Mirror, Mirror
Setting value aside, Bitcoin's flaw was perfectly clear.
It traded twenty-four hours a day.
With a serious sum of money tied up in it, I kept jolting awake in snatches through the small hours. Each time I checked the price and sank back into sleep—until morning came anyway.
"A-Assistant Manager Ju!"
Section Chief Lee Eunsik called my name in a voice gone grave. Certain some disaster had struck, I answered at once.
"Yes, Chief."
"What's wrong with your face?"
"...Pardon?"
"A panda's got nothing on you. Those dark circles have practically slid down to your chin."
"Ah. I didn't get much sleep last night."
Chief Lee patted my shoulder.
"Team Leader Park might not understand, but I do. It's rough, isn't it."
That wasn't it at all. I didn't feel like making excuses, so I nodded and took my seat, then checked the Bitcoin price one more time.
I'd been worried about the violent swings, but the market was still drifting sideways, hardly different from yesterday. The closing price was already decided, after all. I settled in to wait with an easy mind.
Bzzzt—
A message came in from my sister.
Auntie's sixtieth. Her hwangap.
I wasn't exactly thrilled. Our family had never been on good terms with the relatives—all over that damned inheritance. And even setting that aside, one of the children had buried a husband and the other had been through a divorce. We were perfect fodder for the relatives' gossip mill.
Hayeon probably wanted to go even less than I did. They were forever lining Yeju up against their own kids for comparison.
"Good morning, Assistant Manager."
From beside me, Lee Jayeong dipped her head in greeting.
"Good morning."
"Oh my. You're actually returning my greetings now."
"It's only a hello. Why wouldn't I?"
With a soft slide, Jayeong set a coffee down in front of my seat.
"Give it your all today, too."
......
Between a senior and a junior, this much ought to be fine.
The aesthetics of waiting. I finally understood what those words meant.
Two days had passed since I'd bet on ten-times leverage. Bitcoin had climbed five percent off $915 and was closing in on $960.
......
At ten-times leverage, the return was... fifty percent.
In barely two days I had made thirty million won. Figured after tax, that was half a year's salary. And more than anything else, no matter how much you earned on coins, there was no tax at all.
A world without taxes. What a wonderful world it was. I was beginning to understand why people couldn't quit crypto.
Then what about the stocks?
Ticker HNT
Return +172.1%
Valuation 108,874,322 won
On the first day it had looked ready to bleed out beneath a long upper wick, only for a supply-contract filing to hit at the last moment and send it straight into the upper limit—the classic lockup of every sell order. The next day it gapped straight to the ceiling again, a clean limit-up open, without giving anyone a chance to buy.
A double ceiling. The forums blazed with speculative heat, and right beside the cheers sat the sour comments of people who had only watched and missed it, or sold far too early.
The brokerage account alone held a cool hundred million won.
Gulp.
Just staring at the balance was enough to put a smile on my face.
No. I shook my head.
That was the terror of investing. Money that comes easy leaves just as easy. HNT was a rigged stock; it wouldn't be the least bit strange if it face-planted into the lower limit at any moment.
You only eat as much as your bowl can hold... Maybe this is the size of mine.
If it gapped up at tomorrow's open, I meant to sell and walk away. There was no reason to take on stock-market risk while leaving Bitcoin—whose close I already knew—sitting untouched.
Move every asset into coins, the loans included, and the total came to two hundred sixty million won. Layer ten-times leverage on top of that, and it was no different from putting 2.6 billion to work.
Skitter-skitter—
A cockroach shot past along the floor.
Hayeon did her best to keep the place clean, but the house was rundown, and worse, every neighbor was a slob. So no matter how spotless they kept the inside, the roaches kept coming. There was nothing to be done about it. It had gotten so bad that even Yeju wasn't afraid of them—her first instinct was to smash one flat with a slipper.
Once I make the money... the first thing we do is move Noona and Yeju into a decent house.
When Yeju started elementary school, she would learn what it meant to live in Dal-dongne. I didn't want her mocked by other children from so young an age. Even if I wasn't happy, my niece at least was going to be.
I stole another glance, flicking between the stock account and the coin account, and the corner of my mouth lifted.
No.
I... I was happy right now.
Money really was the greatest thing of all.
"Mom, play dolls with me."
