Investment and Business (2)
Investment and Business (2)
The next day.
Since it was the first time I was joining A-ra's business venture,
I suggested that we go see the building together if we were going anyway, so we set out early in the morning.
I wondered what kind of help I could even be,
but A-ra said it wasn't about profit or calculated reasons—she simply wanted to be with me—and she whined for us to go together, so I gave in with a nod after seeing my wife acting unusually cute again.
But my wife, she was picking up something like a building
as if she was just going shopping at a convenience store.
In a way, wasn't A-ra possibly the most terrifying person in the world?
And I wasn't the only one who felt that way.
Director and the realtor who came along with us were both wearing subtle bitter smiles.
"A-ra, you did think it over multiple times, right?"
"I said I did a lot. This time I even consulted with Seong-hwan."
"But... Seong-hwan-ssi doesn't know anything about real estate..."
Director looked like an older sister watching her little sister
ask for a toy at the supermarket, a wry smile on her face,
as she gently started to pat A-ra's head.
I couldn't help but smile wryly, watching the two of them
really become like a whining cute little sister and a scolding older sister.
"What's the matter?"
"No, I just felt like you two really seem like sisters."
"A-ra does really think of me as her actual older sister."
"I do not?! What kind of older sister treats her little sister like a gluttonous, impulsive idiot, huh?!"
I barely managed to hold back a burst of laughter.
The impression Director had of A-ra didn't seem to contain any significant errors...
"Hmm? I think I just saw a little bit of laughter on my husband's face."
I thought I'd held it in, but it seemed a little had leaked out.
I tried to brush it off by saying I hadn't done anything,
but A-ra, who had noticed it instantly and pointed it right out, pursed her lips.
"Seong-hwan also thinks his noona is a gluttonous, impulsive idiot?"
"Wha... No. There's no way that's true."
"Really?"
I shook my head from side to side at lightning speed to say no,
then gently stroked A-ra's hair and brought my hand down to caress her cheek.
"I might think that noona is a glutton, but I know very well that she's not an impulsive idiot."
"So you do think I'm a glutton."
"And I love that kind of noona."
I liked A-ra, who would eat the food I made for her so deliciously.
And that was one of the reasons I found A-ra, who was usually more mature and sensible than me, so cute.
Was this what people called a 'gap'?
Cool and aloof A-ra anywhere and anytime, who would turn into a bunny-cute wife in front of me.
And my wife, who would look on the verge of tears if something came up and she missed a meal—
did people know just how cute that was?
"When we get home today, I'll make you something delicious."
"Really? What are you going to make?"
"Hmm... is there something you'd like to eat?"
We were clearly going to see a building, but Director wore a wry smile at the sight of us
chatting just like we always did, calling us so carefree.
The driver and the realtor maintained only puzzled expressions.
***
The place we arrived at after all that was the center of a downtown district not far from our home.
Since it wasn't far from home, if we had come by ourselves,
it would have been less than five minutes by car, but because Director and the realtor had to come along as well,
it took quite a while.
"The building owner is moving back to their hometown, so this is a property being sold off."
"There aren't any particular issues with the building, right?"
"The safety inspection was renewed recently, and no leaks or cracks were found. Also..."
While I watched A-ra, Director, and the realtor talk amongst themselves,
I sipped my orange juice.
Even if I wanted to jump in, I'd have to know what they were saying to join... wishful thinking.
Maybe the best course of action was for a man to just keep quiet and listen.
"Shall we go up to the top floor?"
"Come to think of it, what was it you said you were going to do?"
"Yeah, I'm going to try out a business."
"Are you planning to open a restaurant or something?"
"No, I'm going to run a game shop."
"Something like an arcade?"
"No, a real offline shop that sells actual games."
And then, A-ra began to explain her dreams to Director one by one,
and it seemed that later on, once conditions allowed, she also wanted to try making
an experience-type game center with Vesahol Racing Simulations.
A single one of those setups was 80 million won?
Wouldn't you need dozens of them to run a game center?
"A-ra, your husband seems a little dizzy after hearing that?"
"Seo... Seong-hwan! It's not something I'm doing right away!"
