Chapter 16:Money and Talent Pour In

 Chapter 16: Belief (1)

While going about my daily life, the gift finally arrived.

First, I unpacked mine.

I pushed the gifts for the family under the bed.

“Somehow I feel nervous.”

No one was home. It would soon be evening, so each person would start arriving one by one. It would be best to bring it up when everyone was gathered together.

When would be a good time?

Probably after dinner would be better.

Hmm.

There happened to be a variety show that the whole family enjoyed watching, starting at 10 p.m. tonight. It might be nice to wait until after that program ended before saying anything.

I could give the gifts first, then bring up the topic of becoming a full-time investor while showing them the current status of my investments. Since the returns were pretty good, it should help convince them.

And one more thing.

If I also talked about the Kakao emoticons, it would fill in the gaps nicely.

Stock profits and dividends.

Plus the emoticons.

Presenting a vision of steadily building more pipelines—ways to earn money even while sleeping—felt perfect for the occasion.

“Looks just right?”

Right on cue, the expected call about the contract came in.

(Hello, is this Writer Ryu Seong?)

“Yes, that’s me.”

(This is Choi Yeon-su from the emoticon department, handling contracts. I’m contacting you regarding the contract today.)

“Ah, yes.”

So it was finally time to sign the contract.

(The contract details will be sent to you by email first. Please read through them carefully. If you decide you’d like to proceed with signing, just let us know. We can handle the contract signing either by email or in person. If you prefer email, we’ll need you to complete a few tasks over the phone. After that, we’ll send the documents to your home separately.)

“Really?”

(Yes, you can choose whichever method is more convenient for you, Writer.)

“Hmm, I think meeting in person would be better for me.”

A contract with one of Korea’s mega-corporations—doing it face-to-face would make for a nice memory too.

“I’ll do it in person.”

(Understood, Writer. Then I’ll send the email first, so please review it and get back to us.)

“Yes, got it.”

After hanging up, I checked the email right away.

[Emoticon Standard Contract]

[Article 1, Paragraph 1. The writer shall be referred to as Party A…]

I read through the contract slowly, but nothing particularly strange stood out. After getting a general sense of it, I checked the revenue split.

The figures seemed reasonable.

Just to be sure, I did a quick Google search and found quite a few discussions about revenue splits. It really did feel like a standard contract. There were no malicious or overly harsh clauses that people usually warned about either.

“This should be fine.”

It was a perfectly satisfactory contract level.

*

That evening, the family gathered together.

It was almost 10 p.m.

We sat in the living room eating the fruit Mom had prepared while watching TV.

“Wow, he’s seriously smart.”

“Well, about that level, yeah.”

“Hmph. Acting like you know everything.”

It was one of the currently popular mystery/deduction variety shows. We often watched it together as a family—solving problems and guessing along—so before we knew it, the episode was over. Of course, I barely paid attention to what was happening on screen.

“Phew…”

It had been one long stretch of tension.

As an adult, telling my family my proper aspirations for the first time carried more pressure than I’d expected.

“Ugh, why does it end here?!”

“Aaah, I’m so curious!”

“Haha.”

Even Dad looked disappointed.

But well.

Starting now, that disappointment would vanish like it had never existed.

“Ahem.”

I cleared my throat and stood up.

All eyes naturally turned toward me.

Ignoring them, I went to my room and brought out all the gifts I’d secretly stashed away.

“Huh? What’s that?”

The one showing the most interest was Ryu Hyeon-ah. I pushed her forehead back with my finger as she approached, then went straight to my parents first.

“Here, these are gifts for you.”

“Gifts…?”

My father and mother looked surprised. They glanced at each other briefly, and then Mom was the first to accept the neatly wrapped gift box.

“What’s the occasion? Is today some special day?”

“No, it’s not that, just…”

“If it’s a gift from our son, we should open it. You too, hurry up.”

“Oh, right, let’s see.”

Next, Dad took his box.

“Let me take a look.”

They both seemed pleased by the unexpected gifts, gentle smiles on their faces. But the moment they opened the boxes, the smiles disappeared and their expressions stiffened.

“This is…”

They looked at me.

Eyes filled with concern.

I understood what they meant, but I stayed silent.

“Isn’t this… too expensive?”

“I stretched myself a bit.”

“Even so…”

What I gave Dad was a wallet and a pair of dress shoes.

Naturally, they were luxury brands.

Just those two items alone easily exceeded 5 million won.

For Mom, it was a handbag.

That one went over 3 million won as well.

Just the gifts for my parents alone added up to more than 8 million won, so it was no wonder the two of them were shocked.

“That money you said you won from the event before… did you spend it all?”

“No.”

“Then…?”

This was where it really began.

I steadied my heart.

And continued in a calm tone.

“I’ve been investing lately.”

“Investing?”

“Yeah. I didn’t have much to do while resting, so I studied a bit and started investing a little.”

The eyes of the family members listening grew wide.

“Stocks, oppa?”

“Yeah, well.”

“A lot of people are doing stocks these days. But isn’t it risky?”

“I’m investing in big American companies, so it’s fine.”

“Really? Like Apple and Google?”

“Yeah.”

“Ooooh!”

Fortunately, the atmosphere that had almost turned serious was gently eased by Ryu Hyeon-ah.

This kid—she actually has some sense.

I thought I’d slip her some pocket money later as I took out my smartphone.

“Here. This is my current investment status.”

The invested amount was 20 million won.

The current return rate was already over 10%. I had no intention of showing them the large sum I’d made from coins yet. The amount was so big it might actually make them oppose the idea.

