A Madman on a Rainy Day - 2
Tap....
Tok tok
Tok—
"...."
It was an unfamiliar ceiling.
Aki wriggled her feet inside the tent. The smell of the sleeping bag felt strange, and the sounds of nature tapping at her ears were even stranger. Camping itself had never been something she had done before.
This is... a little different from what I expected.
-How about we try camping?
That one line from Seonwoo Taek.
What had flashed through Aki's mind was a campfire.
Like at an outdoor school retreat or a school festival....
Laughter and chatter in front of a bright, crackling bonfire.
It had made her heart skip a beat for some reason. But once Seonwoo Taek actually set up two tents in front of the convenience store and they each crawled into one, her impression changed completely.
Isn't this... just being homeless?
The ground was dirt,
and the roof was the sky.
They were only keeping the falling rain out with a single sheet of waterproof fabric.
Aki was lying outside the convenience store building right now.
The smell of rain-soaked earth and grass was vivid.
"...."
Shhhhhhh—
Tok tok
Tok tok
"...Something about this—"
This still isn't right...
It felt like they were pretending to live primitively.
She felt bad for the manager, who had worked hard to set everything up. But with a proper, comfortable break room right there, was there really any meaning in pitching two tents side by side out here?
In the end, Aki lifted only her upper body and opened the tent flap.
Should I chat with the manager for a bit?
Zip.
As she opened the zipper, she saw Seonwoo Taek lying in the tent beside hers. He was looking at his phone. On the screen, jagged little chart graphs were swaying wildly.
So he does stock trading...? That's unexpected. He doesn't seem like someone who'd care about money.
Aki said,
"Manager."
"Yes."
Seonwoo Taek turned to her without much reaction.
"Do you trade stocks?"
"Yes."
"Do you make a lot?"
"I make a decent amount."
"Hee...."
"...."
The conversation stopped there.
Aki didn't know nearly enough about finance to keep it going.
Shhhhhhh—
"...."
"...."
Lying on her stomach, Aki propped up her chin. She puckered her lips and wriggled her feet. He was right there beside her, but the fact that they weren't talking felt awkward in itself.
Is talking to me boring?
"...."
What should she do?
Wasn't there some topic they both knew something about....
With that uneasy thought, she quietly tried again.
"Manager."
"Yes."
"Do stocks or investments really make that much money?"
"It depends on the person."
"How much can you make?"
"Hmm...."
Seonwoo Taek set his phone down for a moment. Then, still lying there, he tapped his chin and thought it over. At last, he picked the phone back up and said,
"If an individual does it, the maximum in numbers would be around one trillion won."
"O-one trillion...? One trillion won—?!"
"Yes. If you succeed at a few dangerous trades in a row, something like that is possible. You'd need almost prophetic intuition and timing close to a miracle, though."
"?!"
A few trades, and
you could make one trillion won.
"Hee...."
Aki's mouth fell open.
It felt like something from another world.
Even the 1 billion won Big Man gave me is still dizzying. Stock traders really are something else.... Could I even make 100 million won through my VTuber activities?
Leaving aside Big Man's support,
100 million won sounded like an absolutely impossible number.
For some reason, she felt herself shrinking.
My dream isn't even 100 million...
Aki said, sounding dazed,
"Idol hopefuls really are pitiful, aren't they."
"...."
But Seonwoo Taek wasn't finished.
"...One trillion is money that exists only as a number. Even if an individual makes one trillion, or several hundred billion, you can't just take it out and spend it right away. Your accounts get frozen immediately."
"Huh?"
"If a person with no background makes that much, those scary men who truly run the market send scary guys to say, 'Hey, you!' at them."
"...?"
"Even if you make it together with people working in Yeouido, you'll eventually be discarded. And if you try to protect it through a corporation, they come in with indiscriminate raids."
"?"
"Somewhere around 100 billion won? That's about the limit of what you can actually pull out and use. Instead of scary guys, journalists from the economic papers come looking for you."
"??"
Seonwoo Taek glanced at Aki's face. She kept tilting her head back and forth, looking thoroughly lost.
"...."
"...."
Aki gave an awkward smile.
"T-that, um.... Hehe, th-thank you f-for the fun story."
"What I mean is,"
"Yes?"
"No matter how much money you make, there is still a ceiling where you end up getting hit by the scary men up top. If you treat money as an achievement, eventually you hit a limit. That's just how this world is."
"I see...."
It sounded strangely resigned.
But what followed carried weight.
"But the human heart doesn't have that. There is no ceiling that can lock up the heart."
"!"
"So personally, rather than looking at money alone.... I think it's better to live while doing what you like as well. It's just as hard, but it's more honest and free."
"Y-yes."
"So...."
"?"
Seonwoo Taek said,
"...It's fine. You can keep living that way. In fact, because that path is honest, there will probably be people who support it."
"!"
For some reason, that last line was something Aki could understand too.
That's the kind of person Big Man is.
An idol.
A VTuber.
