Maru's House and Tax Troubles
“At your place?”
“Yes!! At Maru’s place!!”
Maru’s house was probably around 130 pyeong, with a yard and garden… and she must keep a dog, right? A proper pedigree one. Plus, a luxury display room? You know, the kind celebrities have for all their designer goods. She probably had something like that too. She really was an incredible person. If I went over, there’d be diamonds going “whoa!!” and accessories everywhere… There had to be tons of them. Maru used a black card… actually, she didn’t. She was frugal. That made her even more impressive.
“That’s… a bit difficult. Um… I’m moving soon.”
“Huh…? Where to?”
“Seoul.”
“Whoa.”
She really was loaded. Seoul real estate was insanely expensive. How did she even buy it? Incredible. As expected of a big company. She must be earning a fortune. I’m jealous. So jealous. Insanely jealous.
“I’m renting!!”
“Ahaha… but your house is in Seoul, right?”
“That’s not my house.”
It wasn’t mine. My house was here. I had to succeed quickly too, just like Maru… whoa!!
“As expected of the great Maru.”
“Pardon?”
“Ten billion a month.”
“If I earned that much, I wouldn’t have any wishes left.”
“Then… one billion a month.”
“Nah. I can’t earn that much.”
“Then how did you earn it? Seoul is ridiculously expensive.”
I watched the news too. Everyone knew how crazy Seoul apartment prices were. And she was moving into one of those!! Did she think I was an idiot? Ugh, she was right!! But I knew what I knew. She couldn’t earn that much? Anyone could tell that was a lie. Maru… you couldn’t hide something like that even if you tried!!
“I made it through investments. You can’t earn that kind of money from salary alone. You have to invest. Do you invest, Seon-a?”
“Eh? Invest? That’s just gambling.”
“Gambling? What do you mean?”
“I tried it before… it’s gambling. Um… blink once and it drops ten percent, blink again and it jumps twenty percent.”
“What exactly did you do?”
I used to trade U.S. stocks. I still remembered it. The volatility back then was insane. Really. A viewer had to refund me that time. I never touched stocks again after that.
“I… I don’t know. I bought and it went up ten percent, down twenty percent, so I lost money!! In five minutes!! That’s why my viewers refunded me.”
“Oh… what were you even buying… big stuff is fine. I bought Apple and Netflix. Both during COVID, and Netflix nearly suffocated me to death. I kept averaging down… and ended up making money. U.S. markets are the best.”
“Apple? Netflix? Why? Did you have a reason?”
“Because I use an iPhone? Because I enjoy watching Netflix?”
“No way. That’s investing?”
Buying Apple because you use an iPhone? Buying Netflix because you watch it? Wow… so that’s what investing was. Incredible. Thanks to Maru, I was gaining economic knowledge too. As expected of the Maru I respected most!! In that case… I used a Flip, so I should buy Samsung!!
“Then I’ll buy three stars since I use a Flip!!”
Sudden silence fell. Why? Why? Did I mess up again? Where? There wasn’t anything wrong.
“Save first. Seon-a, start with saving. Investing is difficult.”
Saving? Saving!! That was what Mom nagged me about every single day. She kept telling me to save. I didn’t want to. If I saved, I couldn’t spend the money. Money existed to be spent. Why hoard it!! Besides, you couldn’t even see it growing. Investing showed the +/- right away. Up and you felt great, down and your mood tanked—it was fun. It felt like playing a game with money. Saving didn’t give that feeling at all. That’s why I hated saving.
“Saving isn’t fun…”
“You have to build a base with saving first, then invest. How much do you have in your savings account? What do you have?”
“I have some!!”
I did. I had a savings account. The housing subscription account… plus time deposits and savings accounts… and so on. I had plenty!!
“You have some? Really?”
“Yes! Mom made me do it.”
“Do you actually put money in?”
“Every month!! Mom asks for a photo as proof!! So I put it in every time.”
“Then… that’s a relief. Really good to hear.”
Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure how the conversation had gone this way. Why were we suddenly talking about saving? Um… ah!
“Ah! So I want to go to your place, Maru.”
“Uh… um. Seon-a, you first.”
“Eh? Me first? What do you mean?”
“I want to go first~”
“Ah…!! Got it! I’ll receive you first.”
Right. They said you had to introduce yourself before introducing someone else. That made sense. If I wanted to visit Maru’s house, I had to open mine first. That was the proper order.
“Then I’ll let you know later~!”
“Yep!! I’ll text you!!”
I sent the message right away. After that, I focused on the game again. I did a lot. Expanded the house, did plenty of farming, went on adventures… solved some riddles too… and ended the stream feeling healed.
Yesterday was seriously fun. Proper healing. So what should I do today…? I worried about this every single day. Maybe I’d have to keep worrying for the rest of my life. Every time I woke up, I stressed over what to do. I dragged myself out of bed. First, I tidied the bedding and turned on the computer. Everything started once the computer booted up.
“Ugh… ugh…”
I stretched wide and sat down at the desk. The moment the computer turned on, I opened Discord. There were tons of messages. First, let’s check Pyeong’s…
Only formal messages had arrived. The video went up today. How much yesterday’s video had grown. How many subscribers increased. And these people got banned… truly businesslike messages. I usually didn’t read them, but today I did. Just… read them.
