Arrogant.
To sum up my life in a single word, this would be the most accurate.
I thought all I had to do was try.
I dreamt of becoming a designer.
I drew and drew till my wrist ligaments broke. I showed my designs to many people.
I thought that all that effort would be the answer to success.
It wasn’t.
In this industry, effort alone is not enough to achieve success. And there was nothing you could do about it.
The first time I realized this was around the time of my group project in college.
“Jaeha, I’ll do the presentation.”
I tilted my head to look towards the person at this sudden remark.
“Why?”
“Well, you collected all the data by yourself and you also made the PPT. You have it the hardest amongst us. So I should at least do this to help you.”
“Well, ok.”
I was naïve.
I got stabbed right in the back.
My painting became someone else’s, and my idea became someone else’s too.
I put so much effort, and the others reaped its rewards.
“Gunwoo. A professor I know saw your presentation and asked me to go with you to the conference,” I said.
“Do you mean me?”
“Yes. He’s a prominent professor in the academic world, so it will be an excellent opportunity for you,” I replied.
“Thank you, I’ll do my best!”
It was quite disappointing. But I wasn’t angry though, so I let it slide.
The evaluation was completed, so it was obvious that my contribution was stolen.
Instead of being depressed, I drew even more.
I thought it would be a little different once I left college and started my life in society.
‘Life is an actual battle. People who aren’t good at it will drop out on their own.’
It was a decent misunderstanding of mine.
Life at work had taken a turn for the better, at least.
I thought I completed the project, but before I knew it, the project’s merits were already not mine.
The same situation repeated again and again.
I was sure I was the one who had completed the project, but it quickly turned into my boss’s product.
Company life was filled with absurdities which are even more absurd than college!
Wouldn’t you be angry? When you, as a senior employee, receive an order for a project, but then your deputy manager takes all the credit?
It was a custom here.
It was even worse than my time at the university since I couldn’t even say anything even if I had proof.
But I was still arrogant.
I thought it would all work out if I worked hard enough. I thought I would be accepted.
I was still dreaming.
I had been working for the company for around 10 years.
‘Sir, you want me to say that I led the project?’
A new company employee stole the design of a third-party product and all that blame was put on me.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘But I didn’t do that. Kim Ji-hoo did it. Why are you putting the blame on me?’
‘Who doesn’t know the reason?’
‘But why….—‘
‘Because Kim Ji-hoo is the son of the boss.’
‘….!’
‘Choose between the two. Either face an astronomical lawsuit or wrap up and end your career.’
I didn’t have a choice
My life afterward was a disaster, of course.
No matter how much experience one has, no matter how strong one’s portfolio is, no company wants to use designers who plagiarize.
I didn’t even remember the number of resumes I have written, probably hundreds.
Alright.
My life as a designer was destroyed.
Instead of that, a jobless life soon began.
I fell asleep drunk on soju and when I woke up, I would sleep after drinking hangover medicines.
Some people consoled me by saying I was naïve, but my opinion differed from theirs.
I was stupid.
I realized this.
Just trying was not enough.
It was important to take the initiative with my own hands.
“If I could go back, I’ll do it all by myself.”
It was the lamentation of someone who had already gone past his time.
However, it was pretty serious in its way.
Just that it was too late.
He lived just a single life.
Life of a loser everywhere.
It wasn’t like I did nothing, though.
It immersed me in a cheap hobby because I had no money to partake in other expensive ones. This one hobby was reading web novels.
In the web novel, there is this genre called modern fantasy, where chicken and dog-like humans regressed and underwent life-changing paths.
At first, I found it extremely stupid.
“You’re stupid. You only live once.”
It was foolish of people to go by their daily lives while thinking of subjects like regressions.
However, as I read on, I realized.
This is what everyone wanted.
That text on my 5-inch screen comforted me.
Solving my twisted life step by step.
Although it was a dream portrayed only on my phone, it was still a dream of mine.
I was jealous.
I wanted to start all over again too.
“If I start over, I’ll live without losing my life for anyone else.”
But it’s too late.
Modern fantasy is just fantasy.
Only a moment passed when I thought of all of it.
“Uhhhhhhhhhhh.”
Suddenly, my head was dizzy.
