Rental Stocks (Revised For/Against Vote)

Thud!

The bathroom door swung open and steam billowed out in thick, curling waves.

Sora stepped out, fresh from the shower, and stretched one bare leg forward.

A long, smooth stretch of bare skin. Unfortunately, everything above it was wrapped in a white bathrobe.

"Senior, go wash up."

"I'll do it later."

"What? You're soaked in sweat."

She settled lightly onto his lap, eyes soft and loving as they found his.

Surprisingly not clingy.

There was something fresh about her. It really hit him that she was only twenty-one.

"Senior."

"…Can't breathe."

"How could you do something so shameless?"

A body that even a room-salon ace would envy, and she was saying that. Her full, heavy breasts hung right in front of his face. She pulled his head into them with a soft poof.

Warm dampness and the sweet scent of soap filled his nose.

I've used that soap myself.

Somehow it never smelled the same on him. Young women had a pheromone all their own.

"I'm never going to be able to get married."

"Why?"

"Because I… did it with you, Senior."

"I didn't take your virginity."

"You took it in my heart."

The scent of a female. Whether she knew it or not, she rubbed her smooth skin against him, seducing him.

Other people do this with dozens of partners.

A little almost-sex and she was already clinging. Her eyes were still hazy, lingering in the afterglow. She was practically sitting there begging to be taken properly.

So he gave her what she wanted — he stroked the place that mattered most to Sora.

Her entire net worth, sitting in that account.

He'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been fiddling with it the whole time she was in the shower.

"Well, with this much debt, yeah — you're not getting married."

"You son of a bitch."

"Your account is a disaster."

"What the hell did you do this time?!"

There were all kinds of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠options. Everything from next month's expected move to four months out.

The longer ones have a bit more volatility.

The moment a stock ticked up even a little, people started thinking the trend had flipped. The value of sold call options dropped. That was how you could take a massive short-term loss.

"It'll come back to break-even, right?"

"You're worried about break-even?"

"Huh?"

"The losses are unlimited."

"Then what happens?"

"What do you think? Your life goes to shit."

You become a brokerage slave. Though a brokerage might cut a sexy slave like her a little slack.

State-sanctioned legal slavery.

The bottom rung of capitalism's class system. And if she became a slave, he planned to reassign her as a sex slave.

He kept pressing the button that was wrecking Sora's life. Option short positions piled up past the point of no return.

"At this rate…"

"Hmm?"

"What if the World Cup boom just blasts it sky-high?"

"So you finally caught on."

"You absolute psycho."

She had no idea what to do. No — she didn't even know what doing something would look like.

Barrier to entry. Options were genuinely not easy.

Sora, having given up, glared at him.

A fiery woman. Nice.

Pissing her off every now and then was worth it.

White Somaek's stock was still thrashing around in real time. Options carried dozens of times that volatility. No wonder her breathing was getting rough.

He wasn't joking. She really could end up a slave.

"My body feels weird."

"Yeah, because you got wrecked."

"Fuck."

"It's fine. If you lose it all, oppa will fuck you for the rest of your life."

Her soft belly. Still warm and damp from the shower. He pressed a fingertip into it and worked her hard, matching the thrashing of her account, hitting every preference he knew.

Good response.

He knew her erogenous zones better than she did.

But her heart was still a mystery.

Without warning she stripped off the bathrobe.

"Bold."

"So what? It's my place."

"I've got one too."

"My life is already fucked because of you, Senior."

Not a single thread on her. Her overheated brain had long since abandoned reason. She pressed herself against him with wet little sounds, like a woman who gave it up easily. The bigger the losses grew, the more aggressive she became.

He savored the sight of Sora's life going to hell. Truthfully, it wasn't quite that dire yet.

If it follows the consensus…

Institutions were stacking option shorts. They were propping the index up with futures power, but—

It didn't look like a genuine buy. By options expiration, the price would be down like clockwork.

"Options expiration."

"Right. Index direction usually gets set around expiration day. The day you got annihilated on construction stocks was probably one of those."

"Ah!"

Something seemed to click for her.

Retail mostly traded stocks. Institutions made option selling their main strategy.

Collecting the premium alone is enough.

They set the index level they wanted and held the line no matter what until expiration. Once expiration passed — bang. Every piece of news that had piled up got priced in at once, and the market dropped or spiked accordingly.

"So that's…"

"Why it collapsed like crazy."

