A Handkerchief for the Sixtieth

My aunt's sixtieth-birthday banquet was being held at an upscale Korean banquet hall in Gangnam, and the room was already packed wall to wall with relatives.

Quite the turnout. I wonder what they're all planning to brag about today.

The moment we stepped inside, glances came from every direction, nobody waiting to be the first. I felt them travel over us from the shoes up in one slow, measuring sweep.

I could weather it. My sister was another story. Every won she earned went to Yeju and never to herself, so she had always shown up to these gatherings in clothes that looked one wash from giving out. Maybe that was why the relatives' eyes felt different this time.

Once they finished scanning us, their attention slid to the shopping bags filling both our hands. Then one of them broke from the crowd and came over.

"Oh my, Jinyeong, is that you? I hardly recognized you. I thought you were someone else entirely."

It was my aunt's eldest daughter-in-law, layered in clothes stamped with luxury logos, a clutch in her hand that insisted on being noticed.

If you're going to dress like that, go walk a runway.

"I had to stare for a while there. Your face looks different, doesn't it?"

The older cousin beside her dropped a hand on my shoulder.

"Huh?"

He cocked his head. Fair enough. I was taller than him now. Ju Jinyeong, who used to have to duck to let that arm settle across his shoulders, had become an awkward height to drape yourself over.

He tried again.

"Were you always this tall?"

"Guess my growth plates never closed. Yours did, hyung."

"...... I heard you got divorced. What's so hard about marriage? Swallow a little pride and meet each other halfway."

"Better than living like a department-store window and keeping a lover on the side, don't you think?"

"What?"

"Just making conversation."

My cousin's brow drew tight. The two of them keeping up a show-window marriage was something only they pretended not to know. Everyone else did. I had stumbled onto his affair by chance while passing down a street, and the shock had barely settled before I learned his wife was carrying on one of her own. They made no effort to hide it, so the relatives had caught them at it more than once.

Like calls to like. Lie down with ink and you come up stained. Those sayings didn't exist for nothing.

One down. Money had put a spine in me. In the old days I would have swallowed mindless contempt, let it in one ear and out the other. I shrugged his hand off my shoulder—it was barely hanging on—and crossed over to my sister.

She and Yeju had been cornered among the sisters-in-law.

"Yeju's growing up well, isn't she? What grade is she in?"

"She turns seven this year."

"Auntie! I start elementary school next year!"

Yeju seemed simply delighted that so many people were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠buzzing around her.

"Is that so? These days even first graders can hold a conversation in English. Can Yeju manage a little?"

At that, my sister flinched. I answered for her.

"Yeju can't do conversation. Her Korean is excellent, though."

"Korean is a given. Do you have any idea what year this is? Fall behind, and it's over in a second."

"Then you've fallen behind too, haven't you, sister-in-law?"

"Excuse me?"

"You don't speak English. At the last family gathering, when Yeju asked you to read her an English picture book, you fumbled straight through it."

"Th-that was..."

"I hear people who never got much of an education love projecting that onto their kids. This isn't one of those cases, is it?"

"Is that any way to talk to your sister-in-law..."

"We'll excuse ourselves. We still need to greet my parents."

"Don't you walk away from me!"

Double kill.

We left that shrill voice behind us and crossed the hall to my parents, tucked into a corner of the family gathering the way they always were. I dipped my head.

"We're here."

"Good. Hayeon made it sound like she wasn't coming."

"It's Parents' Day. We had to come see you at least once. We even brought gifts."

We gave the shopping bags a little shake.

"What is all that?"

"Hayeon and I pooled our money and bought you and Dad something for Parents' Day."

"Honey, I think the sun might be rising in the west. The children actually brought presents."

"Where did you two get the money to buy something like this?"

The apple, it seemed, had not fallen far from the tree.

"At a time like this, a simple thank-you will do. You're wearing out the people who bought them. Open them, or I'm taking them back."

"Ahem... still, if our children bought them, we ought to see what they are."

Time to unbox. With my parents watching, I opened a shopping bag. It wasn't only them looking. The relatives were craning, desperate to see what would come out, and the muttering started.

Then a real Chanel bag came out of the tissue, and the relatives' mouths fell open.

"Th-this is real?"

Mom's eyes had gone wide, as if she couldn't make herself believe it.

"Haha, it's real. If you don't believe me, ask the sisters-in-law over there. They know their luxury goods. Isn't that right?"

I said it loudly, on purpose, so they would hear.

"Y-yeah... it's real."

"See? That's Chanel."

"I don't know how it suits her so perfectly."

Insisting it was fake and then being made fools of was a humiliation they had no interest in.

Next I opened the gift box for my father. The lid came up, and a Rolex's classic dial flashed inside.

He took the watch and swallowed, dry.

My father had never been a man of appetites, but watches were the one thing that had always held his interest. Inside, he had to be thrilled.

"This one's real too, so don't worry."

His face said he had a great deal to say. He kept all of it in.

"...... Thank you. Thank you, son."

"Don't mention it. Happy Parents' Day, Dad. Mom."

And right then, that shrill voice came at my back again.

"It's my sixtieth today. You brought a gift for me too, of course?"

