The Archives of The Architect: Inside The Attic.
8 min readFeb 24, 2023
This part of the whole archive will take you to the trip to Park Hong-jun’s life in a form of chronological timeline from the very beginning of Park Hong-jun’s life until now. This part only highlighted the notable events from Park Hong-jun’s life, every year since 1986.
1986, 30 March.
- Park Hong-jun was born in a rural area of North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea as the first born of a lower class fisherman couple named Park Jang-won and Do Min-ji. The couple were still 22 and 20 when Hong-jun was born.
1987, 9 September.
- Just a year and five months after Hong-jun was born, Jang-won, Hong-jun’s father, disappeared while fishing by the sudden storm and big waves. On this day, a fisherman from another village found Jang-won’s lifeless body on the shore after Jang-won went missing for a week. Later on that day before the family held a funeral for Jang-won, Do Min-ji found out that she was pregnant with her second child, Hong-jun’s little brother.
1988, 19 May.
- Park Hong-chan was born in the same place where Hong-jun was born. On the same day, Hong-jun arranged his very first complete sentence in his life.
1989, 27 October.
- Do Min-ji and her mother-in-law got into a fight because of both parties’ different view in parenting. The conflict bottled up and pushed Min-ji to made a very big decision: leaving the village and moving to Daegu, the capital of North Gyeongsang Province.
1990, March.
- The little family of three finally settled in Daegu. Min-ji worked few jobs to feed her family, as a waitress, a tour guide, and a cashier. Hong-jun became a student of a goverment’s kindergarten. Hong-chan finally got a diagnose of his special condition, Asperger Syndrome.
1991, 1 December.
- Do Min-ji’s mother came back from Thailand with a new family on her own. Left Min-ji in despair because of the frustration that her mother caused her by the debts that her mother passed to Min-ji. Min-ji decided to left her children, Hong-jun and Hong-chan, in an orphanage runned by the local Catholic church. Hong-jun was still five and Hong-chan was three. The Park Brothers were confused at the whole situation.
1992, 14 February.
- The orphanage found out that Hong-jun is a genius when one of the staff realized that Hong-jun was able to memorize more than half of the Bible and solved a mathematic problem of a fifth year elementary schoolers’ test. The discovery of Hong-jun’s ability amazed many. On this day, Hong-jun made his very first “invention”, a simple prototype of a rollercoaster made of cardboards and ice cream sticks.
1993, 20 March.
- Just ten days before Hong-jun’s seventh birthday, a couple from Seoul adopted The Park Brothers. The husband is a physics teacher of a private high school named Park Byung-hwan, meanwhile, the wife is an owner of a tteokbokki stall in Gwangjang Market named Choi Hee-sun. The couple decided to adopt Hong-jun and Hong-chan in the same time because of the strong bond that the two have was touching the couple’s heart after two decades of waiting for a child.
1994, 19 May.
- The first celebration of the two’s birthday in Hong-chan’s sixth birthday. The family of four went to Nami Island, it was the brothers’ first ever celebratory holiday in their life.
1995, 2 June.
- Hong-jun won the gold medal of a mathematic olympiad for elementary school student in the nation’s level. He was the youngest champion that the competition ever have. He defeated more than a thousand of participants who were far above his age.
1996, March.
- After the competition, Hong-jun’s life changed. His step-father decided that Hong-jun’s desire for learning was very strong. Thus, his step-father decided to let Hong-jun’s accelerate in the academic aspect. Hong-jun fast tracked his elementary school and jumped to the 7th grade in the age of 10. The multitudes of changed didn’t budge him and made him even stronger.
1997, June.
- The brothers’s step-parents finally found Hong-chan’s speciality. Music and art are the spectrums. Hong-chan showed a very unique talent in painting and memorizing chords.
1998.
- The Monetary Crisis. This crisis affected Park Byung-hwan and Choi Hee-sun in almost every aspect. The family faced a very rough year. Despite all of the things that the parents should face, Hong-jun was able to finish his last year of middle school and entering the senior high school a year after the crisis.
1999.
- Hong-jun entered a public high school in the age of 13. He was the youngest kid in his batch but has the most outstanding academic achievement. On this year, Hong-jun faced a hard time to fit in the society because of the gap of age between him and his schoolmates. This also resulting a feeling of being alienated by his schoolmates and made Hong-jun feel small in his own bubble.
