Counterattack
Counterattack
There was nothing particularly suspicious or strange about the contract the car dealer handed over.
Maybe that was why.
A sudden doubt crept in, and a sense of unease began to settle over me.
Could I really buy the Palisade, that car, for this price?
Surely it wasn't a defective vehicle or something like that?
If Minji got seriously hurt because of a car I bought her, I had no confidence I could stay rational.
At that point, I might really walk in with a knife and stab every single one of those dealers to death, or hire someone from the Philippines or an ethnic Korean from China to kill them all.
Well, they said it had even passed a safety inspection, so I had no choice but to trust that.
First, I had to buy the car and get it inspected; that was all there was to it.
"Here, all filled out."
"Then please wait just a moment."
The dealer took the contract and placed it in the copier along with Minji's ID, then started copying.
The only other times I'd seen something like this were when opening or changing a phone plan.
But a car contract required even more caution than a phone contract...
We had waited about ten minutes like that.
Only then did the dealer, who had been staring at the computer screen, turn her head to look at us.
"Processing took quite some time. Thank you for waiting."
"So is everything done now?"
"You just need to process the remaining balance. Will you be paying in full?"
"Yes, here."
Since I could easily pay in full, I wired the money from my account.
The dealer, having confirmed the transfer was complete, gave a slight smile and handed me a piece of paper I was seeing for the first time.
"As I mentioned earlier, this particular Palisade has a court lien on it, so you will need to make an additional monthly payment of 1 million won for 36 months."
"Excuse me?"
What kind of nonsense was this?
She'd definitely said it was a court auction vehicle, but a lien-encumbered vehicle?
I hadn't heard a single word about any additional fees.
"Wait. You never said anything about additional fees."
"But I clearly told you..."
When exactly did she claim to have told me?
We hadn't even exchanged that many words.
"No! You absolutely did not say that!"
Minji chimed in, nodding her head vigorously that she definitely had not said any such thing.
Not only had we actually not heard those words, but an additional payment of 1 million won a month for 36 months?
A quick calculation came to 36 million won, and if you added the amount I had just paid, it was enough money to buy a brand-new Palisade.
It was more than four times the price I had seen online.
Could it be... was this a scam?
"That's a problem. We did notify you in advance..."
"Are you saying we're making an unreasonable claim right now?"
"No, no... it's not that..."
After that, the dealer kept spouting strange words, insisting she had notified us.
At this point, I thought it would be better to just buy from somewhere else; continuing was a waste of time, so I stood up from my seat.
"Forget it, I'm canceling the contract. Please deposit the refund here."
"I'm sorry, but a refund is impossible. The money is also no longer in our possession."
What kind of absurd nonsense was this?
It hadn't even been 10 minutes since I made the transfer, so what kind of bullshit was it to say she didn't have the money?
"Haah. In that case, how about looking at a different vehicle instead?"
"......"
"I'll show you another vehicle within the price range you've paid."
"....."
"Oppa..."
Minji grabbed my sleeve and looked up at me.
For now, I had to see what kind of car she was going to show us.
*
"You're not joking with me right now, are you?"
"With the amount you've paid, sir, this is the only type of car you can buy."
What the dealer showed us was a foreign car.
Of course, it was a piece of junk that was nearly twenty years old.
Was this what she was showing us as a substitute?
I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even speak.
"Heo..."
"Will you go with this one?"
"Oppa..."
"Minji-ya."
I spoke to Minji, who was calling me.
I placed my hand on Minji's shoulder, and she swallowed hard before nodding her head.
"Back in the car, I told you to record everything, right?"
"Yeah, I recorded it all."
I nodded in satisfaction.
When Minji had mentioned something seemed scam-like, I'd told her not to worry, that there was no way that would happen. But as we went further, I grew more and more suspicious,
so I had told Minji to record with her phone.
For reference, the external microphone used for filming was inside Minji's clothes...
Since it was probably clipped near her underwear, every conversation we had would have been fully recorded.
To be honest, when she said she'd show a substitute car, if she had shown us a proper car, I might have just let it go.
It was a shame we couldn't get the Palisade...
No, wait. Let's make this a little more fun and pull their strings.
Sure, she'd been going on about the Palisade being a court vehicle or whatever, but wasn't that car already ours?
We'd signed the contract and paid the balance in full.
