It Was Worth It
The one who looked flustered by my suggestion was my older sister.
She was the first to recover and ask, “Are you serious?”
“Of course. If you check for yourself, Sis, you’ll see that cars lose performance if you don’t drive them for more than a month. I’ve been busier lately than I expected, so I don’t really have time to take it out.”
“..”
Everything I said was true, except for the part about being busier lately.
To other people, I probably looked like some wildly successful investor, so they’d assume I had to be busy.
But I honestly had no reason to be.
I’d just sit in the office room at the Signiel Penthouse whenever I had time, glance over the news or charts for a bit, and when that sudden tingle of intuition hit me, I’d give an investment order about it.
Especially since I wasn’t the one actually buying and selling, I had even more time on my hands.
“.. Just how big did you get?”
“Who knows. I heard I’ve made a bit of a name for myself in Yeouido lately. Would your friends even know?”
“I don’t, but probably. A lot of them work in finance. Is it really that much?”
“I don’t really know how much. I just gave the orders. I’m running DE Investment right now, though... maybe if you ask your friends, they can give you a rough idea?”
“So you’re really running things in earnest now...”
Lately, as DE Investment had been putting up astonishing results, word had apparently spread through Yeouido.
It wasn’t just the profits, either. The amount of capital involved had grown far beyond what anyone could call small-scale, and on top of that, the performance bonuses had definitely been paid out to the employees, which only pushed the rumors even farther.
Thanks to that, they apparently had no trouble hiring staff.
Good people were applying.
At this point, maybe even my sister’s friends knew about it?
After leaving the room, I showed them the room my aunt, sister, and Shihyun would be using as well.
As soon as I opened the door, the three of them gasped all over again. Spending money on the room really had been worth it.
Even the bed alone had cost close to tens of millions of won. The television, all the various convenience devices, the lighting...
It probably wasn’t all that different from hotels that charged several million won a night.
The furniture might even have been better.
“Go lie down on the bed. It’ll be super comfortable. I prepared a good one on purpose so you could sleep well.”
“.. It does look nice, just from seeing it.”
“Wow... Oppa, you really did think of us.”
“I’m worried I might be putting too much pressure on you...”
“I prepared it because I wanted to. There wasn’t any pressure at all.”
“..”
There couldn’t have been any pressure. Even if I added everything up, it still hadn’t cost me 1 billion won. Watching their stunned expressions was worth even more.
Money wasn’t really a problem for me anymore.
However much I spent, there was a limit...
And most of my expenses were covered by the monthly rent from my real estate.
There was a reason I’d invested 300 billion won into property.
I could spend and spend and still not feel like I was losing anything. Besides, property would only go up in value over time...
It was hard to imagine a better investment in South Korea.
The chance of property prices falling was extremely low, too.
The moment politicians even tried steering things downward, that administration would be out the door immediately, and since real estate was a tangible asset, an upward trend was basically a given. Especially in Yeouido and Gangnam, where the core value was undeniable.
The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if I should buy another building.
The three of them tried out the bed, looked over the furniture, and even checked the electronics. After marveling for a long while, they finally thanked me sincerely.
When my aunt and sister went to look at the other rooms,
Shihyun secretly slipped away to my side and closed the door.
Then she hugged me tight.
“Thank you, Oppa...”
“It’s nothing special.”
I kissed Shihyun on the lips.
This must be what happiness was.
The owner of Neo Gym, Lee Deokhwa, had entered a full-blown chicken game against Uto Gym.
He couldn’t suppress his rage at Uto Gym’s behavior.
“Damn it... are they seriously trying to kill somebody here...?”
After the friction between them, Uto Gym had rolled out a real discount policy...
It was so aggressive that it looked like they wouldn’t stop until one of the gyms actually went under.
At that rate, the more members they gained, the deeper the losses would become.
They were already barely managing the rent, and yet they were still expanding the gym and adding more equipment...
They were really coming at him like they meant to kill him.
He watched for a while, but even as time passed, they showed no signs of normalizing the prices.
Instead, they kept launching event after event, willing to bleed even more.
Watching the members who had signed PT contracts at his gym head over to Uto Gym made his teeth grind.
Fine. Then let’s die together.
He intended to hold out until the end as well. Even if some members left, all he had to do was endure.
The bastard probably had no idea what business even was, since he’d never really done it before.