2000.
- His environment transformed Hong-jun into a temperamental teenager. His schoolmates’ discovery about Hong-chan’s special condition and made it into a fuel to bully Hong-jun, also shaped Hong-jun’s resentment to his own brother. Hong-jun started to become very distant to his own family and the whole society in general. And as the first born, Hong-jun also didn’t want to be a burden to his step-parents. He started to work as a part timer even though it is illegal for a 14 years old boy to work.
2001.
- Hong-jun faced the CSAT (Suneung). He passed the test with a perfect score and got into Seoul National University, College of Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the age of 15.
2002, 24 August.
- Park Byung-hwan, Hong-jun and Hong-chan’s step-father, lost his life because of a car accident. The accident then turn the family’s life over. No matter what, Choi Hee-sun decided that she will took care of the brothers until the day she died.
2003.
- 17 years old Park Hong-jun met his biological mother in a very complicated situation. Hong-jun didn’t realize that it was Do Min-ji, his biological mother, that he met.
2004, 6 June.
- The reunion of Hong-jun and his biological mother occurred in a very strange place, a bar. Hong-jun was going out with his friends before he faced an exam for that semester when Min-ji was being the bar’s waitress. Min-ji was the one who initiated the talk with her son. The meeting shocked Hong-jun who thought that his biological mother was dead after she left Hong-jun and his brother in the orphanage.
2005.
- Hong-jun graduated from Seoul National University earlier this year and got himself a stable job in a technology and science based company just a month after graduating. He was being the youngest graduate from his batch, even from his department in the department’s history.
2006, 30 March.
- Hong-jun’s 20th birthday.
2007.
- The government decided that Hong-jun was not qualified to do the military service because he was the main breadwinner of his family.
2008–2009.
- No special event occurred.
2010.
- Hong-jun continued his study in KAIST, pursued his graduate degree.
2011.
- Choi Hee-sun passed away due to breast cancer. The passing of his step-mother changed a lot of Hong-jun’s view in life. He started his research for health sector.
2012, August.
- Hong-jun met his biological mother, again, in another weird situation. The situation finally led Hong-jun to discovered about Do Min-ji’s miserable life after she decided to left her children at that orphanage. It also disclosed Min-ji’s reason for what she did years ago.
2013.
- Earlier on this year, Park Hong-jun graduated from KAIST with an outstanding invention who blended the health and technology sector. His career elevated in a short time and made him a well-known South Korea’s young scientist. The invention led Hong-jun to a business sector. He collaborated with the nation’s conglomerate, Samsung, to develop his invention.
2014, May.
- Under Samsung’s fund, with the help of another scientist, Park Hong-jun established a group of young scientist named Da Capo. With his team, Hong-jun invented a lot of new technology later introduced by Samsung.
2015.
- Park Hong-jun started his master programme in Business Management in INSEAD, France.
2016.
- Park Hong-jun became the leader of Da Capo after the former leader, Seo Jung-hoon, decided to gave up the ‘throne’ after not being able to lead the team.
2017, June.
- Park Hong-jun graduated from INSEAD.
2018, 21 July.
- Da Capo settled down as an independent company after a long period of discussion with Da Capo’s member and the parent company of Da Capo. With Park Hong-jun as the founder and the CEO. Later, Da Capo becoming the nation’s rising star in the tech and science industry.
2019, 24 February.
- Do Min-ji passed away due to a heart attack. Later on this year, Park Hong-jun started to build an art gallery for his brother’s masterpieces.
2020, 19 May.
- Park Hong-chan held his first recital.
2021.
- Hong-jun started his doctoral programme, majoring Business Economics in Harvard Business School.
2022, 16 February.
- Park Hong-jun became the part of Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 in the Tech and Innovation category.
2022, 19 May.
- The Capo Atrium Gallery opened for public. Park Hong-chan’s first ever public appearance and speech, dedicated to his step-parents and brother. The speech then blowed up since the public finally found out that The Park Brothers faced a difficult life.
2023.
- No one knows what the future holds. Let’s hope for the best.
Park Hong-jun’s development is still in need for a lot of supporting characters. If you are interested in building a relation with Park Hong-jun (with the guide of The Timeline), you may contact MM through this link.
