Life Is Always Real Combat (2)
“Good work, Deputy Yu.”
“Thank you, Team Leader.”
VIP Management Team, Hyeondo Department Store in Jamsil.
Having flawlessly finished the work entrusted to her the day before, Yu Areum clocked in at eleven in the morning. Her team leader had authorized the late arrival under his own seal. On a weekday the schedule would have warranted a day off, but the VIP team never rested on weekends. Most of the week’s sales were made then.
Park Taesu greeted the leisurely-arriving Yu Areum with a bright face. She had handled the VIP order far better than expected.
“It wasn’t even a card charge—cash, paid in a single lump sum. The executive director praised you for it.”
“The executive director?”
That would be Managing Director Gu Jihye of the Sales Strategy Office, the executive who oversaw the VIP team directly. She was famous for how exacting she was in evaluating staff. For someone like her to offer praise…
“Yesterday’s total sales from Customer Ha Taewoong came to about three hundred thirty million won. Even I don’t pull that kind of volume in a single day very often.”
Contrary to popular belief, most VIP spending was not extravagant. It was usually the newly rich who treated department-store shopping like a free-for-all, rolling up in Lamborghinis and other supercars and flaunting their money. True old money bought only what they needed. No matter how impressive a product was, they would not purchase it on a whim if it was unnecessary—but once they decided something was essential, price ceased to be a limit. Exactly like yesterday’s VIP, Ha Taewoong.
A professional shopper aimed precisely at a VIP’s tastes and executed. On that score, Yu Areum had scored her first mega-hit since joining the company.
“The executive director ordered a three-percent incentive paid out. Congratulations again.”
“Th-thank you.”
The three-percent incentive was calculated on the personal-shopper portion alone. With yesterday’s result, Yu Areum had received official recognition from the management team.
And I got a bonus, too…
The ten-million-won department-store e-gift certificate delivered to her phone the day before had been a present from Customer Ha Taewoong, thanking her for her trouble. In a single day she had earned what an ordinary office worker made in a year. Events like this were exactly why people fought to become personal shoppers.
VIPs accounted for eighty percent of a department store’s total sales. Their spending power kept the stores and luxury boutiques alive and turning. Among them were many well-mannered clients like Ha Taewoong, who willingly paid for effort. They understood the value and proper use of money in a way the newly rich rarely did.
“Take care of the staff who helped you, Deputy Yu. Use your own judgment.”
“Yes!”
She would have to share part of the incentive with the several employees who had assisted her yesterday. That was essential if she ever wanted their help again. Park Taesu himself had once done the same for her.
“Lucky you, Deputy Yu… Congratulations.”
Her rival, Deputy Oh Hyemi, offered the congratulation in a faintly snide tone. Jealousy already saturated her gaze.
“My treat today.”
Yu Areum felt more at ease than she ever had. The unexpected benefactor she had encountered—Ha Taewoong. He was the first VVIP she had ever been assigned to manage.
If another job comes from him, I’ll handle it perfectly!
Loyalty toward VIP Ha Taewoong had welled up of its own accord. It still felt like a dream. She had not yet fully grasped the reality that she had seized a genuine golden rope.
Whoa. That person’s color—how does it change like that?
I was still learning the unique auras of human beings even today. When I first met her, the real-estate agent’s color had been an ordinary clay-yellow. Working in the real-estate industry, she probably projected that earthy tone. Then, after only a few minutes…
A red energy overlaid it, and in an instant it turned the black of dung. It looked like a real-time display of a nature being polluted and corrupted. The way the light shifted from moment to moment was almost mystical. My mouth fell open at the wonder of the ability Grandmother had given me.
The churning change in her aura told me enough. The real-estate manager was preparing some little game against Jiwoong and me. So I called in help.
I was not without experience levels when it came to real-estate contracts. Those years of practical combat were already equipped. This was a real-estate deal involving hundreds of millions of won, not pocket change. I was not about to glance over the papers and stamp a seal.
The five hundred million under Jiwoong’s name. I intended to get him a jeonse apartment so he could study without worrying about a roof. Jiwoong lived with his frail, elderly grandmother; a comfortable living environment was essential for his future. Too large a unit would be a burden on her, so I had chosen a twenty-four-pyeong place suitable for two. Seoguk Realty had the most listings of that size.
If I reviewed the past, housing prices would crash a few years from this point. I would hold off on buying until then. Not long after that, a period would arrive when you could acquire a home with just a jeonse deposit.
And yet she was spinning schemes to scam me?
“Welcome, Counselor.”
“I arrived right on time.”
It was Attorney Ah Yura of Cho & Jang. She had dressed for comfortable movement in a neat pantsuit suited to fieldwork: a clean white V-neck knit top under a light-gray pant suit. The thin silver-rimmed glasses that gave her an intellectual air matched her cool, urban impression and presence perfectly. The black document bag in her hand and her chilly gaze were overwhelming. The moment she stepped into the brokerage, even the air filling the space tensed.
