After work, the two of them headed for the menswear floor of a large department store in Yeouido.
The year-end mood was everywhere. Every shop was brilliant with Christmas decorations, and jazzy carols drifted from the speakers.
Taeseong followed behind Associate Kang Hyeona awkwardly.
Luxurious lighting, sleek suits hung on mannequins, and immaculately dressed staff.
To Taeseong it was still a strange and uncomfortable space.
“Honestly, anything too expensive feels like a lot. And I don’t think it would suit me.”
“Hmm, I think clothes are going to sit on you surprisingly well now, actually. You’ve got the height and clean lines in your face. I know a bit about this sort of thing. You’re very likely an unscratched lottery ticket, Assistant Manager.”
“Come on, that’s overselling me a bit.”
“I mean it! Just trust me once. A lottery ticket only wins if you scratch it.”
Where she stopped was the store of a men’s suiting brand known to be fairly expensive.
“Assistant Manager, how about here? The fabric is good and I think it would suit your style.”
“It does look good, but......”
The old Taeseong would not have spared it a glance, if only for fear they would not have his size.
“Come on, quickly. Let’s go in and have a light look.”
But Kang Hyeona seized Taeseong by the wrist and hauled him inside.
As the two of them stepped in, a staff member who had been tidying up looked over.
“Welcome. Is there anything you’re looking for?”
Associate Kang Hyeona stepped forward.
“Show us the best-fitting suit you have in the best fabric. In navy or dark grey.”
Her voice was confident and clear.
“Certainly. And what size is the gentleman?”
“He has some build to him, so 115 for the jacket, 2XL should be plenty. The trousers should be about 38 inches. That’s right, isn’t it?”
Kang Hyeona had Kim Taeseong’s size pinned down with uncanny accuracy.
“Of course. Only, 2XL comes in small quantities, so let me quickly check our stock. One moment, please.”
While the clerk went into the stockroom, Taeseong whispered to Kang Hyeona.
“Associate Kang, will 115 fit?”
“Assistant Manager, don’t underestimate your own body so much. Think how much has come off compared to last month. And this brand runs large, so it will be plenty. Just trust me.”
Kang Hyeona grinned and gave Taeseong’s chest a light tap.
A little later the clerk came out carrying a suit. A deep navy with a subtle sheen — luxurious at a glance.
“Would you like to try it on?”
Taeseong took the clothes and went into the fitting room.
His heart pounded. Would it fit? What if his arm wouldn’t go in? If the trouser button wouldn’t close, how could he possibly walk out without dying of shame?
First he stripped off the 4XL tent he had been wearing and threw it aside. Then he put an arm into the new dress shirt.
Smooth.
A soft feel. His arm went in without catching. He did up the buttons. His neck was not squeezed. Not loose, not straining, wrapping him just right.
‘Huh?’
He put on the trousers. They caught slightly at the thigh and then slid right up.
He fastened the buckle. A perfect fit. A fit that would not slide down even without a belt.
Last, he put on the jacket.
The shoulder seams landed exactly at the ends of Taeseong’s shoulders.
Fully dressed, Taeseong slowly looked at the fitting-room mirror.
“......”
The man in the mirror was a stranger.
His frame was still enormous, but it no longer looked oafish.
If anything, it looked solid. Broad shoulders and a thick chest gave off not a complex but the impression of a well-built man.
And the luxurious fabric flowed naturally along the lines of his body. His stomach did stick out somewhat, but the dignity of a size called 2XL packaged even that as gravitas.
‘This is...... me?’
Something surged up.
Taeseong’s throat tightened, hot.
It was not simply that he had lost weight. It felt like recovering his dignity as a human being.
No more hiding behind baggy clothes, no more suffering in clothes that were too tight.
Taeseong took one deep breath and pulled back the fitting-room curtain.
“How is it, Assistant Manager? Does the fit—”
As Taeseong stepped out awkwardly, Kang Hyeona shot up from the sofa in front of the fitting room. Her eyes went round.
“Wow......”
She could not close her mouth. Even the clerk looked at Taeseong with a startled expression.
“Assistant Manager. You look like a completely different person.”
“Do I? It feels a bit strange......”
“No, not at all! It suits you so well. The fit is...... far better than I expected. Is it because of your height?”
She circled around Taeseong, exclaiming again and again.
Seeing their faces, the clerk was quick to add.
“Sir, your build is excellent, so this line is exactly right for you. These days the suit actually looks better on a larger gentleman than on a slim one. It suits you very well indeed.”
The clerk’s praise did not seem to be empty flattery.
Taeseong stood in front of the full-length mirror again. Kang Hyeona stood beside him and looked into the mirror with him.
“What did I tell you? You’re an unscratched lottery ticket.”
She smiled contentedly at the Taeseong in the mirror.
