The neon lights of the city flickered through the rain-streaked windows of the cramped internet café, casting a cold, artificial glow over Song Jin-Woo's weary face. His eyes, bloodshot and hollow, stared unblinkingly at the computer screen before him. Outside, the ceaseless hum of a metropolis never sleeping echoed faintly—the distant wail of sirens, the blaring horns of impatient drivers, the footsteps of strangers oblivious to the broken man sitting alone in this dim sanctuary.
Not long ago, Jin-Woo had a life filled with promise. Born into a family with influence and wealth, he was supposed to inherit a legacy built on power and success. His sharp mind had propelled him through university and into a career in finance, where he tasted a future of riches and prestige. He had dreams, plans, a life mapped out in confident strokes.
But everything had collapsed.
The economy plunged like a plummeting star, devouring fortunes overnight. Stock markets crashed, companies folded, and families like his were reduced to rubble. Jin-Woo's name, once whispered with respect in boardrooms and social circles, vanished beneath waves of unemployment and despair.
He was left with nothing but regret.
Tonight, like many nights before, he found refuge in the flickering glow of this internet café, hiding from the world that had turned its back on him. His hands hovered over the keyboard but didn't type. Instead, he scrolled through grim headlines that reflected his own shattered reality:
"Economic Meltdown: Millions Lose Jobs""Families Destroyed by Market Collapse""The Rise and Fall of a Financial Giant"
The words blurred together, sinking into Jin-Woo's heart like cold knives.
"Where did I go wrong?" he whispered, voice barely audible over the din. He thought about the investments he'd made, the risks he'd taken, the opportunities he'd ignored. Each memory was a chain tightening around his chest.
Behind him, a few students hunched over their books, preparing for exams he'd long since passed. Once, he had been one of them—eager, ambitious, filled with hope.
Now, he was nothing but a shadow.
The café door creaked open, letting in a gust of cold air. Jin-Woo barely noticed. His mind was trapped in a loop of failure and loss.
Suddenly, a scream shattered the quiet.
Jin-Woo snapped his head up.
Across the street, a young girl, no older than fifteen, stepped onto the crosswalk without looking. Her eyes were glued to her phone, oblivious to the world around her.
From the corner, a car sped recklessly, its headlights a blur in the rain-soaked night.
"Hey! Watch out!" Jin-Woo shouted, rising before he even realized it.
Adrenaline surged, overriding years of fatigue. Without hesitation, he dashed toward the street.
Time slowed.
The girl's foot hovered inches from the pavement as the car hurtled forward.
Jin-Woo's arms reached out instinctively, pushing her backward.
The screech of tires filled the air.
Metal slammed into flesh.
Pain exploded through Jin-Woo's body—a violent collision that sent him flying backward, the world spinning into darkness.
When he came to, the light was harsh and sterile.
A beep rhythmically echoed through the silence.
His limbs felt foreign, smaller, weaker.
Panic clawed at his chest as he forced his eyes open.
White walls surrounded him. A hospital room.
Jin-Woo's breath hitched as he turned his head toward a calendar taped to the wall.
September 15, 14 years ago.
The words burned into his vision.
He was back.
Back in his teenage body.
Back before the crushing weight of debt, despair, and death.
He swallowed hard, his mind racing.
Every memory of his future—the mistakes, the heartbreak, the opportunities lost—flooded through him with crystal clarity.
It was a second chance.
A reset.
Jin-Woo's fingers trembled as he clenched his fists.
"I'm not the same person," he told his reflection in the windowpane, faint and pale as it was.
"I remember everything."
Every exam question. Every stock trend. Every secret strategy that would make or break lives.
His heart pounded fiercely with a fire that hadn't burned in years.
"This time, I won't just survive," he vowed, voice low but fierce. "I'll rise. I'll become the legend I was meant to be."
The room seemed to shrink around him, yet a strange calm settled inside. Jin-Woo's past self was a boy on the brink of the dreaded college entrance exam—a hurdle that had felt insurmountable before.
Now, with fourteen years of knowledge and experience, he was armed with the ultimate weapon: foresight.
He could rewrite history.
The days that followed were a whirlwind of adjustment.
Jin-Woo had to navigate the familiar halls of his high school, the classrooms filled with faces both new and painfully familiar. Teachers who had once been distant authorities now looked at him with a mix of curiosity and expectation.
But Jin-Woo's mind was elsewhere.
While his classmates crammed and stressed over the upcoming exams, he studied with the precision of a man who had lived the consequences of failure firsthand.
He devoured textbooks not for grades, but to perfect his understanding.
He scribbled notes in margins, calculated strategies for investments that he knew would explode years down the line.
At night, he poured over financial news, stock market trends, and economic forecasts—looking for the moments when empires would fall and fortunes would be made.
Yet beneath his calm exterior, a storm brewed.
Jin-Woo knew the road ahead wouldn't be easy.
There were rivals—classmates with ambitions as sharp as his own, teachers who doubted him, and a society that valued youth and connections above all else.
More than that, he carried the burden of knowledge: the future was not set in stone.
His actions could create new paths, but also new dangers.
And he was determined to face them all.
One evening, as Jin-Woo walked through the narrow alleys near his home, he paused beneath a flickering streetlamp.
Rain began to fall softly, a gentle reminder that even new beginnings carried uncertainty.
He pulled his collar tight against the chill and whispered to himself:
"No more mistakes. No more regrets."
But before he could take another step, his phone buzzed sharply in his pocket.
He glanced down — an unknown number.
The message that lit up the screen sent a chill down his spine:
"You don't remember me, but I've been waiting. Meet me at midnight. There's something you need to see — something that will change everything."
Jin-Woo's heart pounded.
Who could it be? And what was waiting for him in the shadows?
His second chance was just beginning, but the past wasn't done with him yet.