Chapter 20
Chapter 20
The familiar scenery of my neighborhood came into view, but instead of feeling comfortable, I felt uneasy.
It was because of a certain thought.
Out of the thousands of shabu-shabu restaurants in Seoul, the one the team leader liked just happened to be my parents’ place?
That couldn’t be right. The probability was far too small.
But sometimes the world feels surprisingly small.
Like when you find out your friend is actually the son of your mother’s old classmate, or when you go to the hospital and discover the doctor is your friend’s father.
My thoughts were connecting endlessly when it happened.
“Nice, lucky! I can park over there.”
The team leader shouted when she spotted an empty space on the roadside.
“It might be better to use the parking lot…”
“Parking fees are expensive.”
“The fine would be even more expensive…”
“It’s fine. I come here often, so I know. They don’t enforce it. Get out.”
“Yes.”
When I stepped out of the car, the team leader walked ahead.
It was Saturday evening, so the street was crowded.
Why did she have to head in that direction?
“Deoksu, do you know Shabu King?”
“Cough, cough.”
I choked in surprise.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Why Shabu King?”
“That’s where we’re going.”
“R-really?”
The probability that had been one in thousands instantly jumped to fifty percent.
If it was Shabu King around here, it could only be either our family’s store or the franchise headquarters’ directly operated branch.
Statistically speaking, the headquarters branch had a higher chance.
It had more customers than our store.
But my bad premonition turned out to be correct.
My head started to ache.
What should I even say?
They would ask all kinds of questions.
“This place is really good. Among all the franchise branches, this one tastes the best.”
“…It is good.”
“Let’s go in.”
“Just a moment. Let me take a deep breath.”
“Huh?”
She looked at me as if asking why.
Just imagining my parents getting overly excited already made my head throb.
After taking another deep breath, I opened the door and went inside.
“Hello, boss. I came again. Today I even brought someone from my company…”
“Son.”
“Yes? Son?”
“Dad.”
“Dad?”
The team leader looked back and forth between my father and me.
“The person next to you is my son.”
“Y-your son? Deoksu?”
“Yes.”
The team leader’s eyes became perfectly round.
Her pupils trembled like there was an earthquake, and her cheeks turned red.
“Deoksu, you work at the same company as this customer? She’s a regular at our place.”
This time my mother asked.
I nodded.
“Oh my, the world really is small.”
The team leader, who had been flustered, quickly regained her composure and greeted my parents.
“H-hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Team Leader Kim Yu-ri.”
“Ahem. It’s not exactly our first time meeting… anyway, sit down first. I’ll bring soju and beer. Drink while the food is being prepared.”
“Pardon? Haha, when have I ever started drinking first…”
“You always do when you come…”
“Ugh.”
My mother twisted my father’s side with her hand.
“You have no sense at all. Honestly. Go to the kitchen and prepare the food.”
She sent my father to the kitchen.
Then my mother looked at the team leader with a meaningful smile.
“Please sit comfortably. I’ll prepare everything quickly.”
“No, that’s alright. Please take your time.”
“Should I help you, Mom?”
“No. You stay with your team leader.”
After my mother left, the team leader and I were alone.
“If this was your family’s place, you should have told me.”
“Huh? How would I know you were a regular at my parents’ restaurant?”
“Well, that’s true, but still… I want to die of embarrassment.”
“Why are you so embarrassed? Did you do something here before?”
“Of course not. I’m just embarrassed. If I knew this was your house, I would have dressed up more.”
“You’re already very dressed up today. Normally you look like you’re going to a funeral…”
Her eyes widened like axes aiming at me.
I needed to watch my mouth.
“You look very pretty today. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Say that again.”
“You look very pretty today.”
A satisfied smile briefly passed across her face.
Soon my mother brought the food.
“Please eat a lot. And please take good care of our Deoksu.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Mother?”
My mother’s lips curled upward.
My head started throbbing again.
She was probably already imagining three grandchildren in her head.
“Mom, we’re going to eat now.”
“Oh, alright. Enjoy your meal. Team Leader, please eat well. Tell me if you need more.”
We started eating.
With my parents glancing over every ten seconds, I couldn’t even tell where the food was going.
The team leader ate quietly without saying anything.
She didn’t even drink alcohol.
She looked unusually gentle.
Her outfit and her behavior today both seemed very feminine.
At that moment, I thought to myself.
Don’t be fooled.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“Mom, I’ll drop the team leader off and come right back.”
“Come back where? After eating, you should go to a café.”
I shook my head.
