‘So, where do we begin?’

‘At first, we will have to register for a cloud service. I hope this world has CodeEnvy.’

‘We are not going to use Android Studio like you did?’

‘With how weak your laptop is, it will probably have smoke coming out of it after we launch it.’

‘Well, in my defence, I just bought it second-hand only to use spreadsheets. I was not supposed to make games with it.’

‘I’m not blaming you. Although it’s a shame that we do not have access to a Macbook right now. We cannot really port our game to iOS without it.’

That… could be an issue. The original developer, Dong Nguyen, did release the game in the Apple Store in the beginning. What if one or more deviations causes their version of the game to become a failure?

‘...Min Seoyoung uses one, right? Maybe she will let us borrow hers?’

‘Maybe. But that is not possible while we are here at your home. We will have to go back, Sujin. We have been here for far too long.’

‘Yeah. Let’s just build the textures and stuff for now. Will we also be using the Mario rip-off textures for our Flappy Bird?’

‘With how scary the copyright rules are in this world, I’d prefer not.’

‘So… we will have to draw all the pixel arts from the beginning?’

‘Yes.’

‘...Fuck.’

Sujin was not happy with the news. Even though they settled on Flappy Bird because of how addictive people found it and how much the original developer was earning—before he got annoyed with all the attention and removed the game, there were a few contributing factors to the success of the game—or so the so-called analysts claimed—which Jason and Sujin lacked.

Dong Nguyen had been making games for a while, which earned him a little bit of a name—enough to have his twitter followers try out his new game and spread the word. Sujin and Jason, however, were nobodies. To light a bonfire, you needed a spark. They did not even have one fan to light up the spark. Not to even mention Pewdiepie.

Secondly, many people attributed the initial attention-grab on the game to the Mario-sque texture design, that supposedly provoked an nostalgia in the players and sparked an interest to try out the game. Jason was quite skeptical of this point, though. And he was not exaggerating about the copyright enforcement in this world. Things could go very wrong if they were not careful. So, they lost another advantage.

Thirdly, the game became popular on iOS. What if releasing it on Android first causes it to have not much of a success? Sujin was very much aware of the butterfly effect.

‘You are thinking too much. Well, the first one is the real issue here. The other two, however, will not really cause us much trouble.’

‘But what if—’

‘It’s pointless to sit down and do nothing but think about what ifs. It’s fine as long as it gets us even a fraction of what Nguyen earned. We can use that money to cover some of your debts, or at least invest in a good computer where we can build our game.’

Jason was not wrong. But still, how to go viral?

‘How to get viral? You have connections with so many artists. Can’t you just get one of them to promote it?’

‘If my company finds out it will be really bad for me. You know they are paid in millions for their advertisements, don’t you?’

‘Seriously, your company cannot be that much of a jerk, right? ...Right?’

Sujin’s silence answered everything. Jason could not help but sigh.

‘...Let’s just build the game for now.’

What else could they do anyway?

 

---

 

“I told you we should not have arranged this meeting!” Sujin’s grandmother shouted at her husband, who just pretended to read newspapers to hide his guilt, “now the girl is all cooped up in her room!”

“Mother’s right! She is only spending her time on her laptop to distract herself! She’s been like that for the last five days!” Sujin’s mother also shouted at her husband, who was equally guilty and was following his father’s footsteps of hiding behind another newspaper. Unfortunately, the one he had near him was yesterday's.

Chae Yeonha narrowed her eyes and snatched away her husband’s old newspaper. Without the shield of paper, Lee Beomseok and his guilty expression was completely exposed.

“Stop hiding like a co—”

“Mom! Dad! Grandpa! Grandma! Yoonah! Doyoon!”

They all stopped after hearing Sujin’s energetic voice and snapped their neck towards her room to see her come out of the door.

“S-Sujin? I-Is everything alright dear?” Chae Yeonha asked her anxiously.

“Everything’s fine! It’s just… I just wanted to say that I will be going back the day after tomorrow! Yoona has’t returned from their schools yet?”

“...What?” All of her family members asked in unison.

“I said that I will be returning to Gangnam tomorrow. I have been cooped up here for too long, any more and I will lose my job! LME is a big company and I am not exactly irreplaceable after all.”

“B-But Sujin, the doctor said—”

“If I am healthy enough to attend marriage interviews then I am healthy enough to continue my job as well,” said Sujin, sealing everyone’s mouth. What were they supposed to even say after that? Stay longer, till we arrange another marriage interview, which also has high odds of failure?

Doyoon approached her with a sad expression and signed, ‘do you really have to go?’