"I knew something was off. There wasn't even any real bad news."

"They dumped every bit of bad news that had been sitting around all at once."

Korea was especially bad for it. And right now there were no weekly options expiring every week.

Only one expiration a month.

The side with the money got to force the decision. That was why people said the KOSPI was a foreign investors' playground.

"Why didn't you teach me this?"

"Hmm?"

"If I'd known, I wouldn't have gotten wrecked."

"Because it's more fun this way."

"Hey."

Information like that. If you absorbed it knowing nothing, you just built useless preconceptions.

You start assigning meaning to everything.

Like the chart addicts. Absolute information didn't exist in this world.

"Stock futures only cover about a hundred tickers, and index futures get shoved around by even bigger forces."

"I see…"

"Still, it doesn't hurt to keep it in mind."

"Then why did you wreck me again?"

Her senses had come back online. Sora glared back and forth between him and her account, eyes sharp as axes.

And she's completely naked.

An attractive body. Even after finishing once, his cock was twitching and sparring with the curve of her ass.

The stock climbed. Inversely proportional, Sora's account — loaded with sold call options — could only melt.

"That's my entire fortune… I don't even have money left to average down."

"Correct."

"Hey."

"That's why they hold the line until expiration and control the index."

"Like it's not your problem, you fucking bastard…"

You had to be able to endure that kind of volatility. That was why he'd thrown her this trial.

And it's fun.

Investing was always best done with other people's money. Win and you were a genius; lose and it was the investor's fault for putting money in.

"Uwaah."

"Don't fall apart over this much."

"I don't care — make me feel good."

"Again?"

"I'm going to lose my mind."

The reason stock investors went insane. Sora was growing too — whether in a good direction was another question.

Squelch. Squelch.

For now, he enjoyed the moment. He made her drip down below the way she wanted.

"It's minus thirty."

"We're fucked."

"Because of you. Because of you, you motherless little shit."

"Just enjoy it."

If you can't avoid it, enjoy it. Watching an account thrash like this wasn't an everyday experience. Her clit was rock-hard, standing at attention, practically begging to be tormented.

Making her lose money every now and then might not be so bad.

A peculiar fetish was developing. He touched ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Sora while watching the order flow.

White Somaek. One of Korea's flagship liquor companies, famous for its toad soju, with a strong beer market share too. World Cup sales were expected to get a boost, but—

"The institutions don't seem interested in pushing it up."

"Are you sure?"

"You focus on this."

"Ah— ah♡"

No real movement. Heavy call-option short interest, and both futures and cash equities were just program trades.

But retail buying looks decent.

Recent market. Investor sentiment had completely collapsed. Endless declines — of course people were leaving. But even in the ruins after a war, a single shoot of hope could sprout.

The World Cup could be that catalyst.

Tap. Tap.

World Cup-related stocks. If he started hunting now, there was still time to accumulate before Korea's matches began.

A plausible catalyst caught his eye.

The World Cup.

A mega-event that made even people who had never kicked a soccer ball in their lives shout "Dae—han Minguk!"

"Dae—han Minguk!"

The whole country burned with cheering fever. That didn't suddenly turn them into a soccer powerhouse.

Korea's first match. The Sweden game ended in a 0–1 defeat. The implications were huge.

"Ah, we lost."

"We got wrecked!"

"No, we really should have beaten Sweden…"

"The moment we lost, it was over."

Hankuk University's athletic field was in chaos, and no wonder. Students who had come out to cheer were deflated. Sweden was the most winnable opponent in Korea's Group F.

"How are we supposed to beat Mexico?"

"And Germany?"

Might as well just assume group-stage exit this year…

They had failed to fasten ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the first button. Korea, already the weak side, now had a murky path to the round of sixteen. The cheering squad had every right to be depressed.

Ironically, some people were feeling the exact opposite emotion.

"Muyaho~!"

"I told you Korea would lose~!"

"Korea really does suck at soccer!"

They were shedding tears of joy. As if they were celebrating Korea's defeat.

Please just drop ten percent.

Sell at open, or hold longer?

Hell yeah — stocks don't even take a commission like sports betting.

An investor had to stay cold. Strip out emotion and put money on the side with the better odds. That side was Korea's defeat. Club members who had won their traitorous bets were beaming, unable to hide their grins at the thought of cashing in tomorrow morning.

That petty desire clouded their vision.

True investing lay in patriotism.