“I’ll be back.”
“Goodbye.”
We greeted them and walked out.
Then an accident happened.
A child holding ice cream bumped into the team leader.
“Are you okay?”
“My favorite outfit…”
The team leader pouted with a tearful expression.
It was a face I had never seen before, and it was strangely cute.
The child who had bumped into her also looked distressed, standing there unsure what to do.
Tears filled the child’s eyes.
The team leader walked up to the child and met the child’s gaze.
She smiled brightly.
“Were you surprised? I’m okay. But now you can’t eat your ice cream. Wait a moment. I’ll scoop you a new one.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. These things happen. But you should be careful. You might get hurt.”
“Yes.”
The team leader calmly scooped a new ice cream and handed it to the child.
“Enjoy.”
“Thank you.”
The child bowed and left.
It was a side of her I had never seen before.
And it was quite charming.
“Here, Deoksu. Yours too.”
“Thank you.”
The two of us walked outside holding ice cream.
Watching her eat ice cream gave me an idea.
“With your fair skin, this one would suit you well.”
A department store clerk recommended several outfits to the team leader.
“Why don’t you try them on?”
“Should I?”
A moment later she came out wearing one of the outfits.
Her atmosphere was completely different from usual.
So I said,
“Excuse me, who are you?”
“Huh?”
“You look completely different from usual.”
“What! Does it look bad?”
“No, it suits you very well. You look beautiful.”
Her cheeks turned red at my words.
“Ahem. Well, I am quite pretty.”
“Try the others too.”
The next one was a chic black dress.
It had an elegant charm rather than looking like funeral attire.
“That one looks good too.”
“Try this one as well.”
I handed her another outfit.
After trying three outfits, she couldn’t decide which one to choose.
“Which one looked best?”
“They all looked good.”
“Hm…”
She thought for a long time.
“Should I choose this one… No, maybe the black one… but the first one…”
When she traded stocks in the office she never hesitated.
But here she looked completely indecisive.
“Ah, I can’t decide. Can you choose for me?”
“Alright.”
I turned to the employee.
“We’ll take all of them.”
“What?”
The team leader looked shocked.
“That will be 6.52 million won.”
“Here.”
After paying and receiving the shopping bags, we left the store.
“Isn’t that too much money to spend?”
“Are you worried I’ll spend my whole salary?”
“No, not that…”
“It’s fine. You know how big my bonus was.”
There were tens of billions sitting in my bank account.
“But still…”
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have gotten this job or earned this much money.”
“That’s not true. You achieved that with your own ability. I didn’t do anything.”
“Still, it wouldn’t have been possible without your help. Thank you very much. Please wear the clothes well.”
“Alright.”
She smiled brightly at me.
Her dimples were charming.
“Come with me. I’ll buy you a gift too.”
“A gift? I won’t refuse.”
I followed her down to the first floor of the department store.
The first floor was filled with cosmetics and perfume shops, so many scents filled the air.
She took me into a perfume store.
“You don’t usually wear perfume, do you?”
“I love perfume.”
“Really?”
It was unexpected.
“I’d like to smell some woody scents.”
“Of course. One moment.”
The employee sprayed perfume onto a test strip and handed it to me.
It felt like entering a forest.
“This is nice.”
“Right?”
We smelled many others too.
Jasmine, lavender, bergamot, sandalwood, vanilla, musk.
Suddenly I became curious about the scent I had smelled before.
Could I find it?
“There’s a scent I’m looking for. Could you help me identify what kind it is?”
“Of course.”
The employee let me smell various fragrances.
One of them felt similar.
“This one is the closest.”
“That’s floral.”
The team leader said.
“Floral? But it feels fresher.”
“Really? It feels like rose.”
Once I learned the name of the scent, it felt easier to distinguish.
Maybe studying fragrances would help me smell them more clearly.
Even if not, categorizing them would make them easier to remember.
I suddenly wanted to study scents more seriously.
Just then the employee handed me a strip with a strong rose fragrance.
“Oh. This is it.”
It wasn’t perfect, but it was very similar.
It was the scent I had smelled when I made a 500 percent profit from SCP Put ELW.
And when I earned hundreds of billions from Samjin Semichem.
“How do you know this scent?”
“When I smelled it as a child, it made me feel good. So I remembered it.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Should I buy this one for you?”
“No.”
If I wore it, I might get confused.
I chose a different fragrance instead.
A refreshing woody scent.
“I’ll take this one.”
“Alright.”
After paying, the team leader handed the perfume to me.
