Cheaper Than Our Pride

May 2017. The monthly close hovering in front of me sat at about $2,220, and the figure alone was enough to tell me the month would climb roughly a hundred percent.

Today was the first day of May, and Bitcoin had already brushed a neat plus five percent before charging on into the heights. Profits of tens of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠millions of won in a single day had reached the point of feeling trivial.

The dopamine threshold. At the beginning, even a few million won had set my heart hammering. Now gains and losses of that size left my body utterly unmoved.

I knew the right answer, but I still refused to crank the leverage to twenty or thirty times, just in case. At thirty times, a drop of only four percent would turn everything I owned into scrap paper. If I had margin enough to ride it out, the story would be different—but I already knew how each monthly candle closed, and I had no desire to invest like a lunatic on top of that.

…….

Looked at squarely, even ten times leverage already made me a madman.

I ran the numbers again. A hundred percent rise under ten times leverage meant a return of a thousand percent. Which meant the money that would simply walk into my account if I did nothing at all was…

Five… five billion won?

I swallowed.

"Ha… haha…"

No wonder the laughter came on its own. Lately I could feel Yeju's eyes on me shifting, just a little, as she watched me grin like an idiot day after day. I wanted to keep a poker face in front of other people, but that was easier wished than done. Was there anyone alive who could keep from smiling, knowing five billion won was about to land in their account for doing nothing?

Next month, I could probably pick up a decent apartment in Seoul. From here on, whenever profit came in, I meant to skim a little off and set it aside. There was no telling when this Random Box, which had appeared out of nowhere, might vanish just as suddenly, and investing could collapse the moment you slipped once. I intended to build as much in safe assets as I could.

Before all that, though… I'd made the money. Maybe it was time to go spend a little.

It was still early morning, but my sister was already out in the living room, writing.

She really never stops.

"Noona, you're coming to Aunt's sixtieth today, right?"

"I should, but today's manuscript deadline…"

She rubbed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her earlobe. That was her tell when she lied.

"It's her sixtieth. You have to go. Parents' Day is right around the corner, too, so we ought to show our faces."

"……. Yeah. You're right."

I knew better than anyone why she didn't want to go to family gatherings. Set beside the other relatives who were doing well, our house had never been particularly well-off. More precisely, Grandfather had passed a little earlier than expected, and while the inheritance was being divided, some land he had bought long ago and left sitting idle turned out to have climbed quite a bit in price.

Five sons and two daughters. That was when the fight began. They argued over who had looked after their parents better while they were still alive, voices rising until the shouting flew every which way. I was young, but the scene must have shocked me—I still remembered it vividly.

Father, the youngest of the brothers, wanted no part of his own family tearing itself apart. He stepped out of the fight, took Mother by the hand and us with her, and walked away. He raised us without taking so much as a single coin.

I didn't particularly resent him for it. If nothing else, the air in our house was warmer than in any of the other relatives' homes.

The problem started after that. Our parents had told themselves that even if my sister's work as a web novelist was unstable, at least she had married well—until my brother-in-law died in an accident no one saw coming.

They had little to their name, but they had poured everything into raising their son, and he had graduated university early and joined a major company. An office romance had even carried him all the way to marriage, and just when it looked as if he were on an unbroken winning streak, he got divorced and came home.

So our parents always shrank at family gatherings, and watching them left the rest of us sitting on a cushion of thorns.

Once, after the divorce, Father called me drunk. He said he thought it was all his fault. If he had been a little greedier back then, fought his older brothers, and walked away with even one plot of land, maybe something would have turned out differently. He blamed himself. I was in no shape to answer, so I hung up without saying much of anything.

Looking back, I should have told him it was all right. Even one word.

And so, at every gathering, from our parents down to me and my sister, we were always the ones being measured against everyone else. Lately the relatives had started marrying off one by one and bringing their children, and the comparisons had begun to spill over onto the kids as well.

"You know early education is everything these days, right? English kindergarten is a must."

"Expensive? It's not as bad as you think. A few million won a month and they're in… Oh! From your point of view, I suppose that would feel expensive. I didn't even think of that."

"Anyway, our Yeju starts elementary school next year. How far along is her math? Don't tell me she's still doing addition and subtraction?"

Hearing things like that, I had thought it more than once.

Do they have some disease that kills them if they can't tear other people down?

Turning the old memories over, I felt the anger start to boil. If I could have had my way, I would have drawn Punch King Rolf and taken him with me. Still—right now, I had money that didn't have to bow to any of them.

I strode over to my sister and shut her laptop.

"Pack up. Today's going to be different."

Before the sixtieth birthday party, we stopped at a department store.

"A department store, out of nowhere?"

"Whoa! There are so many ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠people! This must be a kids' café for grown-ups!"

