Value
University life.
Everyone walks in chasing dreams, but reality is inevitably shitty.
"Hi!"
This isn't a comic or a drama, so of course it is.
Into the everyday lives of Hankuk University's Economics Department students—
"Hi."
"Haeri, you're early today?"
"Oh~ You actually showed up on time?"
"I never skip, okay!"
—there is a presence that injects pure vitality.
Haeri can fairly be called the idol of the Economics Department.
Short jeans that bare her thighs. A white top so sheer it looks ready to turn translucent. Even the faint floral scent that lingers after she passes.
Whenever Haeri steps into the lecture hall, every gaze locks onto her.
"Haeri's fucking gorgeous again today."
"You into her?"
"Well… how could I not be?"
"Yeah."
Pretty. Approachable, too. Popularity is inevitable. More than a few guys in the department have already set their hearts on her.
"Where's Sora?"
"Her? Eh."
"Personality issues?"
"No—people need to have some damn conscience!"
Of course, if you ask who ranks number one, no one argues. Even if you open the poll to the entire university, the answer stays the same.
Yoon Sora.
A freshman who has never once joined a department event, yet that alone is more than enough. She possesses the kind of looks that make it impossible not to notice her. Even her classmates would be lying if they claimed they weren't conscious of her.
"A girl like that graduates and marries some chaebol second-generation heir."
"Yeah, probably."
"She lives in a completely different world from us."
Not love so much as longing. Just sharing the same classroom already feels overwhelming. You can feel, deep down, that she does not inhabit the same reality.
In that sense, Haeri is different.
"I'd be grateful just to land someone like Haeri."
"Know your place."
"She's pretty, sweet, dresses well…"
The Maginot Line. Fortune favors the bold—maybe once in a lifetime something like that actually happens? These are dream-filled university freshmen, after all.
But reality is always relentlessly real.
"Haeri."
"Hmm?"
"You really don't have a boyfriend?"
"Haven't raised one yet."
"Ever had one?"
"Who knows~."
No real stories ever surface. Even inside the department people find it a little inconvenient. She's the atmosphere-maker. The moment someone like that starts dating within the department, the center of gravity vanishes.
I wish she'd just disappear already.
But it isn't only people who like her.
Juha is jealous of Haeri. For someone who seems to think about nothing, she is absurdly popular. Her grades are equal to Juha's or better. Senior privilege. Juha has personally watched her use her looks to bewitch the returning students and get free help with assignments.
"I thought something was going on with your boyfriend~."
"Why?"
"You've looked kind of down lately."
"Me? No way I'd be like that!"
"Right. Haeri would never."
Just being near her brightens the whole room. That is exactly why Juha hates it.
Am I imagining things?
She had wondered if something bad had happened recently. Haeri had seemed strangely less loud. Now she is back to her usual self as if nothing ever happened.
Juha lets out a quiet sigh.
Fucking bitch.
Haeri knows Juha dislikes her and that she badmouths her whenever she gets the chance. That is simply how women's society works. Show open hostility and you become the only bad bitch in the room. You have no choice but to swallow the stress and endure.
"Shit."
"That aimed at me?"
"No~ I bought stocks and they tanked. Shouldn't have bothered."
Not anymore.
MTS. Haeri watches Juha muttering irritably at her stock app with something close to pity.
Dumb bitch.
The account is blue. Unable to control her temper, she had bought recklessly and is now suffering for it.
"I got stuck too once."
"Really? On what?"
"Lately it's going well. I'm even making profit."
Feigning sympathy. Soft, measured words that land like a slap to the back of the head.
On the MTS screen Haeri has opened:
Recent returns float on the screen. Red light. Just the color alone makes it obvious she is in the green.
"Congrats."
"Yeah, thanks."
"You should treat us, then?"
"Hmm, would one treat even cover it?"
"What?"
The moment she showed the screen, the outcome was predictable. Juha, who had been trying to brush it off with a smile, cannot help thinking something else.
F-f-f-fifty percent?!
The scale is beyond anything she expected. The principal is no small sum either. Juha's eyes go round.
"W-what the hell?!"
"Hmm? It's just my Kiwoom Securities account."
"Not that—I mean… what did you buy?"
How do you even make fifty percent? What the hell did she buy?
Because she herself is sitting on losses, she knows. Making money in stocks is harder than most people can imagine. Double? Triple? No—even ten percent would be something to be grateful for. Yet here Haeri really is sitting on a fifty-percent gain.
"Why? Interested?"
"No, just… curious~."
"Mmm~."
"Can't you tell me?"
It grates. And she is desperate. She is currently underwater, after all. They smile at each other. Both know the other is a snake underneath.
"Sure!"
"Really?"
"You think I'd keep something like this secret between us? Between us?"
"Right."
Whatever her real motive, she shows it without hesitation. The stock Haeri bought is—
Nexon Bio?
Something Juha has never seen before. A company she has never even heard of.
"What do they do?"
"They develop new drugs. Looks like one of them succeeded."
"Yeah?"
"It just keeps going up. Kee~p going. This used to be a fifty-thousand-won stock."
Of course suspicion remains. There is no way this girl would do her a genuine favor.
It's real. Doesn't look like a lie.
But the high return rate. Watching the price climb day after day makes her eyes spin. She checks—and it is true. The stock had once spiked to fifty thousand won.