“Wear it often.”
“Yes, thank you.”
The next day.
The team leader offered to pick me up again, but I declined.
Two days in a row felt like too much trouble for her.
I took the subway to the real estate office in Hannam-dong.
On the way, she called.
“Deoksu, a good house just came up for urgent sale. I’ll send you the address, so come directly.”
“Yes.”
As soon as the call ended, a message arrived.
I got off the subway, took a taxi, and headed to the address.
It was one of the luxury villas in Hannam-dong.
When I went inside, the team leader and the realtor were already there.
The spacious layout, clean interior, and the view of the Han River from the living room window immediately caught my eye.
“What do you think? Do you like it?”
“Yes. The size is perfect.”
“I asked around. There’s no noise between floors, the insulation is good, and since it’s a luxury villa the finishing materials are top quality. Oh, and the water pressure is strong too…”
Normally she seemed rough and carefree.
But seeing her carefully checking every detail felt different.
“The size is forty-five pyeong. The price is three billion won. Similar homes with a Han River view usually go for 3.5 billion, but this is an urgent sale so it’s five hundred million cheaper. The condition is that the full payment must be made immediately upon signing the contract. Would that be possible?”
“Hm…”
Should I buy this house?
At the moment I considered it, a pleasant scent reached my nose.
“Huh? This…”
When I looked in the direction of the scent, the team leader was there.
As I stepped closer, she stepped back slightly.
“W-what?”
“You’re wearing perfume today, right?”
“Yes. Why? Do you like it?”
“It smells like the scent I mentioned yesterday at the department store… Did you buy it yesterday?”
“No. I already had it at home. …Deoksu, the Han River looks really beautiful from here.”
She changed the subject.
I didn’t ask further.
She probably went back into the department store yesterday and bought it.
But why?
Because I said the scent made me feel good?
I didn’t think that was the reason.
But the possibility made me smile slightly.
The difference between the scent only I could smell and ordinary perfume was clear.
Even if they were similar, their essence was different.
The scent only I could smell felt like I perceived it with my whole body, not just my nose.
As I was thinking, I noticed the realtor watching me.
He was waiting for my answer.
I had to decide whether to buy.
Three billion won was not a small amount.
If only houses also produced the special scent I could smell.
But maybe that was asking too much.
Even now, this ability was already unfair enough.
I carefully evaluated the conditions again.
A price below market value.
A Han River view.
A good neighborhood.
There was no need to hesitate.
Buying was the rational choice.
“I’ll take it.”
“You’ve made a good decision.”
Even though I couldn’t smell a scent from the house, I felt certain that my family could live here peacefully and happily.
“When should we sign the contract?”
“Would tomorrow be possible?”
“Yes.”
We agreed to sign the contract the next evening and returned home.
After work, I went straight to the real estate office in Hannam-dong.
I was riding in the team leader’s car.
Why?
Because she insisted on coming along.
Honestly, I didn’t understand why she wanted to come.
When we entered the office, a man in his late thirties was sitting there.
He looked slightly sharp.
Probably because of his situation.
Since he had put the house up for urgent sale, he was likely facing financial difficulties.
I hoped selling the house would solve his problem.
After greeting him, we sat down.
The realtor showed us the prepared contract.
Then he handed over the stamp.
He began stamping the documents.
It was an awkward moment.
“The house is really beautiful.”
At the team leader’s comment, the man nodded.
“I regret selling it too. If it weren’t for financial problems…”
He trailed off.
“You both seem young. Do you work at a startup?”
“No. We work at a securities company.”
“Ah… you must have had good investment returns. A friend of mine works at a securities firm and earns tens of billions a year.”
“Not everyone does. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do?”
“Oh, I run a startup.”
The man handed us his business card.
The company name caught my attention.
Jalnolja.
It was a company I knew.
I had used it often during my army leave.
“Jalnolja? I’ve used it many times.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. I used it a lot during my military service. The reviews helped me find decent motels, and booking was convenient.”
“Thank you.”
“I heard it started as an internet café community.”
“That’s right.”
As I showed interest, the man began telling the story of Jalnolja’s growth.
He had started as a motel employee and eventually built the company large enough to receive Series A investment.
He was trying to make a big leap forward through another investment round.
But things had gone wrong.
The company that promised to invest suddenly withdrew.
Hearing about his financial difficulties naturally made me wonder if I should invest.
Just then—
A pleasant scent suddenly reached my nose.
It wasn’t the team leader’s perfume.
It was the special scent that only I could smell.