You Have to Believe Me
Lee Gwangseop had only been listening at first.
It had been a long time since he’d seen his son, and he didn’t want to step in and make the atmosphere awkward for no reason.
Then his younger brother, who usually rubbed him the wrong way anyway, chimed in and pushed the conversation too far.
Too far for his liking.
So he stepped in.
As a father, he might not be able to give his son much help now that the boy was heading up to the capital, but the least he could do was cheer him on.
But his brother refused to back down.
The man had always been proud. If he yielded here, he’d probably feel like he’d swallowed his dignity whole.
I can’t back down either.
Unlike all the other times, when he usually let things slide, this time he absolutely couldn’t retreat.
This wasn’t about him. It was about his son.
What parent in the world would just sit there and listen when someone talked like that?
Even if the child had turned out badly, he still wouldn’t have stood for it. And Doyun wasn’t a bad child—he was Lee Gwangseop’s proud son.
And then—
...What?
His son gave him an answer he hadn’t wanted to hear.
It was one thing to talk about making money. These days, money was everything.
But investment was not the answer he wanted.
It wasn’t appropriate for the situation.
He didn’t think investing was bad.
It was just a matter of sequence.
First you did your main job well. Then, after you’d actually earned some money there and needed to manage it better, that was when investing made sense.
Ignoring that and jumping into investing now—well, then his brother was right. There was no reason to come all the way to Seoul just to do that when he could have done it in Gwangju.
The cost of living alone was far cheaper there.
For once, he found himself siding with his brother.
Even by his own judgment, this wasn’t right.
“Son, investing’s fine. But there’s a order to things. Like Uncle Taesan said, you might make hundreds of thousands, even millions of won. That might feel like a huge amount right now. It’d be a lot to your father too.”
“...”
“But it won’t last forever. Chances are you just got lucky. And if you don’t have a main job, all that breathing room disappears. Wouldn’t it be better to get really good at your actual work first, and then invest after that?”
“I’ve got results that are good enough to make me confident.”
“Like I said before, it may be big money right now. But in the long run, focusing on one thing will bring in more money.”
“My returns are already over several hundred million won.”
“...Huh?”
What did our son just say?
A completely unexpected answer fell into the room.
Not just him—the others at the table were shocked too.
Was his son talking about an investment game?
Or maybe he’d used one of those fake-money simulator things to check the results?
It was bewildering.
***
At this point, even the obnoxious old man had been dragged over to the parents’ side.
That was how badly people viewed investing.
And, honestly, it wasn’t hard to see why.
These days the news was full of stories about young people chasing get-rich-quick dreams.
Especially with the crypto boom and crash all mixed together.
Hadn’t they even been talking about that yesterday?
Even without that, it would still sound negative enough.
A kid who’d supposedly made it suddenly saying he was investing?
Investing required money in the first place. If you tried to do it with not a penny to your name, it wasn’t even pocket money—it was nothing.
To them, it probably sounded completely unrealistic.
I could understand that.
I mean, if my little sister, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, suddenly told me she’d invested and was sitting on hundreds of millions of won, I’d have told her to show me the account.
“I did make a few successful investments and got some pretty good results.”
“...Son, you’re not talking about some fake simulation thing, are you?”
“It’s real money. I came down this time to look for a place to move the family into.”
“A place to move into?”
“For our family. We’ve lived together a long time.”
“...”
They all wore doubtful expressions.
Still, that meant I’d done pretty well for myself. The fact that they were even pausing to think about something so hard to believe meant they had at least some basic trust in me.
“Ahem. Brother, I know a little about this sort of thing, so let me ask a few questions.”
“...Sure. But Doyun’s an adult too. Don’t make him sound like a kid.”
“Of course. Doyun.”
“Yes?”
“Honestly, I’m having a hard time believing this, nephew. Could you give your uncle and the others here some reason to trust you?”
“Hmm... Wouldn’t inviting everyone over for a housewarming do the trick?”
“Well, that would work.”
Really, what was there I could show them?
Asking to see my account was a massive breach of privacy. I had no intention of showing it to anyone either.
There were tens of billions of won sleeping in there.
“Then have you at least looked into the place you’re moving to? Your uncle knows a little about real estate, so I might be able to help.”
“Of course.”
I’d spent the entire night before, checking charts while also looking into apartments to move into.