My aunt. Right—this whole gathering was supposed to be in honor of her sixtieth. She had been one of the people who slighted my mother the most after Mom married into the family.

"Of course, Aunt."

I picked up the one gift box still remaining and walked over to her. The moment she saw it, the knot between her brows began, slowly, to loosen.

"Congratulations on your sixtieth. Live a long, healthy life."

"Thank you, nephew."

She took the gift and immediately started tearing at the wrapping, greedy and quick, a bright innocent smile on her face.

A moment later, what emerged from the paper was nothing more than a handkerchief from a rather modest brand.

A handkerchief I had bought for exactly 12,900 ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠won. With the gift wrap, call it 13,900.

"Wh-what is this?"

"A gift. You once said Mom looked so pretty wearing a handkerchief, remember? You said there was no need to buy anything expensive, that even cheap ones come in pretty designs these days. So I bought the very same kind."

"You're giving me this rag of a handkerchief as a present..."

She was trembling. The hand clenched around the handkerchief had started to shake.

I turned an easy, open smile on her.

"You must have enjoyed the meal. Go on and wipe the sauce off the corner of your mouth with that. Aunt."

That was the moment it became a triple kill.

I dragged my worn-out body home.

The sixtieth had been a scorched field. Whether my smile had been what set her off, my aunt had screamed at the top of her lungs, and in the end, with the other relatives pleading around her, our family left early.

As if the price of a gift were what mattered. It's the thought that counts. Then again, money-worship runs every bit as deep as the worship of looks.

On the way out of the banquet hall I braced myself, certain I was about to catch an earful from my parents.

I didn't.

"You did well."

Dad patted my back. Mom looked at me and smiled.

"Thank you, son. You untied a grudge your mother's carried for decades."

"But how on earth did you buy gifts this expensive?"

At the suspicion that followed, my sister stepped in for me.

"You're worried Jinyeong did something illegal, aren't you. Jinyeong works at a major company, you know. He did so well this time they gave him a bonus."

"Even so. A bonus isn't going to be tens of millions of won..."

"Oh, for— If you don't want them, give them to me. I'll wear both."

"...... That's not what I meant."

That was the first time I ever saw my mother's face go dead serious.

In more than thirty years of living I had bought Lee Somin designer bags and never once given my own mother a gift. Thinking about it now, there was no unfilial bastard worse than me. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Of course, I fully intended to make up for every year of that neglect by drowning them in money.

"Yeju must have been tired today too. She went right out."

The moment we got home, Yeju had fallen asleep, breathing soft and even. People say children are angels. The saying fit her exactly.

"Noona, you had a long day too. Get some real rest."

"Jinyeong."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for today."

"Forget it. Now that I think about it, I've never given you a proper gift either."

"Not the gift. I mean the way you stepped up in front of the relatives. I didn't say anything, but it felt good. Really good."

Honestly, I was a little disappointed. It should have been a pentakill, not a triple.

I lifted one corner of my mouth.

"Then I'll keep it up."

I had spent fifty million won in a single day.

A lot of money, when you looked at it straight. And all it had bought was two designer bags and a watch. Oh, and that handkerchief for 12,900 won.

Even so, my mind was at ease. Bitcoin had climbed five percent and filled the hole before the day was out. Ten-times leverage. A full fifty percent return.

I already knew where the close would land, so I could have just let the position sit. Still, nothing on the market beat a method that made money this fast. If it looked set to finish above the monthly close, I would sell. If it dropped back under that close, I would buy again. That was the strategy for the month.

Hmm. For a target, why not set it comfortably at ten billion won?

......

Had I just said ten billion?

My own mouth fell open.

I was fairly sure I had said ten billion won as if it were nothing at all.

I let the happy daydream unfurl. An apartment in Seoul. I used to think the ordinary national standard would be plenty, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a premium place of more than fifty pyeong—north of seventeen hundred square feet—looked possible now. And an import. A very expensive one. Then, when Yeju started elementary school, I would drive her there myself, so she would never have to hear that bullshit about Dal-dongne, a basement flat, or being the perfect-attendance pauper.

Even after all of that, I had the feeling there would still be money left. What to do with the rest could wait. When it came to money, more was always better.

I finished the daydream and lay down on the bed to open the day's Random Box.

There had been a time when the small joy of my life was stretching out before sleep to watch YouTube or Netflix. These days, opening the Random Box had taken that place. My looks, my height, and assets that kept on growing—the more boxes I opened, the fuller even my heart felt.

A status window hung in front of my eyes.

I pressed Y.

A flash burst, same as always, and a new status window unfolded before my eyes.

Last time it had let me hear what people were thinking. Now I had a skill that let me eavesdrop on their conversations. At this rate, was I actually going to end up with a peeping ability like Team Leader Park's?

Hand this to the neighborhood busybodies and they would have clapped themselves dizzy with joy. I was not a busybody. Company people, above all, interested me even less.

Still, I can choose whether to use it.

Overhearing other people's talk... It had the feel of a Pandora's box.

From the department store that morning straight through the relatives, I was drained to the last of my energy. I had no time left to think the skill over. My eyelids sank, heavy, and I fell asleep, never once considering that this ability was going to prove very useful indeed.