Good Intentions
-You’ll be there tomorrow, right?
-Of course.
When my sister asked whether I’d be there tomorrow, I answered without hesitation.
That bastard’s sour face had irritated me a little, but I wasn’t about to let him cost me a day off. That was unacceptable.
Besides, I was a little curious about her reaction, too.
I wondered what she’d thought when she saw the car.
If her attitude changed, that would be interesting in its own way.
“Hmm…”
On the way to Signiel, as I mulled over that annoying little episode, my conversation with my sister came back to me as well.
Maybe I had been a little too hasty.
Lately, women had been approaching me with goodwill without me having to do much at all, and maybe that had left me confused.
Back then, I was the version of myself who had money on display.
Now, I was just an ordinary twenty-three-year-old guy.
No matter that I’d bought PT sessions, asking her to travel together after only two days might have made me look like a lunatic.
“Whatever.”
If this had been the old me, I would’ve gone, Oops, and backed off a few more steps. But now I just thought: so what?
If it didn’t work out, fine. If it did, even better.
I had no desire to hem myself in just to get closer to her.
If you were a man, you went in with your head held high.
“Still, I should at least manage my image a little.”
I had no intention of changing my future behavior, but that didn’t mean I planned to go completely off the rails either.
-I thought back on what I did earlier, and I realized it might have felt a little overwhelming. If it did, I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention.
Since it was before class, her reply came quickly.
-No, it’s okay. I was a little surprised, but… I feel better now that you said something first. I’m actually grateful.
-Glad to hear it. I was worried about it.
-Don’t worry too much. Just take it easy.
-Thanks.
That was enough. Apologizing too much would only make things worse.
By the time we’d finished texting, I was already at Signiel.
I went into my room and started sorting out my future investments.
“Hmm…”
As expected, the liquidity in the coin market was drying up little by little.
Even so, I still liked spot buying because I was confident about Bitcoin’s future, but now that I looked at it properly, there didn’t seem to be any reason to rush.
Either way, the big move would probably come by the end of the year.
Honestly, the stock market—which could absorb large sums of money—or the futures market looked a lot more attractive.
The question here was how to split my funds between stocks and futures.
“Without a little excitement, I don’t think I’ll be able to wait.”
If I were doing things the sensible way, I’d put most of it into the more stable stock market and the rest into futures. But after experiencing the brutal thrill of crypto futures, I couldn’t bring myself to like such a conventional approach.
If I tried to justify myself, at least I was already moving a huge amount of capital safely through real estate.
Just by selling two buildings, I had 300 billion won sitting safely in my pocket.
At that point, I figured: why force myself to do more?
So I decided to invest 100 billion won in the stock market and another 100 billion won in the futures market.
After settling on that, I contacted the chief secretary.
“How’s the investment company coming along?”
-We have a total of ten employees standing by, including one president and two executives.
“I’m planning to start investing soon. I’ll be moving around 200 billion won.”
-...I’ll make sure they can proceed without any issues. And since the scale is larger than expected, I’ll hire additional staff as well.
“Yes, please do. I’m planning to run stocks and futures at the same time.”
-Understood. I’ll make sure everything is prepared without delay.
My money was growing at a frightening pace.
Enough to leave the chief secretary stunned every single time.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The next day.
“Ugh…”
The muscle soreness was still there. At least I’d taken it easy yesterday, so it felt a little better.
I finished getting ready to go out, then climbed into the car and headed for the gym.
Today, the chief secretary came to pick me up personally.
He wanted to report back after hearing the answer to what I’d instructed him to handle yesterday.
I’d given him the order at lunch, but to have it handled in just a day...
I really was glad I’d met the chief secretary.
“I was able to get firm answers on both cases. The building can be purchased immediately if we pay a slight premium. It would require about 10 billion won. As for the nearby gym, including the key money, they’re asking for about 1 billion won for the takeover.”
Hmm...
Just yesterday, I would’ve made the decision based on impulse without thinking too hard about it.
But after deciding to start investing, even 10 billion won felt a little heavy.
To be exact, I just hated the idea of spending 10 billion won on one act of spite.
Especially when the target was nothing more than someone I disliked.
My heart was leaning toward taking over the gym.
“Would it be all right if I gave you my answer within two days?”
“Of course, Chairman. Also, regarding the nearby gym, there seems to be room for negotiation. The gym you currently go to opened recently, and they seem to be losing ground in the competition. It looks like we might be able to lower it by around 100 million won.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Understood, Chairman.”
For now, I decided to think it over a bit more.
To be fair, even buying the building wasn’t really money disappearing into thin air.
When we arrived at the gym, I got out of the car.
“At least I should give them a chance.”
It felt a little excessive to see the sour-faced bastard and then drag the gym owner into trouble as well.
