"10 more minutes..." Minjoo says while vigorously shaking her legs.

She was currently in her last class of the day. It was nearing the end of the spring semester, and Minjoo was currently finishing up her calculus exam. However, as much as she is usually dead set focused on integrating whatever function is on the paper, her mind was only on one thing, and she needed to finish this exam as soon as possible to head back to her dorm.

Today is the day.

Today is when she receives a status update on her application to Sandbox.

Sandbox is a startup accelerator located in the center of Seoul, commonly dubbed as the "Silicon Valley" of South Korea. Getting into Sandbox essentially guarantees all the business that are accepted future success, riches, fame, whatever you can think of. 

That was the dream and ultimate goal for the second year university student. She has always dreamt of starting a business that would help out others to carry out the vision that her father has always wanted. Today was the day she finds out whether she was a worthy candidate of travelling to Sandbox over the summer. 

Finishing up the final problem on the exam, she quickly gathers her belongings and hands in the paper to her professor while dashing outside of the lecture hall, earning her confused stares from her peers. 

She sprints as fast as she can to her dorm and makes sure Yuri and the others are there to check the update with her. 

Rushing into her room, she finds her friends Yuri, Dongsoo, Nako, Sakura, and Yujin already pacing around the dorm, alarmed by the girl's sudden and quite loud entrance.

Minjoo quickly greets her friends and rushes to her desk, getting her laptop out of her bag as soon as possible and logging into the device. 

With all of her friends surrounding her up close to the laptop huddled around each other. When Minjoo finally logs into her google account, she sees a notification on her email from the official Sandbox account. Taking a deep breath, she turns around to face her friends. 

"Ok...this is it." She says in a nervous tone.

Yuri holds her hands as she can sense the other girl's obvious nervousness, but honestly, they were all nervous to see whether or not their dream would actually be one that has the chance to be turned into reality. 

"Come on Minjoo, it's going to be okay. I think our application was pretty good, and...no matter what happens we can always apply again next time." Yuri ensures her friend.

Minjoo takes one more deep breath and turns her chair around to her laptop.

"Alright, I'm opening it. In 3...2...1..." 

 

*OFFICIAL SANDBOX NOTIFICATION*

CONGRATULATIONS!!

You have passed Phase 1 of successfully entering Sandbox. Applicants receiving this email will be invited to the Sandbox headquarters in Seoul for further evaluation by mentors and competitions with other teams. Those who are able to succeed past Phase 3 will be awarded their own office at Sandbox and investment offers by their mentors and other angel investors. Please read the PDF provided below in full detail for more information regarding Phase 2 at Sandbox. Congratulations once again.

 

Minjoo stares at the email for 5 seconds before turning around to her friends with wide eyes. They all look at each other in disbelief before Yujin finally shouts, "WE DID IT!!", causing mass chaos within the friend group as they cheer and yell in a celebratory manner. 

While her friends are jumping around in the room, Minjoo looks back at the email with a large smile. She thinks about Halmoni and how proud she'll be once she finds out. She thinks about her mother and her sister Hyunjin, how much her petty side wants to rub it into their face that she succeeded. Lastly, she thinks about her father, how proud he'd be that she followed his lessons all this time. If he were here today, he would celebrate with Minjoo's favorite fried chicken once again.

She makes a plan of surprising Grandmother later today once she moves back in with her for the time being during the summer. She was excited to go back to her childhood home once again, especially now that Grandmother would most likely make her world famous hot dogs and radish wrap. 

Speaking of radish wrap, she thinks about Ssamu again. The person behind the letters, her first love. She wonders how Ssamu is doing nowadays and if she'll ever be able to find them. 

"WAH! I can't believe we're going to Sandbox, Minjoo do you think we'll be able to meet the Kim Chaewon?" Yujin interrupts her thoughts.

"Who's Kim Chaewon?" She asks with a confused face. 

This earns a gasp from her friends. 

"Well first off, Kim Chaewon is the woman that Yujin has been absolutely obsessed with, but honestly who isn't obsessed with her? She's known to be the youngest future CEO of Soko AI, graduated from Seoul National University at such a young age, and duh, a multi-millionaire at this point with her genius investments." Dongsoo explains to her. 

