Chapter 134
Chapter 134
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 134
Chapter Title: Park Chan-hyuk's Blind Date
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“Mission success.”
I nodded as I watched my little sister head out of the room to fetch some water.
Having her play water shuttle wasn’t just some random power play to keep her in line.
“Chan-hyuk, come home sometime and have a talk with Jung-ah.”
My parents had told me she’d been under a ton of stress lately and instructed me, as her big brother, to check on her.
They figured since we’d always gotten along well since we were kids, she’d listen to me.
‘It’s not that we got along so much as the other kids our age were immature, so we were the only ones who could really talk to each other.’
Even though by my standards she was a “no-name idol,” it was still pretty wild that she’d been an idol at all.
And to keep from thinking of her that way, I had to make a real effort.
Using her as a free-kick practice wall when we were little and shoving her in the outhouse were all part of that.
If I’d treated her awkwardly back then, we wouldn’t have the relationship we do now.
She definitely would’ve ended up on the outside, not fitting into the “family” category.
‘Park Jung-ah’s more timid than she lets on.’
Looking back now, those memories were pretty good ones.
“Don’t do it, you bastard!!”
‘Hmm. Good memories for me, anyway.’
Anyway.
My sister’s expression had brightened up a bit after I sent her on the water errand.
“Oppa, here, have some water.”
“Park Jung-ah.”
“Yeah…?”
“Pour yourself a glass first.”
“…….”
I told her to drink first.
The way she grinned mischievously made me feel like she’d pulled some shady trick.
‘This girl probably spat in it.’
Sure enough, the second I finished speaking, Park Jung-ah flinched.
“Oppa, you’re heading to Guten next, right?”
The cheeky little punk casually set the glass aside and changed the subject.
I let out a sigh and pretended not to notice.
“What’s the big deal? Onflix was huge worldwide.”
That was just part of being a good big brother.
“……Yeah.”
“If it flops, I’ll take care of you. And we’ve still got those bitcoins.”
Her face brightened even more at my words.
“Oh! And if things really go south, we can just short it big during the next pandemic.”
“……Oppa, are you a short seller or something? Why do you love shorting so much?”
“Hey, shorting’s an investment too.”
***
Park Jung-ah bought back shares from those who’d lost faith in Guten’s vision and decided to sell.
Funding the buyback wasn’t an issue at all.
Guten’s stock price had dropped a lot from its peak.
And during the subprime mortgage crisis that sparked the financial meltdown,
her family had made a tidy profit.
‘If we’d shorted back then, we could’ve made even more, huh?’
Of course, she couldn’t go all-in on shorting openly.
As the head of a major corporation like Guten, blatantly shorting U.S. stocks would’ve painted a target on her back from the public and the American government.
If they’d been in B2B, she would’ve shorted without hesitation, but unfortunately, Guten was a B2C company providing direct services to consumers.
At the time, Guten was in the midst of rapid expansion in the U.S. market.
Stirring up anti-Guten sentiment among Americans would’ve been disastrous.
No matter what anyone said, the U.S. was their biggest market.
That was still true now, and it would be even more so in the future.
The gap between U.S. and European market sizes would only widen.
For reference, that was why Guten had listed on Nasdaq in the first place.
Money flowed naturally to America from around the world.
Anyway.
As Guten’s chairwoman, the best she could do was scoop up the crashed stocks during the financial crisis, wait for recovery, and sell at the peak.
‘Though CDS was even more lucrative.’
She raked in a fortune through credit default swaps, or CDS.
Americans harbored a lot of resentment toward the banks that had gambled their way into the economic crisis,
so they didn’t criticize Guten’s moves.
If anything, Wall Street banks fueled the outrage by throwing bonus parties amid the envy,
and Guten launched its attack on them with the tacit support of the public.
The Wall Street hyenas came begging for mercy just once.
But Park Jung-ah mercilessly slaughtered them without hesitation.
‘If I don’t take it, you’ll just blow it all on bonuses anyway.’
The survivors who bled out from that massacre ground their teeth against Guten,
and now they were unleashing a barrage of negative reports amid this crisis.
‘Did I make too many enemies?’
