Having spent all the funds earned from selling the license to Microsoft, Jaesung was focusing on school life for a while, enjoying a well-deserved break.
Though he had no experience spending school days in an American middle school, having attended university and graduate school in America, he adapted quickly.
Perhaps because it was a prestigious private middle school in Seattle, where average income was high, there were no particularly odd students, and the 7th-grade boys, who hadn’t fully outgrown being little kids, often showed elementary school-like behaviors that made Jaesung smile like a dad.
VROOOOM~~~
A boy made car sounds while sprinting down the school hallway, and other kids imitated police sirens while chasing him.
“O.J. Simpson is innocent.”
“He ran away, so he must have done something wrong.”
The kids were playing, imitating the recent O.J. Simpson chase that had shaken America.
Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend were murdered, and based on various evidence at the scene, O.J. Simpson was presumed the culprit.
The prosecution requested Simpson to appear, but he notified them he would attend after the ex-wife’s funeral.
However, O.J. left a letter to his friend saying he had nothing to do with his ex-wife’s death and disappeared.
When he didn’t comply with the appearance order, the LAPD issued an emergency wanted notice, and two days later, the famous Ford Bronco chase occurred.
Simpson’s chase interrupted the broadcast of the 1994 NBA Finals midway, watched by 95 million people, causing a nationwide sensation.
This incident shook the entire United States, and for good reason: O.J. Simpson was the top football player in the 70s when racial discrimination still lingered, the first black person in America to shoot ads for major corporations.
By showing that blacks could rise to the mainstream in America if they excelled in their field and showed good manners, contributing to somewhat elevating the social status of blacks, the impact of this incident involving O.J. Simpson was enormous.
“James, do you think O.J. is the culprit?”
Michael, one of the few black students at school, approached Jaesung and asked what he thought about the incident.
“I do think so, but seeing the dream team of lawyers he hired this time, it seems he’ll be found not guilty.”
“I think he’s innocent. Probably the police misunderstood.”
Numerous pieces of evidence pointed to him as the culprit, but the incredibly expensive team of lawyers would make him not guilty.
They claimed the blood at the crime scene was sprinkled by police after collecting Simpson’s blood to frame him, and insisted the latex gloves with both Simpson’s and victims’ blood at the scene weren’t his.
Though identical latex gloves worn on the right hand were found at Simpson’s house, they muddled the argument by saying since he was left-handed, probabilistically it didn’t make sense.
Decisively, when Simpson tried on the gloves found at the crime scene in court, the old, blood-soaked, shrunken, and hardened gloves didn’t fit his large hands, playing a crucial role in the not guilty verdict.
It’s still an era with romanticism that doesn’t trust DNA testing as an unverified new technology.
Simpson’s case ends in not guilty, but it becomes the trigger to change all forensic and police investigation protocols afterward.
Investigations are still rudimentary, but analyzing this case leads to rapid development of scientific investigation methods, which was ironic.
While the entire America was noisy with the O.J. Simpson case, Jaesung was leisurely enjoying his prestigious middle school life.
Math and science classes were too easy, so he spent time writing program algorithms, but unexpectedly, classes like American history and English literature were fun.
The textbooks were too easy, but for Jaesung, learning American history, geography, and English literature for the first time, it was at an appropriate level and important common knowledge for future life in America.
Since it was interesting, he finished the textbooks in two days, but there were advanced books too, absorbing various knowledge related to America.
“I was worried about attending middle school, but it’s much more fun than I thought.”
Classes were too easy, and kids were childish, but there were advantages that offset all disadvantages.
In American schools, arts and physical education activities were valued besides studying, and since it was a very expensive private school, there were things hard to learn at other schools.
“Smith! You can’t just swing the stick. You have to use your waist, shoulders, and thighs to hit the ball. Visualize the ball’s position not just with eyes but in your mind while swinging the stick. James learns quickly.”
The sport Jaesung chose was not representative American football or basketball, but horseback riding.
The school even had horses and stables, and kids could wear riding outfits and learn riding skills.
In middle school, they learned basic equestrian skills, and upon advancing to the attached high school, they could learn the next level of sports.
Now, to build foundations for sports learned in high school, they trained by sitting on horse saddles placed on logs and hitting balls similar to billiard balls on the floor with sticks.
“Polo is a very dangerous sport, so if you don’t master the basics, you can’t participate in matches. Only a few of you will become players, so do your best.”
The school was teaching polo, known as a true aristocratic sport.