Sujin bent and patted her younger brother’s hair. “Doyoon. Noona has to do her job, right? If she doesn’t return, she will not be earning any money, right?”

‘Do you really have to do your job? Can’t you just stay with us?’ Doyoon signed in return, this time with tears in his eyes, ‘you almost died in your job, and only returned after so many years. Can’t you just stay with us forever? Is your job that important?’

Sujin pursed her lips. What was she supposed to tell him? She needed to earn money to cure him after all. And it was not just with the job she had. But she did not want to tell the young kid about these things, nor to her other family members. It would be super awkward.

Although, there was something she could do.

She grabbed the young boy’s hand and then took him to her room.

“Doyoon,” she handed him her mobile phone—with the Flappy Bird game she made. “Hey, wanna see something fun?”

The boy just tilted his head in return. Sujin said nothing and just clicked the game icon.

A white screen followed, with a stylish logo.

SJ Games.

At first, Sujin and Jason wanted to have some other cool name, but settled on just those two letters. On first glance, it would seem to be the initials of her name. Su Jin.

It actually meant Sujin and Jason. They were one being now, after all—and this was their new journey.

 

Their new beginning.

 

Then there was the familiar screen. Sujin and Jason had to make the textures from scratch, to avoid any unnecessary risk. She at first showed Doyoon how to play the game. Doyoon then tried.

And then failed to pass the first two stalagmites—they had replaced the Mario pipes with rocky stalagmites, with the background image to that of a pixel art forest.

Doyoon got annoyed and tried again.

This time he failed again.

He tried again.

He passed three rocks, then crashed.

Again.

This time he passed six.

Sujin grinned and then asked him, “how is it? Is it fun?”

He looked into her eyes and signed, ‘it is trash.’

She still grinned, “but you still feel like trying one more time, right?”

Doyoon, to his annoyance, nodded.

Sujin continued, “see? This is the exact reason why I made it, you know?”

Doyoon just stared at her for a few minutes. Then he signed, ‘you’re lying.’

She raised an eyebrow, “oh really now. What did you think that SJ in the beginning screen meant?”

This time, he actually was shocked. That really was too much to be a coincidence, right?

“So? Do you believe me now, o non-believer?”

Doyoon, for the first time in a while, actually felt excitement. He shakily signed, “are you really the one who made it?”

Sujin nodded. “So, how is the game?”

Her younger brother this time did not criticize the game. ‘It's fun,’ signed the little boy. She just raised her eyebrow at the sudden 180 of her brother’s opinion. Not that she minded.

“You see, Doyoon, Noona is thinking about making lots of fun games and earning lots of money,” Sujin thought revealing at least this much wouldn’t hurt, “she cannot really do that here, at home. She was only able to make this small game with her cheap laptop, see? Your Noona has to go back to the big city, so she can find more powerful computers and make bigger and more exciting games.”

Well, she was not wrong. When they would really get into making games, having permanent machines would be cheaper in the long run. But at first she needed to gain back her stable income and start smart.

“So, will you please let Noona go?” She pleaded.

Doyoon just stared downward for a while, then he signed, ‘...promise that you will return home to see us regularly.’

Sujin patted his head and nodded. “You also have to promise something. You will not tell anything about my making games to the others for now, okay? This will be our little secret, okay?”

He nodded in affirmative. Although he wanted to brag about his sister to others, he would keep his promise. Good boys always keep their promises.

“Okay then, lets go—”

Sujin suddenly saw Doyoon look towards the door. ‘Yoonah Noona is back from school,’ he signed.

“Oh, she returned? I need to say goodbye to her too—wait, how do you she’s back?” She just stared at her brother.

‘She has a different vibration pattern and rhythm,’ the boy signed.

Sujin just stared dumbfoundedly at him, while Jason curiously asked, “v-vibration pattern? Rhythm?”

‘Yes. I can feel her movement through my feet. It is harder while wearing shoes though. Oh, she’s coming to this room.’

 

‘...Jason? Analysis.’

‘...Cannot compute, Mam.’

 

A few seconds later, just as Doyoon said, Yoonah entered the room.

“So you are finally going back,” the girl sneered, “good thing I won’t have to see your face in the morning anymore.” She then loudly shut the door and went away.

Sujin and Jason were still trying to process what happened.

‘So, we have a possible time traveller, whatever the fuck we are supposed to be, and now Toph as a little bro. Please don’t tell me we will be chased around by some shady secret society or evil organization. Or aliens will open a portal to Earth.’

‘Don’t jinx it. Please.’

 

---

 

“Sujin! Come back whenever you feel like it!”

