Why Not?
Just as I was waking up and getting ready to head to Signiel Penthouse, I ran into Si-hyeon by the shoe cabinet.
I’d only just gotten my Porsche yesterday, and I was still enjoying the thrill of driving it around.
Since I’d already told everyone I’d made it, there was no reason to hide it now.
So I asked her where she was going.
As it happened, she said she was headed to Hongdae.
That was more than an hour from here.
Perfect timing.
When I offered to give her a ride, Si-hyeon hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
What a great opportunity.
I sent Si-hyeon off first, then hurriedly grabbed my car keys and headed out.
She was waiting there, looking oddly restless.
“You’re late?”
“...A little.”
Apparently, she was planning to get in the car after all.
“Let’s go.”
I took Si-hyeon with me and headed to where the car was parked.
She got in as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Si-hyeon looked flustered.
Seeing her at a loss, I rolled down the window and told her she could get in too.
It was a situation a lot like when Seol-ah had been startled by the Rolls-Royce.
Only this time, Si-hyeon looked even more shocked, and I felt even more smug about it.
“...Is this your car, Oppa?”
“Yeah. I bought it recently. Used, though.”
“...”
It was “used,” sure, but it was still barely under a year old.
I started the engine.
Vroooom.
The powerful roar of the engine filled the air.
It sounded like a tiger had just shown up somewhere nearby.
It was exactly the sort of beastly presence a GTS should have.
Si-hyeon jumped in surprise. Cute.
“Isn’t this an expensive car?”
“It wasn’t cheap, no. I got lucky.”
“Wow...”
Si-hyeon stared around the cabin like a child seeing something magical for the first time. A Porsche’s interior wasn’t as beautiful as a Rolls-Royce’s.
It was just a good car. The exterior was nice, too.
Maybe I should’ve brought the Rolls-Royce instead.
Of course, that thought didn’t last long. That car was too hard for me to drive. If I’d been behind the wheel, I probably would’ve scraped it in ten more places.
Si-hyeon had only just turned twenty. She’d only just become an adult, and this was the age when you got to try the things grown-ups did for the first time.
Cars were no different. And since it was a nice one, she looked genuinely excited.
A Porsche in Seoul wasn’t exactly some earth-shattering rarity, but in the neighborhood where Si-hyeon grew up, you didn’t see one very often.
And on top of that, she’d only just become an adult.
I probably looked like some kind of chaebol to her.
I asked Si-hyeon, who had finally calmed down a little, “So how do you think college life will be?”
“I’m not sure. Um... I think it’ll be a little hard. It’s so far away.”
“Well, Central University is a pretty long way from home.”
“Still, I have to stick with it. That’s how you keep some hope alive.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
The way she was steeling herself was admirable. She really was mature in her own way.
Maybe because her family situation wasn’t exactly good, even if you lied about it, she was all the more desperate.
Remembering that, she seemed to be in a complicated mood.
She stared out the window for a long while.
Before I knew it, we were almost at the meeting place.
“When does your plan end today?”
“I’m not sure. Probably late.”
“If the timing works out for going home, let’s go together. Just text me.”
“Mm... I’ll let you know after I check.”
We arrived at the meeting place.
There were about three girls waiting for Si-hyeon.
They greeted her with surprised looks as she got out of the car.
Si-hyeon explained herself with an awkward expression, though she still seemed to be enjoying the attention a little.
“Ah, I didn’t give you your allowance.”
I didn’t really know. She probably wouldn’t be short on money.
I headed toward Signiel Penthouse.
***
I got out of the car after arriving at the meeting place.
I’d ended up being a little late.
About five minutes.
Maybe that was why my friends were already waiting there.
I got out quickly and headed over to them.
They looked at me and asked in surprise, “What the hell? Whose car is that?”
“Damn. Isn’t that an expensive car?”
“Holy crap. I caught a glimpse when the door opened, and it’s a young guy driving it?”
“Look at this guy. Hurry up and explain yourself as punishment for being late.”
Because I’d been in such a rush after being late, I hadn’t even thought about it.
What exactly I should say to my friends.
They already knew my family situation wasn’t exactly ideal.
So naturally, that expensive car was a shock.
But they didn’t know who my brother really was.
I figured there was no reason to explain in detail.
The only thing I could come up with was what my brother had explained before.
“That... it’s an older brother I know. Our moms are close.”
“Whoa... insane.”
“That’s nuts...”
“What does he do? He looked super young.”
I didn’t need to think hard to answer that part.
I didn’t really know what my brother did either.
So I just said what I’d heard.
“He’s twenty-three, and I don’t really know exactly what he does. He says he does investing and stuff.”
“Whoa... so he’s not even that much older?”
“Exactly.”
“Is there something going on between you two?”
“A quiet cat and the kitchen stove, huh.”
“So that’s why Si-hyeon turned down so many confessions in high school... because she had someone like that around her...”
“N-no, that’s not it!”
It really wasn’t.
The reason I hadn’t dated in high school was simple.