Once I’d seen those profits, I wanted to spend money somehow.
And that shabby old place kept sticking in my head.
Also, I’d been hearing them talk about moving the whole time from the other side.
My parents were looking at me with eyes that seemed a little envious too.
“There’s an apartment in Bongseon-dong, Nam-gu, that’ll be ready for move-in soon.”
“Bongseon-dong in Nam-gu...? That neighborhood’s not exactly cheap, is it.”
“If we’re moving anyway, we should go somewhere good.”
“You even know the apartment name?”
“Yes. It’s called Korea Radelium.”
“...Korea Radelium?”
“Yes.”
The distrust only deepened.
And fair enough—I’d done my own research yesterday.
Bongseon-dong in Nam-gu was one of the pricier residential areas in Gwangju.
And among them, the newly completed Korea Radelium was easily the best.
Each unit was close to one billion won.
Even in Seoul, that kind of price was rare outside the most central districts.
“Whoa. Unless I’ve got this wrong, the price of Korea Radelium is almost the same as the building itself... Are you seriously saying you’re going to buy that place?”
“That’s well within what I can handle. The sixty-seven-pyeong unit looked good.”
“I’m losing my mind here... You’re not messing with us, are you?”
“Of course not.”
I was living in a three-hundred-pyeong house, so sixty-seven pyeong was nothing.
Honestly, if I could have, I would’ve liked to buy them an even bigger place—but there just wasn’t anything like that in Gwangju yet.
It was still one of the most expensive homes in the city.
The other sizes were all hovering near the one-billion-won mark, but the sixty-seven-pyeong unit was over it.
Was it 1.2 billion won?
Knowing that, it made sense they’d react like this.
They probably thought I was kidding.
“What even is this Korea Radelium thing?”
“Brother...”
My dad, who’d finally had enough, stepped in.
***
The couple’s gathering had fallen silent.
Our son was suddenly saying he’d buy us a house.
And judging by Taesan’s reaction, it wasn’t just any house.
That guy knew real estate better than most people, for all the other things he lacked.
His wife was a licensed real estate agent, and they’d built their wealth through it.
Even the place he lived now was Bongseon-dong, Nam-gu.
He was one of the more enviable people in the group.
So of course I was curious why he was reacting like that.
He asked what Korea Radelium was.
“Brother, you know I live in Bongseon-dong, Nam-gu, right?”
“Of course.”
“It’s basically what people call the Gangnam of Gwangju.”
“Hey now, are you bragging?”
My dialect came out on its own.
Just get to the point already.
“And the fanciest residential complex in that area is Korea Radelium, which was just completed.”
“...What?”
“Word is, it was the first apartment in Gwangju to break the one-billion-won barrier.”
“...W-what?”
“And the sixty-seven-pyeong unit is the biggest one. It’ll probably go for more than one billion.”
“...Good heavens.”
Holy hell, I’m losing my mind.
He can’t be joking, can he?
“Doyun, did you hear that? It’s over one billion won. That’s not the kind of thing your father wants you doing. I want you to live honestly and stand on your own two feet.”
“...Huh?”
“It might be embarrassing. And to be fair, Taesan did speak too harshly. But... you can’t lie to your elders.”
“...”
I didn’t want to say this in front of everyone watching, but as his father, if I was going to give him a sharp lesson, I had to be clear about it.
If I let it go here and only said something later...
Then everyone would be talking behind our Doyun’s back.
Even if I had to be the one barking at him, I couldn’t let that happen.
“I’m not lying.”
“Doyun...”
“Then how about this? Uncle Taesan, could you help me out a little?”
“Me? You don’t mean lend you money, do you?”
“No, not that. Your aunt handles real estate, doesn’t she?”
“She does. She’s been so busy she couldn’t even make it to the gathering, but why...?”
“I’d like it if she could help with the contract for the house. Then you’d all be able to feel safe about it before the housewarming.”
“...You’re really serious about this?”
My son looked dead serious.
Seeing his attitude, I’d already started to think maybe he wasn’t lying.
Still, it was just too hard to believe.
Now I was truly confused.
Was it the truth, or was it a lie?
As his father, I’d made up my mind.
“Then that settles it. Taesan, let’s lean on you a bit.”
“You’re serious, brother?”
You have to believe him.
He’s saying he wants to take care of his parents.