Vacating Possession
Real estate auction.
Vacating possession.
It was the process of making a house won at auction truly one's own in every sense of the word.
It's not like I'm taking delivery of some pre-sale unit.
People were living there.
It would have been nice if they packed up and left the moment they learned the place had been sold.
"……."
That was not the case.
Inside a house of barely twenty pyeong, four people sat in absolute silence.
Feels a bit like a drinking game.
The kind of atmosphere where someone might shout "0070!" any second and call for help.
I went first.
"Empty."
"Huh?"
"You're not even playing along."
Unfortunately, they couldn't.
To the elderly couple I was a plunderer—someone who had come to snatch the house they were living in right out from under them.
The chill in the air was only natural.
Thud!
Still, they offered hospitality of a sort.
On a brass table that looked like it belonged in an antique shop, they set down a free promotional water glass.
"Sorry we don't have anything better to offer."
"The hospitality is rather lacking. Next time, at least bring out some snacks."
"Hey."
"Sorry about that."
Not even barley tea—just plain water.
Probably not drinking water; more likely tap water boiled and left to cool.
I could go for some snacks.
At a grandmother's house you always find jeonbyeong.
I never buy them myself, but if they're there, I eat them.
"Those white ones with a hint of ginger are pretty good."
"What the hell have you been rambling about this whole time?!"
"Just filling the silence."
A little domestic warmth would have been nice.
Their circumstances simply didn't allow it.
There are more of them than you'd think.
Basic livelihood recipients.
No—elderly people who couldn't even qualify for that.
They lived day to day picking up scrap paper.
Even that kind of life would have been a blessing if it could continue.
"This house is mine now. I can do whatever I want with it."
"I see……."
"Oh, come on!"
From now on, they wouldn't be able to.
Because from this moment forward, the place belonged to me.
For real.
Vacating possession was no mere formality.
The court had recognized my rights to this house.
Legally, it was mine.
They would even carry out forced execution.
Bailiffs would show up and apply physical force.
"Just sit still for a second!"
"Why?"
"Grandma, you don't have anywhere to go right this minute, do you?"
"Yes, yes. That's right."
"And your children……."
"We can't get ahold of them at all."
I could throw every last one of them out.
Sora looked worried about exactly that.
She's always been a bit of a busybody.
In this barren world, just looking after your own skin is hard enough. I had no idea what she thought she was doing.
"Still, there are government subsidies and things…… Ah! You should be able to register as basic livelihood recipients."
"Hah, they don't give that out."
"Huh? Why can't you get it?"
"If you've got kids, you can't. You don't even know that?"
"You fucking bastard."
A real angel had descended.
An incompetent civil-servant angel.
That one was a genuine "you fucking bastard."
It had been a while since I'd seen Sora this pissed.
She scowled hard, chest thrust out in indignation.
Did I really have to chase out old people just to chase private profit?
Half right, half wrong.
"Anyway, this is my house."
"Senior!"
"Is that so……."
"I'll give you about a month's grace. Prepare yourselves mentally and get out quickly."
This house.
The location was pretty good.
And because it was a detached house, I could tear it down.
Construction costs are cheap these days with the building industry in a slump.
Put up a small mini-building and the returns would be substantial.
I was about to leave, lost in happy daydreams, when—
Cough! Cough!
An irritating sound drifted out.
The grandfather lying in the inner room seemed to have some chronic illness.
"Living in a dump like this with no ventilation is bound to wreck your lungs."
"They're only going to get worse from here. Thanks to someone."
"So?"
"Don't you feel even a little pity?"
It was pitiful.
That was probably why Sora was sticking her nose in.
Not that her meddling helps a single damn thing.
There are things you should never do in life.
One of them is looking at someone else and deciding they are pitiful.
"It's obvious they're not lying, and their situation is really desperate……."
"And what am I supposed to do about it?"
"You're actually insane!"
She was savoring moral superiority.
Feeling compassion for people worse off than herself.
That's why poverty porn sells so well.
It shows up on TV all the time.
Programs that milk sympathy with poor people.
None of it solves anything.
Just pissing on a frozen foot—token donations and nothing more.
"Then what…… what do you want me to do?"
That was reality.
She at least understood that stubborn insistence alone wouldn't change anything.
Sora had grown up a little.
The world ran on money from one to a hundred.
I need to design a business around this.
Use old people like them to make money.
Build a system that makes it possible.
"You're a real fucking psychopath, you know that?!"
"If I kick all these people out, I make money."
"You son of a bitch!"
"Money goes up. You should hurry up and cash in too."
Our parents' generation.
They had split off from the extended family into nuclear households.
In the process they got left behind.
Plenty of old people had poured everything into their kids and ended up poor.
And at the end they even lose the house.
Sell through regular channels and you have to look the buyers in the face.
Buyers hate that.
