Just Like That
After I went to the club with Sihyun, our relationship became a lot friendlier than before.
It wasn’t just my imagination. Whenever we ran into each other on the way out of the house, she’d at least greet me now.
Days passed, but I still couldn’t forget what happened back then. Part of me wanted to keep the clothes I’d been wearing when Sihyun leaned against my shoulder, but because I’d worn them to the club, they stank so badly I had no choice but to wash them.
It was a lifelong regret.
Only now did I realize it: chances like that didn’t come around very often.
With a sigh, I left the house and headed for Signiel Penthouse. I was so used to it now it felt like I was commuting to work.
Once inside my room, I opened the Bitcoin chart as naturally as breathing.
Nothing much had happened in the real world over the past few days, but Bitcoin was a different story. Just as expected, it surged like crazy, and by mid-February it had finally broken past $11,000.
“Huh…”
Looking at that pace, I almost wondered if it might keep climbing far beyond what I’d predicted.
That still didn’t mean I was planning to buy back in.
I’d already taken my profits. Every fee was paid, too.
There was no way I was jumping back into that now.
I’d seen the greed coming and set my sell order ahead of time.
The profit from this investment came out to roughly 113 billion won.
It was absurd. At this point, a hundred billion won almost felt like pocket change.
One investment, and that much money just rolled in.
I’d calculated my gains in advance when I placed the sell order, but even so, I couldn’t help being shocked.
Seeing it in real life was different.
Even for someone like me who’d become rich, it was still a huge sum.
If I had that much money, wouldn’t it be a fortune even to chaebols?
By now I had at least one solid conviction: I really did have a talent for investing.
That was even more satisfying than making a hundred billion won on the spot.
For now, I decided to pull out a hundred billion of it.
It had become a kind of superstition. Besides, with the crypto market’s liquidity shrinking, it was a figure I probably wouldn’t be able to handle anyway.
I liked using leverage aggressively.
So with the remaining 13 billion won of profit plus the 18 billion won I’d started with, I had 31 billion won in total.
This time, I didn’t limit myself to Bitcoin. I added Ethereum and Ripple as well, putting nearly 300 billion won into a short position.
It was a short sale.
“Is this just my personality?”
This time, too, it was basically tightrope walking. The market looked like it wanted to explode upward at any moment.
If it rose just ten percent more, I’d be liquidated.
And when I thought about how the last investment had climbed fifty-seven percent in just fifteen days, there was no denying it.
It was insane.
Still… what could I do?
This was what felt comfortable.
As long as I thought of it as money I didn’t need, I could use leverage as aggressively as I wanted.
“Perfect timing.”
I’d already gotten a call from the chief secretary.
He said I needed to hurry up and make a decision about buying the building.
Apparently someone had shown interest in the Yeouido building.
Back when I’d first heard about it, I couldn’t answer right away. If I hadn’t had these profits now, I’d have had to throw every last thing I owned at the purchase just to make it happen.
There would’ve been no spare cash left at all.
But now?
All those worries had vanished.
Even if I paid the entire 160 billion won in a lump sum, I’d still have a monstrous 100 billion won left over.
And on top of that, there was the investment of about 300 billion won I’d made by betting on the crypto downturn—its future still unknown, but it was already there.
“I could even buy an apartment.”
Lately, I’d started feeling the need for one.
My aunt had learned I’d succeeded, which meant I couldn’t keep living with her anymore. I didn’t have to move out immediately, but eventually I would.
So I needed a high-end apartment. Something I could use to persuade my aunt.
If it were a penthouse apartment, she’d probably feel a lot less resistant.
It was basically like using a spare room anyway.
As for using Signiel to convince my aunt, that didn’t sit right with me. Signiel was a place where women needed to come and go freely and comfortably.
I called the chief secretary over and talked it through.
“About that Yeouido building I mentioned before—it seems like we should go ahead and buy it.”
“That’s the right decision. However… because a competitor has appeared, I’m afraid we can’t avoid a slight price increase.”
“Hmm… even if we can pay the full amount in cash at once, do we still need to compete?”
“...At those terms, I think we can actually negotiate down by several billion won.”
“Then please proceed with the Yeouido building like that.”
“...Understood.”
The chief secretary looked startled.
You’d think he’d be used to it by now, but every time I made a request, he still acted surprised.
Honestly, I could understand why.
Even I was shocked at how fast my assets kept growing.
Just how far did this thing go?
I also brought up the apartment.
“Is there a penthouse apartment near Chung-Ang University? I’d like to buy one.”
“I’ll look into luxury apartments near Chung-Ang University.”
“Please do. And please leave one floor empty in the Yeouido building as well. I’m planning to run an investment company.”
“In that case, I’d strongly recommend making use of a corporation. I also suggest handling the building purchase through the corporation.”
