Chapter 200 – The Genius Who Sees Through the World (Finale)

***

Jinwoo was walking down an alley. That was only for a moment.

He inserted a key into the dilapidated gate in the alley, opened it, and entered.

A very small yard with a single flat bench.

The door leading to the room was also an old sliding door.

Creak.

As he pushed the door open, an astonishing sight unfolded.

Dozens of monitors were set up, and Jinwoo turned on the PC and connected a password-protected cell phone.

This was Shin Jinwoo’s hideout.

“Alright, shall we begin?”

Jinwoo’s fingers, interlaced and with his arms stretched out, began to move.

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

The keyboard made a cheerful sound, and numbers began to rapidly scroll across the monitor.

He was hacking into the locked cell phone.

Jinwoo crossed his legs and muttered lightly.

“The lock will be released soon.”

Jinwoo then shifted his gaze to another monitor.

He repeatedly fast-forwarded and rewound past CCTV footage, as if watching it.

And slowly nodded his head.

Four middle school students entered a building.

An hour later, a female student fell from the third floor, and five minutes after that, the three middle school students who had entered with her came out.

But their reaction was interesting.

Instead of quickly approaching to check if she was okay, they hesitated and showed a freeze response.

That reaction meant that the fallen female student could be a threat to them.

After a brief hesitation, one of the two made a call, and ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived.

-Ring.

Upon the notification that the hacking was complete, Jinwoo grabbed his cell phone.

This cell phone belonged to the female student among those shown on the screen.

Jinwoo meticulously examined the photo album and videos.

That was only for a moment.

He mumbled while looking at the numbers dominating the monitor screen.

“It seems like a few videos and photos have been deleted…”

Jinwoo smirked and brought his fingers back to the keyboard.

“I can just recover them.”

Had an hour passed since then?

Jinwoo put on a gown and pulled out the USB drive.

“The puzzle was easily put together…”

Jinwoo immediately left the hideout. No, he carefully opened the front door and looked around.

He didn’t know if Driver Jeong might be there, or if he might be looking for him with bodyguards.

Still, they would never know this place.

But only one person, his dad, might know.

Even if he destroyed all clues and left the country, his dad was the kind of person who would accurately track him down to that region.

“Even though he’s my dad, it still gives me goosebumps.”

Jinwoo rubbed his goosebump-covered arm and exited the alley.

***

What Jinwoo found was a 6-person hospital room.

At the end, there was a female student lying down, wearing a brace because she had fractured her foot.

There were several scratches on his face and his lips were chapped.

However, her pretty appearance could not be hidden.

Her name was Choi Seonhee, and she was the owner of the empty seat where chrysanthemums were placed in the classroom.

It wasn’t dead, it was just a prank on them.

And the guys sent the photo to Choi Seonhee.

As Jin-Woo placed the high-calcium supplement on the table, Choi Seonhee said with surprised eyes.

“you….”

Isn’t this Shin Jinwoo, who is rumored to be a nerd?

It was also very popular.

That’s why Jinwoo said,

I thought that ultimately what moves the world are people, and I realized from watching Dad that to understand people, you have to listen.

There, interpersonal relationships were essential,

If you listen to the other person and encourage them to tell their own story, that is where interpersonal relationships end.

If you listen carefully to the story, the other room will feel good towards you, and if you show a sincere reaction according to what the other person says, the effect is further amplified.

It’s like the feeling of smiling and accepting something when someone says something on a variety show.

It means reacting.

And in order to put these things into practice and have them, you must have a lot of knowledge.

If I know the other person’s interests, I can take the initiative by listening to the other person’s story.

But there was no need for Choi Seonhee.

“If your parents ask you to go eat something like beef bone because you have a fracture, it’s better to go eat something else. Anything that’s too salty is not good for your bones.”

“Why are you here….”

Shin Jinwoo, the class next to me.

“It’s just, what should I say….”

Jinwoo smiled slightly and continued speaking.

“They’ve been bothering me too.”

Choi Seonhee sat up and leaned back against the headboard.

She couldn’t understand what Jinwoo was talking about at all.

“Thinking about what you want to happen to them in the future is just a fantasy. You have to be proactive yourself. Neither you nor I, people weren’t born to be trampled on, were they?”

“Well…”

Jinwoo crossed his arms and shook his head.

“Excuses are a clear sign of powerlessness. Oh, that’s what I came to talk about. Everything that happens from today on is just a coincidence. There won’t be anything like this again. Miracles don’t happen either. So.”

Jinwoo grinned.

“From now on, fight on.”

After saying that, Jinwoo left the hospital room.

And the place he went to by taxi was a coffee shop.

It was a place where the kids often gathered.

As expected, two male students and two female students were sitting there, giggling and chatting.

“Hey, I seriously thought he was going to die!”

“Do people really die that easily?”

“But isn’t he going to report us?”

At her worried words, the male student grinned.

“Hey, didn’t you know Sohyun’s dad is a National Assembly Member?”

“Oh, right. Cheat code…”

“Jo Hyunah, did you find your cellphone?”

Lee Sohyun looked at her nails, turning them this way and that, and said.

“No. I have to buy one. It’s really annoying.”

Just then, a cellphone was suddenly held out.

“Looking for this?”

All four heads simultaneously looked up.

Shin Jinwoo was standing there.

Lee Sohyun asked, her eyes wide.

“Why do you have this?”

“I found it on the playground.”

“The playground?”