“Hmm.”

After thinking for a moment, Dad asked,

“Since you’re showing us this directly, it looks like you really want to do investing properly?”

“Yes.”

“As a career?”

“That’s right. I want to seriously try becoming a full-time investor. And I also want to build a few other pipelines along the way.”

“Pipelines?”

“My own lines that bring in money even while I’m sleeping. Stock dividends will be one of them.”

Maybe he thought I’d actually prepared quite a bit.

Dad gave a small smile.

“Is there anything else? Saying you’ll build pipelines with just stock dividends sounds a bit overambitious, doesn’t it?”

“Actually… the emoticons will be on sale soon too.”

“Hmm?”

“I submitted them for KakaoTalk emoticon review not long ago, and they passed. Now all that’s left is the contract.”

“Whoa. For real?”

“Of course.”

This time I showed them the email.

The approval message and even the emoticon drafts I had submitted for review.

“You drew all of these yourself?”

“Yeah. I went to that academy before, remember?”

“Right, you did.”

“Oh my, they’re so cute.”

Mom, who had been looking over with us, was completely drawn in by the emoticons. Dad, on the other hand, focused more on the ironic expressions and the way the emotions were conveyed rather than just the art style.

“The ideas are pretty good.”

“Yeah. Once the emoticons start selling, even if it’s not a huge amount, I’ll get a steady trickle of money coming in every month. That’ll become another one of my pipelines.”

Dad nodded as if he found it amusing.

“You’re going to do YouTube too, huh?”

“…Huh?”

YouTube out of nowhere.

“You said you want to make money even while sleeping. There’s nothing better than YouTube for that.”

“Ah…!”

At those words, a good idea flashed through my mind.

What if I occasionally did live YouTube streams showing my current investing?

Only when I used my foresight points to draw information tickets on stocks or coins from the shop, of course.

That way, I could deliver extremely accurate information to viewers. Once those kinds of videos piled up, even if I later uploaded light market analysis videos or sometimes just everyday content, the view counts would probably still hold up. If dozens or hundreds of such videos accumulated, they would turn into golden eggs that laid money for me without me having to do anything.

“Y-yeah, that’s right. I’m thinking of doing YouTube too. I want to show my investing process. These days there are tons of YouTube videos explaining the economy or the stock market.”

“True.”

“Um… and if the opportunity comes, maybe even write a book someday…”

“Hmm.”

Seeing his satisfied expression, a wave of relief washed over me.

“Looks like you’ve thought this through quite a lot.”

“Of course.”

“What do you think, honey?”

“Me? Well… as long as our son and my husband are okay with it.”

Dad nodded at her words and looked at me.

“Alright, Seong-ah.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“It was the same back then, and it’s still the same now.”

The light, almost playful atmosphere Dad had been enjoying suddenly grew heavy.

This was probably the real part.

“We believe in you.”

“Ah…”

“You’re not going off to die somewhere. If it’s something you want to do, then do it. Yeah, even if you lose money investing? That’s fine. Whatever happens, you can just start over. We can at least support you that much. But you need to have clear goals like you do right now. That’s how you succeed. I couldn’t do that. I failed too late, and because of that, I made things hard for all of you.”

“Dad…”

“It must have been tough for you. But even so, you never once showed how hard it was… Thank you.”

I never expected to hear something like this.

You were the one who had it the hardest.

Before I could say the words I couldn’t bring myself to voice, Dad continued.

“Failure is something you experience when you’re young. Use it as fertilizer, reduce your mistakes, and take one step at a time. Above all else—this is the first time you’ve prepared this thoroughly and tried to convince us like this. With this much sincerity… yeah. Go ahead and give it a real shot.”

For some reason, my throat felt tight and my eyes grew hot.

Phew.

I lightly bit my lip and answered.

“Yes… I’ll really work hard.”

I had expected this.

I already knew with certainty that my parents would give their permission this time too. Still, just like Dad said, I wanted to show them that I was truly putting in the effort.

“I’ll trust you. But I hope you’re not treating it like gambling—do it as proper investing.”

“Investing, yes.”

“Right. Can you promise me that?”

“Yes, I promise.”

It might carry a slightly different meaning, but…

“Son, Mom believes in you too.”

“…Yeah.”

Mom’s short, simple words pierced straight into my chest.

“Ahem.”

To hide the surge of emotion, I turned away. The moment I saw my siblings’ sparkling, wide eyes, the feeling strangely settled—like it had never been there.

Ugh, these kids.

I held out the remaining gift boxes.

“You two take one each too.”

To Ryu Hyeon-ah, I gave the box containing the latest Salvatore bag.

To Ryu Hwan, the box with the newest high-spec tablet.

“Wow, oppa! No way! You’re really giving me this? For real-real?”

“Hyung, thank you… I’ll use it well.”

“Use them carefully.”

“Yessir!”

Just like with my parents, this was the first time I’d given my siblings proper, high-quality gifts like these.

The feeling was strange.

I hadn’t received anything—I was the one giving—and yet I felt so happy.

“Lucky, come have some snacks too.”

Nyaaaa!

“Uh, um… I’ve got some studying to do, so I’ll head in first.”

“Sure, work hard.”

Feeling a bit awkward, I hurried off with quick steps.

Creak—thud.

The moment I closed the door, I flopped onto the bed.

“Uwaaa…!”

It felt like I’d just come out of a full-scale war.

A mix of emotions crashed over me like a waterfall—choked up yet refreshed, grateful yet sorry.

And yet, despite all that…

For some reason, the warmth inside me was almost strange.

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