The subscriber count had already reached 29,432. Unreal. It had grown absurdly fast. Views were now at least 15,000 on average, sometimes spiking to 70,000. I’d grown that much. But I was probably still in the red. I’d paid Pyeong around 200,000 to 300,000 won per video… with these numbers, it was basically throwing money away. To even break even, I needed to grow more. I’d already grown a ton, yet I still needed… more. Growth.
Right now Pyeong’s salary came from my parents, so it was free, but…
“Huh?”
I touched my chin with my hand. Thinking about it, there was nothing to worry about. My parents had more money than I could ever earn in my entire life. Even if I worked for a hundred years, I’d never make as much as them. Probably? So why was I worrying? It was their money anyway, not mine.
“Right!! Exactly!”
Yeah. That’s right! Wow… no need to stress at all. I only had to worry when it was my own money. No need to worry now. To realize this only now… I really was lacking. Now that I understood… I could free myself a little from the pressure of views that had been binding me.
In that case, Pyeong could handle YouTube from now on. I’d only focus on live streams. I called Pyeong to get a clear answer.
- Ring ring ring.
“Yes, hello~”
“Pyeong. Pyeong.”
“Yeees~”
“Pyeong, YouTube is yours now.”
“Huh? What… what do you mean?”
“Ah!! I’m not going to care about YouTube views anymore. Growth too… I’m going to focus only on live streams from now on!!”
“Uh… yes…?”
Pyeong’s flustered voice came through. Had I spoken too incoherently? But I’d said the main point, right…? Yeah. From now on, Pyeong would handle all YouTube management. I’d only worry about live streams. That was it.
“Um… let me say it again!! I’m going to focus completely on live streams.”
“Y-yes.”
“Pyeong, please manage YouTube for me.”
“Uh… wasn’t that already the case?”
“Oh! Right. That… that’s it. That. Right now it’s… what was it. That thing you did without saying anything, silently.”
“Ah. You mean we had an implicit division, and now you want to make it official?”
“Oh! Yes. You went to university, right?”
She was so smart it was amazing. That was exactly what I wanted to say.
“No… I’m a high school graduate.”
“Oh!! Me too.”
“Hahaha…”
“Then please manage it completely on your own!! I’ll only check YouTube occasionally.”
“Got it… Ah. But Seon-a.”
“Yes!! Go ahead!!”
“Um… could you maybe draw even a rough thumbnail? You can draw, right?”
Drawing? Me? Uh… oh right. I could draw. But right now, I wasn’t sure? I hadn’t practiced in so long… when was the last time? Probably two months? Three months since I last drew.
“Uh… Pyeong. I can’t draw. I’m not confident.”
“Ah! Got it.”
“Why?”
I was curious. Asking for a rough thumbnail? Why?
“I’m bad at drawing, so outsourcing thumbnails every time is such a hassle.”
“You buy thumbnails?”
I immediately opened my YouTube channel. I hadn’t thought about it at all, but every video really did have cute SD-style illustrations with speech bubbles on the thumbnails.
“Of course!! Those all cost money.”
“Oh, then. Then how do you handle the thumbnail costs?”
I’d never paid for them. Was Mom paying for this too?
“They send the money under your name. It can be processed as an expense.”
“Eh? Really? I gave Mom access to the account, but… huh? Then what about your salary, Pyeong?”
“You pay my salary too, Seon-a.”
“Huh?”
“Yep?”
“Uh?”
“Yep?”
“Eh?”
Huh? What? Eh? Eh? I was the one paying? Eh? Wait, suddenly I felt dizzy. No, I didn’t know. I really didn’t know. So I’d been drinking bone broth this whole time? Mom definitely said she was paying… No. That couldn’t be. I trusted Mom. I… I had to call her. This couldn’t be right. It had to be a dream. First, the call. Just a second.
“Uh, uh. Then can’t we just use a plain game screen with text? There are tons of those. A game screen with a laughing face and subtitles at the bottom.”
“We used to do that… what was it again? Seon-a, compared to how much you earn, you weren’t processing enough expenses… if you don’t spend the money, you’ll get hit with a huge tax bomb anyway… so it’s important to process expenses properly. That’s why we changed it? They said if you don’t do it, it all goes to taxes anyway.”
“Really…?”
“Yes… You need to prepare properly in May. Seon-a… are you saving money?”
“Me?”
What did that mean? I paid taxes. I paid that twenty percent. I was paying twenty percent, right?
“I’m paying twenty percent.”
“Twenty percent? That can’t be right… You’ll be filing in May, so… Ah! Ah. That’s the fee. The fee.”
“Fee?”
“That’s the platform fee you pay to the company. Taxes are paid separately in May during comprehensive income tax filing.”
“Uh…?”
Wait. I’d never thought about that. I thought I was already paying taxes? I really didn’t know anything. I was an idiot. I thought I’d grown, but I was still lacking.
“Uh, just a second!! I’ll call Mom and get back to you!!”