“Did I drink too much?”
No.
I knew I drank a lot, but I know my drinking habits. I’m a heavy drinker. Just this much wouldn’t make me dizzy.
By the time I felt something was wrong, my vision had turned black and I fainted.
And when I opened my eyes again,
“What should I show you? All designs begin with this question.”
A professor was giving a lecture in front of the blackboard of the classroom.
“…… What is this?”
The name of the class was design. The professor’s face also looked quite familiar.
Just as I was absentmindedly taking the class.
Then I realized.
“…….”
I was back on my first day of college.
That day.
It was the day when the genre of my story became a modern fantasy.
*
I came back to my room right after the class ended.
Click!
It was not until I unlocked the door that I realized I had returned to the past.
“I’m confused, but this miracle happened to me.”
The first thing I did when I came back to my room was to go to my website.
“I have to figure out my situation first.”
I went back in time by at least a decade.
I had to see what my past at this moment was like.
*Drumroll.*
I had been scrolling through the page to check all the postings on the homepage.
I sighed for a long time.
It was clear.
Today was the first day when I entered school.
–
Title: I finally enter school tomorrow.
Description: Good job preparing for art school. Now you can finally live like a normal human being.
You should go out and date, work at part-time jobs, and also, study hard.
Also, what kind of people are your classmates? Just being curious.
–
It was in the early 2000s.
It was a time when keeping a diary on the internet was popular nationwide, and I used to keep one for the times when I was bored.
Fortunately, this habit helped me figure out who I was as a person at the start of college.
“It really is like reading a time capsule.”
Okay.
I was extremely excited just because I entered university.
After passing those difficult entrance tests, I entered the prestigious Korean University, the Korean Academy of Arts.
Korean Academy of Arts, also known as Han Yewom.
It was a school famous for accepting only the best talents compared to many other art colleges.
I even entered the most competitive visual design department.
The joy of passing through a 200:1 ratioed competition was beyond words.
“It felt like I was the only protagonist in the entire world. In reality, I had only passed the qualifying round.”
Anyway, after I carefully read the contents of my online journal, I deleted the website.
“Black History Cut.”
Later on, I would forget the existence of this website, and as a result, my personal information would be stolen.
I’m glad I can sort it out before then.
After I finished this, I sat on the floor with my legs crossed and slowly looked back at my life in the past.
“What kind of person was I in the past?”
A single phrase came to my mind without even thinking much about it.
“…. A failed designer.”
It was one undeniable fact.
All my life, I’ve lived giving way to others or passing my opportunities to others.
I thought it was the key to living in this world and succeeding.
I was wrong. Looking at it now, I was just a pushover, nothing else.
But now that I have been given a second chance at life, I don’t plan to live like that anymore.
“This is a God-given opportunity. I can’t live like I used to.”
I intend to unravel the twisted thread that was my previous life nicely this time.
There was no need to think too much about when I should start.
I had to start today.
As the first step, I carefully reviewed the things that I had regretted in my previous life and the things I could have taken better care of.
Just then, a notebook and a pen on the other side of the desk caught my eye.
I picked it up and started scribbling on it.
“First, I need money. Money is the most important thing in Korean society no matter what you want to do.”
In my previous life, money always drove me.
I used to be a low-paid designer.
Star designers could raise their salaries to millions of wons and even rise to the position of company president, but that was not the case in my story.
A person who wasn’t even sure whether he will remain in the industry next year.
That was me.
“Whether you’re designing or whatever else you’re doing. You need money first!”
A way to make some money.
What ways could there possibly be?
“If it’s a way to gain money fast, there are things like lottery, stocks, and coins.”
Unfortunately, it was hard for me to make a profit through such methods.
As I was not interested in the lottery, I did not remember any winning tickets from the past.
For stocks, I know there were a few promising companies, but unfortunately, none of them were in the capital.
This wouldn’t be a thing to do for a college student who just came to Seoul.
“Coins may be the most obvious item for investment, but they become popular too far in the future.”
In conclusion, it was hard for me to do anything.
However, I had another weapon in my hands.
“I have over 10 years of design trends right there in my head.”
If not anything else, I was confident about this one thing.
What did I do in my previous life?