Children's eyes really were pure. A kids' café for grown-ups. A department store. In a way, wasn't she right?

"We're going to see Mom and Dad. We can't show up looking like beggars. We each need one good outfit."

"Where would I even get the money…"

"I've got it. So come on."

I scooped Yeju up in my arms and walked on ahead.

"Uncle! Uncle!"

"Yeah?"

"You look super cool today!"

"Uncle looks cool?"

"Uh-huh! Really, really cool!"

Coming to the department store, I had dressed up a little myself. Maybe that was why.

"Haha. Yeju looks super pretty today, too!"

"No, Uncle, I'm telling you—you look really, really cool today!"

In the luxury women's section, my sister followed the clerk's lead and reluctantly slipped on an ivory jacket.

"Jinyeong, no matter how I look at it, this place is way too expensive… Doesn't this stand out too much? Is it really okay?"

Already, the corner of her mouth was twitching.

"Wow! Mom looks so pretty! Like a princess!"

"Really? Mommy's pretty?"

At Yeju's praise, my sister's mouth twitched again.

"It suits you, doesn't it? You only ever wear dark colors."

"True. I have been dressing kind of dark."

The employee beside us chimed in.

"You have an excellent eye. This design is actually our bestseller right now, and there's exactly one left in your size."

My sister hesitated.

"Um… how much is this…"

"Forget the price. We'll take this for the top. Please recommend something that goes with it for the bottom."

I didn't even give her the chance to ask what it cost.

A little later she stepped out of the fitting room in a soft ivory jacket and high-waisted slacks—a crisp suit, the kind you rarely saw on her. Maybe it was because all I ever saw at home was her looking worn out.

"……Wow."

My mouth fell open on its own.

"What? Do I look weird?"

"No. You're just too pretty."

She glanced at the mirror, then asked carefully.

"But this really can't be cheap…"

"It costs a lot less than losing our pride. So don't worry about it."

It was only about 1.2 million won. I held out my card at the register. There was a line I had wanted to say ever since I first imagined being rich. The miserable life of installments was over.

While she rang it up, the saleswoman went on, a little shy.

"Excuse me… are the two of you married? Listening to you, I didn't think you were a couple."

"No. She's my older sister. Why do you ask?"

"…If you're not seeing anyone, could I get your number? I've been watching from across the floor, and you're exactly my type."

"…?"

Had anyone ever asked for my number in my life?

Ah. That was it. The new ability I had drawn from the Random Box yesterday.

So that was why Yeju had called me super cool.

Looks decided everything. After I joined the company, back when I was a new hire, I had gone on plenty of blind dates trying to find someone to marry. I had turned people down myself more than once, but the ones I actually liked had a way of rejecting a second meeting.

Every time, I spent days sunk in the loss. I had thought my looks were decent enough, but next to overwhelming handsomeness I had always looked like nothing but a squid. Now it felt as if I were finally laying that old grudge to rest.

I knew exactly how rejection felt, so I answered the clerk with a small smile.

"I'm sorry."

"Ah… you must have a girlfriend. Or else I'm just not…"

"No. It hasn't been long since my divorce. And you're really pretty yourself—pretty enough that if I simply hadn't gotten married, I would have wanted to ask you out."

"The subway runs just fine. Why a taxi?"

Even after spending that much at the department store, my sister still hadn't come back to her senses.

"Look at what we're carrying. If we get on the subway like this, we'll be a public nuisance."

My sister, Yeju, and I each had both hands full of shopping bags. The clothes I had bought her were only the beginning. There were Chanel handbags for my sister and for Mom, and a Rolex for Dad. Plenty of watch brands ran into the hundreds of millions of won, but that was still too much. I had also bought Yeju a pretty dress to wear. I had assumed children's clothes would be cheap. Who knew they would cost more than my sister's?

Price, it turned out, was not proportional to the amount of fabric.

"Are you really not going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"Where all this money suddenly came from. At home you keep grinning to yourself out of nowhere, and because of that Yeju won't even come near you. You do know that, right?"

What was I supposed to say? And if I told the truth, would she even believe me? That after the divorce, one day a Random Box status window had appeared before my eyes—that I had grown taller, that my account had been duplicated buy-one-get-one, and that I could see the monthly closes on the coin charts.

"If I tell you, will you actually believe me?"

"Of course."

As expected, she wouldn't. I wouldn't have believed it either.

"I'll tell you when the time comes. I didn't make it doing anything shady, so don't worry. Just wait until then."

"…Really? You really didn't make it some weird way?"

"Yeah. The taxi's here. Get in."

I flagged the taxi and went on.

"From here on, don't wonder how I made the money. Just think about how we're going to put our family's pride back where it belongs."

It was time to land one clean blow on the relatives who had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looked down on us all these years.