Chapter 14. The First Settlement
Ulsan, 3:00 p.m.
I sat on the living room sofa, staring at my bank account for a long time.
I had no idea how many times I'd checked it.
Transaction history.
Balance.
Then back to the beginning.
The number on the screen never changed.
Yet for some reason, I wanted to keep looking at it.
"Wow..."
Honestly, I still couldn't believe it.
Only a few months ago, I had lived waiting for payday.
The moment my salary arrived, credit card bills disappeared.
Maintenance fees.
Insurance.
The kids' academy fees.
After everything went out, the amount left in my account was always about the same.
I was far more familiar with money leaving than money coming in.
But now...
Things were different.
Most of the treasure I'd brought back from Sinan was still stored inside the lamp.
I had only carefully sold a few gold coins.
Yet the balance in my account had already reached hundreds of millions of won.
"Is this seriously real...?"
I checked the balance again.
The Genie, who had been watching from beside me, finally spoke.
"Stop looking."
"Why?"
"That is the twentieth time."
"It feels good."
"Humans are simple."
I chuckled.
"You'd like money too if you had any."
"I have no need for money."
"Then give me yours."
"..."
The Genie remained silent for a long time.
I nodded to myself.
I won.
That evening, I called Seungman.
"Hey."
"What?"
"Dinner."
"I'm busy."
"Korean beef."
Silence.
"Where?"
His attitude changed in less than five seconds.
An hour later, we were sitting across from each other at a beef restaurant in Ulsan.
Seungman opened the menu immediately.
Then checked the prices and glanced at me.
"Hey."
"What?"
"This place is expensive."
"Eat."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
Seungman looked back and forth between the menu and my face.
"Did you eat something weird?"
"No."
"You didn't scam anyone, right?"
"I told you, no."
"Sell some imported luxury car?"
"I don't have one."
"Bitcoin?"
"No."
His gaze became more suspicious.
"Then what?"
I smiled.
"Business."
"What kind of business?"
"The sea."
Seungman stared blankly at me for a moment.
Then sighed.
"Here we go again."
The meat arrived at the perfect time.
Sirloin.
Short ribs.
Skirt steak.
The moment they were placed on the table, Seungman's expression immediately changed.
"Wow..."
"Eat."
"You're seriously scaring me today."
"Just eat."
I placed the meat on the grill.
Sizzle.
A rich smell filled the air.
Add a glass of soju.
A glass of beer.
I couldn't help feeling good.
"Nice."
"Really nice."
We ate for a while.
Then Seungman suddenly asked,
"Hey."
"What?"
"Are you happy?"
My chopsticks stopped for a moment.
When I thought about it, the answer was surprisingly simple.
I was happy.
Very much so.
"Yeah."
"Why?"
After thinking for a moment, I answered,
"Because I have hope now."
Seungman silently flipped the meat.
Then he casually said,
"That's enough."
It was a short sentence.
Yet strangely, it stayed with me.
Hope.
Yeah.
What I'd gained wasn't simply money.
I no longer needed to live waiting for payday.
Tomorrow didn't necessarily have to be the exact same as today.
I liked that.
After finishing dinner, we went to the register.
520,000 won.
In the past, even pressing the payment button on an amount like that would have made my hand shake.
Now I simply handed over my card.
"Please charge it."
That was it.
Seungman stared in admiration.
"Wow..."
"What?"
"I always wanted to do that once."
"Do what?"
"Spend half a million won and act like it's nothing."
I laughed too.
"It does feel good."
It seemed a shame to end the night there, so we went to karaoke for round two.
"Hey, pick a song."
"I'm going."
We chose everything we remembered from the 1990s through the 2000s.
It was closer to shouting than singing properly.
But both of us had a great time.
"Love always comes back to yooooou!"
I screamed.
Seungman immediately responded,
"Don't come baaaaack!"
We both burst out laughing.
The room quickly became a mess.
After nearly two hours, it was already one in the morning.
We finished at a gukbap restaurant.
That was practically the official middle-aged-man course.
A steaming bowl of gukbap.
Half a bottle of soju.
And life stories once enough alcohol entered the system.
Seungman stirred his soup.
"Hey."
"What?"
"How old are we?"
"Forty-eight."
Seungman chuckled.
"That was fast."
I silently ate a spoonful of gukbap.
He was right.
My twenties felt like they had been yesterday.
Yet somehow, I was already forty-eight.
The kids grew bigger every day.
Our parents got older.
Friends had started talking about hospitals one after another.
When I was younger, I thought aging was nothing special.
But at some point...
I started being able to see time around me.
I put down my spoon.
"But we're not dead yet."
Seungman laughed.
"True."
"We're alive."
"That's right."
On the way home, I suddenly remembered next month's class reunion.
I thought about my homeroom teacher.
The old school building.
"Maybe I should make a donation."
The Genie beside me asked,
"Why?"
"Just because."
"Would that not be a waste of money?"
I chuckled.
"When I was in high school, I had a friend who couldn't even pay for school meals."
"..."
"Just remembered him."
The Genie became quiet for a moment.
"Humans are strange."
"You're saying that again?"
"Most humans earn money and then want more."
"Yeah."
"But you wish to give some away."
I shrugged.
"That's what middle-aged men do."
"All of them?"
I thought briefly.
"No."
"I see."
That made me laugh.
It was around two in the morning when I got home.
Everyone was already asleep.
I quietly entered the living room and drank a glass of water.
I'd consumed a lot of alcohol, yet my body felt strangely fine.
Then my phone vibrated.
Ding.
One text message.
Unknown number.
[Are you Mr. Kim Taesik?]
I frowned.
[Who is this?]
A reply came soon afterward.
[I'm contacting you regarding the Sinan matter.]
All traces of alcohol disappeared instantly.
[Who are you?]
The reply arrived shortly afterward.
[The Chairman has been arrested.]
Then another line appeared.
[But we are still here.]
The living room became silent.
All the laughter I'd shared with Seungman moments ago disappeared.
Of course it wasn't over.
[What do you want?]
The reply came immediately.
[A deal.]
[We know what you possess.]
I stared at the phone and slowly thought.
The lamp?
The box?
The treasure I'd taken from Sinan?
What exactly did they know?
[Let's discuss it in person.]
The final message included coordinates.
Jeju Island.
At that exact moment, the map inside my head reacted.
Flash.
The treasure marker on Jeju.
And the coordinates I'd just received.
They overlapped perfectly.
I stared at the screen for a long time.
Then slowly smiled.
"Oh."
The Genie looked at me.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Things are getting interesting."
There was still untouched treasure in Jeju.
And the people I'd assumed were finished after Sinan were there too.
The match was far too precise to be coincidence.
Something was waiting there.
I turned off my phone screen and stood.
"Good."
This weekend...
A trip to Jeju Island.
And once again...
It didn't look like it would be an ordinary trip.
