A Father's Rolex

Ju Seongyong—Ju Jinyeong's own father.

For the first time in a long while, he went out to a gathering of old friends. He had already lost a son-in-law to an accident, and after a daughter-in-law left through divorce, he had sunk so deep into gloom that he stopped attending the meetings altogether. His friends, unused to the sight of him, tilted their heads.

"Well, well. What's our Seongyong doing out with us today?"

"Nothing special. Just wanted to see your faces."

"Good thinking. Fellows like us—retired, nothing to do—stay home and all we catch is grief from the wives. Mine ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠says she'd rather not see my face at all. Kahahaha!"

And then the personal-PR hour began.

It was always the same. In the end, it came down to bragging about the kids.

"No, listen to this. Parents' Day comes around, and my son-in-law hands me a million won in spending money. A million!"

"Mine wasn't cash. The kids brought beef over, or so I hear..."

Seongyong listened at his ease, a smile tucked into the corner of his mouth.

"What are you grinning about all by yourself?"

"It's only June. You come down with heatstroke or something?"

Clink.

Seongyong gave the watch on his wrist a little shake, and his friends' eyes lit up.

"What's that?"

"Th-that's a Rolex, isn't it?"

"Where'd you get the money for a thing like that?"

Seongyong answered with a thoroughly smug look.

"Oh, you noticed? It's nothing much. My boy—works at a big company—gave it to me for Parents' Day. I kept saying no, no, it looks too expensive, but he insisted I take it. I don't really know the brand, though. Is this an expensive one?"

Ju Seongyong knew watch brands very well indeed. Not just the names—show him a design and he could call the model and the price on the spot. He was a watch fanatic through and through.

"A Rolex starts north of ten million won, easy."

"Oh, really? My son said he paid a little over twenty million for it."

Watching that smug face, his friends all thought the same thing.

Like hell he doesn't know. He knows exactly.

Bzzzt—

Just then, Seongyong's phone went off.

"Aigoo. That's my boy again. You fellows get calls like this too?"

And then:

"What? Aigoo, the road's long enough already, and you're buying snow crab on the way home? All right, I'll tell your mother. Yes. Drive safe, son."

Seongyong stood, brushing off his trousers.

"What am I supposed to do? My boy suddenly says he's bringing snow crab. You all go ahead and eat without me. I'll settle the bill on my way out, though. He didn't just give me the watch—he handed me ten million won in spending money, so the wallet's nice and fat. Kahahahaha!"

Humming to himself, Seongyong rose from the table.

His sacred duty of bragging about his children complete, he went straight home and looked for his wife.

"The kids are coming, and she's already wandered off somewhere."

A little later, after a short gap, his wife came through the door.

"Where were you?"

"The house felt too quiet, so I just took a turn around the neighborhood."

"...You went on a neighborhood stroll with a Chanel bag on your shoulder?"

"I lost the shopping basket not long ago."

"......"

Fair enough. He himself had only just come back from a gathering held for the express purpose of showing off a Rolex.

They were an old couple made happy by their children.

After dinner with the family, I came home.

Everyone looked brighter. Thank God.

All through the meal, Mom and Dad had talked about nothing but their gifts. Mom said she'd taken the Chanel bag out for a perfectly unnecessary walk around the block. Dad said he only wore the watch when there was someone to show it to, and the moment he was out of sight he took it off and locked it away in its case.

If I'd known they loved presents this much, I would have been giving them little things all along. I could make up, from here on, for everything I hadn't managed before.

Once the meal had settled, I sat back down at the desk. Bitcoin's price and chart were up on the screen around the clock, the way they always were.

There it is...

Bitcoin, up 4 percent that morning, had given back every bit of the gain and turned red.

On the chart, the odds of a continued slide looked high for a while. Retail would have piled in that morning, and if someone meant to shake them out, the only way was to drive the price down while they did it.

Click.

Unless Guiding Navigation fired, it meant my choice was the right one.

Leverage at thirty times—no. Keep it light, around twenty. In exchange, I took the seed money up to five hundred thousand dollars.

In real terms, that was the punch of a ten-million-dollar position.

At twenty times, it cleared ten billion won without breaking a sweat...

Someone once said that when you invest, you should go in as if you're marching into battle.

For me, it really was a battle. The kind you could die from if you lost.

Admiral Yi Sun-sin had said it too. Seek death, and you shall live.

Gulp.

I drew a long breath and pressed the mouse.

Click.

......

Did it go through?

The buy filled. Thankfully, the Guiding window never appeared.

I wiped the line of sweat running down my cheek.

It's not even hot, and I'm sweating from the nerves.

Moving from ten-times leverage to twenty made the swings unmistakably worse.

Up and down, up and down. I'd only glanced at the screen, and already I felt seasick.

Day traders don't have an easy job either.

Bzzzt—

The moment the buy was done, a message came in from Bongshik.

This was exactly why I didn't want to tell Bongshik too much about rigged stocks or coins. How was he any different from a moth that knows the flame will kill it and dives in anyway?

Joo-nim...

Not half bad, actually.

Bzzzt—

While I was still trading messages with Bongshik, a call came in from Dahun.

"Yeah, Dahun."

"Jinyeong. I quit."

"...Already?"

