Money Most People Never See in Their Entire Lives
Han Seoha waited for her younger daughter to come home from her trip, along with Doyun, who had gone with her.
Come to think of it, she had so many things to be grateful to Doyun for.
At first, she had endured the inconvenience and agreed to his staying there only because her older sister had asked it of her.
Her sister had always been dear to her, and besides, it felt reassuring to have one man in the house.
After living together for a week, she had gotten a sense of Doyun’s personality, and it had confirmed that her decision had not been a mistake.
To think that someone so young lived such a diligent, disciplined life.
My sister really raised her son well.
They had lived as women only for so long that plenty of things had been difficult. But now Doyun was the one stepping in for those tasks.
She was grateful.
And then, while he had been working so hard, it seemed he had finally struck it rich and handed her money for the rent.
She couldn’t bring herself to refuse.
The good news kept coming after that, too—from her sister as well.
Even the raised rent.
How was she supposed to express this gratitude? Saying it with words alone felt shameless somehow.
And now he had even gone on a trip with her younger daughter.
She couldn’t begin to say how thankful she was.
She’d heard that her daughter and Doyun were almost home.
I wonder if they’re hungry.
If they were, she was going to fix them something to eat.
Before she could even ask about that, she’d heard that her younger daughter had bought souvenirs—and Doyun had brought gifts too.
She was curious. It was sweet that he’d thought of them all the way on a trip so far away, and grateful, too.
A trunk, too.
Come to think of it, he had said he’d bought a car.
She stepped outside.
In a neighborhood like this, a luxury car like that..
A sleek, expensive-looking car she’d never seen around here before was parked near the house.
And then—
What is that..?
Our feet were already moving toward it.
Then—
Beep.
Beep?
When Doyun reached out a hand, the car answered with a sound.
And naturally, we headed for the trunk.
I couldn’t hold back my curiosity any longer.
“D- Doyun, this car is..”
“Mom, this car belongs to Doyun oppa.”
My younger daughter answered for him. She seemed completely used to it.
I couldn’t even finish my question, because I was stunned all over again.
The gifts, which I had thought might just be a few small souvenirs, were packed full of luxury items I would never have dreamed of receiving.
So full that the enormous trunk looked completely stuffed.
That bag is..
I knew that bag. One of those bags friends had once shown off when they met up.
One my ex-husband had once asked if he should buy for me when we were at the department store.
I’d refused it then, too, saying it was too much of a burden.
“I prepared these because I’m so grateful for everything up to now.”
There were even four bags, and clothes beside them.
I couldn’t close my mouth.
My younger daughter explained it for him.
“Oppa is insanely rich.”
She sounded so casual.
Well, that made sense. They’d just been on a trip together.
“I even saw that he has two of these cars.”
I couldn’t believe it.
***
My aunt and my sister were staring at the trunk in shock.
My sister, who recovered first, asked, “Isn’t this a Rolls-Royce..?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“.. And you have two of these?”
“That’s right for this model.”
“.. Just how successful are you?”
The questions kept coming. That was how unbelievable it was.
And no wonder. If someone who had been working part-time just a month ago showed up with a car like this, I would have reacted the same way.
By now, those looks were familiar. Wherever I went, I got stared at like that.
My aunt asked my sister, “Seolhyun, what kind of car is this..?”
“Mom, this car is worth more than our house.”
“.. Huh?”
She yanked her hand back from where it had been resting on the trunk, startled. I didn’t mind at all.
She gaped at the car, as if checking whether that was really true. Whether the car really was more expensive than a house.
It probably was. Compared to a car worth over 800 million won, my aunt’s house was only around 500 million.
That might count as a very nice house in the provinces, but in Seoul it was definitely not a great one.
Even if the neighborhood was a less developed one.
“Mom, this bag costs about ten million won each.”
“.. You’re not teasing me, are you?”
“I’m starting to wonder that myself. I’m checking whether this is some kind of hidden-camera prank.”
“..”
Both of them looked at me suspiciously.
That, too, was a familiar look.
“I did pretty well with investing.”
“What, were you some kind of early Bitcoin investor? How successful could you have been to have this much money..”
My sister had unexpectedly hit the nail on the head.
But it wasn’t just that. I’d also done well with other investments afterward.
She glanced back and forth between the car and the trunk.
Then she sighed and spoke with a defeated air.
“Haaah. What am I even saying to you? I can’t even pay my own rent and have to live under someone else’s roof.”
“That’s because you’re trying to save money, sis.”
“If I had the ability to do that, I wouldn’t be like this in the first place. Anyway, this is really amazing. I knew from the way you worked your part-time job that you’d succeed someday, but I didn’t think it would happen this fast.”
