I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 90

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 90
I boarded the airplane.
The airport had been another battlefield.
Min-guk and Ji-hee clung to my legs, crying, while Mother and Father desperately tried to console them.
My heart was heavy too, but there was no way around it.
I held Min-guk and Ji-hee’s hands tightly and spoke.
“Your older brother is going to America to rebuild our family. Both of you listen well to Mother and Father and wait for me.”
* * *
When I returned to the dormitory, Mark sat at his desk with a puffy face, studying.
Once the person who’d helped with my luggage left, Mark greeted me with a dejected expression.
“Sung-guk, you’re back.”
“Mark, what’s wrong? Why do you look like that?”
Had he been rejected by someone?
I opened my travel bag and offered Mark some seaweed snacks.
Mark ate the salty seaweed like it was candy.
“It’s seaweed. I brought it for you.”
The second part was a lie, but it was a line that always worked on Mark.
“Thanks, Sung-guk.”
Mark tore open the seaweed package, ate a few sheets, then sighed repeatedly.
[Stop sighing and just tell me what’s going on.]
Crunch.
After eating another sheet, Mark finally opened up.
“During the break, I told my dad all about Face Paper in detail. I told him how you and I created it together, how Bill Gates offered a huge sum to buy it but we refused, and how you and I are going to grow this company big.”
I already knew Mark had a loose tongue.
And like any teenager, Mark had a somewhat dreamy disposition.
It was obvious that Mark’s father had scolded him.
Mark spoke with a hint of indignation.
“When my father saw this semester’s grades, he got furious and started talking about getting into Harvard and all that. He told me to focus on studying first. He yelled that if he caught me making such useless things again, he’d make me quit school immediately.”
[Tsk tsk. All parents are like that.]
Besides, Mark’s grades this semester were upper-middle tier, but nothing particularly outstanding.
No matter how prestigious Phillips Academy was with its top acceptance rates to elite universities, parents sent their children there to aim for the very best, not just any Ivy League school.
For now, I decided to comfort Mark.
For anxious and discontented teenagers, the greatest comfort was validation.
“Mark, you got scolded too? My parents scolded me for working on that instead of studying.”
“So whether it’s America or Korea, parents are all the same.”
“Exactly.”
Mark seemed to feel a bit better, then glanced at my bag.
“Sung-guk, can I look through your bag?”
“Sure. I have lots of Korean snacks and food. Feel free to eat whatever you like.”
“Awesome.”
Mark began rummaging through his bag, digging through it in every direction.
My mother had carefully packed it with my favorite snacks and the supplies I needed, so the bag was quite full.
“Sung-guk, your mother is truly a wonderful person. How does she manage to think of everything?”
“You can go home on weekends since your place is close, but I can’t do that. Air freight takes forever, and….”
Mark pulled out a few snacks and waved them at me.
“Sung-guk, I want to try these.”
“Sure. It’s a gift. Go ahead.”
[Eating snacks will just make you gain weight.]
I smiled faintly.
Mark excitedly began unwrapping the snacks.
“By the way, Mark. What if we did some extracurricular activities with our Face Paper?”
“Extracurricular activities?”
“Yeah. Both of us are lacking in extracurricular activity credits.”
In the United States, getting into a good university required not just academic excellence but also fitting the profile of talent the university was seeking.
In particular, noteworthy extracurricular activities were what Ivy League universities wanted.
The reason some Olympic athletes attended Ivy League schools was precisely for this reason.
By excelling in sports, they naturally developed exceptional abilities.
Mark was a decent student, but he was particularly weak in interpersonal relationships—he’d avoid eye contact whenever Jessie was around—and he had no real interest in extracurricular activities, only obsessing over computers.
“Sung-guk, how are we supposed to earn these credits?”
“What if we took Face Paper and met with investors in Silicon Valley?”
“Huh?”
Mark looked at me with a surprised expression.
“Your father wants you to get into Harvard, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I want to go to Harvard too. I’m too young, so I have many restrictions on extracurricular activities. We jointly developed Face Paper, received a proposal from Microsoft, rejected it, and now we’re going on an investment tour to grow it independently—wouldn’t that make for a compelling essay?”
“That’s amazing! Sung-guk, you’re a genius, aren’t you?”
“You’re just realizing that now?”
Mark suddenly hugged me.
[Mark, don’t touch me with those snack-covered hands.]
But Mark was already excited, wiping his snack-dusted hands on his jeans before sitting down at the computer.
“Sung-guk, I’ll look into those investor presentations right away. Oh, and Sung-guk—Jessie was asking about you on your Face Paper. You should reply to her.”
“Okay.”
I answered briefly.
Mark was pretending not to care while clearly spying on my Face Paper.
I opened my laptop and logged into Face Paper. Most of the students at Phillips Academy had sent me friend requests, and there were consecutive messages from Jessie and Mark.
I quickly changed my location settings.
– Jeon Sung-guk Current Location: Phillips Academy
The moment I changed it, Jessie’s comment appeared.
I could see Mark glancing over at me.
“Mark, don’t worry. I’m only nine years old.”
In American age, I seemed even younger.
“Who would see me as a man? They look after me because I’m like a little brother.”
“Sung-guk, I’m envious of you even for that. Jessie too. All the girls at our school adore you.”
