Chapter 1.2

The first quarter of the third grade semester was over. The toughest time for Sangwoo, who had a tight schedule of 23 credits, was not because of his infamously difficult major, but instead, a two-credit liberal arts class. “Korean University Student Personality Education,” was a compulsory liberal arts class with mandatory course attendance and required for graduation. It consisted of basic lectures and a simple group presentation.

‘The presentation topic was so easy, that I thought it was funny at first. It was no big deal to know that one of the group members did not come to class allegedly to participate in a contest. But someone was injured and someone went off the grid the day before the presentation. If I had done it alone from the beginning, I would have finished it in a day. Instead, I spent all my time contacting my group members and sending them data.’

Sangwoo was annoyed, but after the presentation, he forgot about those bad experiences. However, after he received the grade, he realized there was a problem.

Freeloader 1: Hyung, did you remove my name from the presentation? Why did you do that? Did you happen to notice that I couldn’t attend because my grandmother died?

10:04 pm

Freeloader 2: I eventually got an F in humanities. Are you satisfied?^^

15:29 pm

Freeloader 3: Let’s chat, Hoobae. Thanks to you. I couldn’t graduate. 20:23 pm

On the day the score was announced, messages inundated Sangwoo’s phone. The messages were sent one by one, but one of the senders kept begging to meet up and talk. He even called. In the end, Sangwoo blocked the number.

Then it was vacation. For the next semester, Sangwoo planned to reduce his course load and produce mobile games. He taught himself a programming language during the week and worked part-time at a PC room on the weekends. His daily life went smoothly, but there was one thing that bothered him.

As usual, on a Saturday, when he was working in the PC room, two college students came in and played games all day long. Sangwoo heard their conversation while in front of the counter.

“Did you hear? Jaeyoung won’t be able to graduate.”

“Why? I thought he was going to study abroad.”

“It was a two-credit humanities course, but then someone snitched to the professor that someone else was attending on his behalf, so he got an F.”

“Can’t they change the grade?”

“The professor must have said that he couldn’t let it go because he was so popular.”

“They should talk to the person involved.”

‘I’ve heard this story before.’ Sangwoo kept eavesdropping on their conversation, pretending to be looking at the counter.

“But the person isn’t picking up the phone.”

“Which department is he in right now?’”

“Is it mechanical or computer engineering? He said he wanted to find this guy’s address and kill him, but no one knows it. It’s fucking absurd.”

“Wow. You’re messing with me. I guess he’s going to live lawlessly.”

Sangwoo seemed to have involved himself with a very bad person. He has often been in conflicts while attending university, but they have been resolved so far. When he was a freshman, he almost got into a fistfight with a senior who forced him to drink a bomb shot. Even a newspaper company reported that he would not pay student fees. There was a time when he bumped into a passerby on the street, and there was an incident where he went to the police station, because he quarreled with a person who cut in line, but it was a trivial thing compared to not being able to graduate.

Sangwoo seriously thought about changing his cell phone number. In the end, he didn’t do anything, because he thought he had no grounds to be afraid. But after that day, he got into the habit of being nervous whenever he received a phone notification.

Han Sooyoung Sunbae, from the Visual Design Department: Engineer Hoobae^^! I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t work with you because I have an urgent job opportunity. However, I have asked a good colleague to go to the meeting in my place.

12:31 pm

The next message, which took some time to arrive, contained few details. Han Sooyoung was so busy, that she was slow in submitting her design, even though she did a great job. Sangwoo had already planned the game according to her design style, so it was bad news for there to be a change in designer.

There were too many irresponsible people at school. Was it a relief that this person had a successor and ran away? There was no guarantee that this replacement designer was a talented student.

That’s too bad. I liked your drawing style tho.

12:33 pm

Han Sooyoung from the Visual Design Department: This person is better than me. Don’t worry!

12:34 pm

Give me their phone number, at least.

12:34 pm

Han Sooyoung from the Visual Design Department: Something happened to my contacts list, and I don’t have their information. When we met yesterday, they told me exactly where and when to meet. They are in the same class as me and named Jaeyoung Jang!^^

12:40 pm

All right.

12:41 pm

Sangwoo finished his conversation with her and headed to school. The meeting was at four o’clock, but he arrived three hours early to organize the draft and a character. ‘Jang Jaeyoung, a visual design major. I don’t know anything except some vague information that they are capable. I don’t know if this person is a man or a woman, their appearance, or design style. I doubted that they would be busy since they are a senior. I also don’t know if they would disappear in the middle of the project due to getting a job like Han Sooyoung, but I think I should meet them for now.’

Sangwoo left his seat at 15:55pm and climbed the stairs. He arrived at the small conference room on the third floor of the library, which he had reserved online. He arrived a minute before the appointment and took out his notes and papers.

However, the designer did not show up.