“I got lucky.”
“Success takes both luck and skill. But isn’t this gift too much?”
Too much..? Maybe it was.
Honestly, my sense of money had been getting a little warped lately.
Especially ever since the trip.
Even after spending that much, there wasn’t a scratch on my account.
Good grief. The money I’d made while staying there had been several times more than what I’d spent on the trip itself.
Watching their reactions, Sihyun carefully explained to my sister, “Unnie, this is nothing to oppa. On the trip, he really..”
“You keep your mouth shut. No matter how rich he is, you still need to have some shame.”
“..”
It wasn’t that Sihyun lacked shame. Before, she’d always watched my face and said she thought this was a bit much.
She had simply learned the truth properly while traveling with me.
That to me, it really was nothing. That not pushing myself was what looked like this.
Looking at the entire family, I figured that had to be thanks to my aunt’s upbringing.
She’d raised her children well so they wouldn’t get talked about behind their backs anywhere they went, even after getting divorced.
At this rate, it looked like they might refuse the gifts altogether.
So I went for the extreme measure.
“I already tore off all the tags, so returning them would be difficult.”
“..”
“I also got a discount, so they’re not returnable.”
“..”
That was a lie. Where in the world would you get a discount on luxury goods?
Maybe if you were talking about collecting points, but that was all.
There was no way for them to check, though. Neither of them knew luxury brands well enough to tell the difference.
“Ha.. I can’t believe you’d be this stubborn.”
“I’m giving them to you because I’m grateful..”
“Fine. Since you’ve already given them, I suppose the least we can do is thank you properly. But how am I supposed to carry this around when it’s such a burden..?”
“Please use them comfortably.”
“As if that’s easy just because you say it. And besides.. you did take care of your parents first before giving gifts to us, right?”
That was my sister’s personality. She’d always been the type to nag a lot.
She had to help raise her younger siblings in my aunt’s place, so she naturally turned into a lecture machine.
In a nasty way, she was a young old-timer. In a nice way, she’d just matured early.
“I bought them a house. The largest unit.”
“R- really..?”
She wasn’t going to argue with that.
What had the place cost again? Wasn’t it over 1 billion won?
I honestly didn’t remember anymore.
Compared with the gifts in the trunk, it was still enough money to count as proper filial piety.
“So you’ve saved up money.. does that mean you’re leaving the house?”
“Well.. there’s something I need to tell you about that.”
“Seolhyun, let’s go inside and talk. The kids must be tired from the trip, and we can’t just stand around out here talking.”
“.. Okay.”
For now, we decided to go inside and talk.
I’d been about to bring up the matter of the house myself, anyway..
I was grateful that my sister had spoken first.
***
We went inside.
For the first time in a while, the four of us sat down together and talked.
“To explain my situation first, I made a huge success through investing.”
“Looking at the car, I can’t deny it.”
“If I’d been alone in Seoul, I probably wouldn’t have succeeded this big.”
“Hmm.. well, I disagree, but go on.”
My sister was right. Whether I’d been alone or with others, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.
I’d only been piling on ridiculous-sounding excuses to create a justification.
“It’s just an investor’s kind of superstition. When my investments were going well, we were all together like this, so it became my lucky charm, and now whenever I invest, it puts my mind and body at ease.”
“.. I’ve heard sports players and investors have those kinds of superstitions.”
“And more than anything, a house feels alive when there are people in it.”
“So that means because of us? If you’ve done this well, your family could come to Seoul and it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“It’s hard to explain, but.. it’s just a superstition. I already bought a house in Gwangju, and it’d be awkward to move back up. So, um.. please just think of this as a suggestion.”
“Don’t worry. You don’t have to build up to it. We’ve been staying together all this time—why would I suddenly think differently now?”
“I was planning to buy an apartment in the Banpo area, but it’s too spacious for one person to live in alone..”
“.. Just how big is it that you can’t live alone in an apartment in Banpo? The prices there are no joke.”
“I was thinking of buying Apro River Park.”
“.. That place must start in the billions. It can’t possibly be that big for one person to live there alone.”
“A penthouse.”
The sister who had been steadily searching for a reason to object finally gaped, losing the ability to say anything at all.
“It’s just too big for me to manage alone. And since I’m an investor, I think I’d feel nervous having people I don’t know coming and going from the house. Money is constantly moving in and out, moment by moment..”
“Th- th- a- an Apro River Park penthouse would be close to 10 billion won, though..”
“It turned out to be about that much.”
At that one shocked line from my sister,
my aunt, and even Sihyun, who had already started to get used to this, all dropped their jaws too.
1 billion won.
Money most ordinary people would never see in their entire lives.