He Seemed Different
When Han Seoha came into the room, she let out a deep sigh without even realizing it.
“Ha…”
Was this really right?
Even now, she still wasn’t sure.
Logically, she knew she shouldn’t have accepted the money Doyun had given her.
And if it was not 500,000 won but 1 million, all the more so.
Just look at this house.
In what world did this place count as a 1 million won monthly rental?
And it wasn’t even as if Doyun lived alone—her family was using most of it, for heaven’s sake.
What made it worst of all was that she knew all of that and still had accepted the first money she couldn’t bring herself to refuse.
“Sigh…”
That wasn’t even the end of it.
More than the fact that she’d have to pay back the 1 million won, what worried her was what she would do once Doyun left after he succeeded.
1 million won a month.
To her, it was a lifeline.
At that amount, Seolhyun could get through college without any real trouble.
Because the university was far away, transportation and meals would still make things tight, but somehow, she could manage.
In other words, the moment that 1 million won disappeared, she would have to find another 1 million won from somewhere.
Sure enough, another sigh kept slipping out of her.
Times like this, she couldn’t help wondering if she should have simply clenched her eyes shut and endured her husband’s affair.
If she had, at least the children’s lives would have been better.
“Aigoo.”
What was the use of worrying about it now? She hadn’t been able to contact her husband in ages.
What choice did she have?
Even so, she had to keep living.
If she stayed off the bad path, things would work out somehow.
She just had to endure.
Still.
“It’s hard.”
Enduring was not easy. For now, things were fine. But she couldn’t see the future.
That fact left her chest feeling heavy and hollow.
Far from saving money, she was barely hanging on. Right now she was okay, but what about later?
What when the girls got married?
What if she got old and couldn’t earn money anymore?
Lately people said not having retirement set up was a real blemish when your kids got married…
How was she supposed to keep going?
It was nothing but a wall.
And yet nothing changed.
Nothing except enduring.
She had to endure.
If even she collapsed…
Endure.
***
I came back into the room.
I checked Bitcoin.
By today, my profits had crossed 40 billion won.
And now I couldn’t help thinking: was it really okay for making money to be this easy?
I knew I shouldn’t get cocky, but I couldn’t stop the thought from surfacing.
So many of the investments I’d made had basically all succeeded.
“Hmm…”
It looked like today would probably end with another 5 percent gain.
Then I’d give it a scare.
On the way down.
Not long after, it would break back above $11,000.
After that, another big drop would start again.
“Let’s not touch it any more.”
I’d grown fairly certain that I had a talent for investing.
Checking it every minute and never taking my eyes off it would be an enormous source of stress.
And since the market was most active in the middle of the night, my sleep schedule was getting wrecked too.
I’d just trust it.
The hypothesis I’d built.
I set my sell order right away.
Liquidate everything around $11,000.
“Wow.”
An investment that had started at roughly $7,000. If, as I expected, I managed to sell at $11,000.
The return would be about 57 percent.
Since I was using leverage, 57 percent on 20 billion won meant…
11.4 billion won. Add the 1.8 billion won that had originally been my seed money, and that made 13.2 billion.
“…”
Even for me, with assets of roughly 20 billion won, that was enough to be startling.
Because in one shot, another 50 percent of my entire net worth was coming in.
Who needed a Gangnam building? I could easily buy a building in Yeouido and still have plenty left over.
The building owner above the building owner.
That would be me.
“But this isn’t the end.”
What was shocking was that this was only the beginning. If this investment succeeded, then the fact that I had some real talent for investing would be more or less confirmed.
For now, I’d leave the investment alone and think about something else.
“How should I handle that bastard?”
The pretty-boy who’d been standing next to Sihyun earlier was bothering me for no reason.
His attitude had definitely been polite, but the look he’d given me had been sharp.
Almost like he saw me as competition.
“Pisses me off.”
Maybe other people didn’t matter, but there was no way I was ever going to hand Sihyun over to anyone.
She looked like Han Seoha in her younger days.
A fresh, sweet girl, still untouched by the grime of society.
A woman who had only just become an adult, with everything in the world still new to her. And I was supposed to let some other guy take her first experience?
“I don’t even want to imagine it.”
Just thinking about it made me feel sick.
I looked in the mirror.
“...I guess I should work out.”
Big mistake. Why had I looked?
I really should work out.
After all, for a man, what mattered was capability.
