Coder Lee Yongho

After YongHo came to work, he scratched his head looking at his full e-mail inbox.

Code review result finished.

Code review result finished.

Code review result finished.

……

And such contents filled his e-mail inbox.

‘Look at this guy……?’

Not even one day had pa.s.sed since he sent the results of the code reviews but, they were all finished.

To say it positively, it could be said that he worked hard, but it was a too much of a coincidence so he couldn’t think like that.

Also, the latest e-mail made YongHo even more surprised.

Code review request.

He had not only finished the code review request results, and even new ones had arrived. The things YongHo pointed out in the code numbered several tens.

He thought that it was impossible to solve in just one day, but this had surpa.s.sed his expectations.

‘This means he wants to have a go at me, right……?’

Although there were no words, he could feel a fighting spirit behind the code.

‘It’s not manly to avoid the fight.’

YongHo started to frighteningly focus on the code that Mark had sent. Work would progress faster and his skills will improve. so YongHo also welcomed this kind of fight anytime.

Tap.

A hand was placed on top of YongHo’s shoulders while he was sitting. YongHo spoke without even looking back.

“What is it, Dave? I’m busy right now so let’s talk later.”

YongHo was in the middle of looking through Mark’s code. He found reading code enjoyable, but now that there was an element of a battle, he enjoyed it even more.

He didn’t want to lose. The fact that he was doing this for Lucia was already almost erased from his mind.

When no one replied, YongHo continued speaking.

“Is it you, DaeBang? Who told you to place your hands on this hyung-nim’s shoulders?”

Thinking it was Na DaeBang, he said that in Korean. However, the person who put the hand on his shoulder was neither Na DaeBang nor Dave.

“Excuse me……”

He smelled a thick fragrance. It was something not smelled from a man.

He just thought that a female employee had put on a lot of perfume and didn’t think much about it. However, not only the fragrance, even the voice was not that of a man’s.

YongHo’s head finally turned back.

“Lucia?”

“Please eat this.”

Lucia was standing behind him. She put coffee and chocolate on YongHo’s desk and ran to her desk as if running away.

The chocolate was an expensive kind that even YongHo rarely ate, G.o.diva.

‘Wh, what is……’

Perhaps due to eating so much sweet bean bread given to him by Son SeokHo, YongHo also craved sweet things when he was coding. At that time, he ate chocolate, and sometimes, when he felt proud of himself, only then would he eat a G.o.diva chocolate.

It was a type of reward for himself.

Lucia seemed to have noticed somehow and gave him G.o.diva chocolate.
‘She gave it to me, so I’ll thankfully eat it.’

He unwrapped the luxurious looking chocolate and put it in his mouth.

Bitterness and sweetness were in harmony and it lingered in his mouth.

‘Tenacious guy.’

Mark was thinking the same thing as YongHo. When he sent an e-mail with difficulty, the next day, the request for corrections would arrive.

It was the same thing with the code he edited and sent back. There were several which were rejected due to having edited the wrong way.

‘What is it now……’

Now, there were very few requests for corrections in HTML. He finally thought that he could rest for a bit but YongHo brought out a problem that he didn’t even imagine.

“It’s javascript now……”

Mark’s voice sounded exhausted. The continuous overtime work was enough to make both his body and mind exhausted. However, he didn’t want to lose.

His pride as a programmer made him endure. The fact that YongHo accepted his code also played a role in this. Although YongHo wasn’t his superior, the fact that the code he wrote had to be accepted by a person from a small Asian country was inflicting wounds on his pride.

“Do you think I’ll lose?”

Mark began concentrating intensely. He also had a lot of confidence in his skills. As a result, he had enough skill to be proud of his work.

It could be said that three languages are needed to make something called the webpage.

Javascript, HTML, css – amongst these, javascript wasn’t necessary to draw up a screen. However, to make a more difficult and fancy-looking screen, it was necessary.

The part YongHo pointed out was one of the frameworks used in javascript – jquery.

For example, something expressed as ‘window.onload’ in javascript would be expressed as ‘$(doc.u.ment).ready(function(){});’ in jquery.

As with the problem he had pointed out with the HTML, there were no problems with the program running.

Mark’s skills were exceptional to the point that YongHo could only point out trivial things like these.

This was a game of chicken which would not end unless one side gave up. (E/N: For those of you unfamiliar, imagine a game where two cars are racing at each other on a collision course. The first person to swerve out of the way is the “chicken” aka coward and loses.) The two were aware of each other’s skills. Also, they could also feel that their own skills were increasing.

However, the problem was stamina. As the days went by, they could feel their stamina depleting. As they went through a process of checking in order to not give the opponent an opportunity, naturally, they could only run out of time.

As one day had 24 hours, to make up for the insufficient time, they could only reduce sleep.

“Hyung-nim. Are you alright?”

From Na DaeBang’s point of view, YongHo seemed like he was about to die. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he always came when the dawn dew was dangling on the plants, and went back to work after having a nap.

“…I’m alright.”

YongHo seemed to not have the strength to reply as his voice was low. As everything was happening between him and Mark, no one within the company knew of this.

Na DaeBang included.

