Confirmation (2)
Gaon had logged out, but he didn't leave the PC bang; instead, he stood near the smoking room right next to the entrance.
Given how high the possibility had become that the dream he'd had was truly a prophetic dream, all sorts of thoughts surged in like a tidal wave, so he had to sort them out.
'What do I have to do to keep it from becoming like the prophetic dream?'
Gaon quickly recalled the contents of the prophetic dream once more and got chills, but he decided to cut off the greatest trigger of the tragedy first.
'I have to get the money back first, right now!'
If he vented his pent-up emotions at Jangho now, the chances were high that he wouldn't be able to properly collect the money he had lent him by taking out a student loan.
The biggest problem was the loan he had taken out during the winter break of his first year because Jangho had asked for help, saying his father's business had run into difficulties. He had lent him up to the limit of 5 million won with a student loan.
The guy had seemed to properly pay the interest for the first few months, but after that, no matter what Gaon said, he would just say he got it and then pretend he didn't know. Gaon had tried talking to him firmly, but it didn't work at all.
Later, Gaon had even heard the guy boasting about how he had helped out a friend. Even saying that he would pay it all back in one go, so as a friend, couldn't Gaon at least cover the interest until then?
Truthfully, the loan was also the reason he had let himself be dragged around by the guy even more. To get the money back, he had to meet him, after all.
Thinking about it now, it was truly pathetic.
The truth was, he had been scammed because of money too. After the one-year interest-only period ended, he had to repay the principal and interest, and since the allowance from his parents wasn't enough and he had to work part-time jobs, he had been tempted by the chance to earn big money.
While he was thinking that, his friends checked their grades one by one, and all their faces twisted just like his.
The only one with a bright face was that bastard Jangho.
The guys who closed the school homepage screen came out toward Gaon one by one. Since they were feeling down, they craved cigarettes.
Everyone came into the smoking room, but Gaon didn't light a cigarette. For some reason, the smell of tobacco felt nauseating.
"Damn! I screwed up again this time. Hey! Everyone's feeling down, so let's take a drag and play a round of Real Battle."
Jangho exhaled cigarette smoke and spoke with a deliberately furrowed brow.
The truth was, he had gotten good grades, but since Gaon and the other friends all seemed to be in a bad mood, he spoke like that.
'You scamming bastard! But he hasn't committed the fraud yet, so I'll endure it for now!'
The scam incident hadn't happened yet.
He clenched his teeth and endured the urge to slam his fist into Jangho's disgusting face.
"I'm just gonna go."
"Just like that? We gotta play a round of Real Battle!"
"I don't feel like it."
At Gaon's firm answer, Jangho smirked with a look of surprise.
'This bastard probably thinks he can rope me into anything with his silver tongue, no matter the time or situation.'
"I don't know what's up, but you seem to be in a bad mood too. Let's kill some time playing games here and then go to a club tonight. My treat!"
The moment he heard those words, chills ran down his spine again.
'As expected, it was a prophetic dream.'
Not a single word wrong—it was exactly what he had heard in the dream, no, the prophetic dream.
In the prophetic dream, Gaon had tried to refuse the guy's offer because he was in a filthy mood due to his terrible grades, but Jangho mobilized even the other friends to persuade him, and in the end, Gaon ended up going to the club.
It wasn't true that he would treat them either. It was his senior Minho, another scammer, who paid.
Jangho was a guy who solved everything with his mouth, just like now. He would say he was treating, but out of ten times, he actually paid only once.
"You said the right thing. If you have that kind of money, why don't you pay back what you borrowed from me? My family situation suddenly got really bad."
Even if it wasn't necessarily because of the loan, thinking about it, he needed money.
"Bastard! How much is that to keep bitching about every day between friends?"
The mention of money came out of nowhere, so the bastard's face twisted slightly, but he lowered his voice.
"Since we're friends, we should handle money matters properly. Isn't that what you always say?"
When it came to money he was owed, Jangho would collect it like a blade using such reasons. Yet this was the same guy who hadn't even paid back the interest to Gaon, who was easy pickings.
"First, pay me back the 5 million won right now. I told you until I was blue in the face, but repayment of principal and interest on that student loan starts next January. Besides that, pay back the small amounts you borrowed here and there later. I won't even count the interest I've paid over the past year."
It was the first time he had demanded the borrowed money back in front of the other friends.
'Damn it!'
The more he talked, the angrier he got. He had lent so much. A student who still got an allowance from his parents had borrowed money via a loan to lend the guy a whopping 5 million won.
The problem was that the money had ultimately been used for the guy's entertainment expenses. He heard from another friend long after second year started that the bastard had gone on an overseas trip with the girlfriend he had just started dating, using the money Gaon lent him.
