Does Money Multiply?
"Sergeant, get home safe. See you at the office."
"Yeah, sure. Ah, what am I gonna do if I end up with a fan club at the company too? Man, I'm exhausted. Seriously."
Ha. Manager Dongcheol had come down with a full-blown prince complex thanks to those hardcore ajummas at the sundae-guk restaurant. Sigh... Acting like that at his age. Still, seeing him happy made me feel good too.
I parted ways with Manager Dongcheol and headed home. I'd already eaten. Now what?
I turned on my phone. My cute little Yeseul must have been busy — no KakaoTalk messages since the ones at the coffee shop. I checked the apps installed on the phone. V3, Nemflix, Youtuber...
Oh — come to think of it, I hadn't checked my bank balance since arriving in this gender-reversed world. My precious one million won was sitting in there. Maybe I should withdraw about a hundred thousand today and go shopping?
Strangely, this world's Yu Sihyun barely owned any clothes. Even the original-world Yu Sihyun, who never cared much about fashion, had more than this. Don't tell me this world's Yu Sihyun — this bastard — blew every last won chasing women? And that's why he couldn't buy clothes?
With a trembling heart, I opened my phone and launched the National Bank app. Thankfully, a fingerprint unlocked it. If it'd been some password I didn't know, I'd have been screwed. Then I checked the balance.
Fortunately, the money was there.
Huh?
Wait.
Wh-whaaaat??????
What the hell is this..........
Zeros. One, two, three, four...........
In my National Bank account — the one that should have held one million won — there sat a full, full, full! One hundred million won.
Holy fucking shit!!!!!!!
This adorable bastard of an otherworld Yu Sihyun. Did he install some money-duplication app? How the hell does one million become a hundred million?!
I was so happy I pinched my thigh. Motherfuckeeeer! That fucking hurts! Okay — no more pinching the thigh. For real. Anyway, this was real.
Of course, for some people a hundred million isn't a lot of money. Having a hundred million doesn't mean you can quit working. These days a single apartment in Gangnam usually goes for three billion. Even if you had a billion, you'd still have to work. But for a fresh-faced working stiff like me, a hundred million was an enormous sum. Just having one million saved in my account had been something I was incredibly proud of.
My family had never been well-off, even when I was little. The moment I graduated high school and left free school lunches behind, I started working part-time jobs. Convenience stores, karaoke rooms, broadcast staff, loading and unloading packages, hard labor — there wasn't a side gig I hadn't done. I knew my parents were struggling, so I wanted to earn my own tuition and living expenses. Except for my time in the military, I worked every single day. That way I managed to pay off every last bit of my student loans.
I'd never even dreamed of the overseas trips everyone else took. The moment I graduated, I started sending out applications. I applied to a full hundred places and got rejected from every one. In the original world's Korea, landing a job during COVID was like plucking stars from the sky. Companies were laying people off, not hiring.
Still, I lucked out at the very end. Probably because of one particular line. At the final interview, I sat down with Team Leader Kim Ayeong.
"Yu Sihyun-ssi — can you do anything the company asks of you? Even if it's unreasonable?"
"Yes, I can! I can do anything. Just give me the job and I'll give everything my absolute best!"
"Is that so? Running coffee errands. Moving heavy loads. All the jobs that are hard for women — you can handle those?"
"Yes, of course a man like me should handle the hard work!"
"Is that so? Hmm. All right. You can go. If you pass, we'll contact you. If you don't, you won't hear from us — you understand?"
Fuck. I should have realized it then. What the team wanted wasn't a teammate — it was a male slave.
A week after the interview, still no call. I was shitting bricks. Sitting around unemployed in an already poor household always felt like sitting on a bed of nails. And finally, the call came.
"Start work tomorrow. Oh, and don't wear a suit — come in comfortable clothes. Official start time is nine, but you're a new hire. You should come early, right? Be here by seven. You can do that?"
"Yes. Understood!!!! Thank you!"
I'd taken their bait hook, line, and sinker. What they were looking for wasn't a proper employee — it was a desperate bastard who needed a job. Someone who'd do anything he was told.
And so I showed up for my first day. Turns out it was department transfer day. I hauled boxes all day long. The women goofed off at the coffee shop. Assistant Manager Seonghyeon and I carried the belongings of all eight department members between the two of us. I swear it was harder than the hard labor jobs I'd done. Still, back then I was so happy just to have a job that I didn't even notice how hard it was.
Mom, Dad. Being able to ease their burden even a little made me glad. And with my first paycheck, I bought them gifts. Mom put on the bag I'd bought her and spoke as if it were the most precious thing in the world.
"Our Sihyun's all grown up now. Getting a paycheck and buying Mom presents."
Fuck, it was a cheap bag. To Mom, it was a treasure.
They were so happy I'd gotten a job — how could I quit just because it was hard? I gave my parents pocket money every month. And by living frugally, I managed to save a little for myself too. That money was the one million won deposited in the National Bank.
And then this adorable otherworld Yu Sihyun bastard had multiplied that money a hundredfold.
