To Whose Nose Would I Pin It?
My brother got into the car and, for a long while, said nothing at all. He just stared blankly into space, looking like he couldn’t quite accept reality.
“Are you okay, bro?”
“Huh?”
“What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s just... man, if that were you, wouldn’t you be shocked? I thought you were just a younger kid working part-time with me, and then you show up driving a car like that. And with a chauffeur, too.”
Honestly, if I were in his shoes and suddenly saw Doyun roll up in a Rolls-Royce, I’d probably need a while to process it too.
“I just got lucky. I’m still the same Lee Doyun.”
“How lucky do you have to be for that? Did you take my luck with you, too?”
“No. It just means you’re lucky too, bro. You’ll probably get to go to a lot of good places with me.”
“...Really?”
Who else was I supposed to go around carousing with, if not my brother? I didn’t feel like making new friends at this point.
“So what happened?”
“I found some Bitcoin I’d forgotten about a long time ago.”
“Wow... that’s really amazing. I’ve heard of cases like that, but I never thought it’d be you.”
“Even I still find it hard to believe.”
I still couldn’t shake the strange, dazed feeling that something this huge had actually happened to me. A part-timer living off someone else’s family had become a man worth a hundred billion won overnight.
My brother asked in a quiet voice, “The person driving—he’s your chauffeur?”
“He’s my chief secretary.”
“Wow. It’s wild that you’ve got a chief secretary of your own.”
“As you know, I don’t have any experience in this stuff. I needed someone to make up for that.”
“When you put it like that, it gets a little easier to accept.”
Now that he’d accepted reality, he wore an excited expression.
“This is gonna be fun.”
“Huh?”
“You know what I mean. That asshole from earlier. No way that wasn’t him trying to screw us over on purpose.”
“It did seem that way.”
“I don’t know how rich that family is, but... you’re definitely richer than he is, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Not sure? Come on. The car I saw earlier was a Mercedes-Benz E-Class. If he were as rich as you, he’d be in an S-Class.”
“Is there that much difference?”
“An E-Class, at most, is maybe a hundred million won. You’d need five of those just to buy this car.”
In reality, I’d also arranged contracts for six supercars, but I kept that to myself. It felt too much like bragging.
“I thought we’d be taking a taxi, but thanks to you this is pretty comfortable.”
“It is comfortable, for sure.”
“Man, this is seriously classy. Even the ceiling looks like the Milky Way.”
“Yeah, I know. This is my first time riding in one too.”
“Really?”
My brother and I looked around the inside of the Rolls-Royce together. It really was different from ordinary cars—no wonder it was expensive. The cabin was so beautiful it practically invited admiration, and the ride itself was ridiculous. If I closed my eyes, I honestly couldn’t tell whether I was riding in a car or lying in bed.
“I got a KakaoTalk message. Jihyun says she’s sorry and sent ten thousand won for taxi fare.”
“Really? At least she’s not completely clueless.”
“Yeah. I figured she’d just be all looks and nothing else.”
“Jihyun is definitely very pretty.”
“I’ve given up. How am I supposed to compete when you’re the one after her?”
“Huh? I’m not planning on getting a girlfriend.”
“Of course not. If I were you, I wouldn’t get one either.”
As expected, he was the brother I’d always acknowledged. He was trash, just like me.
***
Before I knew it, we’d arrived at the resort. It wasn’t that far to begin with, since it was in Gapyeong.
My brother, now suddenly carrying himself with newfound dignity, and I went looking for Jihyun. Not long after, we ran into her group.
“Oppa, I’m really sorry.”
“It’s fine. I came comfortably.”
While I was talking to Jihyun, the Mercedes guy came over and interrupted.
“I’m sorry. But please understand. We’re paying for the lodging. It’s over a million won a night here.”
“Sure. Thanks.”
“Not at all. You should get to enjoy places like this at least once, you know? If you’re working part-time, it’s hard to ever come somewhere like this in your whole life.”
“Is that so?”
“Ah, did I speak too casually? I haven’t really had much social experience... My parents always stopped me from taking part-time jobs once I became an adult, saying why make money the hard way when I could just stay home and do nothing...”
Wow.
How could a person be so insufferable?
So what, because our family wasn’t rich, we worked part-time? Fuck.
He wasn’t exactly wrong. Before, that really had been my situation. So what? Things were different now.
“Adding two more guys cost another two or three hundred thousand won.”
Two or three hundred thousand won?
To us, that was nothing more than the kind of money you’d scatter around while taking off your socks.
Jihyun kept apologizing with a troubled expression, and seeing that, the Mercedes guy deliberately pushed harder.
“Nice clothes, bro. What brand are they?”
Now he was coming at me too.
“What brand were they again? Uniqlo, I think?”
“...Really?”
“Why?”
“You don’t wear luxury brands?”
“I was actually thinking of going shopping soon. Recommend some places.”