"She's really pretty Minjoo I think you'd like her!" Nako tells her, earning another groan from the friend group, causing Nako to be confused. "Huh?"

Yuri rolls her eyes before explaining to the shorter girl, "Don't even think about it Nako. Minjoo has had her eyes on this Ssamu person that wrote her letters all those years ago. Everytime someone would ask Minjoo for a single date, she'd find a reason why they're not like Ssamu. It's always Ssamu Ssamu Ssamu."

Minjoo crosses her arms and pouts. Who can blame her for constantly thinking about her first love? Ssamu was the one who comforted her during the hellish period of her life, one that still sometimes haunts her to this day. 

Once Ssamu stopped writing to her, Minjoo has been wondering if she could ever find the face behind her first love. Perhaps one day Ssamu would somehow contact her or show up and ask for her hand in marriage, but it only remains as a thought and a sense of hope that Minjoo has kept with her since she was 13. Even Halmoni gets sick of hearing about Ssamu, but she tolerates Minjoo's rambles because....well it's Minjoo. 

The group goes out to eat for a celebratory dinner and goes their separate ways at the university to back their things for the summer. The next day, Minjoo says her momentary goodbyes and gets on the bus back to her childhood home. 

Once Minjoo gets off the bus to Grandmother house, she takes in the scenery while walking. It was a beautiful day, and although it was already summer, the cherry blossoms were still in full bloom and falling to the ground elegantly. 

No matter how much time has passed, it seems that nothing has changed around the home, and Minjoo wanted it to stay that way forever.

However, she was too lost in her thoughts to notice a car about 2 feet away from running her over. The loud honk shocks her.

"Crazy girl! Watch where you're going!" She gets yelled at by a girl in a Tesla vehicle. From what she could see in her seat, the girl was wearing a professional blazer with a watch, pure black hair with bangs close to her eyes, before Minjoo steps aside and bows to apologize.

The woman doesn't leave easily though like Minjoo thought she would. She stares at the woman who looks at her with wide eyes, and if Minjoo was being honest, the girl was quite pretty. She doesn't know why she was giving that look though, but before she could ask, the woman drove past her quickly. 

Who is she calling a crazy girl....

She didn't have to be so rude to her. She was also confused as to why the woman was looking at her like that? Shaking her head at the encounter with the obnoxious woman, she keeps going forward and pouts.

Whatever, she wouldn't let an arrogant woman be ruin her exceptional summer. This was the summer that everything would change, and Minjoo was determined to do it for herself to prove her mother and sister wrong. And finally, to make Grandmother and her late father proud. 

"Halmoni! Halmoni!" She opens the door and runs to her grandmother and hugs her tightly. She sees the hot dogs and radish wrap waiting for her, but she also notices a plate with some crumbs right next to hers. 

"Huh? Did you eat some without me Halmoni?" She teases the older woman.

"Ahhh...that. Well, an old friend of mine came over and ate some food. Um, anyways, how was the spring semester Minmin?" She guides her granddaughter to the table as she feasts on the food.

"Mm, it was great Halmoni. I have a surprise for you." Minjoo says with a mouthful and opens her laptop.

She opens an email and hands it over to Grandmother, waiting for her reaction with a smile. Grandmother squints at the email and reads it, before realizing what it meant, and she jumped up off the floor and cheered for Minjoo.

"You did it!!" 

The two cheer and celebrate for what seems like hours, and Minjoo can't wait for the future that lays ahead of her during the summer.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"Chaewonnn...Chaewonaah....Chaewonie...." Yena pesters the woman vigorously typing on her keyboard. Ah of course, the workaholic in her environment. Chaewon does eventually respond though.

"What Yena?" Chaewon turns to her assistant. 

"Just reminding you that the Phase 1 applicants are coming here over the summer, so the director wants you to be one of the mentors for a team."

Chaewon nods her head and turns back to her work on her computer. Mentoring wasn't new to her, and she had quite a reputation for being a brutally honest investor. She didn't give it much thought when the spineless and weak competitors couldn't take her criticism, because of course if they can't take it well then their business would simply not do well. 