[That’s because I’m intelligent and handsome.]
The words rose to my throat, but I swallowed them back.
“Mark, once you get to Harvard, you’ll meet plenty of girls.”
“Mom, Dad said when I go to Phillips Academy, I’d meet a girlfriend at my level. But that’s not happening.”
“Mark, it’s only been one semester. And you avoid it like the plague whenever I try to arrange a dinner with just you and Jessie. Opportunities are something you create, Mark.”
“I know….”
Mark returned to his book with an uncertain tone.
“I’ll ask Jessie if she wants to grab lunch together tomorrow. Mark, you’ll join us, right?”
“Of course.”
I shook my head and left a message for Jessie.
Even though everyone had phones, people seemed more inclined to leave messages on Face Paper for some reason.
I was beginning to understand why Face Paper had become such a global phenomenon.
Simple usability.
And countless networks began here.
* * *
The winter break intensive courses were a form of advanced study.
I enrolled in every advanced learning program offered to prepare for Harvard.
Jessie had enrolled in similar courses, so our classes often overlapped.
Mark was focusing mainly on mathematics and science.
As I entered the classroom, Jessie raised her hand.
It was a signal that she’d saved my seat.
Jessie was objectively beautiful by anyone’s standards.
Blonde hair and a reasonably tall frame.
Her refreshing smile was particularly captivating.
I quickly went to sit beside Jessie.
Jessie whispered.
“Sung-guk, how was Korea?”
“It was good. I got to see my parents after a long time. How was your break, Jessie?”
“I just lounged around for a while.”
Teenagers were the same whether in Korea or America.
“Sung-guk, you’re definitely aiming for Harvard among the Ivy League schools, right?”
“Yeah.”
I answered plainly.
I hadn’t considered anything other than Harvard.
Of course, there were plenty of excellent universities in America.
All the Ivy League schools were outstanding, and there was Stanford, the powerhouse of the West Coast.
But I was determined to go to Harvard.
That’s because when South Koreans think of America’s finest university, Harvard is the first name that comes to mind.
Just as Seoul National University is what comes to mind when thinking of Korea’s best university.
“Sung-guk, you always seem so confident.”
“If I look confident, then confidence follows.”
My late grandfather, Jeon Ju-shin, the former chairman of Samjeon Group, always used to say that a person needs audacity to succeed.
Remembering his words after so long brought a smile to my face.
“Sung-guk, some of us are thinking about forming a study group with friends who are aiming for Harvard. What do you think? It would be easy to organize through Face Paper.”
Jessie had become quite adept at using Face Paper by now.
“I’m in. I’ll ask Mark too.”
“Okay.”
Jessie answered somewhat offhandedly.
But Mark was essential talent for our study group.
Of course, his grades were worse than mine at the moment, but he was arguably Phillips Academy’s finest talent in mathematics and science.
As soon as the teacher entered, Jessie slipped me a note.
I unfolded it and read what was written.
– Sung-guk, you seem to have grown taller since I last saw you.
What does that mean?
We hadn’t seen each other for just a few weeks, and she thought I’d grown taller in that time?
Was this really something that needed to be said in a note?
Whether then or now, the language of girls remained incomprehensible to me.
* * *
Mark and I, sitting across from each other in the Student Cafeteria, quickly began strategizing how to find investors.
“Sung-guk, I looked into it yesterday and found there’s an investment conference in Silicon Valley for new startups. Should we apply there?”
“Hmm… I’d rather find more reliable investors than expose ourselves to just anyone like that.”
Just then, Jessie sat down beside me with her tray.
“You two, what are you talking about?”
I quickly signaled Mark with my eyes.
[Mark, explain it to Jessie.]
Mark’s face flushed slightly, then he exhaled and calmly explained our project to Jessie.
“Since even Microsoft wanted this, let’s gather investors ourselves. If it works out, I think Mark and I could really start a company.”
“Should I ask my dad about it?”
What was she talking about?
“Ask your father? What do you mean?”
“My dad is an investment specialist. I don’t know all the details myself.”
I quickly made eye contact with Mark.
Mark gave me a look telling me to respond.
“Jessie, could you give us your father’s business card or company website?”
“Of course. Take a look, and if you’re interested, just tell me before you head home for the weekend. I’ll ask Dad.”
“Perfect!”
I answered readily.
It didn’t seem like I’d be flying out to Silicon Valley with Mark.
* * *
That night, I was browsing the homepage of Mark and Jessie’s father’s company.
Jessie’s father was a fairly renowned investment fund manager in the industry.
Among his ventures was venture capital.
Venture capital works by investing in promising startups and generating returns from their growth.
Out of ten thousand startups, nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine would fail. But if one struck gold, it could recoup all the invested capital.
Face Paper would strike gold.
That much was certain.
I stroked my chin thoughtfully.
“Sung-guk, I don’t really know… what do you think?”
“I think you should try bringing it up with Jessie.”
Mark rubbed his hands together.
It was a nervous habit of his.
“Sung-guk, do you think we can pull this off?”
“Of course we can, Mark.”
“I trust you, obviously… but I can’t figure out what adults are thinking. What if they try to take advantage of us just because we’re young?”
[That only applies to you. I’m neither young nor weak, Mark.]
I placed my hand on Mark’s shoulder.
“Mark, just trust me.”

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