Work Text:
Money Lesson
He had made a lot of money. He knew that, instinctively. You didn’t become the best Baduk player in the world to become destitute in life. That wasn’t a good incentive for pouring hours over hours onto a 19x19 grid and its monochrom pawns. However, while money was a good incentive for him in his early days because God knew he and his father needed it so badly, but after a while, it failed to motivate him any further. Once he reached a point where he glanced at his savings and knew they had more than enough to sustain himself and his father for a decent living, he stopped looking at details about what he could win in a tournament.
That was the sole reason why he had his first car in the first place.
And the ongoing jokes among his friends of his innate inability to park it properly.
It came to about the game, then.
Only the game.
The silent thrill inside of him to conquer yet another player in a rank higher than him.
The intricate maneuvers that he planned even before he sat in that chair, opposite of his equally skilled opponent who most likely had planned the exact maneuvers and countermoves such as his.
The pride inside his chest that he had to bury deep in front of the masses until he could reach his room and share his win with his people. Usually with the love of his life.
Who was talking about numbers and mumbo jumbo with their financial planner in their bi-annual planning session at this moment.
It was all Deok Sun’s idea, to have someone professionally managing their wealth, even before they were married. He was hesitant at first, thinking that putting all of his money in a bank was the safest bet for him who knew nothing about tax and investment. But after a certain fight when Deok Sun tearfully told him about the mess with money that her family was once in and how money could play a big role in a family dynamic, he was finally convinced.
He would never want his family to be constricted to inconsequential things (at least to him) such as money.
It was not an easy process by any means. He was so out of his depth, dealing with things like paperworks and counting up interests. Even his first step into financial planning resulted in Deok Sun not talking to him for an entire week.
He thought putting her name in his bank account was a wise step, considering how good she was with her finances. And well, she loved him enough to agree to be his future, so he thought those were enough reasons.
But boy was he wrong.
Sung Deok Sun didn’t like that even one bit.
“We’re not married yet, we’re not even engaged” she told him through clenched teeth when he demanded why she was so angry. “People would thought that I am only after your money”
It took all of his effort to console her and convince her to be involved in his finances, pre-marriage, in a role more important than just being a debt collector for him.
“What I have will be yours, and what you have will be mine, Deok Sun-ah” he told her calmly, hoping that she would see his sense. “It’s only a matter of time, why not start now?”
Finally Deok Sun agreed with the terms that he put her name on his account only after they were officially married, to which he was quick to agree. If only he knew what that agreement would entail.
Like this session that had been going on for at least 45 minutes and he barely understood what his wife and their financial planner were talking about.
“I like the performance of this stock” Deok Sun pointed towards a chart on the report Mr. Wang prepared for them, and the middle-aged planner smiled.
“Yes, Mrs. Sung. I think investing in this company was a smart choice and now you would be able to see healthy trajectory in the near future”
Deo Sun smiled and turned to him, who looked back at her with a blank stare. She sighed.
“Why don’t you pick up more coffee, honey?” she said resignedly, though not unkindly. “We should be finished in 30 minutes”
He smiled at his wife and nodded politely to Mr. Wang. Although it had been years since he started working with the man, who used to work with Deok Sun’s father in Hanil Bank and now was working with individual clients such as them as consultants, he still didn’t feel fully comfortable having a long conversation with him.
“Would you like more coffee too, Mr. Wang?” he asked and the older man shook his head.
“Thank you Mr. Choi” he said before going back to Deok Sun with their financial report. Taek took it as an opportunity to excuse himself and stood up after squeezing Deok Sun’s hand briefly.
~
He ended up taking close to one hour to refill their coffee. An article about Baduk grabbed his attention from an article in a magazine that was lying nearby. And then he found a new volume from a comic book that he was following, and just before he was about to take the now-cold coffee, he caught a headline about the development of a housing complex in Pangyo. The last one got his attention and decided to bring the magazine to Deok Sun after reading it briefly.
“Where’s my coffee?” she asked him and rolled her eyes when he closed his eyes. He turned to run back downstairs to grab the coffee, but before that he showed the magazine to her.