Like that, the guy borrowed money from Gaon and the other friends every time. He occasionally paid it back, but he borrowed far more than he repaid.
No wonder other people saw Gaon as a toady running after Jangho.
Still, the fortunate thing was that whether because he cared about his creditworthiness or because he wanted to show off, he had written a promissory note even when Gaon said it was fine. Truthfully, Gaon had trusted him and lent him the money partly because of that.
Of course, he found out after things went south that even with a promissory note, if the guy had no assets or hid his whereabouts, there was almost no way to collect.
"Hey! 5 million what!"
The bastard's face turned to one of surprise, as if he didn't even know exactly how much he had borrowed.
"I have the promissory note you wrote, and there are plenty of witnesses, so don't even think about weaseling out of this. I'm in a desperate situation too. If it's not deposited by the 15th of this month, I'm barging into your house with the promissory note."
Normally in such situations, the guy would either bluster with a threatening attitude or snake his way out by droning on about friendship, but Gaon's sudden hardline stance left him visibly flustered.
"Hey! Are you really going to do this between friends? I'm not someone who won't pay you back!"
"That's why I'm telling you to pay me back. I told you clearly. By December 15th. I'm in a situation where I have to go down to my parents' house today. If you're a true friend like you always say, you should pay me back when I'm having a hard time. Right? It's not like you don't have the ability to come up with that much money."
It was true that the bastard had that ability. From the time he entered university, he had a silver tongue, and just as he had done to Gaon, there were many others who lent him money like suckers.
"W-what happened, though?"
Whether because he had nothing to say or because he was bewildered by Gaon's uncharacteristically hardline attitude, the guy tried to change the subject.
"It's none of your business. You never talk about your own family, so why do you want to know?"
Jangho, who had tried to change the subject, couldn't respond anymore and just trembled his lips. The guy had only said his father ran a business and had never once talked about the details.
'To think I let myself be swayed by a bastard like this. I'm truly pathetic.'
It seemed the adults were right when they said it's no big deal in hindsight. He had dreamed a prophetic dream that felt like ten years compressed into one, and because the incidents he suffered at Jangho's hands in it were so massive, the subservience or fear he used to feel in front of the guy was completely gone.
"By December 15th."
"Okay! I got it! I'll take care of it, okay!"
Jangho shouted, his face red, losing his temper.
He wasn't a guy without money. No, even if he didn't have it, he had the talent to swindle people with his incredible eloquence and squeeze money out of them. Since he wouldn't be able to commit the fraud schemes he would pull next semester if he didn't take care of his own matters, he would probably pay.
"Gaon, so what happened at your house?"
Gyeongho, who had been listening quietly from the side, asked with a worried face.
"Yeah. Something troublesome came up. I'll tell you the details once I've sorted things out."
"You're going down home today?"
"Yeah. I don't know what will happen later, but my family situation is pretty bad."
Gyeongho and Seonung were in the same position as Gaon when it came to Jangho, so Gaon had to control his anger. Gaon took a deep breath and nodded.
"Ah! Then when are you coming back?"
Gaon's home was in Cheonan. Truthfully, if he just made a little effort, he could go back and forth to school by bus and subway, but because he wanted to live freely, he had pestered his parents until they got him a studio apartment near school.
"I don't think I'll be coming back up until the semester starts, if at all."
"Really?"
Perhaps because Gaon's face and attitude looked so serious, Jangho's attitude, which had been turning red and blue, changed a bit.
"This bastard really seems to have something going on. Okay. Your big bro will take care of your money somehow."
It was disgustingly pathetic to see the guy, who had borrowed the money without a second thought and hadn't even paid the interest all this time, acting like he was doing Gaon a favor in front of the other friends, but Gaon thought now was the time to endure.
"Make sure you do."
"But what is it, exactly? Did your family really go bankrupt or something?"
"I told you I'll tell you later."
"Hey! If you're gone, what am I gonna do during break? The guys too, we'll be bored. Everyone but you is gonna go home for a bit. If your family's having a hard time, I'll find you a sweet part-time job, so try to come back in a few days. Your room's contracted until February anyway."
He was probably thinking of hanging out together somehow to avoid paying the money back. Or else, he would pay up for now and then use his silver tongue to coax Gaon into lending him the money earned from the part-time job again.
Gaon didn't know if it was because the guy had a silver tongue or because Gaon himself was soft-hearted, but whenever he talked to him, he fell for it ten times out of ten.
Even if not for that, there would be something regrettable. Over the past two years, his irregular lifestyle of drinking and entertainment had taken a toll on him, but Gaon possessed objectively recognized good looks.