"What? Don't tell me you're backing out of yesterday's offer. I've got nowhere else to go now."

I'd figured he would stew on it for at least a few days. I never thought an answer would come back in under twenty-four hours. Not that I was anything but grateful.

"Of course not. Want to meet for a bit?"

"Sure. Where?"

"Come to my place. I'll send you the address."

"Is Yeju home, by any chance?"

"Of course she is."

"Yes! I'll be right there."

Not even a few hours later, Dahun arrived at the house.

"Yeju, Uncle's here!"

"Samcho-ooon!"

Yeju threw herself into Dahun's arms.

After my brother-in-law died in the accident, my sister had raised Yeju on her own. She couldn't be glued to the girl every day, though, so she often left Yeju with me, and whenever she did, my friends would bring their own kids over to play with her.

"Did you miss Uncle?"

"Yeees!! I missed you sooo much. But Dongmyeong and Hayul didn't come?!"

"Not today. I just came to talk with Uncle Jinyeong for a bit, so I couldn't bring the kids."

Her face fell. Yeju went quiet and gloomy.

"Next time, I'll take you all to a kids' café together."

"R-really?"

"Yeah. Promise."

Then Dahun pulled a fifty-thousand-won bill from his wallet.

"And this is allowance from Uncle, so you can buy yourself something tasty."

"Wooow! Thank you, Uncle!"

"Aigoo, what nice manners. Yeju, do you like Uncle Jinyeong, or Uncle Dahun?"

Here we go again. The impossible question, same family as do you like Mommy or Daddy?

I thought she might at least pretend to think it over. Yeju answered without a flicker of hesitation.

"Uncle Jinyeong, obviously!"

"O-oh...? Even when Uncle gives you allowance like this?"

"My uncle buys me snow crab every single day."

"Snow crab? Every single day?"

Dahun's eyes went wide.

Even he, working at a top-tier bank, couldn't buy Dongmyeong and Hayul snow crab every day...

So this is what a successful man's life looks like.

Kang Dahun made a firm resolution. He would succeed at investing alongside Jinyeong and become the kind of father who could buy Dongmyeong and Hayul snow crab every single day.

I gave him a quick tour of the place and brought him into my room. Every room he looked through, Dahun let out a small cheer.

And inside the room, the monitor on the desk still showed the chart heaving up and down.

"This is where you do your investing?"

"Yeah. 'Investing' might be generous. It's Bitcoin, and futures on top of that."

"...You've really got guts. If it were me, my heart would've given out."

Dahun drifted slowly toward the monitor.

He tilted his head, then squinted, as if he needed to confirm that he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing.

And then his mouth dropped open with a crack, wide as a crocodile's.

Keep that up and he'll hit a death roll.

There was a very good reason Dahun's jaw had come unhinged. This lunatic was running twenty-times leverage on five hundred thousand dollars.

Safety-first, ordinary-citizen Dahun began to regret everything.

Invest this aggressively and you could forget five billion won—hand him ten billion and he might burn through the lot in a matter of days.

Did I quit too fast?

Should I go kneel in front of the branch manager right now??

What kind of partnership did this maniac even think he was offering me???

But... why was it going up?

Dahun couldn't take his eyes off the chart.

In that short span, a hundred thousand dollars had been made.

A hundred thousand dollars. Roughly level with Dahun's annual salary.

A full year of every humiliation his jealous seniors could invent, the mental grind of it, and the physical grind of overtime day after day. He had endured all of that for the money—and the lunatic in front of him had just earned the same amount in a few minutes.

"I'm only being this aggressive for a while because I expect a sideways market. I don't usually go this far."

"...I see, sir."

"Why the sudden honorifics?"

"I don't know. It just feels like I ought to be polite."

"......"

I gave Dahun a moment to settle, then got back to the point.

"First, I want to set up an investment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠company."

"You'd be the CEO, and I'd be the employee?"

I nodded. The way he kept sliding into formal speech mid-sentence, like a gradient, grated on me, but still.

"You know I don't know the first thing about that side. I want you handling everything from incorporating the company to sorting and analyzing what we actually invest in."

"That's not hard. Do you have a target return in mind?"

"Target return?"

"The strategy changes depending on the annual return you want. For assets on your scale, by bank standards, most people only set a target three ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to five percent above ordinary bank interest."

Five percent...? Bitcoin had risen a hundred percent just last month.

"Mm... let's think about that as we go."

And then, the long-awaited salary negotiation.

"I didn't come here expecting to get my old salary in full. So please don't feel too burdened."

At the bank, Dahun had been making over a hundred million won before tax. Quitting, going back to square one, he had decided even fifty million would be fine.

I just have to perform. As the asset base grows, I ask for a raise each time. Sooner or later there'll come a day I can buy Dongmyeong and Hayul snow crab with an easy heart.

That was what he'd been thinking.

So what were those two fingers Ju Jinyeong was holding up?

"......!"

Dahun's eyes flew wide all over again.

"And depending on results, I'll pay a separate incentive on top. Call it thanks for giving up a stable road and taking my hand..."

Huh?

Suddenly Dahun dropped to his knees in front of me.

"What are you doing?"

One of them insisted on calling me Joo-nim. The other was on his knees, swearing loyalty.

......

Honestly? Even better.

Like I always say—money really is wonderful.