Chapter 1 - A Game Changer (1)

-Ha Kun-

「I am Yoo Joonghyuk.」

***

On the day my life would have changed forever, I was blissfully unaware.

After all, they say, ignorance is bliss.

I would usually wake up at about 5 a.m in the morning and blearily slap my alarm clock. My biggest struggle in the morning was the physical act of getting out of bed. After the laborious tasks of making my bed, getting dressed, and brushing my teeth, I would trudge downstairs to get to work.

I was an editor and beta reader for a company called ScribbleDoc. A cheesy name, yes, but it was a good company nonetheless.

My work was quite simple: Log into the website, sort through stories and documents for ones that are ‘interesting,’ read the documents that are interesting, promote them if I think they are good enough, and repeat.

Most people would think it would be boring, but I honestly think that it's fun. Whenever I read the works of aspiring authors, it felt like I was peeking inside that person’s mind.

I liked my job. I didn’t hate it. But I would rather be doing something else.

I raked my hands through my hair, yawning as I padded toward my office. I glanced at the coffee machine in the kitchen but decided to wait and see if I really needed it.

I usually don't drink coffee, mainly because I didn't want to become one of those people who were totally reliant on coffee to wake them up. But sometimes, my will to stay awake on certain days becomes weak and I need something to wake myself up, preferably something that doesn’t have to do with splashing cold water on my face.

I sat down in my swivel chair facing my laptop, absentmindedly yawning and looking at the window ever so often.

Ding!

My attention was immediately brought to my laptop, which showed a new email. Probably from a new aspiring author trying to get a literary agent.

I clicked on the email, which read:

【Dear Mr. Ha Kun, please accept the invitation of a novel that I had sent you.】

I was confused. While I had read many emails that pleaded with me to consider their novel, no one had ever said, ‘please accept the invitation.’ It was as if they thought reading their novel was a great privilege.

This was a whole new level, perhaps this was some rich person? Sigh, I could never understand all of those rich people.

I read on:

【This was one of the first novels that I had created and I truly hope that it will be helpful for you in the future.】

Below the short message was a link. I clicked on the link, only for my laptop to show a system error. It said that the hyperlink had become unavailable.

I felt an impending headache.

The person who had sent this...was this some sort of fake? I looked up at the top and saw ‘Zhao Wu’ listed after the name label.

I sighed again and wrote back a message saying that I could not access the link, so therefore I could not accept the novel.

When I clicked the send button, my laptop showed me an error message, saying that I could not send a message due to a unworking email address.
I looked at the top of the sent email, noting that the email hadn’t changed at all.

It was at that time when I decided that I needed some coffee.

I got up from my chair, walking throughout my small apartment to reach the kitchen. There, I opened a cabinet and pulled out some instant coffee powder and a mug. I filled the mug up with some hot water and opened an instant coffee packet, shaking the granules into the hot water.

I mixed it up with a small spoon, the spoon clinking against the cat mug that I had got from my friend, who was obsessed with kittens.

I tasted the coffee, my eyebrows furrowing at the bitterness. I set the mug down and took some cane sugar from a drawer. The pocket tore with an almost satisfying riiip and white grains fell into the dark brown liquid sloshing in my mug. I mixed it with my spoon again and walked toward my office.

It was about eleven in the morning when I finally finished sorting through all the emails and stories, setting aside the ones that were poorly-written and emailing the better ones to my boss. Then, I had to go through some documents that needed to be beta-read.

I glanced at my watch and almost cursed at the time.

It was one in the afternoon, exactly the time when I needed to get on the bus to get to my second job, which was far more boring than my first job.

I worked for a company that dealt with fixing computers.

The first day I went to work, I fell asleep at my desk.

After all, no one could blame me. How was one supposed to stay awake when people were arguing about hardware and how prices have either decreased or increased over the years?

It wasn’t like I held an important position in the company; I was just part of the customer service group who occasionally had to bring my boss coffee and agreed when my boss rambled about how he was always right and why won’t anyone listen to him and how everyone else was an idiot.
I had been working there for the past few months. I really, really wished that I had chosen another job. Every single second at the company felt like my soul was slowly being whittled away.

It was far worse than calculus. At least in calculus, I actually learned something. Technically.

I sighed, deciding to get on the bus again.

It was worth noting that I was still drinking the cold instant coffee.


***


The bus ride was bumpy.

Look, I’m not even trying to be polite. Just going to say it: The bus ride was vomit-inducing.

I held onto the bars in the swaying bus, my stomach tumbling and rolling. My right hand was clenched firmly around the bar while my left was holding tightly to my cup of cold instant coffee which I had foolishly brought onto the bus.

I really wished that I hadn’t brought the coffee on the bus. If the liquid stained my white shirt which I had brought because a certain boss had told me to dress better...it would not go well.

Well, he didn’t exactly say that. What he said exactly was, “If you have no self-respect for wearing that ugly shirt and jacket to work, then I should just fire you.”

Rude.

An old lady cast a pitiful glance at me. I knew what I probably looked like: A young man with disheveled black hair with bangs, a long white streak of hair that fell to my cheeks, amber eyes, and a hastily put on shirt and coat that wasn’t fully buttoned.

I looked like a gangster who got into a mess. Which was fine, because I really didn't care what other people thought of my appearance. Whether I was ugly or handsome, it didn’t matter.

What mattered was not being late to work again.

I really didn’t want to get yelled at by my boss. While I may not have cared about my own appearance, I still did have aesthetic taste and the sight of my boss’s veins bulging in his increasingly purple and red face as he yelled was not something that I would take a photo of and hang in my bedroom.