“Yeah! You are our daughter and our door will always be open for you! Don’t ever forget that!”

Sujin waved goodbye at them before getting on the train—looking back to see her parents and siblings for the last time.

They did want to give her a ride back in their car, but Sujin insisted on going back on the train. There was no point in wasting fuel, and her father—who was the only one other than Sujin capable of driving—needed to attend to his struggling business as well.

It was time to go back to work.

 

‘Your parents are kind.’

‘They are.’

‘My parents were never there for me when I needed them.’

‘...’

‘You better cherish them.’

‘Hm. I will. Always.’

 

The train finally started to move. She looked outside the window to see all the trees flashing past. In just one or two hours, she will be back to the dorm she shared with two junior trainees. Before that, she will be staying with Kim Chunja for a day with Nam Jiyeon joining them for a sleepover as well. They would be directly receiving her from the station. She had already informed them of her arrival, and they were ecstatic for her return as well. They were itching to hear about the marriage meeting drama from her in person. Pricks, both of them.

‘Just how real friends are supposed to be.’

Sujin snorted in return.

 

---

 

After an hour or so, Sujin finally got out of the train to look for her friends, and found them soon enough.

“Sujin!”

“Sujiiin!!!”

“Ouph!”

Sujin tried to get out of the bear hug she received from her friends.

“We missed you~”

“Right~”

“S-Stop...y-you’re suffo… cating… me...”

Her pleas were unheard as the girls started to rub their cheeks with hers.

‘As a guy I would probably be in cloud nine, but I don’t ever want to feel like dying again. Please stop them.’

‘I’m trying!’

After two whole minutes, they finally released her. Sujin started to gasp for air.

“We have a car ready outside,” Jiyeon said.

“Let me carry the luggage,” Chunja took the luggage from her hands and started moving on her own, “but you better tell us everything that happened after we went to our house.”

“Sure.”

 

---

 

“That bastard!”

“Seriously! He wanted to push everything on you because he couldn’t open his mouth in front of his parents?!”

Sujin took a sip from her cup of coffee, and closed her eyes in content. It was totally because of how delicious the coffee was, and it totally had nothing to do with the fact that she sometimes found it hard to not ogle her two friends who were in their pajamas and tank tops. Damn that Jason.

“Aww~ poor girl~” They both hugged her again, this time rather softly. Damn, they smelled—

‘Normal. They smell normal. You hear that, Jason?’

‘Yep, I heard. Sorry, I guess your friends somehow cross our... tolerance threshold. They were your teammates after all. They had to be pretty enough to get selected.’

‘How the hell am I supposed to work in the industry then? There we will always be surrounded by hot men and women. I don’t want to appear as a creep to everyone!’

‘Why would we appear as a creep? We are functioning adults, not hormone-raging teenagers. You are only feeling self-conscious because you do not know how to deal with the changes my existence brought. Just… accept the changes and move on.’

‘...I’m trying.’

“...Did you actually do it?” Jiyoen asked.

“Hell nah. I just asked him why I would make myself appear as the bad guy for his sake.”

“Yeah!”

“You go girl!”

“And he said that he’d owe me a favor if I actually did as he said.”

“The audacity of that bitch!”

“Seriously!”

“And then I asked him to show me the photo of the girl for whom he asked me to make a fool out of myself.”

“...Okay?”

“I would’ve just thrown my coffee on his face, but I guess you had the right to know,” Chunja asked, “so, did he show you?”

“Yep, he did,” Sujin said, “after all, I did say that I will tell my decision after he showed me his lover.”

“So, what did you say?” Jiyeon and Chunja both asked. “Well, I just asked him one last question.”

“What?” They asked again as they sipped their coffee.

“Oh, nothing special. I just asked him whether I would get to have threesomes with his lover if I married him.”

Sujin saw her friends snorting out coffee out of their mouths while coughing. 

“...What the fuck?”

“S-Sujin, w-what—”

Sujin just saw her friends staring dumbfoundedly at her. Oh boy. They had questions.

“Well, the guy then freaked out and ran to his momma to cancel the marriage,” she said while smirking.

It took both Jiyeon and Chunja a few seconds to realize what happened. Jiyeon snorted first, then Chunja. Soon they all started laughing, with tears coming out of their eyes.

“Hahahahaha… I can’t even! Hahahaha—”

“Seriously, Sujin! How in the world did that even come to your head?! Hahahahaha—”

Sujin also grinned after seeing her friends laugh their asses off.

“But seriously,” Jiyeon said after wiping her tears, “did that guy really run away after hearing that? That’s just fucking hilarious!”