I’d talk to them first.
If the gym owner turned out to be just as sour-faced, then it wouldn’t be too late to act.
I went inside the gym.
After changing clothes, I asked the front desk staff where the owner was.
“The owner? Let me ask him for you and show you in. Just a moment.”
A little while later, I followed the employee’s guidance to where the owner was.
The employee left, and I stood face-to-face with the owner.
“Please, have a seat.”
“Yes.”
“What brings you here?”
“Well, I had a bad experience with one of your male trainers, and I wanted to talk about it.”
“A male trainer...? Do you know his name?”
“Trainer Lee Minseok.”
I could see him flinch at the name. Of course he would—he was his nephew.
“May I ask what happened?”
“He kept interrupting my session and kept nitpicking my workout.”
“Wasn’t that just for your own good? Maybe he was acting out of good intentions?”
“...Even if it was well-intentioned, if it made me feel bad, isn’t that still wrong?”
“Haha. Our trainer just really likes teaching people how to work out. I’m sure he meant no harm, so please try to see it positively.”
“I see. Then I’ll do that. I actually like healthy competition done out of good intentions.”
“Pardon?”
“Either way, if it’s out of good intentions, that’s a good thing, right?”
“...Well, I suppose so. I have an appointment now, so I hope you’ll understand.”
“Of course.”
As I left the owner’s office, he didn’t even look at me.
So that condescending look from earlier hadn’t been my imagination after all.
It wasn’t that I had some sort of persecution complex. If anything, I’d tried to think of it in the best possible light.
And yet I still didn’t feel good about it.
I took my PT lesson at the scheduled time.
“Your posture is getting better and better.”
“I’ve got to work hard. Though I don’t see that trainer around.”
“Who?”
“Trainer Lee Minseok.”
“Oh, he’s off today. Why? Did you get attached already?”
“No way. I was just curious what kind of reaction I’d get if I ran into him today. Too bad.”
I’d been curious what reaction I’d get from him after seeing the car yesterday, and it was a real shame he wasn’t here.
“What’s this gym like?”
“The gym? It’s pretty good. It’s new, and the equipment’s solid.”
“No, I mean the treatment of the trainers and stuff. I’m thinking of running a gym myself.”
“Really? Is owning a gym your dream?”
“I mean, kind of?”
“Hmm... this place is nice, but it’s not that great for the trainers. I’m not saying that because I’m dissatisfied or anything, but if you give trainers good conditions, that naturally boosts their motivation and...”
“I see.”
“If you open a gym, call me. I’ll work hard for you.”
“You mean it?”
“Of course. If I’m still working as a trainer by then.”
It looked like this gym had plenty of popularity, but hadn’t offered the trainers much in the way of meaningful perks.
“What about the gym next door?”
“That one’s in a decent location too, but the frustrating part is that it’s about the same price as this one. Still, the equipment is different, and honestly, the trainers here are better. The people who go there aren’t really the type who want PT anyway... It’s the old chicken-and-egg problem, I guess, but either way, the trainers here are better in quality.”
I was gathering information to create healthy competition.
Competition of some kind was necessary for any industry to grow.
So this, too, was an act of goodwill.
“Got it.”
“You really do sound serious about this.”
Of course I did. I was planning to compete in good faith.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After the workout ended, I contacted the chief secretary.
I told him I’d decided to take over the gym.
The owner on the other side seemed eager to unload it as quickly as possible, so he was in a hurry.
Thanks to that, we negotiated down by 100 million won, just as the chief secretary had said, and took it over for 900 million won.
I headed to the gym I’d acquired.
“Who are you?”
“I’m the manager of Uto Gym! Are you the new owner by any chance?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Please, allow me to guide you!”
I went inside.
Just from a glance, it was obvious the other gym looked better.
“Hmm...”
“Is something bothering you...?”
“Isn’t it time to replace the equipment?”
“...It is, yes. But the numbers don’t work out very well, so it’s better to keep using it a bit longer and buy secondhand equipment instead.”
I looked around.
“How many trainers do you have?”
“Four!”
“Is that about average?”
“...Our members don’t really sign up for PT, so it’s a rather small number.”
“Are you serious about this gym?”
“Absolutely!”
“Then tell me every possible way to beat the gym next door. Don’t worry about money.”
“...Pardon?”
“I don’t care how much the equipment costs, how much the interior costs, how much of a discount we give the members, or even how good the conditions are if we have to absorb losses for the trainers... I’ll pay whatever it takes, so tell me the best way.”
“...”
“There’s only one goal. We’re going to compete with the gym next door in good faith. If our gym’s quality goes up, our customers will be satisfied.”
“...”
Of course the owner would take a hit.
But so what? It was all out of good intentions.