‘If I had other appointments, I would have left without looking back, but I need a designer. This is a project that I can’t do alone.’ Sangwoo took out his cell phone and spent 10 minutes playing a game, but the designer still had not shown up.

‘Maybe he was mistaken about the time? Maybe Han Sooyoung got the time and location wrong? Maybe he changed his mind, or did something else happen?’ Another 10 minutes had passed while he pondered questions he had no way of answering.

The designer did not show up.

‘They have a bad personality.’

‘There’s no one who’s punctual. There’s no way it’s going to work out well on a project with someone like that. It’s been more than 10 minutes since I’ve been waiting inside.’

The designer still hadn’t shown up.

‘This is really the last time.’

Sangwoo waited another 10 minutes to see the replacement designer for Han Sooyoung, a talented and kind senior. He endured this stoically, but the designer never showed up.

He clenched his teeth and got up aggressively from his seat. Sangwoo was reluctant to waste anything, but what he hated most was wasting time. However, as soon as he tried to grab the door handle, it swung away.

“Is it him?”

Sangwoo looked at his opponent angrily. The man, wearing a slouchy, black beanie, walked in with an arrogant look, and sat across from Sangwoo. There were large glasses on the tip of his nose and three metal piercings in one ear. He came to the meeting but was empty-handed. He took his hands out of his pockets, rubbed them together , and looked up.

“Oh!”

As soon as their eyes met, he pointed at Sangwoo.

“What?”

Sangwoo inadvertently touched his cheek, wondering if something was on his face. The opponent looked surprised, but his eyes increasingly narrowed. Sangwoo had no intention of working with this person, but he forced himself to sit down thinking that he should make some effort. He grabbed a pen, purposely not looking at the man’s face.

“You’re a senior designer, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You heard what I was doing, right?”

“Yes?”

“We’re working on a 2D action-adventure game using the Cocos2d framework. We’ve set the genre to be a children’s point-of-view adventure.”

[t/n: Cocos is an open source development engine]

But the man didn’t seem to listen to Sangwoo. He sat bouncing his legs against the chair and flipped through Sangwoo’s notebook without permission, wearing a “you did your best” look on his face.

Sangwoo took out the notebook again, put it on the desk, and opened it to a blank page. He removed the file containing the former designer’s work from his bag and gave it to the man. The paper detailed the title of the game, the overall concept, and the character design. The man looked down at the document without a word.

“It’s seriously no fun,” he muttered to himself.

He took his eyes off the paper and carefully organized the draft of ‘Yachae Man.’

[t/n: ‘Yachae Man’: a game-based character.]

“She’s good, but she didn’t do much. I didn’t try anything to come up with a concept, and I didn’t even make a sketch.”

As the man pushed the document forward, it flew up, and a corner became stuck to Sangwoo’s nose. Sangwoo stiffly put the paper down on the notebook. He tried to explain everything even if it was already detailed, but his patience ran out. Sangwoo thought it was better to stop wasting energy on this useless meeting.

“I don’t think you’re a good match for me. I’ll find another designer.”

He tried to put his notes and documents in his bag, but the man suddenly asked, “Are you that good at coding? If I ask you to implement something, how far can you go?”

“As long as the design is good. We can implement almost everything we need in 2D action games.”

“You’re very confident.”

The remark sounded like a taunt to Sangwoo.

The man continued, “Are you saying that you’re a student, or do you think you’ve just returned to school after being discharged from the military?”

“In particular, I’m confident in debugging and optimizing. I made a diary app when I was in high school and an HTML5-based arcade game,” Sang-woo replied aggressively, because he felt a little queasy.

“That’s not what I meant.”

The man pushed up his glasses. He continued by poking his finger on the ‘Yachae Man’ draft’.

“This game shouldn’t just work well, it should also be interesting to play. It’s important to have a strong impact with not only the graphics, but also realistic animation and BGM,. That’s why I don’t have confidence in this design. Is it worth my precious time to work with you?”

He was a man with great self-control. He seemed to be calm, as light as a feather, but suddenly he looked serious, and Sangwoo became nervous.

“If you leave it to me, I’ll do my best.”

Sangwoo felt wronged after his modest answer. He was the developer and employer, but there was no reason to grovel like a subcontractor. Sangwoo straightened his back, sat upright, and folded his arms.

“By the way, have you ever participated in mobile game development?”

It was a timely and appropriate counterattack.

“No.”

“Goodbye.”

“I have some web development experience.”

Sangwoo, who was about to get up, but paused. It was hard to build an app if you were only good at web UI design. The object size is smaller and you have to worry about optimization, but they are essentially similar. In addition, the senior who recommended him said he was very talented.

“Can I see your portfolio?”

The man laughed and took out a tablet from his coat pocket. After tapping it a few times, he handed it over to Sangwoo.