Did he think I’d look embarrassed? Not a chance. Luxury brands didn’t feel burdensome to me anymore at all.
“Luxury brands are more expensive than you’d think. A single T-shirt can cost hundreds of thousands of won. Are you okay with that? You might end up spending all the money you’ve earned from part-time work on clothes for no reason.”
“I’ve got enough room to breathe, so that’s fine.”
“Come on, if you’ve got that much room to breathe, why are you working part-time? You don’t have to lie to me.”
“Believe it if you want. I’ll live my own way. Honestly, your fashion sense is pretty bad, too. We should go shopping together, bro.”
What, punk.
I was only hard to deal with for women. Did he think some little pretty-boy with a Benz was going to outmuscle me?
Maybe he’d been stung hard by my completely unexpected reaction, because his face was turning red and blue in turns. He didn’t seem to remember a single thing he’d said until now.
My brother came over and gave me a thumbs-up.
“...Then do you want to go to the department store together later? If it’s your first time buying luxury goods, you might not know what to get.”
“Should we? No, wait. Since we all came here together, it feels a little odd for me to go off shopping by myself.”
“It’s fine. I was planning to shop too. We can also buy some alcohol to drink at the lodging tonight.”
“In that case, I suppose...”
He brightened, thinking I was taking the bait.
“Oh, but taking a taxi there would be awkward. Come to think of it, we’re short on cars, aren’t we?”
“No, we brought two cars.”
“Oh? Then you should’ve just let us ride with you.”
“...One of us came from the other side.”
“Well, then.”
He really must’ve wanted to make me look bad somehow. Only after I accepted his little jab, completely unaware of the future ahead of him, did he finally smile brightly.
“How much are you planning to buy?”
“Hmm. About as much as you, maybe?”
“You sure about that? I don’t think I’d be buying just one outfit.”
“Then I’ll just buy a few myself.”
“...Then should we split the alcohol too? We covered the lodging, so it makes sense to split the drinks, right?”
“Or we can just buy our own drinks.”
“How could we do that? Let’s just buy everything together and split it. If there isn’t enough, you can save money by not buying luxury goods.”
“No. I’m being considerate of you. I figured you’d only drink expensive liquor.”
“...That’s funny. Same here, actually. But still, it’s strange. It’d be hard to buy expensive liquor on part-time wages.”
“Part-time work is basically a hobby.”
“We’ll see later.”
Now he wasn’t even pretending to hide it.
That was a welcome suggestion as far as I was concerned. At least one of us was going to get embarrassed in front of everyone here, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be me.
My brother seemed to know it too, because he settled the Mercedes guy’s proposal right then and there.
“All right, then let’s all stop by the department store later. For now, should we head in? We’ve been standing outside for too long.”
“Let’s go in. You’ll probably be seeing lodging like this for the first time.”
I couldn’t deny that.
I was rich, sure, but I hadn’t actually spent much money yet.
But one thing was certain: the house I was about to buy would be several times better than this resort. I didn’t think I’d be all that shocked by a place like this.
***
The lodging was definitely nice. It even had a pool inside, and it was spacious too.
I mostly just stuck close to my brother and went along with the others, pretending to have fun. The other two girls seemed to have gotten some kind of request from the Mercedes guy, because instead of actually enjoying themselves, they focused on linking Jihyun and him together.
“You two look great together. A perfect handsome man and beautiful woman.”
“T-thanks.”
“Jihyun said she works part-time too, right? What a waste. You’re so pretty, and you’re spending all your time on part-time work.”
“No... it’s not that bad.”
“Oh my, listen to her. Hey, Baek Hyeonsang. If she’s your friend, help her out a little.”
“I’d love to help. I’m just holding back because I don’t want to pressure her.”
“Jihyun, you heard him. If part-time work gets hard, just ask Hyeonsang for help. His family’s pretty well off. They own buildings worth several tens of billions of won.”
“Wow...”
Okay. Case closed. So that bastard had picked a fight with me over a family worth only several tens of billions? I was worth a hundred billion won.
Besides, cashing out real estate wasn’t exactly easy.
When people said “several tens of billions,” they definitely weren’t talking about the nine-billion range. If they were, they’d have blown it up and said it was nearly a hundred billion.
The girl who’d been playing up the Mercedes guy to Jihyun then turned her attention to me as well.
“Oppa, but are you sure? It sounded like you were going to shop and split the alcohol with Hyeonsang earlier... You might end up wasting tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of won just because of pride. I’ve even heard his monthly allowance is over ten million won.”
Ten million won a month, huh.
That much?
To whose nose were they trying to pin that on?
“It’s fine. Want me to buy you an outfit too?”
“Y-yes?”
“If you don’t want it, forget it. While we’re at it, I’ll just buy a set for our coworkers.”
“...Your coworkers? You mean your part-time job?”
“Same thing.”
“...”
Don’t come crying to me later when you regret it.