I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 83

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 83
“A partnership?”
Mark gazed at me with casual indifference, munching on snacks.
“I have an idea, but I’m not good with computers. You are.”
“Yeah.”
“So you’ll build the program based on my idea.”
Mark continued eating snacks without pause.
“What’s the idea?”
“Hmm… Let’s write up a contract first.”
I knew exactly what kind of person Mark Zuckerberg was.
Face Paper, which he started at Harvard, was actually built on someone else’s idea. The legal dispute ended with a settlement of sixty-five million dollars.
Now I was about to present that very idea to Mark.
And business dealings always had to be clean.
“A contract?”
“Yeah. If we become millionaires from this, disputes could arise.”
“Sung-guk, that’s a ridiculous thing to say.”
“Right? But having a contract somehow makes me feel like it’ll actually happen. Just looking at it makes me happy.”
“Fine. I want to feel that happiness too. Should we write it up?”
“Of course.”
I had been preparing for this since before enrollment.
Fortunately, becoming Mark’s roommate made everything flow even more smoothly.
But adolescent Mark had an unpredictable side.
I had to exercise considerable patience to manage his temperament.
I printed out the contract draft I’d been preparing for so long and handed it to Mark.
Mark skimmed through it quickly and smiled.
“So I’m the CEO, but you’re a co-founder and we split the equity fifty-fifty. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Let’s do this.”
“Sign here.”
Mark signed without hesitation.
After I finished signing, I placed all the contract documents into an envelope.
“Sung-guk, what are you doing?”
“I know a lawyer in New York. I need to get it notarized.”
“Sung-guk, it really feels like we’re starting a company together. This is exciting.”
“Of course. We really are starting a company together.”
[You’re in my hands now, Mark.]
I smiled brightly at him.
Mark rubbed his dry hands together and moved back to his computer.
“Sung-guk, what exactly is your idea?”
“This.”
I handed Mark the Phillips Academy freshman orientation booklet, Face Paper.
Mark’s expression turned slightly bewildered. His thoughts were always written plainly across his face.
“Face Paper is your idea?”
“I’ll explain now. Listen carefully.”
“Okay. Oh, I’ll record this too. I need to prove exactly that this is my idea.”
“Fine.”
Teenage boys were indeed simple creatures.
I laid out the concept for Face Paper smoothly. Naturally, all of this was an idea Mark Zuckerberg had stolen from Harvard.
After hearing me out, Mark slapped his knee.
“Sung-guk, this sounds completely amazing. It’s a brand new concept of SNS that connects people who share common threads—the same school, region, and so on.”
“Exactly.”
“Wow, let’s build it fast and launch it at our school first. If we add the other boarding schools nearby, we’ll connect friend-of-a-friend networks. I bet we’ll meet tons of pretty girls.”
“Sure.”
I encouraged Mark appropriately.
Mark cracked his knuckles and got to work at the computer.
“Sung-guk, I don’t think I’ll have time for dinner. Can you grab me a hamburger from the canteen?”
“Got it. By the way, this is my investment in you.”
“Oh, right. Sung-guk, what should we call this thing?”
“Face Paper. How does that sound?”
“I like it. Face Paper, huh… Alright, I’m getting to work.”
The room filled with nothing but the sound of Mark’s fingers flying across the keyboard.
I quickly left the room and headed to the canteen.
Just to be safe, I’d kept the contract and the recording device with me. All I had to do was send the documents to New York on Monday, and everything would be settled.
* * *
Three months had flown by since we started working on Face Paper.
There had been exam periods in between when we paused the work, but the final product was coming together day by day.
Of course, I’d already had the contract notarized by a lawyer in New York, and I’d even stored our first recorded brainstorming session in a bank’s private safe deposit box.
Worried that Mark might abandon the project, I regularly supplied him with snacks and meals.
When he complained he didn’t have time to get a girlfriend, I even used my cute appearance to pass a note to Bianca, the red-haired girl Mark had a crush on, asking her to see a movie with him.
Of course, the result was nothing short of a nightmare.
Red-haired Bianca thought she was going to see a movie with me, so she got furious at Mark and declared she was cutting ties with me too.
But this incident actually brought Mark and me even closer.
We were now at the point of giving each other dating advice—we couldn’t have gotten any closer.
Now all the exams were over, and summer break was just around the corner.
I planned to stay at school for a bit during summer to attend special lectures and make a brief trip back to Korea.
Ever since being rejected by Bianca, Mark had thrown himself even more intensely into building Face Paper.
“Sung-guk, let’s finish this and launch it at school before winter break. Once the girls find out we made this together, they’ll see me differently, right?”
[Probably once you become a billionaire, they will. Until then, I’m not so sure.]
“Sung-guk, everyone goes home for winter break, so if we use this to stay in touch with each other, it’ll be fun, don’t you think? I’m really into Jessie.”
Jessie was the girl Mark had become interested in after Bianca. She was the prettiest girl in the freshman class.
[Am I now staring at a tree I can never climb….]
And the crucial thing was that I was very close with Jessie.
“Sung-guk, since you’re close with Jessie, if I’m connected through you, I’ll be able to see her too, right?”
“Of course.”
“Jackpot! I’ll send her a friend request then and approach her that way. Wow, I’m totally pumped!”
Yes, every great historical beginning starts with a woman.
I checked the clock.
It was already three in the morning.
Since Mark had commandeered my computer, I was checking stocks on his desk using a laptop.
