002. Regression (1)
002. Regression (1)
Listening to Yeon-ju's faint breathing on the other end of the phone, I replayed the future I knew once more.
A market that crashed -9% in a one-way slide without a single proper rebound all day.
For most people, it was a horrific day where money was deleted, but conversely, for someone, it was a crazy opportunity to print money while sitting still.
The problem was.
The fact that I only had 20 million won to shove into that opportunity.
"How much do you have left?"
-What?
"I asked how much you have left."
...If only I could pull some money from my sister, how great would that be.
The fact that she still had 60 million won left even after losing that much before I came back means she's holding onto way more money right now.
Even if I just multiply that by 10, that's at least 600 million.
I could recover the money I lost in exactly one day, exactly as it was—
-...Why are you asking me that, Oppa?
...No way.
After cooling down my overexcited brain, I realized that, logically, there was no way she would lend her entire fortune to her own brother who suddenly called after half a year.
"...Wait a second."
Besides, you can't withdraw money from stocks immediately after selling, and you can't even sell on the weekend.
Two days until the money is withdrawable after selling, and another day to put it into a crypto exchange and transfer it to Binance.
By then, the crash I know about would already be over.
And what comes after that was a future even I didn't know.
"...I don't know how much stock you bought, but sell everything tomorrow morning and run."
-What?
...So, giving up on borrowing money.
Instead, since I'm already calling, I should at least let her know.
If it were someone else... honestly, I don't think I'd bother telling them.
But we're siblings, after all.
-...What are you talking about?
"You know that thing where you make money when it drops? Buy that. Buy it, then sell it when the market closes and run."
-Wait, Oppa. Are you out of your mind? Do you know how much it's already dropped....
Just listening to it, I sounded like a total lunatic.
Calling on a weekend morning and telling someone to bet their entire fortune in the opposite direction.
But... when you can clearly see someone walking toward a cliff, it's not right not to stop them, is it?
It's not like she's a stranger; she's my younger sister.
"It's going to plummet massively tomorrow, too. I can't tell you exactly how much, but—"
-How would you know that, Oppa?
"It's hard to explain, but still—"
-Then I'm hanging up.
"Hey, wait a second. I know I sound crazy."
I felt like Cassandra.
If I told her I was saying this because I know the future, she'd never believe me.
Even I would think, 'Is this bastard crazy?' and hang up.
In the first place, I don't even really know why it crashes so hard—
Ah.
"Just trust me once. If I'm wrong, I'll pay for everything."
-...Where on earth did you hear that from?
"That is... Ah. A piece of bad news is going to break tomorrow. A negative report from a securities firm will come out, and while that's not the only reason, people are going to dump their stocks like crazy."
One plausible reason popped into my head.
...Though I don't think it actually dropped because of that.
-Oppa, do you have some connection with a securities firm—
"Yeah, yeah. I heard it because I have a connection."
Anyway, that stuff isn't very important.
What matters is whether it's convincing enough for my sister when she hears it.
"It's going to be posted on the community anyway, right? So as soon as the report comes up, sell everything and buy an Inverse Leveraged ETF. Got it?"
-...I get it, but why are you suddenly telling me this? I never even told you I do stocks.
"You can probably guess why. We're family."
-We're not even that close.
Just as I thought I had persuaded her well, a counter-argument hit me, leaving me momentarily speechless.
...True, we're talking for the first time in half a year.
Since everything we talked about yesterday would have been wiped out.
Still.
"...Even if we're not close, we're family. How could I not say anything when I found out?"
You also barged in suddenly yesterday.
Siblings are allowed to do that.
It's not like we're strangers, we're family.
Can't I look out for you a little?
...Even if I did have some ulterior motives when I called.
What I'm saying now is me genuinely looking out for you.
-...Is it really information you can be that sure about?
"...If you can't trust me, then forget it. I told you."
-Alright. ...I'll sell, okay?
"Don't just sell, buy an Inverse Leveraged ETF as soon as you wake up tomorrow morning, and sell it at the very end. Got it?"
-I said I got it....
"If I'm right, buy me chicken."
-Alright, seriously.
Yeon-ju, who finally accepted what I said, let out a short breath.
Her voice was a tiny bit more relaxed than before.
With that, the call ended.
...She should believe me after this much.
If she doesn't, well....
I'll just buy her a meal.
My situation should be better than yesterday, anyway.
**
Sunday, where nothing happened, passed by suffocatingly slowly, and finally, the fateful 13th arrived.
With the 20 million won still alive and well, plus the 8 million won in cash I scraped together.
I bet it all on a short.
The leverage displayed on the screen was 10x, but since the ticker itself followed 3x, it was effectively 30x.
I planned to increase it to 20x once it reached the exact point I remembered.
Effectively 60x.
If it rebounds by just 1.66% from that spot, I'm liquidated.
Straight to bankruptcy.
Just repeating the numbers in my head made my palms drenched in cold sweat.
It was a choice I would never have made even if I died and came back to life.
