Chapter 3: A Favor in Busan
Chapter 3: A Favor in Busan
The World I Live In
*Swoosh.*
The rain forced me to close the only window in my semi-basement room.
It was to keep the rain from splashing up from the ground and into the room.
“It’s been a year since I’ve felt this.”
A thick fog had settled in the room.
A natural phenomenon that occurs when the humidity becomes excessively high.
In this kind of weather, mold would grow under the blankets or floor mats, so I had to turn on the boiler even in the middle of summer. But it had its advantages.
It stayed cool all summer long, even without an air conditioner.
A constant chill seemed to flow through the place.
A single, small room.
It was originally a coal briquette storage space in an old multi-family house, later converted into a room, so the living conditions were poor.
But because of that, the rent was cheap, making it a perfectly fine home for me.
“Student. Are you there?”
“Yes, Grandmother.”
I opened the door and stepped outside to find the landlady.
I had lived here ever since high school and had returned after my divorce.
Even though I was now a working adult, she still called me student.
“Potatoes. I steamed too many, so have some.”
“Thank you, Grandmother. I’ll enjoy them.”
I accepted them without a second thought.
She often gave me food she’d prepared—kimchi, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and sometimes even fish or fruit.
“Eat up. You need to keep your strength.”
“Yes. I’m trying my best to live with energy.”
There had been some listless days after the divorce. But now, thanks to crypto, I had been perfectly cured by what you might call ‘financial therapy.’
Seeing the valuation made me joyful; just thinking about it made me happy.
‘How on earth did my father know to buy Bitcoin?’
On this rainy day, eating the potatoes from my landlady, I tried to recall my memories from six years ago.
At the time my father bought Bitcoin, its price had risen to $31 per coin, then plummeted to under $2 in about three months.
A staggering fifteen-fold drop.
It must have been a devastating situation for anyone who owned Bitcoin at the time.
But a huge drop always attracts new buyers hoping to strike it rich.
‘Father said he was buying it for super cheap. He said if he just bought it and held on, it was guaranteed to triple in value.’
It was a blind investment, akin to gambling, but it just so happened to hit the jackpot spectacularly.
Even if I had been the one to invest in the coin, a return of over 2,500 times would have been impossible.
If it had just doubled or tripled in a short period, I would have thought I’d hit it big and sold it, terrified of it dropping again.
Because it had been left untouched for six years, it had become an enormous sum of over 27 billion won.
* * *
A business trip to Busan.
For long-distance trips, we usually took the KTX, but being without a car for a four-day, three-night trip could be inconvenient.
Since Busan was Jo Soo-ah’s hometown, she suggested we take her car.
“Get in.”
“Thanks for the ride.”
She had come to the subway station near my studio apartment in the morning.
I carefully opened the door and got in.
Jo Soo-ah’s car was a domestic model, but from a luxury brand.
The finish, the plushness of the seats.
The center console and dashboard were a bit flashy.
In the past, I would have felt intimidated by a car like this.
A car that would take two or three years of my entire salary to buy.
“Nice car.”
“My brother passed it down to me last year. He sold it to me cheap since I’m his little sister.”
“I see.”
We headed for Busan on the highway, making light conversation.
Work life, stories about ophthalmology, stories about doctors.
Most of our conversation was about work, but occasionally, we talked about our hobbies.
“What do you do for fun, Assistant Manager?”
“Hiking or gaming?”
“Wow… hiking is a great hobby.”
“Doesn’t it make me sound like an old man?”
“Not at all. A lot of women go hiking these days, too.”
We arrived at the Cheonan rest stop.
It was lunchtime, so we decided to grab a quick bite before heading out again.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Udon. I’m really craving it.”
“You like udon?”
“Whenever I traveled with my dad, we always ate udon at rest stops.”
For me, road trips with my father mostly meant going to Jeongseon, where the casino was.
My father, who drove a yellow kindergarten bus, would head to Jeongseon on weekends and holidays.
Riding in that yellow bus with him to Jeongseon felt like a real trip.
“He’s so crazy about gambling, he even brings a little kid like that to a casino.”
“Tsk, tsk. Once you’re hooked on gambling, you lose your mind. It’s not the kid’s fault.”
The criticism from others.
My father would enter the casino with a face full of smiles and, more often than not, lose all his money.
At night, Dad and I would just sleep in the bus under a blanket.
The sleeping arrangement was uncomfortable, but I liked the feeling of being on a trip.
Once in a while, when he won money, he would treat me to something delicious in the bustling area near the casino the next day.
“It’s good, right? Eat a lot.”
“Yes, Dad.”
But those good times were fleeting.
My father would go back to the casino, lose all his money again, and we would usually return to Seoul completely broke.
“Two fish cake udon, please.”
The meal at the rest stop was paid for with the corporate card.
As Jo Soo-ah and I ate our two bowls of udon, I could feel the eyes of people around us gathering on us.
Men, women, even little children were staring.
‘Well… Soo-ah is arguably the most beautiful woman not just in our company, but in our entire building.’
In the past, I found it hard to even look Jo Soo-ah in the face.
I guess you could say I felt awkward and shy because she was so beautiful.
Even now, I had to find a subtle excuse to look at her.
“I’m so excited to be going to Busan after such a long time.”
“You didn’t go down often on weekends?”
“I went every weekend when I was a new employee. But now I do CrossFit. And I have a study group in the evenings.”
“CrossFit?”
“I’ve been doing it for about two years. You can think of it as being like weight training. We have something called a WOD. It’s a training routine that changes every day, and you just move your body like crazy following it.”
“That sounds incredibly tough.”
“Haha. Stamina is the foundation of office life, you know.”
Jo Soo-ah smiled brightly.
A diligent effort to live life to the fullest was second nature to her.