It was my job to analyze the popular designs that were in the market and then apply them to products.
And…
In modern society, good popular designs mean money.
“Even a half-baked company can easily earn hundreds of billions of wons if it can be the one to pioneer a new trend.”
More designs appeared in my head.
Wouldn’t this be a lot of money?
You can think about stocks after you make a lot of money!
‘Okay, well, first, I need to lay the groundwork for starting my design business. It’s better if I can find some investors first.”
Even for this, he didn’t need to go too far.
Korea’s leading art school, the Korean Academy of Arts.
This was the place where a genius designer of the past rolled around the lawn under the influence of alcohol.
Opportunities were all over the place and within reach.
“There was that senior who was scouted overseas for billions of wons after doing well in the school exhibition.”
The environment was as good as it gets.
It was the best environment to start a design business since the school also provided support for start-ups.
‘In my previous life, I only ever wanted to draw original designs. Damn, that was stupid.’
Now, my goals and background have been set.
So, what do I have to do to stand out here?
It started right inside my room.
‘The path to success.’
From college to job prep and working at the company, I wrote everything I remembered.
What I wrote on the first page was a task.
“Yes, it all started here.”
The first week after entering the university.
A few days later, all the visual design freshmen took one class.
It was nothing much.
This class, as a class of visual design and tradition, was a class that puts the life I had lived so far on a single sheet of paper.
It was a class called self-introduction.
“I need to stand out in it.”
The outstanding student at the time received an excellent offer from the professor, thanks to this specific class.
The presentation had to be impressive, unforgettable.
The professor was a star in his field who could be called the face of our department, and he used to pull out a few new freshmen from his self-introduction class every year and put them in his studio.
‘It was said that just by entering his studio, everything from part-time jobs to winning competitions and getting jobs would be open to you like an empty highway ready to be driven upon.’
In this department, students who entered his studio were often called Senggol.
Thanks to that, the first-year student, who had the information first, especially devoted their attention to this task.
Because I was absent from it, and because no one told me this, I lost a massive opportunity.
‘I won’t miss out on this life. No chance.’
Now, I’ll take my share.
Thinking so, I rubbed my eyes.
‘I’m getting tired.’
It had already been quite a few hours since I returned to my room and was planning everything out.
The sun was slowly setting outside.
However, I had no intention of falling asleep just yet.
‘How I spend my days now matters a lot more than it would in the future.’
You must show that your skills are superior to the other students.
That will be the new pillar of my life now.
‘I should at least draw a single design before going to sleep.’
But when I was about to sketch a new design, I suddenly got curious about something.
‘Come to think of it, how good were my drawing skills back then?’
How good were my skills during this period?
It was a good question to ask.
It didn’t matter if the Korean Academy of Arts was a place where geniuses from all over the country came. My skills didn’t drop that much compared to my prime.
However, they weren’t that outstanding.
‘A little better than average.’
The word genius, of course, was subjective.
Ordinary people call someone outside their area of understanding a genius, so in terms of that, of course, I was a genius.
People who entered the Academy were treated like dogs, cows, and geniuses.
However, even among geniuses, classes were divided.
In front of the authentic geniuses, I was repeatedly blocked going past them as if there was a wall in front of me.
The reason I worked so hard in my previous life might have been because of that sense of inferiority.
Of course, it’s not that the geniuses never worked hard, so the gap between him and them never closed.
‘… Still, I’ve been in this business for over 10 years. Maybe my skills might have improved.’
I needed to check my skills compared to the current era.
It just happened that there were many ways to check.
In my previous life, I drew pictures when I was bored.
At home, at work, at subways or cafes. Painting was like breathing to me.
So I carried a sketchbook every day, everywhere.
Several sketchbooks were lying around the room.
*Gulp*
I swallowed, feeling the tension, and picked one of them up.
Let’s take a moment to review it a bit.
‘….. Huh?!’
I was faced with an extremely unexpected situation.
Senggol – Also known as Holy Bone, it’s the name of the highest rank of the bone-rank system of aristocratic ranks used in the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla. It’s usually given to the earlier kings. So when the department calls the recruited students “Senggol”, they’re basically worshiping them as the king/queen of the department.