The upper class enjoyed tennis more than golf, which couldn’t be done without money, and really wealthy men chose polo, which ordinary people found hard to approach.
Since polo is played on horseback, it’s dangerous, and if you swing the stick wrong and hit the horse’s leg, the expensive horse becomes horse meat.
With four people per team, polo requires horses to run around, needing an enormous field; official fields boast the size of nine soccer fields combined, 150x270m.
“A man who plays polo not as a job but as a hobby—total badass.”
With a middle schooler’s body but an adult mind accustomed to the taste of capitalism, Jaesung chose polo to explode his hidden vanity.
Still in the basic stage of learning horseback riding, but this too gave considerable satisfaction.
Though he had to wear somewhat comical riding outfits, thanks to his elegant appearance even at a young age, he looked like a prince from the East.
Perhaps because of that, female students who entered secondary sexual characteristics faster than boys eyed Jaesung sparklingly and drooled, but being young, they didn’t approach actively.
Since Jaesung usually maintained top grades and received teachers’ favor, he had become somewhat of an idol even as an Asian.
Thus enjoying unexpectedly pleasant middle school life, and the invested companies were steadily growing.
He visited Amazon.com almost every day, watching the preparation process and occasionally helping with simple coding.
For Yahoo at Stanford in far San Francisco, he couldn’t visit directly but often called, sharing current situations and issues.
“Do you know how many investors have come since you visited? They definitely smelled money. Most are small amounts, but some offered more than you.”
“That’s how investment works. When everyone knows, it’s already late. And though I got shares early, I’m providing development ideas.”
“Well, that’s what they say. Lately, I don’t even have time to code; people keep coming, maybe that’s why I’m stressed. Strangely, I end up complaining to a middle schooler like you.”
Jeremy Yang and Dave Filo were having hectic days as Yahoo started receiving real attention.
Though Jaesung invested first and got many shares at a good price, he didn’t just take shares and wipe his mouth.
Whenever website issues arose, he gave appropriate hints to solve them and slightly broke through stuck walls.
But to avoid changing the future by making too superior a search engine, he proceeded in a direction only slightly improved, not greatly deviating from original Yahoo functions.
In Pixar’s case with Steven Jobs, calling carelessly could lead to hearing bad words from stressed him, so he planned to meet directly when going to San Francisco with dad.
“Dad. When is the next conference? No plans to go to San Francisco?”
“This seminar is decided to be at our school. They come here, so I don’t need to go.”
San Francisco, full of undiscovered gold mines, but as a middle schooler, Jaesung couldn’t go alone.
The reason he could endure was the unexpectedly fun school life and lack of money to invest. He couldn’t go to San Francisco right away, but dad said there would be a trip next month.
It’s about time to earn money again.
To ride the dot-com bubble, bullets were needed, and Jaesung was making a program in the garage that would earn money.
The issue was how to sell this program, but opportunity came easier than thought.
“James, Jenny. Hi!”
“Ron. Doing well?”
Jaesung, following mom to Starbucks for a white chocolate frappuccino, then came to Costco for shopping.
Most shopping for dad’s Korean ajusshi taste was at the Korean mart, but to fill the meal amounts for growing Jaesung and Jaeeun, they went to Costco twice a week.
He hadn’t seen store manager Walter since, but Ron, pulling pallet jacks around the store, often greeted and became friendly.
“I’m diligently organizing the warehouse to become a future CEO. What scheme is the genius boy from Korea plotting lately?”
“Lately, I’m making various inventory management programs based on Excel.”
“Excel? What’s that?”
“It’s a program future CEOs must know. Excel is truly a magical tool that changes efficiency in all company work.”
In his previous life, running an AI startup embodying cutting-edge technology, ironically, Jaesung became closer with Excel.
Large companies naturally use Excel, but in small and medium enterprises, it’s no exaggeration to say the company runs on Excel.
Proud as somewhat of an Excel function expert, Jaesung was sincere about Excel, even watching the World Excel Championship, a kind of E-sports.
The last final I saw had the theme of optimizing the most efficient way to play World of Warcraft.
He recalled fondly watching the breathtaking 7-hour match where finalists received statistical data on game characters’ weapons, currency, experience, etc., and organized data.
Excel believer Jaesung, recalling the infinite world creatable with Excel, made a rapt expression, and Ron shook his head, muttering geniuses are incomprehensible.
“Hey. Ron. What are you doing here?”
“Walter, store manager, I’m discussing with James the essential program ‘Axel’ for running a company.”
“It’s Excel, not Axel.”