Lee Sohyun snatched the cell phone back. That action was fleeting, and she quickly smiled.

“Thanks, Jinwoo. I had a lot of pictures on it, so I was upset.”

“Really? I knew you would, so I even recovered the deleted ones.”

“Recov…ered?”

“Yeah. The videos too.”

Lee Sohyun’s eyes widened. At the same time, she quickly checked her cell phone.

The deleted video was indeed recovered.

Lee Sohyun touched the video as if to confirm.

-Go up on that railing over there, and walk to that point. Mask, I’ll send you home today.

-If I fall…

-It’s only the third floor.

-Hahaha! Look at him. He’s scared, he’s scared.

-Oh, he’s going up.

Jinwoo frowned as he watched Lee Sohyun, who was staring at the cell phone like a statue.

As time passed, bullying and ostracism, unlike before, transitioned to social media.

They were bullied even when they were apart, and made to react to notification sounds even when they were asleep.

How cruel that is, people who haven’t experienced it don’t know.

Then, Lee Sohyun’s head shot up quickly.

“You… this was just us playing around, and he climbed up himself and fell.”

“And Choi Seonhee poured the cola on her own head?”

Besides that picture, besides that video, there were many more.

“That was… a game! We lost in the game, so…”

“You’re all so childish, but I made plenty of copies. I’m taking them to the police station now, and I have an uncle who’s quite high-ranking.”

One of the male students, who had been silent, stood up.

“Hey, Shin Jinwoo, no matter how much money your mom has, you’re making a mistake right now. Don’t you know? Lee Sohyun’s dad is a National Assembly Member.”

Shin Jinwoo shook his head.

“Wow… I’m the same age as you guys, but how can every single one of your words be so childish and simple?”

“What did you say? Say it again.”

“Anyway, I’m leaving.”

Shin Jinwoo turned around and walked away.

Suddenly, Lee Sohyun frantically made a phone call somewhere.

As Shin Jinwoo exited the coffee shop, a man in a suit blocked his path.

“Who are you?”

“The Young Master of Shinhwa Group?”

Jinwoo scratched his head with one finger.

It was a label that followed him everywhere.

“So what if I am?”

“Our young lady said she has something to tell you quietly…”

Lee Sohyun was already outside.

Shin Jinwoo looked back and forth between the man in the suit and Lee Sohyun, then let out a chuckle.

“Will you get in?”

As the man in the suit opened the back door, Shin Jinwoo nodded and readily got into the car.

Lee Sohyun did the same.

Vroom-

As the car started, Shin Jinwoo asked,

“Where are we going?”

Just then, Lee Sohyun, sitting in the passenger seat, spoke up.

“If you pretend you didn’t see anything… money…”

She shut her mouth.

Considering his mom, money would be more than enough.

She spoke again.

“What do you want?”

“It’s a bit embarrassing to say something like this, like it’s from a cartoon, but for you all to pay for your sins?”

“I told you it was a prank.”

“It’s a world where people die from such pranks.”

At Jinwoo’s refusal to back down, Lee Sohyun bit her lip.

Then she put her cellphone to her ear.

“Dad….”

Shin Jinwoo couldn’t help but let out another chuckle.

And he tapped the console box next to him with his finger.

“Using a Dad Card, a cheat code, huh….”

***

Shin Jinwoo was sitting across from a man who appeared to be in his mid-50s in an office.

It was Lee Sohyun’s dad, National Assembly Member Jo Jeonghwan.

“So, you’re our Sohyun’s friend from the next class?”

“I’m not her friend.”

Shin Jinwoo’s confident tone as he drank orange juice made Jo Jeonghwan frown.

And then he said,

“The juice is bland.”

“From what I’ve heard, it seems you’re misunderstanding something.”

“It’s not a misunderstanding. I’ve reviewed the CCTV footage and personally checked the video saved on Lee Sohyun’s cellphone.”

He frowned and looked at his daughter, who was sitting as quiet as a mouse.

He reviewed the CCTV? That tiny little kid?

“Your name is… Shin Jinwoo?”

It wasn’t an unfamiliar name, but he couldn’t quite recall it.

“Jinwoo. Friends can work things out, and at your age, it’s normal to become close again.”

“I don’t really know about that. I want Lee Sohyun to be punished.”

His eyebrows twitched.

“Then your parents will really dislike it. You might end up in a difficult situation.”

“Is that what power is about?”

He slowly nodded, staring at Shin Jinwoo as if to devour him.

If this fact were to become known to the world, his political career could be over.

“Alright, before your parents get into real trouble, will you return the copy? I’ll also tell Sohyun to go apologize to Choi Seonhee, who fell because of the prank.”

Just then, a slight commotion was heard from outside.

Jinwoo spoke.

“Sohyun’s father. But do you know something?”

“What?”

“That Sohyun brought a bomb.”

That bomb was Shin Jinwoo himself.

“What nonsense…”

Suddenly,

The office door burst open and someone walked in.

“You can’t go in there!”

The secretary hastily followed, but the man who entered the office approached Shin Jinwoo and playfully ruffled Jinwoo’s hair.

The owner of that hand was none other than Woojin.

The National Assembly Member looked at Woojin with surprised eyes, and Woojin, who had calmly met the National Assembly Member’s gaze, opened his mouth.

“Anyone who touches my family…”

Shin Jinwoo felt his dad’s touch and opened his mouth as if to finish his dad’s sentence.

“Boom!”