Gulp.
Current price: thirty thousand. Room to rise further. No—she does not even need that much.
Buy at thirty thousand, sell at just forty thousand…
Over thirty percent. After finishing the mental math, Juha decides to buy Nexon Bio.
"But."
"Hmm?"
"Where did you hear about it? I mean, I feel like someone must have recommended it."
"Yeah, that's right. I'm terrible at stocks."
Something still bothers her. There is no way Haeri found and bought this stock on her own. Someone recommended it. If it had been Sora, word would already have reached Juha's ears.
"Kyoju-nim♡"
"What?"
Leaving only those incomprehensible words behind, the lecture ends.
Gyoja Chaesin.
It is not, in fact, the name of a new vegetable dumpling product.
Do not give a man a fish; teach him how to fish.
A famous proverb. If you have never heard it, your hometown is probably somewhere near Yanbian.
But it does not apply in the stock market. The reason is simple: it is just too damn hard.
Economists don't lose money in stocks for no reason.
Knowledge matters, but you also need the ability to infer cause and effect. That kind of open thinking belongs to the realm of talent.
Ding-dong~♪
In other words, not just anyone can do it. That is why boldly catching the fish for them is also a valid method.
"It's Oppa♡"
"Who else did you think it would be?"
"There's no one else who comes over. Especially not guys."
Haeri's studio apartment. Lately he has been dropping by often. Because of one particular request.
"Oppa, Nexon Bio."
"Hmm?"
"I made fifty percent! I think I almost recovered everything I lost."
"Good job."
"It's all thanks to Oppa. Thank you~♡"
Helping her restore the account. It had been obvious that trying to teach her stocks would never work.
So.
He is openly spoon-feeding her. Stocks that are about to rise. Buy timing and sell timing, both handed over.
"Time to sell that one."
"Already?"
"The CEO is a money-obsessed scammer. Better to take a reasonable profit and get out."
"Ah…"
"Something wrong?"
"No. Nothing."
She knows nothing about stocks and has zero desire to learn. For a girl like Haeri, this is the only trading method possible.
There is a downside, though.
It is too easy and convenient. Just do exactly as told. Money multiplies on its own.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"I sold it. Just like you said."
"Good girl."
"What should I buy next? I'll do whatever Oppa says."
In exchange, she loses the ability to think. Just like a person who only ever receives fish eventually becomes unable to catch any himself.
It's not exactly a healthy trading method.
Naturally it is dangerous. Listening to someone else and then getting wiped out is one of the most common stories on the stock market. People who just want to make money without the headache, who lean on others—there are more of them than you think.
"If another stock that looks ready to rise shows up, I'll tell you."
"Really? You have to tell me, okay?"
"Sure."
"I love you♡♡"
Especially when the person they lean on is a celebrity. Large flocks of devotees form and the whole thing starts to look like a religion.
I need that too.
Same as streamers. You need a fixed fanbase for promotion and for making content. A stock-market influencer. The more disciples you have, the greater the impact of every word, the easier it is to create buzz.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"Thanks to Oppa I made a lot."
"And?"
"Doesn't Oppa want to eat something too~?"
From Haeri's perspective it is ideal as well. She has almost fully recovered the massive losses that once exceeded fifty percent. She has also gained the hope that she can make even more—as long as she simply buys and sells whatever he tells her to.
"Eat what?"
"You already know! I was looking forward to it."
"Getting fucked?"
"Yes."
Of course that is not the only reason she is seducing him like this. The breath that brushes against him from so close. Fragrant and sweet—the breath of a barely twenty-year-old college girl.
Haeri's arms wrap around his waist.
She probably planned to give it up once and be done.
It was not like this from the start. Pretty girls are usually proud. She must have thought of it as simple give-and-take. But once they mixed bodies once—
"Ah♡"
"Fuck, so soft."
"Oppa, don't just touch there…"
Her thighs. He kneads the soft white flesh of her inner thighs however he likes. Even that is enough to heat her body; the arms around his waist tighten. Her breathing grows rough.
Really fresh. So fucking fresh.
A place that cannot even be called an erogenous zone. Yet for Haeri it is more than enough stimulation. She is like a blank canvas. Still so much empty space left to paint on—this young, tender twenty-year-old.
Chuu!
Smoooch~
She is the one who presses her lips to his first. Soft and sweet like cake frosting, and inside lives a warm living creature.
I really want to torment her.
Adult sex. He took his time loosening her body and playing with it, and she fell so easily it was almost ridiculous. After that, Haeri is the one who throws herself at him. Whining that they should go to the bed, she tugs at his body.
"Do you remember that?"
"What?"
"You said when you first get a boyfriend you roll around like monkeys all day…"
"Ah, the thing I told Sora?"
The reason he first ended up at Sora's place. She remembers something even he had forgotten.
"I want to be a monkey."
"I'm not exactly your boyfriend, though."
"Oppa is more special than a boyfriend."
"What am I, then?"
"Kyoju-nim♡"
Thud! She topples onto the bed as if collapsing. Haeri, now pinned beneath him, rubs her body against his.
When you're a college student you're supposed to do whatever you want.
No matter what result it brings. There is even a famous economics quote about it.
— Warren Buffett
He decides to respect the words of a senior in the industry.