Tuesday
"Seo-yeon!"
Dong-seung stood by the apartment door, wallet and phone in hand. "I'm going out to shop!"
The effect was instantaneous. A flurry of movement came from the living room, and Seo-yeon materialized, grabbing her jacket from the closet with practiced speed.
Are you abandoning me? Her entire demeanor seemed to scream, a playful pout already forming on her lips.
"I'm going to check out the stuff you want to buy," she declared, slipping her arms into the sleeves. "It's my duty."
She bounced over and linked her arm with his before he could process the motion. Her eyes narrowed with mock severity. "Hah! I am going to watch over you. Don't you dare flirt with a woman other than me." The stern mask then melted into a gleeful smile. "Of course, I want to buy some stuff too, hehe."
Dong-seung felt a familiar, bewildering sensation—a mix of being steamrolled and something warmer he couldn't name. "Alright," he conceded, the fight gone before it began.
…
They walked side-by-side, the autumn breeze tugging at their clothes. After a comfortable silence, Seo-yeon tightened her arm around his, pulling closer.
"When are you going to buy a car?" she asked, her voice light but her eyes calculating. "Carrying groceries is cumbersome. Imagine how much more we could buy with a trunk."
Dong-seung gave a noncommittal grunt. "Never had the money before. I do have a license, though." He paused, a flicker of memory surfacing. "I also have experience driving trucks."
Seo-yeon's eyes widened with genuine surprise. Really? He didn't look the type.
"Yeah," he confirmed, a faint, uncharacteristic hint of nostalgia in his tone. "I sometimes helped my uncle. He was bad at driving trucks—always swore the gears had a personal grudge against him. But with sports cars…" A dry, almost imperceptible chuckle escaped him. "He could make a Porsche sing."
The image of her reclusive, code-obsessed husband effortlessly handling a massive truck and casually referencing high-performance sports cars sent a thrilling shiver of curiosity down Seo-yeon's spine. There were clearly more layers to Lee Dong-seung than a messy apartment and a Gumroad page.
…
Electro Markt
Inside the store, Dong-seung moved with purpose, his eyes scanning for computer parts. But Seo-yeon had a different pilgrimage in mind.
She steered him firmly toward a wall of shimmering 4K OLED displays. "We need one," she declared, her voice leaving no room for argument.
Dong-seung stared at the screen, his brow furrowed as if diagnosing a bug. "We don't. It's a redundant data-output device. I have a laptop."
"It's not redundant; it's for the living room," she countered, her tone shifting to mock tragedy. "What will people think? Our home has no center! It's... sad!"
"My uncle offered me a TV years ago. I told him I didn't need one." The statement was a simple fact from a bygone era.
Seo-yeon gasped, seizing the opening. "You refused a gift? From your uncle?" She looked genuinely scandalized. "That's so... rude! We have to fix this. It's not about the TV anymore, Oppa. It's about restoring your honor!"
He opened his mouth to protest, to explain the inefficiency and distraction. But the words died in his throat. He saw the determined glint in her eyes, the strategic deployment of social obligation. This wasn't a battle over a television; it was a test of their new, bizarre partnership.
With a sigh from the very core of his programmer soul, he conceded. "Fine. But we are not getting the most expensive one. We are getting the one with the best performance-to-cost ratio."
Suddenly, a familiar, cheerful voice cut through the store's hum. "Hello, Sir and Madam!"
It was Ji-ah, his favorite sales representative from his more frugal past. Her smile was professional, but her eyes lingered a moment too long on Dong-seung.
This one, Seo-yeon thought, her internal radar blaring. I remember her. She was always a little too sweet when he was just a browsing loser. Now she looks at him like he's a free sample.
"I see you're looking at TVs today," Ji-ah said, her gaze sweeping over him before turning to Seo-yeon.
"Yes, we want a good one," Seo-yeon answered, her own smile a sharp, polished weapon.
Ji-ah expertly guided them past the "value" section to the premium wall. "For a discerning customer like yourself," she said to Dong-seung, "I would recommend the pinnacle: the 77-inch LG SIGNATURE OLED¹ M4." She launched into the specs. ₩9,999,999.
Dong-seung was fully engrossed in the data. But Seo-yeon was no longer listening. She watched as Ji-ah's eyes drifted from the screen to the defined muscles of his forearm, then flicked up to his focused profile.
This bitch is downright thirsty, Seo-yeon seethed internally. She thinks her tech talk is foreplay. Over my dead body.
Dong-seung's internal calculator finished its work. "That's a 70% price increase over the QLED model for a 15% performance gain in perceived contrast ratio. The rational choice is clearly—"
"But Oppa," Seo-yeon interrupted, her voice a silken whip. She placed a hand on his arm, her grip deceptively strong. "The aesthetic. A beautiful home needs a beautiful centerpiece. It's an investment in our domestic atmosphere." Her eyes locked with his, silently transmitting a message that overrode all logic: Do not embarrass me. Do not choose the cheap one in front of this vulture.
He opened his mouth to protest, but under the pressure of her stare, his resolve crumbled. The fight wasn't worth the CPU cycles.
"Fine," he muttered, defeated. "We'll take it."
The transaction was a blur. He arranged for delivery and handed over the Amex.
As he did, Seo-yeon vibrated with triumph. She immediately grabbed his hand, interlacing their fingers in a blatant display of ownership, her gaze a challenge to Ji-ah. Gotcha. He's mine.
BRRRRR
[Shinhan Bank: Your Balance is 25,244,026 ₩]
While the receipt was printed, Seo-yeon, buzzing with energy, turned to him. "Good. Now that we have a TV, we need a car to get us to the store to buy more things. Let's go buy a car next."
