Starting Investments
After our morning sex, I drove Iseul to the hospital.
"Thank you, Master. I'll get my license as soon as I can so I can drive you around!"
"Don't bother. Driving's a man's job."
"But..."
"More importantly, why are you calling me Master again? I told you not to."
"You did say that... but I heard men like it..."
"From who?"
"The internet..."
"Hah... whatever. You don't have to call me that."
"...I can't...?"
What was with that sad look?
Those mournful eyes, like a deer caught in a trap.
"Well, it's not that you absolutely can't... it's just a little awkward."
"I'm not awkward about it at all!"
I'm the one who's awkward!
Though during sex, it probably wouldn't be so bad.
"Just don't call me that normally. In those situations... well, call me whatever feels right depending on the moment..."
"In those situations..."
Iseul's face flushed crimson. She yanked the door open and scrambled out of the car.
Then she knocked urgently on the window, looking anywhere but at me.
Whirrr—
I rolled down the passenger window and cleared my throat, equally embarrassed.
"Ahem...! What is it?"
"Then... in the evenings... I can call you that, right...?"
She was asking for another round tonight.
Should I just stay one more day before heading up?
No.
I'd made a promise. I had to go.
"I'm heading up to Seoul today."
"Seoul...?"
"Yeah."
"Ah... p-p-please drive carefully..."
"I will. You take about a week off and rest up before you come. It's paid leave."
"...Okay..."
Looking somehow dejected, Iseul bowed her head, and I drove off toward Seoul.
I had someone I was supposed to meet.
My current cash assets came to roughly 178 billion won.
Of that, 10 billion sat in a preferential deposit earning a minimum of three percent a year. Another 60 billion was still parked on the coin exchange, and the remaining 108 billion was sleeping soundly in an ordinary account with no preferential rate to speak of.
I already had more money than I needed to earn. So was I just supposed to keep living like this—doing nothing at all?
I'd set up this meeting to settle that very question.
Choi Hyun-il, private banker.
"If you're thinking of investing the full 100 billion, I'd recommend putting about 40 billion into domestic and overseas blue-chip companies or government bonds. Mix in some bond funds according to market conditions, and you can expect a stable return of around five percent a year."
"Five percent on 40 billion..."
"That would come to roughly 2 billion in returns."
Two billion?
That's it?
No—that wasn't "that's it" at all.
Two billion was an enormous return. Clearly better than a preferential bank deposit.
But maybe I just had too much money. Hearing "two billion" left me completely unmoved. No spark of interest at all.
"Forget that. If you were making aggressive investments, Manager Choi, where would you put the money?"
"If I were willing to take losses and go aggressive, I'd invest in cosmetics, food, and AI-related stocks."
"Why?"
"Because it isn't just K-pop idols anymore—K-Beauty, K-Food, Korean culture as a whole is getting a massive global response. So if you're going to make an aggressive play, short-term investments over one or two years that ride the current of the times could generate serious capital gains."
"Have you invested in them yourself?"
"No. I stick to more stable products."
"Hmm..."
Fair enough. Anyone with an appetite for aggressive investing would have become a fund manager, not a bank PB.
So which was it going to be?
Stable returns, or aggressive plays.
"If you give me some time, I'll prepare portfolios covering a range of investment approaches."
"Ah, sure. I'd appreciate that."
"Understood."
Coming all the way to my house, explaining everything so patiently, even offering to build me portfolios—it was all because there was money in it. Bank PBs got performance-based commissions as bonuses, after all.
If I followed his advice and put 40 billion into products yielding a steady five percent a year, Choi Hyun-il would probably pocket a bonus somewhere between twenty and forty million won.
But no matter how I turned it over, that kind of investing just didn't excite me.
"Cosmetics... food... so would something like this be popular too?"
I picked up the ramen packet sitting beside the pot of boiling water.
Buldakbal Stir-Fried Noodles.
"Once you get hooked, you end up eating nothing else for a while... should I just throw some money at it?"
I left the boiling water behind and headed back to the study.
I'd dumped my grandmother's inheritance in almost as an afterthought and watched it balloon past a hundred billion. I'd bought Retto Coin with zero expectations and watched it climb over a thousand percent.
This time, too, I set aside any thought of making money.
It was just delicious. Once you tried it, it was pretty addictive.
So I decided to invest.
"Around 25 billion should be about right."
Average purchase price: 107,500 won.
I bought 186,046 shares—almost exactly 20 billion—and closed the laptop.
Then I ate the Buldakbal Stir-Fried Noodles with absolute relish.
Slurrrp!!!
Three days later, when Choi Hyun-il came by again, I handed him 10 billion to put into stable products.
I'd been planning to park about that much in a preferential deposit anyway.
And I decided to invest 25 billion each in the two cosmetics companies he recommended.