“You haven’t scratched off the first prize yet, but you already look worth at least a second.”
A lottery ticket.
Taeseong had never once bought a lottery ticket in his life.
It was not that a trader who made his living in stocks refused to believe in luck.
It was that he had never expected fortune large enough to hit a lottery to come his way.
A life he had assumed was a losing ticket, crumpled up and thrown into the bin, was now smoothing out its creases and beginning to shine.
‘I won’t become a pig who merely has money.’
Taeseong resolved it, looking at himself in the mirror.
‘I don’t stop until this suit goes loose too. From 2XL to XL, and then to L. I will make my life lighter than anyone’s.’
Lost in the moment for a while, Taeseong came back to himself as Kang Hyeona tugged him along.
“We’ll keep that one, and let’s pick out some other things.”
“Thank you. I’ll wear it well.”
Kang Hyeona pointed at the other clothes hanging in the store.
“Shirts and ties in that size as well, and add brown and black lines too. And recommend us a winter coat that goes with the suit.”
“Yes, right away.”
The clerk nodded with a bright face at the brisk order.
“And he’ll be wearing that out, so please take off all the tags. As for the clothes he came in...... what would you like to do, Assistant Manager?”
“I’d like to throw them away. Is that all right?”
“Of course, sir. Then we’ll dispose of the clothes you arrived in and have your new items ready shortly.”
And so, after a good long stretch of choosing.
“How would you like to pay?”
“I’ll pay with this.”
Kang Hyeona glanced at Taeseong and whispered to the clerk.
“You take instalments, don’t you? Three months, please.”
Hearing it, Taeseong chuckled beside her.
“Don’t laugh. It’s true I got a fat incentive thanks to you, but this is still a lot of money for me!”
“I know, I wasn’t laughing at you. I just laughed.”
“Hmph.”
On the way out of the store, hands full of shopping bags.
His hands were heavy, but his steps felt ready to fly.
An enormous Christmas tree stood in the department store’s ground-floor lobby. Thousands of bulbs sparkled, lighting up the year-end night.
Outside, a cold winter wind blew, but thanks to his new cashmere coat Taeseong felt no cold at all.
Or perhaps it was thanks to the person beside him.
“You’re in a good mood today, aren’t you? Does this count as repaying you a little bit?”
“Of course. Without you, I wouldn’t have bought clothes — I wouldn’t have come to a department store at all.”
Taeseong said it sincerely.
“Thank you, Hyeona. Thanks to you, this winter is going to be warm.”
It was not because the clothes were warm. It was because the chill of loneliness and defeat that had tormented Taeseong all those years was melting under her warmth and his own sense of achievement.
“Don’t mention it. When you lose more weight, come and look at other clothes. I’ll pick them out for you then too.”
“Is that a promise?”
“Of course. Ah, I’m hungry. What shall we eat for dinner? You have to eat chicken breast, so...... shall we go somewhere good for salad?”
He was grateful for her consideration.
“Today...... shall we have a cheat day? How about steak? It’s protein.”
“Oh! Yes! I know a place.”
The two of them walked side by side through the night streets.
Taeseong’s reflection in the shop windows was no longer a cowering fat man.
He was a rather decent man, walking with his shoulders back.
2023 had been cold and hard, but the end of it was brilliant.
And he felt certain that the coming 2024 would be different.
Taeseong now had money, had found a style, and above all had people beginning to root for him.
Just then, the smartphone in his coat pocket vibrated.
Wopora.
‘Hmm, what grand mission is it handing out this time.’
Taeseong smiled wryly and took out his phone.
But the message on the screen was not a mission window.
Ding.
[Member Kim Taeseong. Merry Christmas.]
[We have prepared a gift for a member who has performed his missions so faithfully.]
‘A gift?’
At the bottom of the screen was a fortune cookie wrapped in Christmas decoration.
He clicked the cookie icon, and with a cute snapping effect a long slip of paper appeared.
[Chase digital gold and you will meet a benefactor.]
‘Digital gold means.’
There was only one thing the industry called digital gold.
‘Bitcoin.’
That cryptocurrency, forever in the news, that some called a scam and others called a revolution.
The first battleground of 2024 that Wopora had thrown at him was Bitcoin.
Taeseong stopped walking for a moment and stared at the screen.
After conquering the stock market, the coin market next. The scale kept growing.
“Assistant Manager? What’s wrong?”
Kang Hyeona, walking ahead, looked back.
“Ah, it’s nothing. I just...... have a feeling something interesting will happen next year too.”
Taeseong put the phone in his pocket and smiled at her.
Into the cold winter wind, a burning ember called Bitcoin had come flying.
Next year looked as if it would be far more dynamic than this one.
Taeseong pulled his collar closed and moved back to Kang Hyeona’s side.
The Christmas carol ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ was ringing out all down the street.