Even at clubs, quite a few women would ask to sit together first after seeing Gaon's physique and face, and when doing on-the-spot hunting, the success rate was high whenever Gaon was there.
"I've already arranged to move my stuff out this afternoon. And I can find a part-time job on my own too."
"Ooh! How do you plan to do that?"
Truthfully, all the part-time jobs Gaon had worked until now were found by Jangho. That was how wide his network was.
Perhaps because Jangho had found him his first part-time job, Gaon hadn't bothered to look for them himself later. That was probably why this guy had come to firmly believe that Gaon was a useless fool who couldn't do anything without him.
"Anyway, see you later."
"Hey! Are you really leaving? You should at least have a farewell drink. We'll go to the club later when you come back up, and I'll call Myeonghui noona, so let's have a drink. If you're going, leave tomorrow!"
Myeonghui was a senior one year above him, whom Gaon secretly harbored feelings for. Jangho knew that fact better than anyone.
'That bastard would dare make a move on Senior Myeonghui!'
Senior Myeonghui was someone Gaon harbored in his heart, but to Jangho, she was nothing more than a temporary fling. And in the prophetic dream, the bastard had already been in a fling with her for several months.
"I don't have the luxury to think about women right now. I'm telling you again, deposit the money by the 15th of this month. Or else, you know?"
Unable to suppress his emotions, Gaon answered in a sullen voice and left the capsule room without looking back.
For now, having left the capsule room, Gaon shook off his displeasure toward Jangho. Now that the possibility of the dream being a prophetic dream had grown strong, it wasn't the time to think about that bastard.
'What should I do now?'
Gaon, who had become certain that the long dream he had was a prophetic dream, was impatient.
If the future seen in the prophetic dream really came to pass, one of the things he needed most right now was money.
'Let's first think of what I need to do most urgently. That's right! I have to secure seed money first.'
A long-term, low-interest student loan could be paid back slowly as long as he had the ability.
And by chance, there was an opportunity to earn a large sum.
'Of course, that's if the prophetic dream is correct.'
It was information related to Saviour Company, which would spark a capsule room craze starting from college towns across the nation, no, across the entire world, and rise to become a global top-tier company in one fell swoop.
Strangely enough, Saviour Company, meaning "savior," was funded by a total of 16 governments including Korea, the US, Japan, Germany, and China, with top-tier development personnel from those countries joining en masse to release a virtual reality game called "Another Mundus."
And to raise development funds ahead of its stock market listing, it first issued the in-game currency as coins.
The in-game currencies were four types: Golden, Gold, Silver, and Copper, but only Gold and Silver were issued as coins.
'Right now, you can buy them at a limit of 5 million won per person, at 100,000 won per Gold.'
Although it was a company established with investments from 16 gaming superpowers, verification was lacking, so there was almost no expectation for "Another Mundus." Thus, the coins had yet to gain popularity.
In the prophetic dream, Gaon too hadn't played Another Mundus for the first month. Because at first, there was a flood of bad reviews and criticism.
'But about two weeks after release, the atmosphere completely changes.'
The virtual reality game called "Another Mundus" released by Saviour Company was initially shunned because it was too realistic compared to other games and therefore difficult to play, but in less than a month, it became a so-called global game.
Naturally, the value of Saviour Company's stocks and the coins usable in the game skyrocketed.
'It's not too late yet. This time, I'm starting for real!'
Another Mundus was no simple virtual reality game. As the first virtual reality game to break down the boundary between reality and the game, its currency created an enormous sensation, to the point of being used almost identically to real-world currency.
So popular was it that Gold and Silver, the official currencies of Another Mundus, unlike the explosively trendy cryptocurrency of a bygone era, became established as a global common currency like the US dollar.
To start such an Another Mundus, you needed a special capsule, and when creating a character, stats were allocated based on scanned biological information.
To succeed in Another Mundus, it was important to shoot ahead from the very beginning, and to do so, one needed to be granted higher stats than others from the start to have an advantage.
Naturally, one had to train their body or increase their knowledge.
'Anyway, I have to prepare in advance.'
Right now he was certain it was a prophetic dream, but even if it turned out to be a daydream, it would still be far more valuable for his future than spending time with Jangho's crowd.
Still, if that bastard Jangho paid back the 5 million won, the situation would be much better.
'Ah!'
Come to think of it, securing the seed money to buy a capsule wasn't the only problem.
'I have to change my parents' situation and mine first.'
Since the topic had come up, he felt he should move all his things out. Even if he hadn't said it to that bastard Jangho, right now he needed to be at his home in Cheonan, not here.
'Alright! Let's move my stuff out first and go straight home.'
From then on, Gaon's steps quickened.