“No kidding,” Chunja said, “I mean, if a guy said that he would marry me so he could fuck my boyfriend, I would—” her smile faltered for a moment, remembering how the bastard swindled her. But she decided to let it go for this moment. It was time to be merry and all. “Damn, I would have totally agreed. I’d have probably filmed it in HD as well.”

Jiyeon gave her a judging stare for a moment, then she grinned as well. “Hell, you might as well have gotten a strap-on for yourself and started pegging him! Hahahahaha—”

Sujin’s lips twitched to see her friends start spouting all sorts of dirty stuff. Now this was a bunch of girl-almost-hitting-30’s night out. Ouch.

“But the guy just ran away. I guess we do tend to stereotype boys a bit too much,” Chunja said.

“Well, many guys probably would’ve been on cloud nine after hearing that,” Sujin continued, “but he was fortunately not one of them. Well, too bad,” Sujin suddenly pulled both of her friends who were hugging her to her arms, “the guy missed a golden chance to have two beauties in his arms, and now I’m taking it.” She then snorted.

Jiyeon snorted in return. Chunja just smiled and started doing fake cooing noises.

“Ah~ my heart is getting stolen~ what a sinful mistress~”

Then they all started to laugh.

Soon they found themselves to be drinking like crazy, and singing, and dancing, and… just be merry. 

Sujin just grabbed Chunja’s guitar from the corner and started to sing a song from Jason’s memories. Soon an upbeat melody filled the room.

 

I come home, in the morning light

My mother says "When you gonna live your life right?"

Oh momma dear, we're not the fortunate ones

And girls, they wanna have fun

Oh girls just wanna have fun…

 

Jiyeon and Chunja were a bit too drunk and in the mood to just question where the song came from. And it’s not like they knew about all the existing English songs, did they? After all, it was time to have fun, not ruin it. So they sang, and danced.

 

Girls’ sleepovers were just the best.

 

---

 

The next morning, Jiyeon and Chunja saw their friend off to her office.

“Okay girls, after I’m done with whatever job they give me, we are meeting up at the usual, right?” Sujin asked.

“Sure, the bossman has also taught me a few new cocktail blends,” Jiyeon replied.

“Mm,” Sujin licked her lips, “I can’t wait till the evening then. See ya later!”

“Bye!”

“Bye!”

 

Both of the girls stared at Sujin entering the office building with a confident smile.

“Hey, Jiyeon?”

“Hm?”

“Something’s changed about her, hasn’t it?”

“Hm. She is much more jolly and confident than I’ve ever seen her. Not to mention her ways of approaching things… might have changed as well. Are you worried?”

“Worried? Nah! This is probably the happiest I’ve seen her in a long time. I am really liking this new Sujin.”

“Me too. I feel like the days forward are going to be much fun from now on.”

“Yep! ...By the way, do you know what song she played last night?”

“...Nope. Never heard of it before. It was fun though. Maybe I should just upload the video I recorded and ask the others.”

“Oh, you recorded it? Wait, please don’t tell me you streamed it?! I was wearing a tanktop in that!” Chunja started to panic.

“I didn’t, I’m not that stupid,” Jiyeon assured her, “I ain’t uploading it without proper revision and editing. But damn, I really want to upload it. I get the feeling it will be viral!”

“No, Jiyeon! I will not allow it!”

“Eh? Why not? It’s not like we were completely naked? We have been in more skimpy outfits during our background dancer days.”

“This and that is different! I will not allow it!”

“Oh? Seeing you resist makes me want to do it more~”

“PLEASE STOP!!!”

 

---

 

Oblivious of the playfight her two friends were having outside, Sujin was facing a different type of drama.

“Sorry, Miss Lee Sujin. A different manager has already been assigned to Min Seoyoung. We cannot keep her shoots on hold forever, after all,” said President Kim Jooah, who was ranked right after the CEO.

She deflated after hearing the news. She was kind of expecting it to happen though. At least she still had her job. But she did not know anyone other than Seoyoung who used a MacBook. Well, it was not time to get disheartened. For now, she decided to see what happened.

“Um, so, uh… President Kim, have I been assigned to someone else, then?” She asked.

“Not yet. For now, you have been assigned to desk jobs under the supervision of Team Leader Sung Jinwoo,” the stern old lady replied.

“Ooh! I will be working for Team Leader—wait, when did he get another promotion?”

“Just a few days ago. He personally requested you to work under him. Consider yourself really lucky, Sujin. There are others who would kill to work under him.”

“T-Thank you!”

Well, that was not so bad—working under the great Midas Hand.

She hoped he had a MacBook—and maybe he also knew about future stock prices and lottery tickets.