That's why they dump it into court auction.
No need to lift a finger—the court handles the disposal for you.
"Do you really have to go that far?"
"Making money was never easy."
"These are people who can't even register for basic livelihood support and are already barely scraping by……."
Market principles.
If the price is low, people buy.
I was paying the conscience fee their children should have paid.
If this one drops a little more, someone will buy it, right?
Close your eyes and force the eviction.
Remodel it just enough and flip it for massive profit.
That was the business I intended to run.
I simply planned to make the process smarter and more efficient.
"Then what happens to the old couple?"
"They'll figure something out."
"They have no money and their kids won't even answer the phone! Where are they supposed to live in the dead of winter?"
"That's exactly why I'm kicking them out."
"What?"
Because the situation was the worst possible, certain methods became available.
One month later.
As promised, I went to take possession.
"Everything will be out by the end of today."
"Thank you, young man."
"Enough. You're in the way—get out."
Vacating possession was no simple process.
Forced execution was always an option.
But it costs money.
And it leaves the occupants bitter.
Oh? Now they're pissed.
They might trash the place on the way out.
Within the bounds of their rights, they inflict maximum damage on the successful bidder.
Unpaid management fees, interior vandalism, dumping garbage, and so on.
"That's why you even called a moving company?"
"Yeah."
"Just say you're helping them."
"As if."
It had to stay as amicable as possible.
You satisfy whatever the occupants want.
Because it's worth that much.
The price differential.
Necessary expenditure for the sake of that spread.
Beyond that, nothing else cost me money.
I was drawing on state funds.
Normally they wouldn't qualify for basic livelihood support.
"Grandma got registered as a basic livelihood recipient this time."
"She actually got registered?"
"Yes. Money will come every month, and she can apply for emergency housing support too~ It's an apartment the government subsidizes—bigger and cleaner than this place."
"We'll take care of everything for you!"
The children had abandoned their duty of support.
If you could prove that, becoming a basic livelihood recipient was possible.
Old people can't manage it themselves.
Civil servants don't go out of their way to help.
The relevant laws are complicated and full of exceptions.
The club members.
I had hired kids from social welfare and law departments to handle it.
"It feels a little cruel."
"Am I supposed to just give them this house for free?"
"No, that's not what I mean……. It means the bond between parent and child is being cut."
That part felt wrong to her.
I couldn't blame Sora for feeling that way.
From the old couple's perspective.
Their last remaining thread to their children disappeared.
Even if they knew, it was something they could never do themselves.
Having someone else do it for them was the only real solution.
I was simply running a business on that fact.
"Is there another way?"
"No……."
"Want to shoot a poverty-porn episode instead?"
"You really talk like a complete fucking bastard."
This wasn't just empty talk.
Sora had started to understand a little.
Still the usual fucking bastard, though.
It hadn't completely resolved.
A faint rejection reaction remained.
But it was the best path available.
Any other successful bidder would have forced the eviction.
"Moving prep is all done!"
"Good work."
"Grandma gave us a box of snacks to say thanks…… what should we do with it?"
"You guys eat them."
"Yes!"
"Just give me the white ones."
The staff had become motivated.
Completely different from before, when even fat part-time wages couldn't keep them going.
Guess there's satisfaction in the work.
The fulfillment of helping someone.
That was the fuel that made them work hard.
Fine by me.
Similar cases were piled up like mountains.
I could use them to rake in serious money.
"Nothing sweeter than siphoning off government money. Just strip the old folks of their houses one after another."
"Yes~ Yes~."
"What's with the attitude?"
"Senior, you're really not honest at all."
The whole process had taken a month.
That was how long the district office needed to process everything.
Now that I've confirmed it runs smoothly.
I had drilled them on the work.
From here on I could leave management to Suhyun and Hye-ri.
Thud!
I closed the door of the house that was now mine and stepped out of the empty place.
My expression was different from a month ago.
Sora seemed to have felt something too.
"You should have just told me from the start that this was what it was."
"Don't talk nonsense."
"It was a good choice. When you do good deeds like this, it comes back around later!"
"You really never improve, do you."
Maybe not.
She still couldn't shake ordinary people's way of thinking.
It's not like that old couple got abandoned by their kids because they failed to do good deeds.
The world runs solely on money.
The structure of modern society is cruel.
If you hate that?
Don't waste time on pity—create a way to make money.
"Living kindly still has meaning, you know?"
"That's why your tits got so big."
"Seriously, the rate hikes got delayed and house prices are starting to climb again."
"You're so fucking kind."
The structure of the economy turned honestly.
Just as I had predicted, American policy was shifting.
Powell's declaration of surrender.
That warm breeze would reach Korea before long.
The government is also pouring everything into driving house prices up.
Nothing but good news on every front.
Though for people who only preach goodness with their mouths, it might feel more like a fire.