“Please do.”
I had at least a rough idea of how corporations worked.
If you ran a business through a corporation, you could get more tax benefits than you would as an individual.
Of course, if I wanted to use the company’s profits for myself again, I’d have to pay more tax than if I’d used my personal money.
Still, there was no reason to be greedy for the corporation’s profits.
I already had a hundred billion won sitting around.
As for the corporation’s money, I’d just reinvest everything into payroll, operating costs, and the like.
I got another report after that.
“I recently received a call from the new-car dealer. A canceled allocation opened up, so we’ll be able to deliver the vehicles earlier than expected. You should receive four cars within this month.”
“That’s good news.”
If it was this month, then there were less than two weeks left.
I’d been using my used car just fine, but it couldn’t compare to a new one.
After hearing one more bit of good news from the chief secretary, I wrapped up the conversation.
Once he was gone, I sat in my chair and thought for a while.
“So what should I do now?”
Normally I’d have been watching the Bitcoin chart. I had a theory, sure, but I’d still been curious about how it would move.
But today, for some reason, I didn’t want to look at it.
If you make money, you naturally want to spend it.
It was only human.
The department store was already closed, so that was out.
Then I decided to log into America TV on my computer.
It had been a while.
Not exaggerating, it had probably been more than ten days since I’d last checked in.
Aside from idly glancing at it now and then, I hadn’t really done anything there for even longer.
I wondered how Seola was doing.
She had sent me a text.
But that was when I was completely mesmerized by Sihyun, so I never replied.
That felt a little bad.
I should probably send her some Star Balloons as a gift for old times’ sake.
But then—
“Huh?”
Seola wasn’t on air.
If that had been all, I wouldn’t have been this surprised.
At the very top of the viewer list on America TV, I saw Seola’s face. She was sitting there with Kang Seongjin.
Maybe she’d been through a lot, because she looked worn down. Had she cried, too? Why were her eyes so swollen?
The broadcast title was ominous as well.
I’ll explain everything.
That kind of title only showed up when something had gone down on the America TV side.
Even without the title, the viewer count alone proved something unusual was happening.
No matter how strong Kang Seongjin was, it couldn’t be easy to pull more than ten thousand viewers.
I didn’t want to break the mood.
So I logged in without signing in.
Late at night, Lee Sihyun lay on her bed, fiddling with her phone.
Her fingers moved busily.
Lately, she’d had a lot of people to keep up with.
Messages flew back and forth in the group chat all the time.
She didn’t need to check every single one. She only forced herself to read them because she didn’t want to feel left out.
Then one message caught her eye.
[How about we all get together before school starts?]
[Sounds good! Let’s eat near Chung-Ang University.]
[If we run into upperclassmen, I feel like we’ll get an earful for nothing.]
[You think so? Then where should we go?]
[How about Hongdae? They say young people go there a lot these days.]
[Oh, not bad.]
[Let’s check who’s coming first.]
Someone suggested they all go out for drinks before starting college.
And it was Hongdae again—familiar Hongdae.
She’d been there once, so it already felt friendly.
“Hmm…”
Could she get a ride in her brother’s car again this time?
For some reason, that interested her more than the drinking itself.
Still, she couldn’t be the only one to skip it.
[I’m in too.]
She sent her reply.
Soon after she said she’d be there, Suho also sent a message saying he’d attend.
We’re meeting again after all this time.
It had been ages since she’d run into her brother in front of the house.
For now, people were replying one after another to confirm attendance.
She moved into another group chat.
Since the Hongdae trip, this chat had gotten even louder.
[Sihyun, what did Brother Doyun say? Does he not want to hang out with us?]
[We’re not trying to pressure him or anything, we just want to have a drink with your brother and the guys.]
[Honestly, that day was really fun.]
[Agreed. That was the first time I ever danced that comfortably in a club. The bouncers were actually protecting us.]
[Sihyun, just ask him once. I won’t ask for anything else.]
[The others said they don’t hang out with Baekhyun anymore. They think they couldn’t get closer to Brother Doyun because of that bastard.]
It had been going on for days.
Messages asking for Brother Doyun.
Like her friends said, all she had to do was ask.
The problem was—
“How am I supposed to say it without feeling embarrassed…”
It was embarrassing somehow.
To ask to hang out with her brother again.
Honestly, every single memory from that day came rushing back to her.
Holding hands. Her brother shielding her. Hugging her.
Leaning against his shoulder in the taxi on the way home.
And whether he’d been drunk or not, when he’d rested his hand on her thigh.
Those memories made it even more awkward.
If she asked to drink together, what if she looked like some shameless girl who wanted more of that?
[I don’t know. Maybe later.]
She also didn’t want to say it was a difficult relationship to ask about.
It was just… like that.