I didn’t have the time.
I had to study even harder than everyone else just to get into college.
There was no way I could also afford special academies on the side.
Where was I supposed to find time for dating?
“Come on, be honest, Si-hyeon. You never once thought about it?”
“I heard that car is insanely expensive. My dad’s always dreamed of owning one, so I know about it. It’s got to be over two hundred million won.”
“He’s twenty-three and driving a car worth more than two hundred million won. Honestly, it’s hard not to be interested.”
“Or introduce me to him. Has he served in the military?”
“...I think so.”
“He’s seriously a perfect ten.”
“Honestly, asking for him to be handsome too would just be greedy.”
Hearing them talk, I suddenly realized it.
Oppa really did have amazing conditions.
Until now, I hadn’t really thought about it because he’d been working part-time jobs so diligently.
Just... some older brother who worked hard and lived uprightly?
But now things were different.
At twenty-three, he’d succeeded enough to drive around in a good car.
He’d even served in the military.
Like my friends said, wasn’t he really an incredibly cool person...?
“...Is that so?”
“Whoa. ‘Is that so?’ Listen to yourself. Well, I guess someone like Si-hyeon would have high standards.”
“Still, that’s top-tier.”
“Do you think I’ll ever meet an older brother who drives a car like that?”
“Honestly, if you were as pretty as Si-hyeon, maybe. But for us...”
“Why! What’s wrong with us!”
“...Let’s try to be objective here.”
“No! I can’t! I’m only being compared because Si-hyeon’s standing right next to me!”
“If we want to meet a man like that, we’ll have to run into one naturally. So, Si-hyeon... unless you’re really planning to date him, at least set us up somehow.”
“I, I don’t really know either. Let’s go have fun first.”
Something about this felt strange.
He’d just been some older brother I hadn’t thought much about.
Hmm...
If I looked at it objectively, he really was a perfect ten.
His looks were a little regrettable, sure...
But he had the kind of ability that made up for that.
And judging by how he treated Mom, my sister, and me, his personality seemed pretty decent too.
What am I even thinking about?
Realizing all at once that I was having weird thoughts, my face turned bright red.
Oppa probably wasn’t thinking anything at all, so what was I doing by myself?
I hurriedly pushed my thoughts in another direction.
“Enough about Oppa!”
I didn’t want to think about it too deeply.
***
I arrived at Signiel Penthouse.
The first thing I did was check the Bitcoin chart.
I couldn’t just not look at it at all.
There was no problem.
It wasn’t rising, but it wasn’t falling hard either.
That was within the expected range.
Next, I read the investment book the chief secretary had prepared for me.
It was about time I started broadening my horizons.
The size of the market that virtual currency could support had its limits.
Right now, you could even call it the ceiling.
I could clearly feel interest fading compared to before.
And with that, liquidity was dying too.
Bitcoin will definitely keep rising.
Long term, I believed Bitcoin would stage a massive surge.
So I planned to keep accumulating a certain amount.
Still, I had to do short-term trades too. That was where the fun was.
As the crypto futures market’s liquidity dried up, my gaze drifted toward the stock market.
I still didn’t know.
Whether my talent would carry over into stocks too.
At the very least, I had to check.
“If I buy a building in Yeouido...”
Maybe it was wishful thinking, maybe it was conviction.
But I was sure Bitcoin would hit 11,000 dollars.
That would leave me with enough money to buy a Yeouido building and still have plenty left over.
And if I turned out to have talent in stocks later on...
I wondered whether I should leave one floor empty.
For my investment company to use.
“I’ll think about it later.”
My head hurt.
Since when had I started making money in a way that hurt my head?
I read a little more of the investment book, then put it down.
Without thinking much about it, I opened up America Broadcast.
It had been a while.
“What’s this?”
There were a bunch of messages piled up.
When I checked, most of them were begging messages.
Life’s hard, this and that. Please give me some money. I won’t forget this. I’ll even pay you interest.
I ignored every last one.
I wasn’t a volunteer worker, so why the hell would I give them money?
No matter how hard they had it, could they be struggling more than someone in Africa worrying about whether they’d get one meal a day?
If they had the energy to send messages begging for money, then they weren’t suffering that much.
From the start, I wasn’t the sort of saint who would hand out money for free to strangers.
“Hm...”
Beyond the begging messages, there were other ones too.
Messages from cam girls.
They were asking me to come to their rooms. Telling me they really wanted to go on a meal date with me.
I wasn’t especially tempted.
After all, it was still just a room where a few dozen people were watching.
The only ones I was even a little interested in were the more major cam girls.
By then, they were really at celebrity level when it came to looks.
All of a sudden, laughter burst out of me.
“I’ve gotten pretty big.”
I really had grown a lot in a short time.
To think I’d gotten to the point where I treated small-time cam girls like nothing special.
What could I do if that was just the truth?
While I was enjoying myself for a while,
I got a message from Si-hyeon.
I immediately left America Broadcast.
Why not?