Director, who was throwing out exaggerated statements to fluster A-ra,
and A-ra, who was desperately making her case—the two of them were so perfectly in sync
it almost felt like they were doing a comedy skit.
"Let's stop the jokes here, shall we go up now?"
"Should we... I am curious about the top floor... What about you, Seong-hwan?"
"I'll go up too."
There was nothing to do stuck in the car by myself anyway.
I did wonder how much there could possibly be to see, though.
*
"The current tenants and shops occupying the building aren't bad either."
"The café on the first floor seems to be doing well, too."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'll buy it."
After looking around everything, she seemed to have made up her mind and started talking with the realtor.
When they were showing it to us calling it a 'good item,' I wondered whether there was even such a thing as a good item when it came to buildings, but it was new construction so it was clean, and it had a certain elegance that stood out compared to ordinary buildings—to the point where even I was nodding that it really was a decent 'item.'
"What does Seong-hwan-ssi think?"
"I don't know much about buildings, but this place is really pretty."
"The building is pretty? When I see this side of him, Seong-hwan-ssi really seems like a guy sometimes."
"But pretty is pretty..."
I had no other way to describe it.
I guess I'd say this building somehow gave off the feeling of a luxury apartment.
It was located right in the middle of the downtown area, and there were lots of hospitals around, so maybe it was only natural for it to have that upscale and comfortable atmosphere.
"Still, I guess if you collapsed around here you wouldn't die~ is the impression I'm getting."
"Of course. Its nickname is the Tower of Life, after all."
"Director knows that nickname too?"
"So Seong-hwan-ssi knows it as well? This place is famous."
I knew about it from seeing it on community sites myself,
but it looked like Director browsed community sites too.
Well, in this day and age, how many people didn't use social media or forums?
Even I posted photos on social media and communities a few times a week.
Was I slowly entering the sociable people tier too?
"It's famous not only on humor communities, but also on places like the small business owner communities.
They said the building was clean and the price was reasonable. So at first, there were a lot of rumors
going around that the owner had done gap investment and the property would soon go to auction and so on."
Gap investment referred to moving a tenant into a building where the sale price and jeonse price had little difference,
then using the jeonse deposit paid by the tenant to purchase another residence.
And when the tenant was about to move out, you would find another tenant and receive a jeonse deposit from that prospective tenant
to return to the existing tenant; the higher the jeonse price rose, the more profit you could make,
but if it dropped, you would have to sell off another building or do something to cover the difference,
and in that process, there were many cases where the jeonse price dropped further and you'd end up with money you had to pay.
Eventually, things would spiral into an infinite route of selling buildings one after another, borrowing money from the bank under a mortgage,
and failing to repay it so the building gets seized by the bank, which held the right to cancel.
When that happened, tenants without 'opposing power' could end up not receiving a single penny
and being kicked out of their jeonse home, so it was a big problem.
Of course, the way to avoid these kinds of properties was simple.
Before signing a contract for a home, you request the certified copy of the register to check whether a mortgage is recorded or not.
If a mortgage was recorded before you filed your move-in registration, it became a problem,
but if your move-in registration came before the mortgage,
then when the bank seizes it and it goes to auction and the property is sold, you gain the right to receive your deposit first, ahead of the bank.
"So that's why it wasn't selling."
"And just then, A-ra was looking for somewhere to invest, so I introduced it to her."
"Has Director actually never considered it for yourself?"
"Me? I prefer moving stocks than owning buildings."
Saying she had no interest in buildings, she smiled
and took out her phone, opened her stock app, and showed it to me.
Written there were amounts I couldn't even imagine,
and all of them were glowing red, and the graphs looked ready to pierce the heavens at their upper limits.
"Is it okay to show me this?"
"That's exactly why I don't show anyone. Seong-hwan-ssi is the first."
Director, who had interjected with a 'You shouldn't expose this on a community, right?' into the conversation between A-ra and the realtor,
was for some reason wearing an expression suggesting she was the one having the most fun.
But then, despite liking stocks so much,
why had she given all of her shares to A-ra?
A-ra hadn't even installed a stock app on her phone...
It seemed she just confirmed the dividend payments deposited every year.
If that was the case, wouldn't it be better for Director to just buy them back from A-ra?