Years later, facing the collapsing stock market, the Korean girl would recall that distant summer when people embraced and cheered in the streets of Seoul.

The world back then was light and generous, with discounted airfares everywhere—just a week's salary was enough to fly to any island and drift in the azure blue.

She had just found a job and went all in, plunging all her salary into the frenzied stock market, miraculously winning the next five years.

Under the sun, strangers across the entire city would stop for no reason, embrace each other, and shout with joy.

In that dreamlike season, she was immersed in an extreme happiness, caught in a strange illusion—as if she were standing at the grand beginning of a golden age of humanity.