Chapter 4, Second Niece
Chapter 4, Second Niece
Right after signing the exclusive editing contract with my niece.
Ttiring.
The alarm on the smartphone I had in my pants pocket rang.
It was a deposit notification from the banking app.
[10,000,000 won has been deposited from Baek Ha-rin-nim.]
[Balance: 30,045,210 won]
"Ten million won?"
I lifted my head and looked at the niece standing in the middle of the living room.
"What's this? You're giving me ten million won for a computer?"
"You're going to edit my videos anyway, right, samchon? That computer will be the one editing my videos, so if you set it up properly from the start, you won't complain later."
Not a wrong statement.
I mean, I'm always loaded with weird complaints and blame-shifting.
But there's no need to spend as much as ten million won.
"Looks like our Ha-rin really has been making a lot of money, huh? Casually handing over ten million won."
"If I weren't earning well, would I be paying you a salary of 250, samchon? And if I can invest this much to hire one employee, that's a good deal."
"That's true."
It's not overconfidence, but I think it's a profit to be able to exploit a guy like me for 250.
"Alright. If that's how you're playing it, I won't refuse. Then I'll start putting together a computer, so be quiet."
I grinned happily and sank deep into the sofa.
I accessed a familiar custom PC website on my smartphone.
But Baek Ha-rin, standing across from me, had a strange attitude.
I thought she would snap at me and go to her room, but she was hesitating as if she had something to say, watching my expression.
"What? You have something else to say? I won't accept a request to cancel the 10 million won transfer."
"No, it's not that! I'm not cheap enough to give and take back."
Baek Ha-rin turned her head sharply and started setting up the tripod again in the middle of the living room.
"What are you doing now?"
"What do you think? I'm going to film a Shorts, so don't bother me. And don't call me in the middle either."
Then, just like before, she fluttered the hem of her silk pajamas and focused on adjusting the camera angle.
She's really an unpredictable girl.
Just moments ago she was worried about a tax bomb, and now she's ready to dance in front of the camera again.
'Well, with that kind of mentality, she must be a YouTuber.'
I clicked my tongue inwardly and turned my gaze back to my smartphone screen.
Now, the most important thing for me is setting up the dream machine that will sit on my desk in my room.
Actually, the night before my discharge from the military.
I had already planned everything I would buy with the matching support fund.
Originally, I was thinking of building a PC in the 2 million won range.
"But the budget is ten million won."
This is a completely different story.
I started picking up parts and adding them to the cart.
[CPU : 9950X]
To hell with cost-effectiveness.
A rendering bully and the ultimate work monster with 16 cores and 32 threads.
[Motherboard : X870E]
[Memory : DDR5 64GB]
The more RAM, the better.
Enough capacity to run Premiere Pro with hundreds of Chrome tabs open without a hitch.
"And the long-awaited graphics card."
My fingers trembled slightly.
[VGA : 5090 Supreme 32GB]
The price of one graphics card is as much as a decent used car, but with a budget of ten million won, what can't I buy?
Without hesitation, I slapped it into the cart.
[SSD : NVMe M.2 4TB]
[Power Supply : 1200W Platinum Rated]
Plus I swept up a liquid cooler and a top-tier case as well.
Total amount.
Around 8 million won.
"Wow, even after getting all this, I still have 2 million left."
With the remaining money, I can get two monitors, a mechanical keyboard, and a mouse as a full set, perfect.
[Payment completed.]
The moment I pressed the payment button, a sigh of admiration escaped.
Ah, so this is why people earn money.
'I ordered before the cutoff, so it'll ship out today. It should arrive by tomorrow, right?'
Staring intently at the order details, my heart was pounding so hard I felt like I was going crazy.
Ah, what do I do.
Last night, I couldn't sleep a wink because of the joy of being discharged.
Tonight, I think I won't be able to sleep because I'm too excited thinking about the 5090 Supreme arriving tomorrow.
"Heheheh."
Without realizing it, a perverted laugh slipped out of my mouth.
At that sound, Baek Ha-rin, who was in the middle of shaking her butt and filming a Shorts in the living room, turned off the music and looked back at me.
"Ugh, seriously, samchon! I'm recording, why do you keep making weird noises!"
"Sorry. I'm too happy, I couldn't help it."
Seeing me cradling my phone to my chest and grinning like an idiot, Baek Ha-rin clicked her tongue in disdain.
"Tsk. Men are all the same even when they get older and come back from the military. Such a kid. Is it really that exciting?"
"Do you appreciate the brilliance of the 5090? You don't need to. This is a man's dream."
"Whatever. I get that you like it, but when Ha-young comes later, say you bought it. Don't say I bought it for you."
"Why?"
When I asked, Baek Ha-rin let out a deep sigh.
"Because Ha-young doesn't know I'm making money from Shorts. I lied and told her I haven't monetized yet."
"Ugh, one lie is breeding more lies."
"You think I wanted to lie..."
I clicked my tongue lightly and said I understood.
Ha-young.
Baek Ha-young.
The 5-year-younger sister of that spazzy Baek Ha-rin dancing in the living room, and my other niece.
Since Ha-rin is a twenty-year-old college student, Baek Ha-young is now fifteen.
Right in the midst of her rebellious middle school second year.
Bbi bbi bik.