Sangwoo looked at the lateral scrolling portfolio page where designs were displayed on a white background. He checked the work carefully, by pressing each thumbnail one by one. The man had done web design, illustrations, and logo design. In addition, they all seemed to be more complete than a typical student portfolio.

‘It’s better than most programs.’

UI efficiency passed. UI simplicity passed. Accepted color use. Illustration eligibility passed. In particular, his drawing style was unique and vivid. Sangwoo erased his favorite draft of ‘Yachae Man’ from his head.

“I’ve haven’t heard someone call me low-skilled.”

He glanced at Sangwoo’s expression.

Sangwoo said, “You did everything yourself, right?”

The man laughed off Sangwoo’s valid questions and began to sketch in his notebook with a pen. He drew a carrot in 20 seconds in a completely different style from his predecessor. It was more rebellious and decadent than before, but it was very stylish. Sangwoo was convinced that he was worth it.

‘It’s awesome.’

His heart throbbed. He intentionally put brakes on his expectations before they grew out of control. But there was something bothering him.

“Will you be able to invest your time throughout next semester?”

“Yes. There’s been a setback in my graduation, and I’ve got nothing to do.”

“If you get a job in the middle of the project like Han Sooyoung did….”

“Let’s finish the project we’ve been working on.”

A person who was 40 minutes late and unreliable, suddenly seemed to be reliable. Sangwoo was willing to tolerate some degree of unreliability with that level of skill. Above all, it was a great resolution for him who valued sincerity.

“Then give me your phone number.”

Sangwoo took out his cell phone and held it out politely, and the person entered his number. Suddenly, his face changed. He frowned and slowly turned to Sangwoo.

“You already saved my number.”

“No way.”

“Look. Here.”

The man’s voice was very sharp. Sangwoo returned the device to his hand without understanding what was going on.

Calling toll- Freeloader 3...

Sangwoo and the man were looking at the name at the same time, and soon his cell phone rang. With a cold look on his face, the man who had taken the phone out of his coat pocket and gave a wry smile. Sangwoo saw the name saved on Jaeyoung’s phone.

He was called motherfucker.

Sangwoo was so embarrassed that he ran out of the conference room not bothering to take his notes and papers. ‘I didn’t even know if that guy called me, followed me, or stood still, because I was running away without looking back.’

Almost 20 minutes of his memory had been wiped clean. After entering his house, Sangwoo locked the door three times and finally took a breath of relief. He fell on the stairs and his knees tingled. He took a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and moistened his throat.

“There’s no way.”

In a daze, Sangwoo gathered some courage and took out his cell phone. There was no recent activity. When he unblocked Freeloader 3 with trembling hands, a few messages and several missed calls came up. Five days ago, as Freeloader 3, Jang Jaeyoung sent Sangwoo a lengthy message asking for his understanding. It was his fault for not directly contacting the team leader, but he had explained the situation to the others. In addition, there were several other threatening messages.

You’ll regret it so much.

2days ago

And that was the last message.

After reading the message, Sangwoo became calm again. It turned out that the person who he thought was a competent designer was just unscrupulous, deceitful, and had a garbage personality. He was rather fortunate to know this before working together on the project. Sangwoo had gotten his expectations up after seeing Jaeyoung’s illustration, so the disappointment was strong, but he had no choice but to give up. Sangwoo had no intention of collaborating with the scumbag, and it was clear that he would not want to work with Sangwoo either.

‘I’m not at fault.’

Although there was an unexpected conflict, it was not his fault, and Sangwoo felt proud. Nevertheless, he still felt uncomfortable. Sangwoo had no reason to feel that way, but he fell asleep late at dawn while constantly checking his cell phone.

When he woke up the next day, there was a message.

Freeloader 3: Sangwoo, let’s talk.

09:02

Sangwoo rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at the screen for a long time. Ever since he was young, his parents were the only ones in the world who called him Sangwoo. In college, he was called Student Sangwoo, Sangwoo Sunbae, and Mr. Chu Sangwoo. In the army, there are soldiers such as Chu Yi, Chu Il, Chu Sang, and Chu Byung Jang.

You got the wrong number. Have a nice day.

09:01

Freeloader 3: Abstract Woo/25/Computer Engineering 3rd grade/took military leave in September semester and then returned/No clubs/ No student council activities

09:02

If you don’t want to drop out of school, see me while I am still being nice.

09:02

The message contained some scary implications. Sangwoo read the message several times, staring at it intently. Meanwhile, a new message had arrived.

Freeloader 3: Come to the front gate of the school by 6 o’clock today.

09:05

Freeloader 3: I won’t hit you.

09:06

“You’re funny.”

Sangwoo smiled coldly and held his phone tightly. ‘I didn’t do anything wrong, so why should I listen to him?’

‘What if you did a background check on me? You want me to call the police?’