There were many instances that had occurred to me before like with the old lady. Because I usually looked quite ragged and with the white streak in the bangs from the side covering my eyes, people tended to think that I was a troublemaker or a gangster. Which wasn’t bad for me; it meant that people usually stayed away.

Except for a few friends, I really didn’t interact much with other people.

It was too troublesome.

I swept my side bangs away by tilting my head; after all, both my hands were occupied. The white streak in my bangs wasn’t dyed, it was genetic.
Many people have told me that it made me look aloof.

My grandmother told me it made me look mischievous.

My boss told me that I should just shave my head.

I put my cold coffee in between my thumb and forefinger in my right hand and used my left hand to rake my hair down. My hair was naturally curled at the ends, framing my face with black hair. It was a pain to deal with but I didn’t want to shave it off.

Finally, the bus screeched to a halt, black fumes rising from the engine. I glanced outside and saw the company that I worked at. Si Woo’s Computer Fixers was a small company, but it wasn’t failing or anything.

I sighed and strode off the bus in long strides, ducking down my head to avoid the sign hanging in between the gliding doors. I was 5’10, slightly taller than most people I knew.

“Have a nice day!” The bus lady called after me, waving her wrinkled hand.

“You, too,” My voice faded away slightly as the lady closed the gliding doors and drove away without giving me a second glance. I guess it was a habit, but she should’ve at least stayed to listen to my response.

It was fine, though. She probably had the job for a long time and didn't have the patience to deal with people like me.

I sighed and walked toward the company door, pushing it open carelessly.

The security guard there barely gave me a glance, nodding slightly at me before focusing on his job again. That was good. I hated attracting too much attention, especially if it was the bad kind. Being in the spotlight made me feel nervous.

The sound of my footsteps echoed in the lobby, and the people in the front desk looked up at me, only to look away. It was almost the end of my contract with the company and they showed no empathy or pity.

I felt sadness at that; I really didn’t want to go job-searching again. Only at age twenty-five and have to look for yet another job.

I sighed and cracked my knuckles, walking up to the second floor to start looking through some documents and choosing the best proposals for my boss. That was also part of my job; looking through the emails of not-working computers and Chromebooks and sending the worst cases to my boss.

The thing with the people was that they tended to send emails of what had happened to their computers instead of actually going to the company to get them fixed. Because of that, I had an extra part of my job.

I turned on the desktop, signing into HK8, which was my username. All people in the company had a username like that: The first letter of their surname, the first letter of their given name, and a random number.

Click, click, click.

The usual tapping of keyboards made me want to fall asleep, but I stubbornly blinked, focusing on my screen. There were several new emails, and I clicked on the latest one.

【Dear Ae Cha-nim, I am here to propose a new model for Manager Shi. Due to some recent events taking place in mainland China and the United States, stocks have been rising and falling erratically. Our new proposal shows a great potential increase in income and decrease in the less beneficial matters...】

Pfft. I guess someone accidentally got the wrong email address...

I yawned, clicking on the link below with a tap, sending me to a document which had several paragraphs about the models and how well they would work. Well, I might as well look at it anyway.

【We plan to increase trade with the United States. 】

Not very interesting. I scrolled down again, skimming the webpage before finally going back to the email and stopping on a particular sentence.

【We have no guarantee that this model will work, but we hope that you’ll accept it.
Sincerely, Soo Yeon. 】

I sighed, clicking on the reply message.

【Dear Soo Yeon-nim, I believe that this email was sent to me by mistake and wanted to make you aware that it had reached the wrong recipient. Thank you and have a nice day.

- Ha Kun. 】

I rubbed my temples, wondering if writing ‘have a nice day’ was too over the top or offensive. After all, it may seem mocking to Soo Yeon.

Send.

Doesn’t matter, it wasn’t not my problem.

I closed the email and clicked on the others, closely examining what had happened to the computers.

【Dear Customer Service-nim, my screen cracked! I don’t know what had happened, but one day I opened it up to start working and discovered that there was a giant crack in the middle of the screen! When can I schedule an appointment? 】

【Dear customer service person, my s, x, d, and y keys all cracked down the middle. The space key fell off a while ago and the pixels in the top-right of the screen change from red to green every so often. Do you have an open time at 3 p.m? 】

【Hello, my Chromebook won’t charge and it won’t connect to the Internet no matter where I am. Thanks.】

The next one was quite interesting.

【Mr. customr survice person, my name is San Yan and I am eight years old! Im using my sister’s chromebook to send you this messege becuez I broke Mommy’s screen on her tablet and I do not want to get into truble! Can you help me???? Urgent, waiting online! 】

I silently laughed at that, shaking my head as I pressed the reply button.

【Dear San Yan-Yang, I am sorry for the broken tablet, but I need you to tell your mother so she can get it fixed. Thank you. 】

With all the other messages, I just told them to come to the company whenever they could to get it fixed.

With all the work on the computer done, I signed out of my account and walked over to the customer service area, putting down my cold coffee in the microwave to heat it up.

I sat in the chair, meaning my head against my hand as I looked around the small store. Si Woo’s Computer Fixers was pretty much just like Best Buy in America.

It was small, with the front of the store dedicated to selling computers and had a customer service area where people could turn in their broken devices. In the back were where the computer repair technicians did their magic.

Ding!

My coffee was done heating up.

I was going to get up and take the coffee out of the microwave, but a loud “Hello,” interrupted me.

Chapter end