Yeju came up to her mother, who was hammering away at the keyboard, the Disney dolls her uncle had given her clutched in her arms.
"......"
Taka-tak. Taka-taka-tak.
"Mom, dolls with Yeju..."
"Yeju, Mommy has a manuscript due today. Can you play by yourself? Our Yeju's a good girl, right?"
"...Mm-hm."
Lately Yeju had been terribly bored. Even at the playground, every child clung to an older sister's or brother's hand and played only among their own, so joining in felt like butting in.
I wish I had an unni or an oppa too... Then I could play with them and not get in Mom's way.
Even so, when she heard that her uncle would be living with them, color rushed back into her face.
When Uncle comes, I'm gonna play with him lots. Dolls, and playing house, and I'm gonna make him push me on the swings!
And then Uncle did come. At first they went to kids' cafés together and out for plenty of delicious dinners. Yeju was happy—only seven, and still happy enough to think she could live like this and die without a single regret.
It didn't last. One day Uncle said he was studying and never once came out of his room. Lately, the moment he got home from work, he went straight into that room and showed no intention of coming back out.
Mom, I can understand. But Uncle won't even play with me. What on earth is he doing?
She crept closer. Up on her tiptoes, she peeked through the crack in the door.
...?
Yeju's eyes went wide.
Her uncle was staring at his phone, grinning all by himself. Quietly, she eased the slightly open door shut again.
Uncle's being weird. I should keep my distance for a while.
Better dolls, Yeju decided, than a weird uncle.
A full week passed.
The last day of April. The day the monthly candle printed its close.
Today, whatever else happened, the price was going to park right around $1,120.
Knowing the close sure puts the mind at ease.
Bitcoin's total return stood at 130 percent. Chasing in along the way had dragged the percentage down, but the seed had grown by just as much. I'd put in a hundred fifty thousand dollars in all. The account held five hundred million won.
It was plenty of money, but I had no thought of stopping here. Next month's monthly close was $2,220. On the daily chart, highs above that close would print several times over. When they did, I meant to dump every last coin and accumulate again near the close.
You eat while the eating is good.
Bzzzt.
For once, the phone actually vibrated. It was Bongshik.
A phone was made for keeping in touch with other people, and lately I'd been using mine for nothing but coin charts.
They say your gut twists even when your in-law's in-law buys land. Bongshik and I were close enough to joke about anything, but I decided not to tell him the size of my seed. Not because I wanted to hide it. I was afraid that, looking at me, he'd scrape cash together from every corner and throw it in.
Once you've tasted money, who can quit?
If that monthly close hadn't been shown to me, I might have ruined myself down on the coin floor too.
Greed, my ass. I could see the future. That was all.
Once I was done with Bongshik, I leaned back.
All right. Open the Random Box, then get some sleep.
Open the Random Box?
[ Y / N ]
For nearly a week, nothing worth mentioning had come out of the Random Box. What had they even been? I couldn't remember exactly.
Today is a dud!
If you expected a gift every single day, you're a greedy one!
I'd only learned four days ago that duds existed. And besides that one...
I Can't See Myself!
You become invisible for 24 hours.
※ You are invisible only to your own eyes. Everyone else sees you just fine.
If I was the only one who couldn't see me, what was the point of that?
Nostalgic Pocket Change!
Every time you put a hand in your pocket, a random chance produces 100 won.
※ Time limit: 24 hours
Every time I absentmindedly slipped a hand into my pocket, a coin came up and got in the way. A useless ability, sure—but Yeju had liked it. I'd told her I was showing her a magic trick and kept producing hundred-won coins out of my pocket. Of course, the day after the effect vanished she asked to see it again, and that had been awkward.
Anyway, nothing had really caught my fancy. With this much bad luck paid in advance, something decent ought to turn up soon. I pressed Y with hope in my chest.
Flash—
Light shimmered before my eyes, and a single status window rose.
Mirror, mirror, who in all the world is the fairest?
Adjust your appearance? [ Y / N ]
Others' favor toward your looks will rise.
......
As if growing taller hadn't been enough, now they were offering to fix my face for free.
All at once I remembered the very first window I had ever been shown.
To you, who have lived an unhappy life, we grant a chance to live a happy one.
It really was becoming a happy life.
In lookist Korea, I pressed Y without a moment's hesitation.
