A House That Felt Like a Palace
Feeling good, I headed to a real estate office with my wife.
We hadn’t even eaten lunch.
“Still, shouldn’t we at least get a commission for this?”
“Come on. There’s no way he’s actually going to buy the place.”
“Then why are we putting ourselves through this?”
“Haha. Isn’t it fun? All you have to do is show him around and explain what a great place it is.”
“...Hah.”
It was a perfectly reasonable conclusion.
There was no way Do-yun, who had only come up to Seoul less than a year ago, had somehow made more than one billion won.
Investing wasn’t that easy.
You needed money for that in the first place.
Since I’d been dabbling in finance myself, I understood that much.
Even making one hundred million won work for you was hard, and keeping that same one hundred million was hard too.
Only after enduring all that pain could you maybe earn around twenty million won a year.
But ten billion won?
Honestly, it sounded absurd.
I still couldn’t understand my older brother, who always acted so detached from money whenever we got together.
Money was everything in this world.
And then there was the ridiculous story Do-yun had told us.
I wanted to see the look on my brother’s face when the lie was exposed.
What would he say when he saw his own son pretending to have money he didn’t actually have?
Still, he was his son, so I figured he’d cover for him in front of us.
I hadn’t slept properly last night. I’d been waiting for today.
“What if he really does buy it, though?”
“...Say something that makes sense. I don’t even want to imagine that.”
It was impossible.
I didn’t even want to picture it.
This time, my wife and I went to look at the house Do-yun had mentioned.
It was incredible. Huge, too. Ridiculously huge.
It was far better than my own home.
Of course it was—the most expensive house in Gwangju.
I shook my head again and again.
I really didn’t want to think about it.
Not long after, right on time, my brother’s family showed up in force.
“...”
I was a little surprised.
I’d expected only my brother and Do-yun to come, since this was clearly going to turn into an awkward situation.
If anything, I thought my brother might come alone and make up some excuse.
But he even brought his daughter...
“Hey, Taeyun. I’m here. We can at least look around, right?”
“...Of course, hyung.”
Something about it felt off.
***
Lee Gwangseop still couldn’t believe it as he headed to the real estate office.
Something straight out of a drama was happening to his son.
At the same time, he couldn’t quite believe that he himself was going to move into such a wonderful house.
Because of that, he hadn’t slept a wink last night.
And yet here he was, wide awake.
He kept saying it was a burden, but before he knew it, he’d started looking forward to it.
Could it really be true...?
He believed it, and yet he still couldn’t quite wrap his head around it.
Now it was time to confirm it.
First, they had to inspect the house.
It was going to be purchased under his son’s name, but it was still a house worth 1.2 billion won. It would be the place they lived, after all. They had to take a look.
With his younger brother’s wife helping them, they went to tour the place.
Even the entrance to the apartment complex felt different.
The whole family, except for his son, seemed to shrink back a little.
And when they finally arrived at the house—
“Wow... Is this a palace?”
“What kind of place even is this...?”
“Are we really allowed to live somewhere like this?”
“Suddenly our house looks shabby...”
There wasn’t even time to feel embarrassed. Everyone was too busy being stunned.
The old place had been far too small for five people.
It had only worked because their son had gone to Seoul.
When the children were young, you just stumbled through life in a blur while raising them.
But this place was different.
It felt like it could easily hold ten people without a problem.
As if to prove it, even his daughter, who had once said she wanted to live on her own, said she wanted to stay here forever.
He nodded before he could help himself.
Even he thought that if he lived in a place like this, he’d want to come straight home the moment work was over.
This is the house I’m going to live in...
Just imagining it made his chest feel full. It was the kind of place he’d never even dared to picture before.
They spent a long while wandering around, letting out little cries of admiration the whole time.
By the time they returned to the real estate office, everyone wore dazed expressions.
The house was just too good. It made the old place feel even shabbier than it already was.
They sat down in the office.
The son took the lead in the conversation.
After all, it was his purchase.
He’d already told them on the way over that the whole family loved the place.
Even if he hadn’t said it, the exclamations they’d made while touring the house would have been enough to tell.
“So? Do you like it? It’s exactly your style, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s nice.”
“So what do you want to do? There’s no other place like this. If Do-yun really did make it big like you said, buying a house like this isn’t a bad idea.”
“Yeah, please go ahead and draw up the contract.”
“Right, good call—huh? What did you say?”
“Pardon?”
“You’re saying you really want to buy this place?”
“...Yes.”
It seemed Taesan hadn’t expected his son to actually go through with the purchase.
That was fair.
The rest of us were elbowing each other too, unable to believe what was happening.
In low voices, we exchanged our thoughts.
“Ah, Dad, it looks like it’s really true.”
“Oh my... so our Do-yun really does have a talent for investing...”