When you make enemies, you’ve got to bury them for good—but she hadn’t.
Now those survivors were lunging to tear a chunk out of Guten.
‘From now on, if someone looks like they’ll be trouble, I’ll bury them for real.’
Anyway.
Park Jung-ah felt like her stress was about to explode.
‘Argh… this sucks. Why did I even buy back our stock if it’s gonna be like this?’
She started regretting the whole thing, wondering if there was even a point to making money under this kind of pressure,
and even seriously considered delisting.
“Water.”
That’s when her brother Park Chan-hyuk burst through the door.
She was annoyed at him barging in without knocking,
but
“Oppa, sorry, but I’m super busy right now.”
Park Jung-ah tried to play nice.
She had no idea what this lunatic might do if she set off his temper.
“Sip. Water.”
But at the sound of Park Chan-hyuk’s slurp—
her body moved on autopilot.
Her muscles had been trained to respond.
And in that moment.
‘……I’m definitely selling this bastard off to some political dynasty.’
Park Jung-ah’s drive to build a prestigious family line reignited.
After that, she talked it out with Park Chan-hyuk, reconfirming the path she was on,
and with her mind at ease, both she and Guten pushed forward with aggressive investments, expanding their territory despite Wall Street and investor concerns.
***
After chatting with Park Jung-ah at our parents’ house,
she started handing me profiles once a month.
‘……Is this a marriage agency?’
Well, I didn’t refuse the profiles from Park Jung-ah.
They were packed with stunning beauties.
Just looking at them was healing for the soul.
‘But why would women like this want to meet me?’
Honestly, I couldn’t wrap my head around why they’d want to see me.
It felt like they weren’t meeting me for love, but for the family fortune behind me.
I used busyness as an excuse and didn’t meet any of the women from the profiles.
“Oppa, if you take the profiles, at least contact them and meet up!”
Park Jung-ah’s complaints really started flying after I’d gotten three sets.
“I’m busy.”
“Then tell the girls to come to the training ground!”
“No way, what kind of blind date happens at a training ground?”
“This isn’t a blind date. It’s an arranged meeting.”
I immediately protested Park Jung-ah’s words.
“Argh, I don’t wanna get married yet. If you’re so set on it, you get engaged.”
“I’m DINK.”
I couldn’t help but be thrown by my sister’s sudden DINK declaration.
“What kinda nonsense is that?”
“I don’t like kids.”
“Park Jung-ah, you’re the kid here.”
We went back and forth fiercely, but sadly, this was one battlefield where Park Jung-ah had the upper hand.
“Chan-hyuk, Mom and Dad want grandkids now.”
“…….”
That day, Park Jung-ah called in the big guns, and under concentrated fire from her and our parents, I was pushed into meeting the woman from the profile.
***
Blind date day.
I had to wrap up training quicker than usual and head to the meeting spot downtown Berlin.
“Oh, what’s this, Boss? Off to a blind date?”
“Looking sharp!”
The players gave me puzzled looks at my all-dressed-up appearance.
It was the first time they’d seen me out of training gear.
“Nah, off to my execution.”
Amid the players’ confused expressions,
“……You’re getting married?”
Only Yannick Foight, the married guy, fully got what I meant.
I waved to the driver and climbed into the limo.
“Oh, right. The Boss is loaded.”
“……Suddenly feeling revolutionary?”
“Is that why the French chopped off the king’s head?”
The players behind me started whispering.
I ignored them.
With the blind date looming, my heart was pounding like crazy from nerves, so I didn’t have the bandwidth for their nonsense.
And shortly after arriving at the spot.
I spotted the woman I was meeting.
How to put it.
By German standards, she wasn’t a jaw-dropping bombshell.
But to my Asian eyes, she looked more beautiful than your average German.
And above all, you could tell she’d grown up showered in love.
No wrinkles on her face, and such a lively range of expressions.
“I’m Park Chan-hyuk, manager of Union Berlin.”
Our conversation flowed nonstop, and the vibe seemed pretty good.
“……By the way, was your grandfather Austrian by any chance?”
Ah.
I must’ve rambled like I was giving a speech from the nerves.