Three Cars and a House
The two of them had been at it on the bed since morning, and lunch was long gone before they finally walked out of the hotel. A late-checkout fee came due for the hours they had overrun, but Kim Taeyoung was a man set free from money. Paying a little more meant nothing beside his own convenience.
"So we're going to that boss I know?"
"Yeah."
Today's flex came in two parts, a house and a car, and they agreed to start with the car. Bringing Hwayeon along had been the right call. Luxury goods were not like ordinary merchandise. Connections mattered. Every piece cost enough that you either had to know the thing yourself or meet a seller who wouldn't cheat you, and in that sense Hwayeon was the best companion he could have asked for. She didn't know cars particularly well, but the years she had spent moving among the upper class had left her with a formidable web of contacts.
"Boss! Have you been well?"
"Miss Chaeyoung! It's been ages. You've been well, I hope? How is it you seem to grow prettier by the day?"
The imported-car dealer welcomed Chaeyoung with real warmth, then let his eyes flick over Kim Taeyoung. He did not say anything in the vein of, "Changed men again, have we? Not a scrap of discretion." In his line of work, reading the room was a matter of survival. More to the point, today's buyer seemed to be this man, not Hwayeon. She had changed cars only a year or so ago.
"Hehe. You see it too, boss? Anyway, we came to look at a car today. This oppa has his eye on something — would you look into it for him? I was the one who said we should come here, so you'd better take good care of us."
"Of course. I sell only the finest goods, and I sell them with honesty and trust. A pleasure, sir. Jung Jaeseung, dealer in imported cars."
"Yes. Kim Taeyoung."
Once the brief introductions were done, Jung Jaeseung asked his questions. What kind of car did he want? How much was he thinking of spending? And so on.
Kim Taeyoung had always cared a great deal about cars, especially the ones with a clean, wicked shape and an engine to match. He had dream cars to spare — a Ferrari, a Range Rover, a Bugatti, and others besides. Every one of them lived well past the hundred-million-won mark. They were not dream cars anymore. Anything that cost a mere few hundred million, he could sweep up as many as he pleased.
"You know the SF90 Stradale, among the Ferraris?"
"Ah, so you're a Ferrari man. A fine car. Beautifully drawn, and the engine's a proper beast. One moment. I'll bring it up on the monitor."
The dealer put the Ferrari SF90 Stradale up on the large television. Taeyoung had seen the thing any number of times, but a fresh cut of footage struck him all over again as stunning.
"You seem to know the car better than I do, so I'll skip the detailed specs and speak only to price. As you know, the Stradale is Ferrari's starting point for the shift from analog to digital. The current base delivery price, no options, is 640 million won. Fully optioned, 950 million. The options, of course, are yours to choose."
The dealer finished with price and options, then started in on the financing. Halfway through capital loans and leases, Kim Taeyoung cut him off.
"No need to explain installments or leases. I'll be paying the full amount in cash. And I don't need a discount. I'm not a man without money. I don't need the little extras either — an umbrella, golf balls, that sort of thing. Those come out of your commission, don't they? You don't have to throw them in. Instead, put that same care into my car. Maintenance, inspection, registration. You can do that, can't you?"
A department-store sales floor and the imported-car trade had a few things in common. Only natural, when both were systems built by conglomerates chasing maximum efficiency. A retail manager and an imported-car dealer were the same kind of man in the end. Both of them sold on consignment. So Kim Taeyoung declined the petty courtesies that would have come out of the dealer's own pocket — the umbrella, the premium car cleaner — and left the man's earnings untouched. What he wanted in return was that same cost, paid back as service no one could itemize.
"O-of course! That's my job to begin with!"
The dealer's face lit up. Skip the discount and the freebies, and a handsome sum stayed behind. At a house like Ferrari, the accessories a dealer was made to push usually started at a hundred thousand won apiece. The quality was hardly different from ordinary market goods. Slap a brand logo on them, and the price jumped. He had every reason to be glad. The commission on the Ferrari would be his to keep, whole and undivided.
But the gladness wasn't finished with him yet.
"Then show me the next car. Range Rover this time."
"I... I'm sorry? Didn't you say you were buying the Ferrari?"
"The Ferrari's already bought. I'm saying I'm buying the next one too. They don't hand them over the day you sign, do they? Oh — and I'll need something to drive until mine come in. A lease or a rental, I can take those out today, right? Can the term be adjusted? I only want it until the cars arrive."
"O-of course! A convenience like that, I can arrange on my own authority. Th-then let me start by showing you the Land Rover line!"
Jung Jaeseung was a salesman ground smooth by long years in the imported-car trade. He kicked his chair back and stood like a man on his first day. A god of wealth. A god of wealth had come down into his showroom.
"Oppa! How many cars are you trying to buy?"
"Who knows? If I like it, I ought to buy it. Three or so, don't you think?"