“Ahem. Since he takes after me, he’s got all kinds of talents.”
“What are you talking about? He takes after me.”
“Mom, Dad, then why am I like this?”
“...”
His younger brother’s wife brought over the contract with a bewildered expression.
As his son looked it over, he took a photo and sent it somewhere.
A moment later, he began signing without the slightest hesitation.
Was our son always this cool...?
It felt strangely unfamiliar. In just a year since coming to Seoul, he seemed to have grown so much.
It was a pleasant kind of unfamiliarity.
“How do you want to handle the deposit and the balance?”
“Hmm... Please make it a lump sum. That’s possible, right?”
“...It is, but this is 1.2 billion won. Are you sure that’s possible? The acquisition tax alone could run into tens of millions later.”
“Yes, please process it all at once.”
“...You really are impressive. Especially at your age.”
“Ahem. Do-yun takes after me, so of course he’s dependable, right?”
“...You’re right. Our kids are still living off allowance, but he...”
In the end, they confirmed that the payment had been settled right there and then.
It was real.
It really was...
Our son was actually a billionaire, worth tens of billions of won.
And he had a talent for investing, too.
Heh.
I’d known from the moment he came up to Seoul that he was no ordinary kid.
As expected, he’d grown up well, just like me.
I was proud of him.
At his age, even if he had that much money, most people would be too busy chasing their own desires to think about anything else.
And yet he was still taking care of his family.
Even as they left the real estate office, Taesan looked half out of his mind.
By the time they were heading out, he was getting an earful from his wife.
What on earth had he done wrong?
On the way home, Do-yun was bombarded with questions.
“S-so you’re saying there really was Bitcoin in the thing Mom found?”
“There was about 1.5 billion won in there. I made even more from investing after that.”
“Hah... Heaven really helped you. It was trying to show our Do-yun had talent for investing. Did you hear that? This is all thanks to me. Who else would he take after? Obviously me.”
“Remembering that just means you have good memory. Though I’m not sure I can say you take after someone who forgets things all the time...”
“Do you have to do this on such a happy day?”
They kept bickering like that, but underneath it all was how proud they were of Do-yun.
“Dad, I don’t have to look for a studio apartment now, right...?”
“Why? Did you want to move out?”
“No... I only found it inconvenient because the academy and study room were near Bongseon-dong. My part-time job was around there too.”
“Right. Once we move, you can come and go comfortably from home. The place is so big we won’t even be able to use it all. You should thank your brother.”
“Thanks, Mom. Mom, did you give Do-yun 1.5 billion won?”
“Sis doesn’t get allowance.”
“And then Do-yun took that and succeeded with his investments? How amazing is that? He may be my little brother, but I’m proud of him.”
Everyone burst out laughing.
Before long, they were home.
“...Has our house always been this small?”
“It really is old...”
“Let’s pack our things as fast as we can.”
“They said we can move in next month...”
For some reason, the house looked especially tiny today.
I supposed this was what they called contrast effect.
***
After finishing the house purchase, I came home.
I went into my room.
Feeling good.
In a sense, this wasn’t spending for me—it was spending for my family.
But it felt even better than spending on myself.
I should’ve been filial sooner.
I guess I needed reassurance too.
Money that wouldn’t just disappear, but could grow even more.
“Guess I’ll have to be filial more often from now on.”
It wasn’t going to stop with this one house. To be precise, it was a purchase that made me feel good, but still.
The house was under my name, not my parents’.
My assets hadn’t even gone down, had they?
I stepped out of the room.
“Before I head back to Seoul, I should stop by a furniture store and an electronics shop. What’s the point of having a big house if it’s empty? It’d be useless.”
“...Are you sure that’s okay? You probably stretched yourself thin buying the house.”
“Nah, I’ve got more than enough breathing room.”
“Then should I call Changseok?”
Uncle Changseok was one of the people at the couples’ gathering.
The one who had given me some advice before that old bastard Taesan started making trouble for me.
As far as I knew, he worked at a luxury furniture store, so since I was going anyway, it seemed like a good idea to contact him.
“That sounds good.”
Before going back into my room, I heard a phone call from my sister’s room.
“I’m serious—it’s like a palace. How am I supposed to do a studio life in a place like this? And the neighborhood is perfect, too!”
She looked like she was dying of happiness.
Did she say she wanted to cook?
If she had the basics, I should at least give Chef Kang Taeyun a heads-up.
I went back into my room.
The sky outside was growing dark.
For me, that was the time a new day began.
Yesterday, Bitcoin had kept a 20 billion won profit safe even after dropping one percent.
If my hypothesis was right...
People said it surged after the crash, but the fact that it held up this well afterward meant one thing.
I thought a massive rise was waiting ahead.
Whether I was right or not, I’d have to wait and see.
---