"...If I make money, I'll seriously even start going to church."
Even though I knew the future, my hand holding the mouse was trembling.
I don't know which god it was, but this was definitely a god-given opportunity, yet I couldn't bring myself to believe it when it was right in front of me.
What if my single click twists the future, or what if everything I saw was just a hallucination in the first place—
...No.
If I was going to doubt things like that, I should have never started this kind of gambling in the first place.
If I'm going to hesitate even after seeing such a realistic future, then what am I supposed to believe in?
"...Please save me just this once."
Let's think of it as the last stroke of luck heaven has bestowed upon me.
In the end, the conclusion is one of two things.
Either I become a prophet who saw the future.
Or I become a mental patient who saw hallucinations.
Unable to calm down at the fact that it would split into one of those two, I swallowed the saliva in my parched mouth several times and stared intensely at the monitor.
In the room where only the sound of my heartbeat could be heard, the clock's second hand moved forward one tick at a time.
Before I knew it, it was 9 o'clock.
...The market really opened.
"...Whew."
...That chart that was bizarrely imprinted in my head, slowly...
Started to appear before my eyes once again.
**
It was just as I remembered.
I hadn't memorized the chart by the minute, but it was a day where it didn't matter even if I didn't remember it.
Because there wasn't anything you could call a proper rebound all day.
It fell vertically as if someone had ripped the floor out from underneath.
As the wailing of people was heard and anger and fear spread, the numbers in my account inflated like crazy.
30 million.
50 million.
80 million.
And.
100 million.
"Ah, damn. Should I have pushed more in...."
My fingertips were tingling.
My mouth was saying things about regret, but in reality, my heart was beating so hard I was suffocating.
A dopamine rush I hadn't even felt when I hit 700 million slammed right into my head.
I even let out a dry laugh.
A laugh where I didn't know if it was because I was scared or because I was happy.
But the market still hadn't closed.
The closing price I remember is minus 9 percent.
...It's still falling more.
I couldn't do it until a moment ago because I was scared... but now it's okay.
The future hasn't changed at all.
What I experienced was clear reality.
Click.
I pushed a portion of the increased profits back into the margin.
My lifeline came down by that much as well.
The profit that had been protecting me just a moment ago was now held as collateral again.
120 million.
140 million.
New low.
Click.
One more time.
170 million.
Then the index tilted its head up.
150 million.
120 million.
90 million.
"...Fuck."
Cold sweat ran down my spine.
My hand holding the mouse was shaking.
It can't turn positive.
I remember that one thing for sure.
The problem is exactly what percentage the rebound was.
Was it 2 percent?
2.5 percent?
Or 3 percent?
If the index jumps 3 percent, this bastard jumps three times that.
Add to that the scaling up I just did.
...Liquidation.
Those two words flashed bright red in my head.
The speed at which the profit was shrinking was so fast that I couldn't even read the numbers properly.
Close it now.
90 million is enough, isn't it?
Do you really think the future you saw will be exactly the same without a single inch of error?
Didn't your single click really have any impact on the future?
"...."
My finger went up over the button.
However.
"...It won't go up."
...Let's trust it.
I have to trust what I saw; what am I supposed to do if I start believing things I haven't even seen?
Like that, 87 million.
The numbers stopped there.
And again.
Downwards.
"Haa...."
The breath I was holding burst out.
100 million.
130 million.
160 million.
The index hit a new low again.
Click.
I pushed a portion of the profits in again.
It wasn't all of it.
I left enough to endure one more rebound.
Up to 190 million like that.
Circuit breaker.
The moment trading stopped, the room became bizarrely quiet.
It was the index that collapsed, but my heart was beating like I was about to die.
Was there one last rebound left?
Or was this the end?
I definitely saw it, but I couldn't remember.
As soon as it resumed, the index briefly lifted itself up.
Tens of millions of won evaporated from my account again.
This time, I didn't even touch the button.
I just endured while looking at the screen.
A few minutes later.
Falling again.
200 million.
230 million.
260 million.
It was near the closing price I remembered.
...End here.
I don't know the future after this, and I don't want to know.
700 million? That was never my money to begin with.
The money I earned with my sweat is just this.
260 million is enough.
No more, I don't want to experience it anymore....
"Huu, fuck......."
Click.
As I closed the trade, the strength drained from my whole body.
Blood started flowing back into my tingling fingertips, and oxygen rushed into my brain that had reached its limit.
...I survived death, this is insane.
260 million earned after going through hell?
260 million....
Is it about 9 times the principal?
If I pay back the borrowed money, 250 million.
...Even knowing the future.
As blood started flowing to my head, quite treacherously, the figure of 250 million started to feel disappointing.
I knew it was going to crash like crazy since the morning, I should have been a bit more daring.
If I had opened something like an options account instead of Binance futures, I would have made a ton.
If I had done that, at least 1 billion—
"Ah, you scared me...."
Just in time, my phone rang.
Startled, I picked up the phone, and the source of the ringtone was, funnily enough, not a call, but an alarm I had set for around the market close.