Five hundred billion total in investments.
I'd been ready to wrap things up right there.
Until I overheard the scrap of information Choi Hyun-il let slip just before he left.
"Solari Coin, huh... sounds like some kind of game item."
I looked it up. It had listed last year at around thirty dollars. It had once climbed as high as two hundred fifty, but now it had crashed down to about fifteen.
On Korean exchanges, it was currently trading at 19,320 won.
And recently, a few of the clients Choi Hyun-il managed had invested in it.
Investing in a dead coin?
Rich people didn't throw money around just because they had a lot of it. They only invested where they could make more. That was how they stayed rich.
"Then maybe I should ride along too."
Over those three days I'd withdrawn another 15 billion, leaving 45 billion still sitting on the coin exchange.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
I drummed my fingernails endlessly against the desk.
I still hadn't shaken that cowardly streak of mine, so I hesitated. I fretted.
"Right. I regretted it two weeks ago. Only two weeks ago."
Two weeks earlier, I'd cursed myself for putting only 5 billion into Retto Coin. I could have made hundreds of billions, and I'd walked away with a mere 64 billion.
"Forty-five billion... is too much, right? Ten billion? Eleven? Fifteen... no, twenty??"
I didn't want to repeat the same mistake, so I wanted to go big—but the amount was enormous.
This wasn't a sure thing. It was a gamble.
"Twenty billion really is too much, isn't it...?"
I hovered the mouse over the buy button and kept agonizing.
Yeah. This was too much.
Ten billion... no, go bold—around thirteen...
"I'm home!!"
"Jesus!! Wh-when did you—AAAAAH!!!"
"What's wrong...? Are you hurt?!"
Startled, Iseul came rushing over—but my eyes stayed locked on the laptop screen.
Because the 20 billion I'd been fretting over was turning into coins right in front of me.
"Cancel!! Cancel!!! You have got to be kidding me—!!"
There was no time to cancel.
Right before my eyes, 20 billion vanished in an instant.
Twenty billion... twenty billion...
A jolt!!
I whipped my head around and glared daggers at Iseul.
She'd burst through the study door without warning and startled me into clicking.
"D-did I... do something wrong...?"
"You should have knocked! Knocked!!"
"I did... knock..."
"What?"
"I knocked, but there was no answer..."
"Then you shouldn't have come in!"
"I-I'm so sorry... I thought it might have built up a lot while I was gone..."
"......"
In an instant my anger drained away, and I found myself swallowing hard, mouth watering without meaning to.
Iseul's feelings hadn't changed.
She was still trying to keep the promise she'd made down in Busan.
"I'm really... so sorry... hic!!"
"I-Iseul!! We still have things to do before you go!!! Damn it...!!"
I'd lost 20 billion, and now Iseul was turning away with tears welling in her eyes—gone too.
"Hooo.... Fine. Let's just pretend this money never existed... Who knows? Maybe it'll come back ballooned even bigger..."
I closed the laptop with a bitter twist of my mouth and stood up.
Then I went looking for Iseul.
"Iseul? Iseul~? Should we take care of what we need to take care of?? What the... where did she go?"
I searched the entire house, but Iseul was nowhere to be found.
Seriously—get a guy all worked up and then just disappear? What was I supposed to do with that!!
Preferential Deposit — 10 billion
Stable Investment Products — 10 billion
Samhyang Foods Stock — 25 billion
FPR Stock — 25 billion
Zeronik Stock — 25 billion
Solari Coin — 20 billion
"Why do I still have so much money left...? And this much of it... I could've thrown another 5 billion at a few more things. Or maybe I should try investing in AI too?"
Knock knock knock—
At the sound of knocking I reflexively slammed the laptop shut and shot to my feet.
Someone walking into the house without ringing the doorbell could only mean one thing—the vanished Iseul had come back.
"Oh! Iseul!"
"......"
Through the slightly open study door, Iseul peeked her face in.
"May I come in...?"
"Of course. Come in."
"Okay..."
She didn't enter right away. After a brief hesitation, Iseul carefully opened the door and stepped inside—and I froze solid.
How could I not, given what she was wearing.
"That outfit... what is that...?"
"I-I wanted to make Master less angry..."
"Where on earth did you even buy something like that??"
"At an... adult goods store..."
"......"
Did you buy only that?
The words rose all the way to my throat before I swallowed them back down with a gulp of saliva.
In the meantime, Iseul had carried in a tray with a plate of fruit, set it carefully beside the closed laptop, and whispered softly.
Wearing a short, deeply cut maid uniform.
"Which would you like to... eat first...?"
Fruit, and Iseul in a maid outfit.
On top of that, black stockings and a garter belt.
Was there even a choice here?
"You, of course."
"Th-then... enjoy your meal... Master.... Kyaa!!!"
Well then—don't mind if I do.