It wasn't dirty money from somewhere shady... right? I checked the source of the deposits. Obviously it wasn't from our company. A new hire's salary at our place was two million won a month. There was no way to save a hundred million on company pay alone.
And the source was somewhere called JYK. Every month, ten million won from JYK hit my account.
Huh? What the hell is this. JYK.... JYK..............
Ah! I remembered. The message I'd seen earlier on KakaoTalk — the one locked so I could only see the beginning. That message had been from JYK.
Just in case, I searched JYK online. Hmm........ There was no ordinary company called JYK. But there was a JYK Entertainment. In fact, I figured it was the company that had been JYJ in the original world. A massive entertainment company with countless singers and actors — JYK. Along with YJ, it was one of the most famous agencies in the country.
Come on, no way........ No matter how handsome this world's Yu Sihyun was, there was no way JYJ would be sending him money. Not just anyone becomes a celebrity. The male idols and entertainers I'd seen while working as broadcast staff literally glowed. They were on a completely different level from a commoner like me. Getting a slight looks buff didn't put me in the same league as those ridiculously gorgeous bastards. And besides, I already had a perfectly legitimate company job. Sure enough, checking confirmed that the company salary was also coming in every month. So, in short, this money was coming from somewhere that shared the same name as JYK.
The most suspicious possibility was a host bar. Plenty of host bars use the same trade names as entertainment companies. Back in the original world, I'd looked into it because people said it paid well. Of course, I failed the interview because of my looks. But with this world's Yu Sihyun's face, he might not cut it for broadcast TV — but at a host bar, he'd easily be top-tier. Just my guess, of course. And he had a trained body too. He would've gotten way more choices than those scrawny other guys! Wait — flip that around. He worked out hard so he could get chosen! Yeah! That was the most realistic explanation.
Ah, ugh. That bastard. He must've been throwing his body around. Well, he does have a monster cock, after all.
That would also explain the photos and videos in the phone's secret folder. Odds were high they were of women he'd met while working at the host bar. I was curious — I wanted to see them. Unfortunately, I didn't know the password. So that was why so many women had been contacting him. All my questions were answered.
Whatever the case, the money this world's Yu Sihyun had earned by working his body — I'd spend it freely! On good things! For myself! With that in mind, I quickly showered and headed out to shop. Money multiplied a hundred times over! Today, I was going to spend to my heart's content! It was free money this world's Yu Sihyun had earned selling his body, after all. Whatever. Man, making money is such a fucking pain. If I could run this world's Yu Sihyun like an AI, how great would that be? Auto-mining money with otherworld Yu Sihyun would be pure honey.
The shopping center was packed. Being Sunday, there were a lot of people. I'd come out thoroughly armored up — hat on, mask covering my entire face, only my eyes peeking out slightly. So today, nobody mistook me for a celebrity. Running into those delinquent high school pterodactyls like last time would be miserable. A little stuffy was better than that.
How had this world's Yu Sihyun usually gotten around? I found myself wondering. He probably covered up just like me. Honestly, just being handsome doesn't make women latch onto you like lunatics. This world's Yu Sihyun had one massive problem. He looked like the biggest celebrity in Korea.
Park Jihyun.
I'd looked up his photos too. Of course the real guy was way more handsome. But we definitely looked alike. The V-line face shape. The eyes. Even the high-bridged nose. And the decisive factor — that cute puppy look women went absolutely crazy for. When I smiled, even I couldn't tell Park Jihyun and this world's Yu Sihyun apart. Easy to mix us up if you didn't look carefully.
Currently Park Jihyun was promoting a single album. Mysterious man concept. He only showed his face on broadcasts in brief flashes. In other words, he was playing hard to get like a total snob. And the strategy had worked. He'd blown up on Producer 102, the battle program where entertainment trainees audition. And now he was a top-tier superstar in Korea. He'd gone from mere trainee to superstar in the shortest time on record.
Whew. A guy like that has it made. He's probably sleeping his way through every popular female idol and actress. Fuck, the world is so unfair. Some of us are jerking off to porn. I hope that Park Jihyun or whatever turns into a eunuch. Taking my frustration out on the wrong target.
I walked toward the men's clothing section. This world's Yu Sihyun had tons of tracksuits. Almost no clothes for going out. Hikikomori bastard. Aside from working the host bar, he must've been glued to his room. That's why there was so much porn on the computer. I was planning to hit the bars soon to get picked up, so might as well buy some clothes to dress to the nines!
I spotted the luxury goods section. Haaah. Even with a hundred million, luxury brands were a stretch. Buy a few pieces and the hundred million would just vanish. Still, no harm in looking. Looking doesn't cost anything.
A sales clerk.
"Welco—"
She looked at my outfit. Without a word, she went to another customer.
Fuck. Pretty face, clean looks, and zero fucking manners. These bitches working luxury stores act like the displayed goods are theirs and judge people purely by their clothes. She'd probably have to save every last won of her salary for months just to buy one luxury item herself. My mood plummeted. Screw it. Luxury brands, my ass. Let's just hit a casual store.
But then — a voice like jade beads rolling across a floor rang out.
"Oppa! What are you doing here?"