As expected, South Korea was rapidly overcoming the IMF crisis, and the Samjeon stock I held was soaring higher with each passing day.
“Sung-guk, what are you always looking at anyway?”
“Stocks.”
“You trade stocks?”
“A little.”
“That’s impressive. I don’t really understand that sort of thing.”
“That’s exactly why I can help you with the business side.”
“We’re really like destiny.”
[Let’s save the destiny talk for after we’ve both succeeded, Mark.]
I quickly checked the Nasdaq.
The Amazon stock I’d bought after selling some Samjeon shares was skyrocketing.
Until the 2007 Lehman crisis, the American stock market will be booming. I plan to keep buying Amazon stock until then.
I closed the laptop and turned around.
Thinking it was quiet, I found Mark asleep with his head planted on the desk.
Regardless, I had to acknowledge this guy’s genius and passion.
I gently poked Mark in the ribs.
“Mark, go sleep in bed.”
“Uh… thanks, Sung-guk.”
Mark stumbled to bed like a zombie and collapsed.
I checked the monitor to see how Mark’s “Face Paper” was progressing.
[As expected….]
A smile spread across my face.
The early version of “Face Paper” that I already knew about was nearly complete.
* * *
“Sung-guk!”
Jessie walked over to Mark’s and my table, carrying her lunch tray.
Jessie had a tall, slender frame and fantastic blonde hair—the object of desire for every male student at Phillips Academy.
The reason such a girl had become close with me was simple.
I was young but handsome. Moreover, in discussion classes, I always earned attention for my razor-sharp arguments and decisive conclusions.
There wasn’t a woman who disliked intelligent, accomplished men.
But she didn’t see young me as someone to date.
Though Jessie received many advances as a popular girl, she lacked true friends—and I had become a good conversational companion for her.
“Jessie, come on in. This is Mark. You know him, right?”
“Yeah, I know. Sung-guk, you introduce Mark every single time we meet. I already know his name by now.”
[Had I overdone it?]
Instead of letting Mark introduce himself—he always blushed and stammered whenever girls were around—I’d taken it upon myself to present him to Jessie each time.
“Sung-guk, you’re taking that special lecture at school during winter break, right?”
“Yeah. After that, I’m heading straight to Korea.”
“I really want to go to Korea once I get to college.”
“You can stay at my place.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Mark gazed at me with endless envy as I conversed so naturally with Jessie.
I gave him a subtle nudge with my eyes, urging him to join in.
“Jessie, where’s your home?”
“New York.”
“Me too.”
And then Mark fell silent.
An exasperated “So what?” nearly escaped my lips.
I shook my head in dismay.
“Jessie, I’ll be in New York for a few days before heading to Korea. Want to grab dinner with Mark and me? My treat.”
“What are you talking about? I’ll ask my father to make a reservation at a restaurant. Then it’ll be the three of us.”
“Thanks, Jessie.”
I could see Mark’s mouth stretching into an enormous grin.
I pressed firmly on Mark’s knee with my hand.
[Mark, compose yourself.]
Then I opened my laptop and showed Jessie the Face Paper interface.
“Sung-guk, what is this?”
“An SNS that Mark and I created.”
“A blog?”
“Sort of, but if you sign up here, the system recommends people from your school or region. Plus, if we’re friends, Mark—who’s my friend—shows up in your friend recommendations too. It’s basically a social network for building connections.”
“So you become friends with your friend’s friends?”
“Exactly.”
Jessie was beautiful, but she was also sharp.
“Jessie, would you be our first female member on Face Paper?”
“I’d love to. Then when we meet for dinner during break, I can post the location here, right?”
“That’s right.”
Jessie signed up for Face Paper right then and there.
Mark looked like he didn’t know what to do with his joy.
With Phillips Academy’s most popular girl now on Face Paper, it was obvious that countless boys would rush to join in droves.
After all, boys who couldn’t even get Jessie’s phone number would now have an easy way to become her online friends.
* * *
“Sung-guk, there’s chaos. Did you see this?”
Mark was in a frenzy from the moment morning broke.
“What is it, Mark?”
“Face Paper’s already got over four hundred members. It looks like almost all the freshmen signed up. Plenty of sophomores and juniors too.”
Last night, Mark and I posted a link on the student community site announcing the launch of Face Paper’s service. Simultaneously, we revealed that the first member to sign up was Jessie, Phillips Academy’s most popular girl.
I examined the members with satisfaction.
Just as Mark said, it looked like nearly all the freshmen had joined.
Jessie’s popularity was formidable, but my own popularity was no trivial matter either.
At that moment, Mark’s face fell.
“Mark, what’s wrong?”
“I greeted Jessie, but she still hasn’t accepted my friend request.”
I quickly checked my Face Paper profile.
Of course, Jessie and I were already friends.
“Mark, don’t be so impatient. With popular girls like Jessie, you have to approach slowly.”
“Really, Sung-guk?”
“Trust me.”
[I was a former tycoon, after all. Women used to line up in front of me.]
Just then, a message arrived from Jessie.
– Sung-guk, is this how you do it?
I replied immediately.
– Yeah. Jessie.
– Sung-guk, let’s grab lunch together later.
– Sure.
Mark watched me exchange messages with Jessie through Face Paper with envious eyes.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Just then, someone knocked on the dormitory door.
Who could it be?
When the door opened, the Dormitory Supervisor stood there.
“Are you two the students who created Face Paper?”
“Yes.”
I answered quickly.
Judging by the Dormitory Supervisor’s expression, this didn’t seem like it would be good news.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————