She still upholds her beliefs from when she was a child. Logic is always the way to go, no matter how much it can hurt someone to say the truth. The truth has gotten Chaewon to the top, and she intends it to stay that way.

Suddenly thinking back to when she was 14, she remembers Grandmother. She wonders how the older woman is doing now, if her hotdog stand is doing well. She misses her hotdogs and radish wrap. She also thinks about Minjoo, how she still feels the smallest amount of guilt for never writing back to the older girl after many years. 

She wants to see how Grandmother is doing, so she asks her assistant for some help.

"Say, Yena...look up Kim Woon-Deok for me and give me her address would you?" She says in the most professional tone as possible.

"Huh? Why would you want to-"

"Just do it! It's...it's for investing manners." She lies.

"Hmmm you know I doubt it but I'll let it slide. You'll have to tell me some time about it though or else I'll force you to tell me the truth." Yena says before doing what she was asked.

Chaewon sighs and looks down at the pen on her desk, the same pen that she used for writing those damn letters to Minjoo back then. In fact, although she has never seen Minjoo's face, she doesn't think she has ever opened up to anyone besides the younger girl. 

No matter how hard she seemed to be on Yena, always calling her the "assistant", she couldn't help but to feel as if Yena was the closest thing she had to a best friend. The older girl knows she's closed off and never shows any emotions, preferring to stay in her own circle to get work done, but Yena understands and never crosses the line. 

Yena was still there to and give her the occasional chuckle. However, she never disclosed any information about her past with Grandmother and Minjoo.

Once she was finished with her final meeting before her 3 hour lunch break, she heads down to the parking garage into her Tesla and inputs the address given by Yena on the navigation system. Grandmother's house was only about 20 minutes away from Sandbox.

After a frustrating meeting with some incompetent employees she fired, she was still a bit in a pissy mood.

It was a smooth ride on the way to Grandmother's house.

Chaewon looks around at the cherry blossoms that were still as full as ever. A few of them fall down to her car, and she turns on her windshield wipers to move them away from her sight.

Finally reaching Grandmother's house, she takes a deep breath before knocking on the door.

After a few seconds, the door opens to the sight of an old woman looking up at Chaewon. 

Grandmother mostly looks the same. She has grown quite a few gray hairs and looks like she has shrunk quite a bit. But then again, Chaewon has grown much taller. She doesn't even know if the older woman will recognize her anymore.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"Halmoni...it's me." 

Grandmother squints her eyes at Chaewon for a few seconds before realizing it was the same girl from years ago who stayed at her little room by the hotdog stand. She came back.

"Ssamu?" The older woman asks, earning a small smile and nod from Chaewon. 

She steps inside the house and takes off her shoes, before awkwardly going in for a hug. 

"What's the matter? Are you sick? Do you need a place to stay?" Grandmother asks when they pull away.

Chaewon shakes her head and tells the older woman they have a lot to catch up on. Grandmother quickly goes to the kitchen and tells Chaewon to stay put at the couch near the table. 

The young girl has never officially been inside Grandmother's house, this one was quite fitting. She looks around at the picture frames and specifically one family photo where Grandmother is with a younger man and woman with two little girls smiling at the camera. 

She looks closer at one of the girls and recalls back to when she was 14 and roaming the streets. 

"Crazy girl, what's her problem?" Chaewon asks to herself.

The 14-year-old girl was merely minding her own business, reading a book about the business industry and making future investments. She didn't even notice she was following the girl in front of her until the latter rudely assumed she was following her. Whatever, she had no time to deal with emotional children.

Ah...so that was Kim Minjoo all along...

She could still remember the tear stains from the other girl that day. Maybe now she was able to finally meet Minjoo.

Grandmother comes out of the kitchen with a plate of a hotdog and radish wrap, causing Chaewon's face to immediately light up at the sight of her favorite childhood food. The young girl quickly eats the food and thanks Grandmother again.

"So, what is it you need Ssamu?" Grandmother asks 

"Well...I've actually been doing great. I own a tech business now. I became rich, just like what I told you back then."

Grandmother moves back and scoffs. "Aish, is this what you came here for? To flaunt and make me jealous like you said back then?" 