...Of course, there were dozens of real calls piled up too.
I couldn't hear them because it was on silent.
"Yeah."
-Oppa.
The caller was, of course, my younger sister.
Her voice was as indifferent as usual.
...But her breathing was a little fast.
Actually, I was prepared to understand if she screamed, but well, Lee Yeon-ju isn't that kind of person.
-...Oppa, what are you? What kind of person are you?
"I told you."
-How... did you know this? 15% in a day....
"I didn't know it would drop this much either."
It's a lie.
Actually, I knew it would drop this much.
Even knowing it, I'm a chicken-shit bastard, so I only made 260 million.
...If my heart had been a little stronger, if my memory had been a little better, I would have made more.
-I sold everything at the end just like you told me to. I did well, right?
"You did well. From now on, just don't do stocks if you can help it."
-Yeah. ...But, Oppa.
"Why."
-I'll keep the promise to buy you chicken now.... I want to meet and talk.
In those words expressing gratitude, strangely, I didn't feel any sense of thanks.
Rather than that.
Admiration or awe.
Or a voice closer to fear.
"Sure. You know the address? Come to Bucheon."
-...Yeah.
"Aren't you going to say thank you?"
-I'll say it when I get there. ...Right now, I'm just. My mind is a mess.
"Alright."
Click, the call ended.
...True, even I felt like I was going to die investing while knowing the future, so you must feel even more so.
So,
Should I get a meal from my sister for the first time in a while?
Today, with a somewhat relieved feeling.
**
July 13th, Monday night.
The drinking session went surprisingly similarly to yesterday.
Yeon-ju came all the way to Bucheon with alcohol and food, and we sat facing each other across the small table and clinked glasses.
Sipping alcohol we weren't even good at drinking.
If there was a difference, it was that today, both of our eyes were bright and alert.
The clear sound of clinking glasses, the sensation of alcohol going down our throats, everything was the same, but the feeling contained within was completely different.
By the time the alcohol was half gone and our eyes were loosening up, Yeon-ju kept asking me over and over how I knew that.
I brushed it off with a lie-that-wasn't-a-lie about seeing her lose money and crying in my dream, but it seemed she wasn't convinced.
She just mistook her brother for a great master she couldn't understand.
"...Today, Oppa, you were a bit like an Oppa."
"Are you saying you're not usually?"
"Well, we never see each other."
"You should be the one to contact me."
"Ahahaha...."
As the alcohol kicked in, Yeon-ju kept bursting into laughter that she rarely showed normally.
Crinkling the corners of her eyes, covering her mouth with her hand as if embarrassed by laughing out loud.
Thinking it had been a long time since I saw my sister laugh like that, I was laughing along, when Yeon-ju's phone, which was placed face down on the table, vibrated.
Once.
And again a moment later.
Every time it vibrated, Yeon-ju's expression stiffened slightly, and she turned it off without even looking at the screen.
I asked who it was, but only got the answer that it was someone involved in work.
...I think she did that last time too.
I didn't bother asking further.
Because I didn't want to worry about such things today.
The rest was similar to yesterday.
Our siblings, weak to alcohol, soon got drunk to the point of being almost unconscious, and Yeon-ju, while staggering, this time took the inside of the bed on her own and curled up.
I, who was about to take out a blanket to spread on the floor, hesitated for a moment, then just laid my body on the edge of the bed.
...Honestly, when we slept together last time, it was the first time in months I slept soundly.
As expected, humans don't seem to be animals that live alone.
"...Oppa."
"Why."
"...Thank you."
"...Yeah."
Even though I was lying next to her, Yeon-ju closed her eyes with her back turned without saying anything else.
A short thank you, which she would never say normally, settled slowly in the room in her drunken voice.
...I barely survived.
I recovered some money, and I saved my sister's money too.
I don't know what will happen in the future, but at least we avoided the ending where we both blew our entire lives away.
With about 250 million, something should work out.
This time, let's not be greedy and try to live like real people.
And for Yeon-ju... let me act like an Oppa a bit.
I will never fall into this kind of gambling again.
No matter what happens.
With that thought as the last one.
Yeon-ju and I fell asleep together like last time.
In the musty studio apartment that no one looks into, just the two of us.
**
I woke up from sleep, drenched in sweat, encroached upon by the damp humidity.
As I lifted the eye mask I was wearing, gloomy summer rain clouds greeted me.
Ah, my head fucking hurts.
This is why I hate alcohol.
...But why did I drink?
"...Ah."
Startled, I fumbled around to touch my surroundings.
But all I could feel were the sheets and my phone.
...Clearly,
I think it was like this yesterday too.
I opened my eyes wide with a sense of déjà vu.
There was no one on the bed.
The food that filled the table, the liquor bottles too.
Everything had disappeared.
"......."
I turned on my phone with trembling hands.
July 12th.
Sunday.
8 AM.
The futures account is back to 20 million won.
...I'm back again.
To the beginning.