There were few jobs as inefficient as those when it came to making money. And yet Seonwoo Taek said that even that inefficient life was "better." To Aki, it sounded like genuinely heartfelt comfort.
Even if he didn't know she was a VTuber.
Seonwoo Taek was someone who supported her dream.
The manager is someone I can understand.
The two worlds were connected.
That gave her a strange sense of relief.
"...."
"...."
Under the falling rain,
she received a bizarre economics lesson.
The lesson was cold, but it was warm too.
And it made her curious.
"Then, Manager."
"Yes."
"Why do you make money?"
"Because there's something I want to see."
"What kind?"
"The fulfillment of a dream."
"Yours?"
"No."
"Th-then....?"
"...."
Seonwoo Taek looked at Aki again with his usual detached expression. From the moment she heard a sentence she could actually understand, Aki had started looking excited again.
With the tent between them,
they looked at each other like neighbors.
A woman who lived in a world of dreams and passion,
rather than money and loneliness.
She said,
"...Manager?"
"...."
"?"
"They're just there. People like that."
Aki tilted her head again.
But Seonwoo Taek closed his mouth.
Outside the convenience store,
the rain kept pounding down.
"...."
"...."
Tok
Tok tok—
Tok tok....
The rhythmic sound of rain striking the two tents set up side by side.
The quiet lullaby of water droplets spread through the night.
Within it,
Aki's eyes slowly closed.
"...."
The manager is strange... but he seems like a good person.
With that thought.
*
"Sss...."
"...."
I could hear A-yeong's sleeping breath beside me. Just reading the sentence made it sound creepy, but the rain falling from the sky washed that eeriness clean away.
I turned off my phone.
Thud—
The 2 billion won I'd set aside as investment capital could become 3 billion next week. I can cover it from corporate funds, or use it for the Big Plan budget.
One trillion.
Hundreds of billions.
After talking about capital that could shake the market, returning to the real world made my head feel hollow. It was like the salty taste I had swallowed off the coast of Incheon was coming back up in my mouth.
"...."
The touch of those scary older brothers was brutal.
I had no idea how many turns I'd wasted on them.
In the end, it had all been meaningless.
Numbers collapse in the face of structure.
It was only after I cut it down to "100 billion" that I managed to survive.
"...."
But "1 billion" still had meaning in itself.
The heart could bloom inside structure.
"...."
I quietly looked to my side.
A-yeong, like a chrysalis in the middle of metamorphosis, wriggled her way into the sleeping bag. Then she mumbled herself into sleep mode.
When she wakes up, she'll be an idol again, so maybe that's actually a pretty accurate metaphor.
Maybe.
I might never get to see the moment she spread her wings after all. This was the first turn in which I'd ever supported a small-time VTuber.
And the 54 days left to me were short.
"...."
Even so....
It mattered.
Even if permanence wasn't allowed.
This was the last meaning I'd leave behind in this turn.
Numbers disappear,
but the heart is sure to remain somewhere.
I could only keep living if I watched for that.
*
In front of the convenience store on Sunday morning,
Aki greeted me wearing a baseball cap. Her yellow hair glittered under the morning sun. It was the kind of color that drew the eye even when she stood still.
"Then, I'll see you again tonight."
"Yes."
Seonwoo Taek answered while riding a skippy ball. Then he bounced off again and disappeared into the crowd of people out for a jog.
Boing.
Boing.
Boing.
"...."
The back of his head
kept popping up and down among the crowd.
And then, little by little, it disappeared.
Aki laughed when she saw it.
"Pfft, what is this, a gag show?"
That childish man
was the same person who had been giving her a serious economics lecture until yesterday.
She couldn't help it; she burst out laughing, snickering under her breath.
It felt like she'd gained a secret only she knew.
"Hah."
Still, I guess I really did try camping. I can brag that I've camped now, right?
Aki looked around the convenience store with a satisfied smile.
She wanted to savor the brief memory.
"...."
But....
There were no longer two tents there. That was only natural, since they were things you took down after spending the night.
[Absent]
The convenience store door was also shut tight, with an absent sign hanging from it. The manager who had given up on business had disappeared, leaving only an empty building behind.
"...."
For some reason,
the sight felt unfamiliar.
It felt as though the cozy convenience store had vanished into the rain.
There was nothing else to do
if she stayed here.
But....
Even if the tents were gone,
the feelings remained.
We'll just meet again tonight, I guess....
"...I should go back."
Aki turned and headed back to the ABCD dorm again.
And she murmured to herself,
that they'd meet again
and make more memories.
*
Back on Monday,
the internet was peaceful as ever.
As the discussion deepened, one especially awkward post went up.
He didn't think much of it.
Weird trolling like that was common enough.
So people just teased it a little and had their fun.
And the post vanished in an instant.
"...?"
People began to stir.
And then they pinned it.
Into the restless board,
a second bundle of kindling was thrown.
People laughed and waited in anticipation.
And then....
They cheered.
It was time for whaling and flashy spending.
...
...
...