“If you hurt yourself, then everything will be ruined. Why are you working like that?”

“……”

When Na DaeBang voiced his worry with a loud voice, Lucia looked back.

Na DaeBang didn’t miss that.

“Are you cleaning up for someone else?”

The thick voice lowered to a mosquito voice in an instant. He thought that this was YongHo’s secret private life.

When he looked at Lucia, as a man, Na DaeBang understood.

“You made one in Stanford. Wow, you have such skills.”

“Wh, what the h.e.l.l are you talking about?”

“Ayy, It’s obvious at a glance. Why are you so embarra.s.sed?”

Na DaeBang quietly poked YongHo’s waist and spoke. As the two conversed in Korean, Na DaeBang could also be relieved while speaking.

“It’s not like that.”

YongHo seemed like he didn’t even have the energy to get angry as he stayed still.

“If it’s not like that, then what is it like? Are you hiding something from me, when I came to America all because of you?”

As he felt that the talk would be long, YongHo chose another method. He just decided to spill everything to Na DaeBang.

After hearing the circ.u.mstances, Na DaeBang shouted in surprise.

“Whaat?”

“So it’s not like what you’re thinking.”

“How long are you planning to drag this out? You will die first at this rate.”

“You’re right. Isn’t there a better method…?”

YongHo also felt that he couldn’t hold out much longer. He had a lot of other things to think about other than the webpage. He had to look at the app and he also had to check the image processor library that Na DaeBang was making.

A server on top of that too… Not even 10 bodies were enough.

“If you’re a man, shouldn’t you have a frontal showdown?”

“What, are you telling me to grip my fists?”

“And you think you’ll win with your fists? I saw Mark and he had quite the buff body. Of course, he wouldn’t match against me. Hmhm.”

Na DaeBang tapped his chest. YongHo also fully agreed with Na DaeBang’s words. He would definitely lose in a fistfight. However, Na DaeBang would win.

“So what, you’ll fight in my stead?”

YongHo asked with an awkward laugh. He wanted to warn Mark. Although he didn’t know if it would work or not, he thought that his previous actions would decrease when he knows that he was being watched.

However, he didn’t have the finishing strike. As the pressure would increase if the eyes watching his actions became stronger, he needed that one strike.

“Hyung-nim. Did you watch the movie about the biggest SNS in the world?”

“Movie?”

“There’s a movie called ‘FadeBook’ and the story goes like this.”

After talking about it, Na DaeBang looked at YongHo, asking for his opinion.

“How is it? Manly and clean. Moreover, I heard that he had strong pride. If we stomp him flat, then don’t you think that he wouldn’t be able to do anything?”

Na DaeBang spoke while scratching his neck. YongHo also seemed curious as he fell into his thoughts with his eyes closed.

“I think it’s quite good…”

“You must strike the iron while it’s hot, so let’s go today. The judges will be me and one he appoints. Isn’t that enough?”

“……”

YongHo seemed to have decided and stood up. If all he did was jabs until now, he would now do an upper-cut.

Mark was also being exhausted due to this harsh process. Although there were no problems with running the program, it was true that he didn’t follow the standards.

However, as they had something called the schedule, this could be just overlooked. However, YongHo sent e-mails for each individual one.

If he didn’t solve it, then it was clear that his position in the company would become lower.

Although there was a problem with his pride as a programmer, as there would also also problems with his positions in the company, Mark could only do his best.

“OK!”

And while doing that, YongHo came up to him first. This was the first time they talked directly to each other and not through e-mails or JIRA. Of course, YongHo’s offer was also sufficiently attractive to Mark.

“Then I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yes.”

He had the confidence to squash YongHo’s nose flat. And he had the skills to do so.

Even without YongHo doing anything, the Asians in Silicon Valley were becoming an eyesore in his eyes.

It was time to show him the power of America, the center of computer science.

“YongHo!”

YongHo was putting away his laptop secretly, but he was grabbed by Dave who found out.

“Uh, yeah?”

“You will go without me? I heard there was something interesting.”
It seemed the talk had spread through Na DaeBang as Dave, James and even Jessie were looking at YongHo with their arms crossed.

“I, I’m not going anywhere.”

“I heard you were going to the bar nearby.”

YongHo glared at Na DaeBang. As Na DaeBang’s stature wasn’t something that could be hidden, Na DaeBang just pretended to not know anything as he walked behind James.

“Th, that’s.”

As he thought that this was nothing good, YongHo didn’t tell many people. However, the matter had become big.

While YongHo was standing there panicked, Dave whisked away YongHo’s laptop bag.

“Let’s go!”

Dave raised his voice. From the high tone, it was clear that he was looking forward to what will happen.

Lucia, who was working at that time, also approached them.

“M, may I go as well?”

“Huh?”

All of them looked at Lucia. If they thought about it, this had all started because of her. All of them didn’t know what to do and only looked at YongHo.

“Haaa……”

YongHo sighed and scratched his head as he had given up.

“Okay, Let’s aaaalllll go together.”

His slurred word expressed his complaint at the situation, but the milk had already been spilt.

“Then let’s depart!”

Only Dave hummed as if he was delighted.

And not long after, they showed themselves in a bar nearby the company.