Chaewon quickly shakes her head and sets down the radish wrap she was eating. "No! I just.. wanted to pay you back." 

She hands the older woman her business card and stands up. "Here if you ever need anything just call me."

Grandmother looks at it and squints at the tiny words printed on the black card in confusion. "Huh? What's this?" She asks in confusion.

"Ah see, this is my business card. It has all my information on it. My phone number, my email, my-" Before she can finish up her sentence, Grandmother rolls her eyes and rips up the card, causing Chaewon to shriek.

"Hey! What are you doing?" She yells

She stares at the torn pieces on the floor and sighs at the older lady, shaking her head. 

"You wanna know how to pay me back? Just...do something good for someone Ssamu." Grandmother becomes serious and takes Chaewon's hands as they sit back down on the couch.

"What do you mean-?"

"Help someone out there who needs it. It doesn't have to be big. You don't have to pay them money or award them with any form of wealth to give them happiness. Be there for someone and comfort them. Just like what you did for my Minjoo. And...don't be so lonely anymore Chaewon. It's okay to take a breather and be happy for yourself." Grandmother tells her with a softer tone.

Chaewon can feel the tears starting to build up, so she does the most Chaewon thing to do.

She runs away from her emotions. 

She quickly stands up and removes her hands from Grandmother's.

"I um...I gotta go. I'll see you later Halmoni." Chaewon blinks away her tears and quickly puts her shoes back on before rushing out of the house back into her car.

She shuts the door and closes her eyes while looking down. She...she was fine with how she was. But perhaps, if that was what Halmoni wanted, then she would pay her back this way for taking care of her all those years ago.

She takes a napkin from the compartment and wipes away her tears.

"Come on Kim Chaewon...get a grip." She tells herself.

When she finally composes herself, she starts the car and heads back to Sandbox. This was the way that Chaewon knew to fully get back to her focus zone and not get ahead on all of her work. Now that it was time to mentor the new recruits for Phase 1 she needed to make some plans, so she avoided her emotions this way and drove back to her office.

While driving through the streets, she catches sight of one girl aimlessly walking around looking at the cherry blossoms with her luggage behind her. She noticed the girl getting closer without noticing her vehicle so Chaewon immediately honks her horn.

She was a bit emotional from her meeting with Grandmother, so she couldn't help but to yell at the girl for being so zoned out.

"Crazy girl! Watch where you're going!" She scolds.

The girl turns to look at her and steps aside. 

However, now Chaewon was able to see the full face of the woman who awfully looked very familiar.

Was that...?

It was.

That was definitely the Kim Minjoo she ran into a while ago. It was the Kim Minjoo that she saw on the family photo. It was the Kim Minjoo that she felt comfort from, her first friend. The person who didn't make her feel as lonely anymore.

She didn't want to stay any longer, so she drove past her as quickly as possible.

Once she reached the parking garage yet again, she momentarily let out a sigh and takes a breath. She ran into Kim Minjoo, and now she felt her mind being all hazy. There was no time to waste, especially at a busy time like the summer. Now that she couldn't just pay back Grandmother with the money she had in mind, she needed to find a way to help someone out who was less fortunate with her.

However, Grandmother told her to help someone outside of money. 

For the first time in a long time, Chaewon didn't know what to do and had no foolproof strategy of what she was tasked to do. Usually it would become easier for her to come up with logical solutions, so why was this so difficult?

Before Chaewon is able to get outside of her car, her phone buzzes with a new email notification. Instead of waiting until she gets back to her office, she decides to just read the email from the director on her phone in her car.

She opens it to a list of the competitors successfully advancing to Phase 1 and would be arriving at Sandbox in a couple more days. Chaewon scrolls through the list of unfamiliar names and faces, until she sees one that catches her attention.

Kim Minjoo 

She zoomed in on the picture of the girl's face and realizes it definitely was THE Kim Minjoo. She gulps and puts down her phone with a shocked expression.

She finally realizes this was how she can pay back Grandmother. 

She would make sure that Minjoo succeeds in whatever company she was going to start. She would make sure she would be the younger girl's mentor. 

She decides she would be the one for Kim Minjoo.