounded like he was reciting something he didn't understand.

The eldest sister was already in college and not at home. In such a situation, the second sister, who prided herself on her good grades and believed she wouldn't be fooled, naturally stepped in to help. Although she didn't understand what the younger boy was saying.

So, Kim Hyung-soo brought his sister to find Yoon Hyun on his way home from school. This time, Yoon Hyun was not alone but with his sister who had come to pick him up.

Thus, the two pairs of siblings met. The two sisters discovered they were in the same class and sat next to each other.

Since then, Yoon Hyun got to know the brother who was three years older and the sister who was seven years older than him.

Unlike his own sister Yoon Ji-hye, Tae-hee's academic performance was much more reliable. Whenever Yoon Hyun used terms that Yoon Ji-hye didn't understand to explain something profound, Tae-hee always responded appropriately. Therefore, before Tae-hee went to Seoul (then still called Hanseong) for college, Yoon Hyun was more attached to her than to his own sister.

Perhaps this was also because Tae-hee was more beautiful than his own sister?

Of course, this made Yoon Ji-hye very unhappy. The relationship between the siblings remained lukewarm. It wasn't until 2002, when Yoon Hyun somehow acquired a large sum of money and bought several houses in the JN district of Seoul, giving one to Yoon Ji-hye so she could move out of her parents' nagging, that their relationship improved. But before they could further communicate, Yoon Hyun was drafted into the military...

Of course, three houses were a significant amount of money, especially in an era of rapidly rising housing prices. In 2001, Yoon Hyun's father, Yoon Jeong-ji, moved from Ulsan to Seoul, which had over two-thirds of Korea's population, due to his outstanding work and the new company's efforts to appease the acquired employees. Compared to Ulsan, life in Seoul, where land was at a premium, was far from comfortable.

To put it simply, the reason Yoon Hyun only had enough money to buy houses for his family in 2002 was... because the family never had internet! Otherwise, as a pseudo-fan of football who had watched so many matches, from Denmark in 1992, Germany in 1996, to France in 1998, each of these could have been a huge profit!

Why didn't he buy lottery tickets? Sir, except for those who had prepared specifically, could you remember the winning numbers of a particular lottery in a particular year? Especially in Korea...

After moving to Seoul in 2001, the family, at Yoon Hyun's strong request, installed the internet. He then used the less than 200,000 won he had secretly saved over the years, along with various legitimate, gray, and black incomes, to start his journey. Finally, thanks to the excellent performance of the South Korean team in the 2002 World Cup, he won a large sum of money by participating in the betting of European bookmakers online.

This money was used to buy the three houses. As for why he chose the JN district, it was mainly because it was considered a wealthy area in Seoul with better security. Additionally, part of the money had already been converted into something called Bitcoin by this shut-in...

Returning to the story, Yoon Hyun, having finally obtained Tae-hee's phone number, called her without hesitation.

"Hello, this is Tae-hee." A gentle and familiar voice came from the other end.

"Is this Tae-hee? Hello, it's Yoon Hyun!" Yoon Hyun always respected this sister who was seven years older and with whom he had a lot in common.

"Oh! Hyun! Hello!" Kim Tae-hee's voice rose, clearly pleased.

"Tae-hee, it's been a long time! How are you?" Yoon Hyun was also happy to hear her voice.

"I'm doing okay, just very busy. So, you're done with your military service?" Tae-hee clearly cared about her brother, whom she hadn't seen for two years.

"Yes, I'm here to register at school today!"

"School? Which school? Did you get into college? Which one? Seoul National University?" Tae-hee's tone became even more excited.

"Yes! The Department of Philosophy at Seoul National University. From now on, I can call you both sister and senior!" Yoon Hyun's tone lacked much pride. After all, while Seoul National University was the top school in Korea, in terms of achievement... once you've seen the ocean, it's hard to be impressed by a mere stream.

"Great job! When can we meet? It's been over two years since I last saw you. You must have suffered a lot on Yeonpyeong Island, right?" Tae-hee was full of relief.

"Right now, if you want to see me, I'm lost on campus..." Yoon Hyun took the opportunity to reveal his embarrassment.

"Lost? The campus isn't that big! How can you get lost?" Tae-hee was speechless.

"What, you don't want to see me?" Yoon Hyun blushed but still pouted.

"I... I'm shooting a drama right now and can't leave." Tae-hee sighed.

"Shooting a drama? What kind of drama?" Yoon Hyun was taken aback.

"Brat! Don't you know that I'm a big star now? I won several awards last year!" Tae-hee said half-teasingly, half-proudly.

"I only heard that you did some ads before. I thought you had returned to your promising career as a fashion designer." Yoon Hyun was speechless.

"Hey! A talented person like me, if I don't become a star, wouldn't that be a waste?" Tae-hee was speechless at her brother, who had been making fun of her since she first did an ad and always encouraged her to study.

"Alright, alright!" Yoon Hyun didn't want to argue, "I just heard that the entertainment industry is very dark. You're not young anymore, so be careful."

"Hey!" Tae-hee felt like exploding.

"Since you can't help, I'll just ask for directions myself." Without waiting for Tae-hee to say anything more, Yoon Hyun hung up decisively.

Seoul National University wasn't that big, so Yoon Hyun quickly completed the registration procedures by asking for directions as he walked.

Compared to going home every day, Yoon Hyun preferred to hang out in the dorm. However, the dormitory system at Seoul National University was very annoying, and his mother, who hadn't seen her precious son for over two years, insisted that he live at home. So, after completing the registration, Yoon Hyun went home gloomily.

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