Ttiririk-
The door lock's password was entered, and the door opened with a cheerful chime.
"What, is it already time for Ha-young to come home from school?"
I checked the time, and it was exactly when Baek Ha-young would be arriving home from school.
It's still time for my eldest sister to be at work.
My other sisters are working too, so the only person who could be opening the door right now is Baek Ha-young.
I got up from the sofa and walked toward the entrance.
Just then, Baek Ha-young, neatly dressed in her school uniform, was taking off her shoes and coming inside.
Long brown hair and round eyes.
She resembles her sister Ha-rin somehow, but has a much softer, gentler impression.
As soon as Baek Ha-young spotted me standing at the entrance, her eyes sparkled and she smiled brightly.
"Samchon!!"
Then she threw her bag aside and ran straight into my arms, hugging me tightly.
Her small frame nestled into my broad chest.
"There, there. Our Ha-young. Did you have a good day at school?"
I also hugged her tightly with both arms and, out of habit, patted her bottom lightly.
Since she's a niece I've been looking after since she was little, she still looks like a tiny baby in my eyes.
"Ah, seriously, samchon!"
Baek Ha-young pulled away from my arms, her face slightly flushed, and pouted.
"Even if we're family, I'm all grown up now, shouldn't you not be patting my butt?"
"What do you mean, grown up? You're still tiny. And if we keep drawing lines over every little thing, what's left for family to do? It'd be too cold."
I chuckled softly and pinched her cheek lightly.
The age difference is only six years between us.
Being a late-born uncle is in an awkward position.
At my smooth answer, Baek Ha-young tilted her head.
"Hmm... When you put it that way, I guess that's true?"
Such a simple girl.
Baek Ha-young quickly agreed and then smiled brightly, linking her arm through mine.
"By the way, samchon. Mom told me through text that you got discharged today, right? So you don't have to go to the military anymore, right?"
"That's right. I'm a free man now."
At my firm answer, Baek Ha-young's eyes sparkled and she rubbed her face against my arm.
"Then, samchon! Since you got discharged and you touched my butt earlier, can't you give me ten thousand won?"
"Ten thousand won?"
What kind of logic is that?
What does my discharge and patting my niece's bottom have to do with giving her ten thousand won as allowance?
"Are you some kind of gangster? Trying to extort a settlement fee for patting your butt?"
"Aing, samchon pleeease~ I promised to go eat malatang with my friends today, but I'm all out of allowance."
Baek Ha-young grabbed my arm and shook it back and forth, acting cute.
Well, thankfully I have enough money to give my cute niece some allowance.
I took out my smartphone from my pocket.
I opened the banking app and entered Baek Ha-young's account number.
She asked for ten thousand won, but since I'm in a good mood, I decided to be generous.
[Sent 50,000 won to Baek Ha-young-nim.]
"There. Sent it. Go eat malatang and finish it off with tanghulu as a full course."
At my words, Baek Ha-young checked the notification on her phone and her eyes grew wide as if they would pop out.
"Gasp! Fifty thousand?! Awesome! I love you, samchon!"
Baek Ha-young jumped up and down on the spot, shouting in joy.
Seeing her so happy over a single fifty-thousand won bill as if she owned the world, a satisfied smile crept onto my face.
"Samchon is the best! I love you, samchon! Ah, you can touch my butt whenever you want for the rest of your life! I give you permission!"
"Haah... My dear niece. That's not something you say."
Ignoring my reply, she grabbed her bag and scurried into her room.
Left alone in the middle of the living room, I pressed my forehead and let out a deep sigh.
"And I patted, not touched, you girl..."
She makes things sound so misleading.
If she ever says something like that somewhere, I'll end up becoming a pervert uncle who touches his niece's butt.
A moment later, the door opened and Baek Ha-young, now changed into comfortable training pants and a cropped short-sleeve t-shirt instead of her uniform, popped out.
"Samchon! I'm going out to play with my friends! I'll be back late, so you guys handle dinner yourselves!"
I clicked my tongue watching Baek Ha-young's back as she breezed out the door.
As soon as she changed clothes, she dashed out to eat malatang with her friends.
'Yeah, middle schoolers are at that age where they bustle around like that.'
Baek Ha-young went out through the entrance, and the living room fell quiet.
Just then, Baek Ha-rin, who had finished filming her Shorts, came out into the hallway.
"Did Ha-young leave?"
Looking at Baek Ha-rin, I crossed my arms.
"She said she was going to eat malatang."
"She really likes malatang, tanghulu, and dujunku and stuff. Feels like she spends all her allowance on that."
Ah, does she get a separate allowance from her mom?
And yet she still extorted money from her uncle.
"Don't you think about giving your sister some allowance?"
"Why would I give her?"
Baek Ha-rin snorted incredulously.
"What does a middle schooler need that much money for?"
"Well... that's true."
It's obvious that giving a middle schooler a lot of money would just end up wasted on useless things.
"By the way, what time does your mom come home these days?"
"Mom? Around 7 PM?"
The current time is 4:30.
About 2 hours and 30 minutes left.
"Really? Then we can have dinner together."
"I'm going to film Shorts until then, so be quiet."
"Yes, boss."
I should rest a bit until my eldest sister comes home.
Why does the day feel so long?