Dong-seung could only stare, a man caught in a financial whirlwind of his own making.
The final insult came as they left. Ji-ah smoothly slipped her business card into his hand, her fingers brushing his palm. "For the delivery confirmation," she said sweetly.
Dong-seung blinked. This is inefficient. They already have my email.
Then she dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper and gave a clear, unmistakable wink. "My personal mobile number is on the back. Don't be a stranger, Dong-seung-ssi."
Seo-yeon, who saw everything, let out a quiet, seething hiss. The war, it seemed, had just begun.
…
The used car dealership, "Korea Used Car," was a vast, asphalt plain under a corrugated steel roof. The air smelled of exhaust, rubber, and detailing spray.
A young salesman named Kim swooped in. "Looking for a family car? I have the best financing in Seoul!"
His pitch faltered the moment Dong-seung pointed to a 2019 Genesis² GV80 priced at ₩48,000,000 and presented the black Amex. "I'll put half on this."
The change was instantaneous. Salesman Kim's grin vanished into pure shock. A whispered conference with his manager ensued. The manager hurried over, his demeanor transforming from bored authority to obsequious reverence.
"Of course, sir! Right this way to our VIP office!" he sputtered.
The entire process was conducted in hushed, frantic tones. The other salesmen cast awestruck glances across the lot. The story was spreading: a guy in a hoodie just dropped a black Amex on a Genesis.
BRRRRR
[Shinhan Bank: Your Balance is 0.00 ₩]
[AMEX: Your Balance is -22,755,973 ₩]
…
An hour later, Seo-yeon insisted they christen the new SUV. "We have to fill the trunk! It's bad luck to drive an empty car home!"
At the E-Mart, the Genesis's quiet luxury felt alien amidst the shopping carts. Seo-yeon became a force of nature, filling the cart with premium groceries and household supplies. Dong-seung followed, calculating the volumetric efficiency of her packing strategy.
In line, he opened his Amex app. The numbers were no longer abstract.
[AMEX: Your Balance is -23,555,973 ₩]
[AMEX: Interest 17.4% p.a. — 4,098,739 ₩]
A cold jolt shot down his spine. Well, this ain't good.
But his mind didn't panic. It calculated. The interest would only apply if he carried the balance past the due date. He had three weeks. His Gumroad income was a relentless, upward-ticking counter.
The debt was a temporary variable. The firehose of income would wash it away long before the interest could take a single won.
He tapped his phone off, the anxiety replaced by cool, calculated confidence. He tapped the Amex against the terminal, paying the ₩800,000 bill without another thought. The system was holding.
…
Finally, they arrived back at his apartment building. Dong-seung drove to the private garage. He pressed the remote.
With a loud, grating rumble, the industrial-grade metal gate rolled upward, a sound of protesting gears that spoke of long disuse.
Dong-seung stared, his hand pausing on the gearshift.
The Genesis's high-beam headlights cut twin swathes through the profound darkness, illuminating a space that was nothing like the cramped, concrete cell he remembered. His uncle's words echoed in his mind—a metal workshop... could easily fit multiple trucks... had a service pit.
And there it was, revealed in stark, dusty slices of light. The garage was a cavernous shell. High above, a tangle of thick, black electrical cables hung like sleeping vipers from the steel rafters, and a jagged hole in the corrugated roof let a single shard of moonlight pierce the gloom. On the wall, a grime-caked outdoor AC unit sat dormant, its vents choked with the filth of years. Against the far wall, the dark, rectangular maw of the service pit promised hidden potential. To the side, a wall of grimy glass revealed a small office, its interior a shadowy mess of forgotten furniture.
THUD.
The heavy car door echoed in the vast space as Dong-seung stepped out. The air was thick with the smell of dust, old metal, and concrete. His uncle had provided this space, but he'd never bothered to check it out. Now, with the Genesis parked like a sleek, anachronistic intruder, he decided a thorough inspection was overdue.
He started with the small office, the logical heart of any workshop. The door groaned on its hinges. Inside, a layer of dust blanketed everything. Old invoices and faded diagrams were scattered across desks, their corners curled with age. His eyes were drawn to the computer stations—beige towers and bulky CRT monitors that stood as silent relics. This place is a time capsule from the dawn of the internet, he mused.
His focus shifted to the electrical panel. It was as bad as he feared. The wiring was a bird's nest of outdated cables, and the fuses were clearly dead, their switches stuck in a permanent off position. A sigh escaped him. To make this place usable, his first call would have to be to an electrician. But before that, a more important call to his uncle—he needed to find out who the landlord was and get everything squared away legally. He didn't need that kind of trouble.
Back in the main bay, he noted the LAN ports, their plastic yellowed and brittle, probably useless for anything modern. Outside the office, heavy-duty electrical outlets dotted the walls, and old fluorescent lamps hung like skeletal remains from the ceiling. His gaze then caught on a faded banner, its red fabric stained and frayed at the edges.
Dong-seung Metalworks
A faint, wry smile touched his lips. So that was the connection. Maybe his uncle had started his first business here. It didn't matter. The name felt like a sign, a legacy he was now stepping into.
The sheer size of the place solidified the plan forming in his mind. This was the solution. He could transform this cavern into his office, his lab, his command center. No more crowding their apartment, no more annoying his roommate with late-night coding sessions or the presence of temporary "employees."
...
Footnotes:
^1 OLED: A display technology where each pixel produces its own light, allowing for perfect blacks and vibrant colors.
^2 Genesis: The luxury vehicle division of Hyundai Motor Group, positioned as a direct competitor to global brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Known for refined powertrains, premium interiors, and a focus on quiet, comfortable rides.