I had messaged her the night before. The comprehensive legal-service fee I had agreed to pay was considerable. The attorneys at Cho & Jang made their living solving the needs of the upper class. An immediate acceptance had come back.
“A-an attorney?”
The real-estate manager flustered at once. The black dung-colored aura flashed pale blue with shock. The color radiating from her body shifted from moment to moment with every change of emotion.
“Ah Yura, attorney with Cho & Jang.”
She identified herself in a businesslike tone.
“Cho… and Jang… You don’t mean that Cho & Jang?”
The manager’s voice trembled. Anyone who had ever worked in society knew Cho & Jang—Korea’s number-one legal-services firm.
“Yes. Here… my card.”
Attorney Ah Yura held out a business card.
“…….”
The manager’s face stiffened as she took it and checked. The insolent, murky presence that had been billowing about her snapped clean in half.
“Do you have any safe jeonse listings?”
I dropped my voice into a leisurely register and began confirming properties.
“O-of course. There’s a unit on the seventh floor of the front building. Heeheehee. You’re lucky people~ The landlord is a professor at Seoguk University. No loans at all—a clean listing.”
The real-estate manager changed her expression as if flipping a switch. At the same time the light her body had been emitting returned to the clay-yellow I had first seen. Proof that the property was as clean as she claimed.
“We can see it, I take it?”
“Of course. It’s the professor’s second home, so it’s empty right now.”
“Please.”
“Yes~ Right this way.”
The four of us moved together to inspect the unit. Attorney Ah Yura followed in silence, and Jiwoong still could not hide his dazed expression. With them in tow, I trailed the real-estate manager toward the listing.
“The jeonse price is four hundred fifty million won. It was remodeled last year, so it feels brand-new. What do you think?”
Lee Gyeongja, manager at Seoguk Realty, kept a smile on her face and never let her guard down. She had taken them for ordinary students and nearly walked into a disaster. Their status was clearly no joke. Bringing an attorney—and a Cho & Jang attorney at that—to a jeonse contract was almost unheard of. Lawyers only sat in on deals in the Gangnam market, where the minimum transaction unit ran into the tens of billions. Students who summoned counsel for a mere few-hundred-million-won jeonse unit…
He’s getting a jeonse place for his friend? Is he some chaebol young master?
Lee Gyeongja had never experienced a case like this since starting in real estate. She had already gathered the basic tenant information. She had also heard the shorter student’s answer that he would be living with his grandmother. The young-master type of student was the one searching for that boy’s home. Lee Gyeongja watched every word and gesture with extreme care. The gaze of the Cho & Jang attorney watching her in silence was frightening. It felt as if even the words she let slip without thinking were being checked, and that alone filled her with dread. So she had introduced the cleanest listing she had. It carried an extra fifty million won compared to the others, but it was that much cleaner.
“Good. We’ll take it.”
After carefully inspecting the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen, Ha Taewoong said at once that they should sign.
“Jiwoong, do you like it?”
“Huh? Yeah!! It’s amazing!”
Even standing on the spot, Park Jiwoong could scarcely believe it. Summer was almost here. Summers in Guryong Village were nightmarish. Air-conditioning at home was pure fantasy; you endured the stifling heat with a single electric fan. But this house had air-conditioning as an option. Remodeled, it felt exactly like a newlywed home. The boiler worked properly. The kitchen was larger than the one in Guryong Village. The stove was not even gas.
“Then let’s sign. I’ll handle the furnishings.”
“……Thanks, Taewoong.”
Ha Taewoong handled everything without hesitation. He was reliable—a friend who seemed to carry life experience no one else could match.
He’s getting his friend a jeonse place worth over four hundred million?
Watching the situation unfold in silence, Ah Yura could hardly believe it either. No matter how much money someone had, not just anyone could throw around this kind of largesse. The upper-class figures she had observed never spent money for other people. They invested only when it served a useful purpose or advanced their goals. Yet he was spending hundreds of millions on a friend? She could not believe it even as she watched with her own eyes.
Just how much did he make on crypto…?
Ah Yura, who took a keen interest in cryptocurrency, felt a strong surge of curiosity toward her client, Ha Taewoong.
“You’ll be taking out a jeonse loan, correct? As long as income can be verified…”
“We’ll pay the full amount in cash, in a single lump sum.”
“……!!”
Lee Gyeongja was stunned all over again. Real-estate prices had soared and asset values had risen, but people actually holding cash were rare. Everyone circulated cash through the banking sector. Full cash payment in a market like this?
“Counselor. Please draft the contract.”
“Yes! I’ll handle it precisely.”
Park Jiwoong’s new home was decided. Lee Gyeongja, Ah Yura, and Park Jiwoong all looked at Ha Taewoong with careful eyes. Of the four people present, he alone seemed to possess the most outstanding ability for the real combat of life. In the eyes of the other three, the only figure who was frightening, doubtful, and worthy of respect was Ha Taewoong.