In time, he’d probably tire himself out and collapse under his own weight.
“Stupid brat who doesn’t know how the world works...”
Business wasn’t something you did with emotions.
He wasn’t going to humor a place like Uto Gym, which was throwing itself at him like a suicide charge.
Then they hit him with another uppercut.
The trainers who had moved from Neo Gym to Uto Gym.
For members who still had sessions left, those sessions could apparently still be used at Uto Gym if they registered there.
What kind of joke was this?
He’d already refunded everyone in points...
And now even giving out points felt like a waste. Anyone who was going to Uto Gym would go anyway, and anyone who stayed would stay.
From here on out, minimizing expenses was what mattered most.
Then, in the middle of that—
“Why is the refund being given in points? I clearly paid with money.”
“Pardon?”
“Please refund it properly according to the remaining sessions. In cash.”
“..”
One of the members who still had some PT sessions left was asking to be refunded in cash.
If this had been before, he would’ve done it. Even if it meant taking the loss.
But now, irritation came first.
It was obvious.
This person would take the cash refund here and then head straight to Uto Gym.
And there they’d receive PT for the exact same number of remaining sessions.
He’d basically be paying them to move, sending them off to a competing gym...
Why the hell would he do that?
If he gave in to one person, he’d have to keep doing it for everyone after that.
For them, of course, it was a good deal.
“Ma’am, this is a complication caused by the trainer changing jobs. Our gym doesn’t want to dodge responsibility, so even though it’s a loss to us, we’re refunding you in points.”
“Does that mean... you can’t refund me?”
“Of course not! We’re not digging up the ground to do business here. And to be blunt, when you bought your PT package, you got it at a discounted price. Our policy says refunds aren’t allowed in the first place.”
“That only applies if I can actually receive the PT sessions from that trainer.”
“We’re letting you use those points with another trainer instead.”
“So what? There aren’t even enough trainers, so I can’t book the dates I want, and the price is even higher than before. You’re just saying you can’t refund me.”
“.. Yes, we can’t.”
The crazy bitch. Was she trying to ruin someone’s gym?
He was already sick enough from even transferring the points to the newly arrived trainers...
And now she wanted cash too, so she could go send it to Uto Gym?
Even if he had a bullet put through his head, he couldn’t accept that.
“I won’t let this end here. I’m thinking of going to the press, too. I don’t want this to turn into a scene, so I’d appreciate it if you handled the refund properly.”
“Hah... are you threatening us now? Go ahead and try. Take legal action, if you want. This is a business I built after seeing everything the world had to throw at me. Go on, give it your best shot.”
After I pushed back hard, she glared at me and left the gym.
If I’d let my temper loose, I would’ve wanted to beat her to death.
It was bad enough tossing firewood into a burning house.
She was trying to pour in a bucket of oil, and who would possibly allow that?
“Damn it...”
I wanted to scream. I held back because I was in the gym. If the new trainers quit too, then I’d really be in trouble.
Then another anxiety hit me. How long was this chicken game supposed to go on?
“I’m going to have to take out a loan...?”
With so little cash on hand...
It looked like I’d need to borrow money before long.
And yet I had no choice but to do it.
The moment I couldn’t hold out anymore, I’d lose far more than that.
Take the loss for now.
Reclaim everything later. That would be enough.
Damn it. Just thinking about money actually leaving my hand made my stomach ache.
I came to Uto Gym for PT.
The trainers, who still had time available whenever they came in, would give me my sessions. I was trying to get them from my older sister as much as possible, but...
She was just too busy.
When nobody else was available, even the manager would step in to help, so I never had to worry about working out alone.
“Boss, is everything really okay...?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“.. Well, because the trainer is being paid by you instead of by the customers, I was worried you might be feeling the strain.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. Even if this went on for ten years, I’d still be fine. The moment Neo Gym finally gives up, that’ll be the end of it.”
It was a fair concern. With such an aggressive policy, the losses coming out of the gym were already in the hundreds of millions.
Even so, they still couldn’t exceed the amount coming in from my property income.
To me, it felt like free money.
Every time I ran into the owner of Neo Gym, his face was twisted up like someone had shoved a knife into him...
That alone made spending the money worth it.
And then—
“Oh, looks like you’ve got time today.”
“Lucky me.”
“Then... should we meet in the boss’s office later?”
“.. You’re a pervert.”
That alone was worth even more than what I’d spent.