"No way."
Even Hwayeon, who had brought him here, looked stunned. She had heard, roughly, what Kim Taeyoung's fortune came to. About six billion won. And he was spending like this? She knew what happened when someone got rich overnight. The spending ran away from them. But this was too much. Far too much. Three imported cars would clear two billion won without effort. Hadn't the Ferrari alone nearly touched a billion?
Surely not.
Hwayeon's eyes changed. Even a nouveau riche didn't drop several billion in a single afternoon. Buying three cars on a total fortune of six billion was a stunt not even a man who would beggar himself for cars would try. Which meant Kim Taeyoung's assets ran far past six billion — unless his sense of money had simply broken.
He had more. That was it.
It was plain now. Kim Taeyoung had far more money than six billion. Today he meant to buy a house as well as the cars. She had assumed, as a matter of course, that he would pick up a car for one or two hundred million and put three or four billion into a house. Perhaps the six billion was only what he had already turned to cash, and the coins still uncashed were vastly more.
Without meaning to, Hwayeon had arrived at the truth Kim Taeyoung was hiding.
"Thank you! I'll source a rental at once and have it sent to your address. Don't worry about the term. I'll settle it so the contract ends right when your cars are delivered. Just trust me."
Kim Taeyoung kept his word. Right there, he signed for all three vehicles — one sports car, one SUV, one sedan. Two and a half billion won between them. The dealer, nearly thirty million won richer in commission, bowed a full ninety degrees.
"Boss. You could take a look at my car sometime too, right? I keep forgetting — the regular service? The inspection? I haven't even done that."
"Hahaha. Of course I will. Call whenever it suits you. If Miss Chaeyoung rings, I'll set every other job aside and come."
"Thank you, boss!"
Kim Taeyoung had spent like a Whale, and Hwayeon, at his side, collected a small benefit of her own. One of the day's flexes was done. Next came the house, and once again they went through her connections — a real-estate broker who did most of his business with major BJs. Through him they toured several listings. The one that pleased Taeyoung most was a three-story detached house with a swimming pool and a wide yard.
"I like this house."
It fit him exactly. The walls were high, the yard broad. The house itself had been built to be reasonably handsome and thoroughly practical, the kind of place that would be easy to keep and easy to clean. And the garage set below the yard was spacious enough to hold a full eight cars.
"A fine house. A lump-sum lease would be four billion won. Month to month, a hundred million down and twenty million a month. Shall we sign?"
"No. Let's buy it."
"I'm sorry, sir. The owner hasn't put this house up for sale."
"Call them anyway. Tell them I'll pay twice the price."
Here, too, Kim Taeyoung made a show of throwing money around. At the word twice, the broker's face locked up. The house in front of them was worth somewhere between five and seven billion won. Take the middle figure of six billion, and twice that was twelve. The brokerage fee alone came to nearly a hundred million.
"I-I'll call right away."
The broker snatched up his phone. Whatever spice he stirred into the pitch, the owner agreed on the spot to sell. The man was in such a rush that twenty minutes after the call, he was standing inside the house. The contract went through clean and fast, start to finish.
"I'll send the balance Thursday afternoon, or Friday morning."
"Yes, that would be ideal. Thank you, sir."
At a stroke of luck that had dropped from nowhere, the homeowner broke into a wide, beaming smile. The broker was laughing right along with him, bright and easy.
"I'll move in tomorrow."
"Yes. There's nothing inside, so you can move in at once."
They set their seals to the last of the papers. It was a contract that left everyone satisfied. The owner was glad to have made so much money. The broker was glad of so fat a fee. And Kim Taeyoung was glad to have the house he wanted. The price had overrun the cash he held, but that was nothing. His coins were a jar that would never run empty.
"So this is your house now, oppa? When are you doing the housewarming?"
"A housewarming? You want one?"
"We ought to celebrate. And I want to meet your friends."
Hwayeon let it fall, light and sideways — a little work to thicken the rope she meant to hold, the one named Kim Taeyoung. Get close to his people, and he would not find it so easy to throw her away.
"Hmm. That one I'll have to think over."
But he was skeptical of a housewarming. A small success, and everyone is glad for you. A vast one calls up envy and jealousy as surely as rain. That was why he had talked past it even with the staff at Ecobloom, letting them believe he had managed a success of only a few hundred million.
This part needed more thought. Flaunting his wealth was pleasant enough. Losing the people around him was not.
"If that's what you think, oppa, then fine. Shall the two of us celebrate, at least? I have to stream, so not today. My next day off!"
"If you want to, then do it."
"Heheh. Got it! And oppa! You know how hard I worked today, right? Don't forget the promise!"
"I told you I know. How many times are you going to ask? Excel Broadcast. Double the gap on second place. Okay?"
"Okay! Now let's go eat. I'm hungry. I have to eat, then get to my stream."