She said the money was no longer in her hands, so she probably had no money to refund me with.
And paying one million won a month for three years was nothing to me.
If it really was an item with a court lien, I could just pay the creditor the cancellation amount in one lump sum and it would be over.
"No, wait a moment."
"No matter what you say, the refund is..."
"No. We won't ask for a refund. We'll just take the Palisade."
"What?! The... then the monthly payment is in the one-million-won range... are you all right with that...?"
"Didn't you say you notified us? It's our fault for not hearing it, so we should take responsibility."
The amount I had paid was 15 million won.
Considering the used market price ranged from 36 to 50 million, and a new car was around 60 million,
the Palisade these people had shown us was genuinely clean and had low mileage.
It was probably in near-new condition.
We could just think of it as having bought a new car.
"Right? We already signed the contract and paid the balance, so it is our car, isn't it."
"W... well..."
"Ah, we should drive it over right now and transfer the title. You'll come with us, won't you?"
The used car dealer froze up completely, unable to give any answer.
When I asked why she was frozen stiff and not answering, there was still no response.
*
In the end, we drove the car to the registration office.
She had tried saying something about letting it slide this once, but once I showed her the recording and confirmed who I was, she quietly shut her mouth.
Someone might call it veiled coercion, but we were victims of fraud.
We thought we could buy a Palisade for 15 million, but then we ended up on the hook for additional expenses (which didn't actually exist)!
"It's a nearby place, so we don't need to drive you there, right?"
"......Yes."
"Then we'll be on our way. Minji-ya, drive the car carefully."
"Okay!"
Minji seemed happier about having a pretty car than the dealer did about selling us an expensive one.
Dealer-nim, you sold a car, so you did make a sale.
Why are you making that tearful face?
Until the very moment we drove away, the car dealer didn't head anywhere else — she just stared in our direction.
***
"And that's how we got the car for cheap."
"Oh... as expected, when you have a lot of money, you never feel cornered, huh."
We had nearly been scammed like idiots, but since I happened to have a lot of money, it turned into an incident where we didn't even have to lose any money.
I told Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho about it.
"Minji was happy about it too. She said she wants to take her car and go for a drive."
"....No staying out overnight."
"Wh... what are you..."
This wasn't about worrying for a younger sister; it was worrying about Lee Min-ho.
What if word got out that she'd slept with a chaebol family's son before they were even married?
Something bad might happen to Minji for no reason.
"It's not that, it's just a drive, I said!"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it~"
I'd seen before that they were so close they were lovey-dovey.
How do you date if you get embarrassed over something like that?
"Lee Min-ho, anyway.... Jeong Hwan-yi, how's your relationship going these days?"
"Me? I'm doing fine."
Jeong Hwan-yi didn't say much else, just drank her coffee.
From the looks of it, things didn't seem to be going badly.
Well, in Jeong Hwan-yi's case, it would be odder if I fussed over it.
She'd manage well on her own.
"But nothing bad will happen, right?"
"About what?"
I tilted my head as I lifted my own coffee, asking what she meant.
Seeing that, Lee Min-ho smiled bitterly and let out a sigh.
"Minji's car, I mean. What if some weird guys come around and try something stupid?"
"A few phone calls did come in, but I blocked them all."
"Wow... Seong-hwan, you take care of things pretty decisively, huh."
"Of course."
"Well, Minji isn't the type to take abuse from anyone anyway..."
If anything, she was the type to do the beating, not the type to get beaten up.
And if Minji ever came home having been hit, I might get so angry I'd put out a contract killing on that bastard.
"Hey, enough of that, let's talk about the assignment."
"Assignment?"
"The one the professor gave us the day before yesterday. You don't remember?"
"Doesn't that still have about a month left?"
Now that we were third-years, assignments were like part of daily life.
I couldn't even remember how many I had to do per day anymore....
It felt like being a college third-year was just being a machine that churned out assignments.
"Don't sigh... because I feel like I'm about to sigh too."
'Haa... should I just drop out altogether...'
I tried saying it even though I knew I couldn't do it.
What kind of idiot would drop out at this point? But there's nothing wrong with just saying it once, right?
They say dreaming is free, after all.
Ah, but now that I think about it, even if I did drop out, I wouldn't starve or anything, so maybe it would be fine...