Back in high school and college, I thought that if a girl was pretty, that was all that mattered.
But after entering the working world, I realized that while beauty is partly innate, effort and maintenance are incredibly important.
Diligently managing your figure through exercise, paying attention to your hair and clothes.
Come to think of it, I remembered Jo Soo-ah’s English pronunciation was remarkably fluent.
“Did you happen to study abroad?”
“Yes. I was an exchange student in the U.S. for a year during college.”
“That explains it.”
I nodded.
‘She’s different from me, who barely managed to keep my grades up and learn some English in college.’
I didn't feel discouraged by this, though.
We had each lived our lives as best we could according to our circumstances.
“You must be tired. Do you want to take turns driving from here?”
“Yes. I’d be really grateful if you did, Assistant Manager.”
I took the wheel after we left the Cheonan rest stop.
Honestly, I’d wanted to drive a luxury car.
Compared to the Avante I used to drive, the ride was exceptionally smooth, and the performance was superb, surging forward without any lack of power even with a light press of the accelerator.
*Vroooooom!*
Luxury sedans and sports cars sped past us on the highway.
For a moment, I felt the urge to follow them.
‘It’s not my car, so let’s take it slow. I should buy a sports car for myself later.’
Jo Soo-ah chattered away for about an hour, and then, before I knew it, she was sound asleep.
I drove toward Busan, sneaking glances at her sleeping face.
Somehow, the distance to Busan felt short.
* * *
“Hello, Director. We’re from Arcor.”
“Ah, I heard the aces from Seoul were coming. It’s a pleasure to have you.”
The head director of Myeong Eye Clinic.
It was a large clinic with 12 doctors on staff.
We arrived in the evening after their clinic hours, installed the surgical equipment with the technical team, and finished some simple tests.
The next day, we began the demonstration work.
The process went so smoothly that there was barely anything for me to do.
The Busan team was proactive, as it was their territory, and Jo Soo-ah handled all the interactions with the doctors.
“When the error messages appeared consecutively on the device…”
“The cost of replacing the cartridge is…”
A barrage of trivial questions from the male doctors was directed at Jo Soo-ah.
Even if our company didn't do direct sales, they were introduced to the latest surgical techniques and equipment at the annual ophthalmology conferences.
It was glaringly obvious they were asking Jo Soo-ah questions they already knew the answers to, simply because of her striking appearance.
‘Thanks to that, I’m free.’
During the day on the first day, I supported the work at the clinic, and at night, I wandered around Haeundae, enjoying the beach.
A cool breeze blew across Haeundae.
The beach was filled with foreigners and attractive young couples out for a stroll.
‘Everyone lives in different worlds. I used to think places like this weren’t for me.’
In the past, I had no lingering attachment to things I couldn't have.
Dreams or hopes.
Those were things you had only when there was some possibility from the start, or when your life was stable.
But now that I had an enormous fortune, I was curious.
‘What kind of world do people with my kind of money live in?’
* * *
On the second day, the clinic was bustling as surgical patients flooded in.
Eye surgeries were performed quickly, almost like on an assembly line. After various tests were completed, the surgery itself was over in a flash.
“Who’s the next patient?”
“The cornea is on the thinner side. The refractive error isn't severe.”
“Surgery should be possible. Patient, could you come over here so we can double-check?”
It was a grueling march of surgeries, carried out through the collaboration of nurses and several doctors.
While the doctors were busy with surgery, Jo Soo-ah approached me, her shoulders slumped.
“Hah.”
“You must be exhausted. Do you… not like canned coffee?”
The nurses had given us some.
I asked worriedly, thinking she probably only drank good coffee from cafes.
“I absolutely love it. I lived on canned coffee all through my senior year of high school.”
“Just two more days of work left.”
“I have to do my best. And since I’m in Busan for the first time in a while, I was thinking of doing some shopping. Would you like to go to the department store with me tonight?”
“The department store?”
“I have something I need to talk to you about, Assistant Manager.”
“…”
Jo Soo-ah, who was practically an idol at our company, had something to say to me.
“Okay. Sure. Let’s meet tonight.”
* * *
The department store in Busan was massive, with a wide variety of brands.
I remembered being forced to go to a department store in Seoul before my marriage to buy things for our newlywed home.
The shocking prices, with a single blanket costing hundreds of thousands of won.
The home appliances were far more expensive than the lowest prices online.
‘It’s cheaper online. Why do people insist on buying from a department store?’
I had been filled with immense doubt as we furnished our home.
Typically, the woman brings the home furnishings and the man provides the house, but we were both too poor for that.
We got married using credit card installments and even breaking our savings accounts… After the divorce, all that remained was credit card debt.
“Would you like to pick out an outfit?”
“An outfit?”
As we were looking around the department store, Jo Soo-ah made a sudden suggestion.
“Yes. I’d like to buy you a suit.”
“Why would you buy me clothes, Soo-ah?”
I felt a little offended. It was also a baffling suggestion.
“Actually, I have a favor to ask you.”
“A favor?”
“It’s such a shameless and burdensome request. I’d like you to think of the clothes as a bribe.”
I stared intently at Jo Soo-ah’s face.
I thought I had a decent understanding of her personality.
I was curious what kind of favor she was going to ask.
“First, tell me what the favor is.”
“Well…”
“Tell me. I’m not so poor that I can’t afford to buy clothes at a place like this.”
Honestly, that was a line I couldn’t have said until recently.
The debts from my marriage.
My pride wouldn’t have allowed it, but my financial situation was certainly not one where I could afford a suit worth hundreds of thousands of won from a department store.
“I’d like you to pretend to be my boyfriend in front of my parents.”
“Your boyfriend?”
“I have a younger sister. She has a boyfriend, and my parents keep pestering me to bring a boyfriend home.”