“Page 23” he said to Deok Sun’s raised eyebrows before he ran the stairs to grab his wife’s now-must-be-cold coffee.
When he reached their table again, Deok Sun was in deep conversation with Mr. Wang.
“Here you go honey,” he said, putting the steaming coffee in front of Deok Sun. She smiled and asked him to sit down next to her.
“This is very good, are you thinking of investing in real estate?” she asked, to which he just shrugged his shoulders.
“This looks nice, and they’re close to your parents” he said and Deok Sun nodded.
“What do you think, Mr. Wang?” she asked.
“I think it’s not a bad idea. I’ve heard good things about the development in this area,” Mr. Wang spoke with his dragged on voice. “I heard there will be some hospitals built on the area, as well as more connection via expressway”
Deok Sun nodded and grinned at Taek.
“Good job, honey, this is just what we need since I just finished talking with Mr. Wang to diversify our investments,” she said, then added. “Plus, this development looks like a good place for retirement, don’t you think?”
Taek smiled and his overthinking mind suddenly conjured a picture of two elderly sitting together on a porch, hands full of wrinkles as they sipped their tea and overlooking a faraway picturesque mountainous terrain. It was not a bad place to spend the last leg of your time, really.
"Let's look it up when we visit your parents next week," he told Deok Sun, who smiled in return. She then told him to sit down and gave him a summary of her conversation with Mr. Wang regarding their finances.
He understood less than half of what she was saying, but at least he knew enough that they were in a good place. The past two years were exceptionally good for them, both in his winnings and Deok Sun's performance bonuses. Which got them faster than they’d planned to retire early as they had always wanted.
It was his dream, that he shared with a willing Deok Sun, to be able to take their family for a month-long vacation around the country, just like they did when their son and daughter weren't born yet. To finally be able to take their oldest son to his baseball practice every Tuesday and Saturday, or to prepare his famous kimchi fried rice (yes, he could cook now, who would've known) that their daughter loved so much.
With their current job, it was a miracle already if they could have two days of weekend together with their two children. He had tried to take on less competition abroad and stayed close to home, especially when Deok Sun had to go to her airline training centers that were spread all over the world. But with his current level, there was simply not enough competition advanced enough for him. At some point, he even had to travel to North America to find an opponent of his level.
That was why, despite not knowing half of the things Deok Sun discussed with Mr. Wang, he was willing to sit tight like a good boy knowing the outcome of those conversations was his life goal.
To enjoy the life that he had paved since his corpse-like life of Baduk Tournament since he was a teenager.
~
“Isn’t next week Hye Rin’s field trip with her kindergarten?” Taek suddenly remembered when they were walking past a children’s clothing store. “Should we buy her a new coat? I think her coat now is too thin”
Deok Sun grumbled. “Her coat you notice, but somehow you never listened to me to wear warmer clothes”
But she smiled warmly when Taek rolled his eyes and pulled her wrist to enter the store.
Her husband was quirky and had a very limited attention span outside of Baduk. He depended his memories of important dates (birthday, anniversaries, etc) to her or his trusty cellphone calendar and he barely could remember the way to her parents house in Pangyo, no matter how many years had passed since they moved out from their half-basement in Ssangmun Dong to their spacious retirement house in the countryside.
But when it came to her, and their children, he was hyper focused.
He was the first one to remind her that Min Hyeok, their oldest son, needed a new bat for his baseball match.
He was the first one to book a session at the pediatric office for Hye Rin’s vaccine shot.
He was the first one to arrive at the arrival gate when she came back from her, now, occasional flight to her airline’s training center as required by her job as a trainer.
Choi Taek was not the clueless teenager anymore, who barely knew how to warm water in an electric kettle or how to operate a portable cassette player.
He was an attentive father for their two children now, and a devoted husband for her.
But sometimes, he still needed help to remind him that his youngest daughter was already 4 years old when he brought a size-2 coat to the cashier.
Sung Deok Sun wouldn't have him any other way, anyway.
~