Sihyun was still young, so maybe she didn’t fully understand that yet…
But I could make her feel it.
Thankfully, the biggest weapon I had could now be shown, at least to some extent.
I’d already told Aunt that I’d succeeded.
Ahem.
Truth be told, aside from being rich, I was nothing more than an ordinary guy—nothing more and nothing less. So that weapon was something I absolutely needed.
Thinking about exercise, I fell asleep.
While I’d been in Gwangju, my sleep schedule had been a mess, so tiredness came crashing down on me.
The trip back had been long, too.
I woke up.
Just as expected, Bitcoin was up 5 percent.
“Not bad.”
A refreshing start.
I contacted the chief secretary.
"About the Porsche I asked for last time—when can I expect to receive it?"
"It has already been delivered. It’s currently parked in the underground garage of Signiel."
"Thank you."
Since I’d announced that part of my plan had succeeded, I could afford to drive something that wasn’t too outrageous.
Porsche Panamera GTS. A car worth a whopping 200 million won.
It was basically the ultimate machine you could drive after making it as an ordinary person.
There were more expensive cars, of course.
But those were the kind regular people couldn’t even dream of.
At that level, they were cars for chairmen and real business tycoons.
Of course, mine was still sitting in the underground garage.
“Guess I should go get it today.”
I had plenty of time left. Until Bitcoin reached a certain price, there wasn’t much for me to do.
All I had to do was enjoy life.
For now, I’d go pick up the car.
***
After orientation, the next day came.
Lee Sihyun was chatting with her high school friends on KakaoTalk.
Her high school friends had gone through orientation too, and since they might not get many chances to meet like this, they were saying they should spend a little more time together before classes started.
Not all of them had made it into Seoul like she had, so once the semester began it would be harder to see each other.
For now, they agreed to make plans for tomorrow too.
She was glad as well. After sitting in an awkward setting yesterday, she’d started missing the friends who felt familiar.
She didn’t want to be the one left out among her high school friends.
It would take a little over an hour to get all the way to Hongdae.
But that wasn’t really a problem.
If you wanted to go somewhere fun in Seoul, it always took about that long anyway.
Only one thing bothered her slightly.
“Will I have enough money…?”
She worried that she might not have enough cash to hang out with the others.
She had a bit left over. Some pocket money Doyun oppa had given her when they went to Japan together was still in her wallet.
The question was whether that would be enough.
She could tolerate almost anything except being short on money while hanging out with her friends.
Now that the plans were definite, she had no choice but to make an excuse.
[Can I maybe skip drinking? I’m not very good with alcohol.]
If she wasn’t drinking, she probably wouldn’t be short on money by much.
Food and entertainment together would likely come to under 100,000 won.
“Hmm…”
For now, she could make do with her remaining pocket money.
But what about after this?
Once college life really started, she’d need more money.
Should she actually get a part-time job?
Then what about the time it would take to come home?
Ugh.
Her head felt messy.
She didn’t know. She scratched at her hair and fell asleep.
She’d been feeling this way about money for a long time already, and she had learned one thing of her own.
Worrying didn’t change anything.
The next day.
She woke up.
A little later than she meant to. She’d tried to fall asleep right away, but the more she worried, the later she’d ended up sleeping.
She hurried to get ready as fast as she could.
Where the hell are my clothes?
Since she was going out to hang around Hongdae, somehow nothing she owned felt right.
She threw on the least ugly thing she could manage and headed for the shoe rack.
“You’re going out?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you headed?”
“I’m going to Hongdae.”
“Really? Want your oppa to drive you?”
“Huh?”
She blinked in confusion.
How was he going to take her? As far as she knew, he didn’t have a car.
Besides, wasn’t it about time for him to head to his part-time job?
Ah.
Now that she thought about it, hadn’t he said he’d succeeded at some investment and quit his part-time job?
“I happen to have something to do in the Jamsil area too. Might as well give you a ride on the way.”
So he must have bought a car.
Part of her wanted to just take public transportation and avoid making things awkward.
But they were running short on time.
What if she was late?
“Would that be okay?”
“Of course. Just give me a second to grab my bag and car keys. Want to go wait outside first?”
“Yes, thank you.”
So things really had gone well for him.
He looked different.
Come to think of it, even if you looked at it closely, he wasn’t that much older than her…
Maybe because he’d already gone to Seoul and started working part-time, he’d always felt distant.