Translator: SourKimchi
The donations were already backed up by about five minutes.
Water drops were still bursting across the chat.
Park Ji-hun made a sour face.
He hadn't realized this many people wanted a Spirit Reading.
But that didn't mean he could break his own rules.
"Today it's FrogKing, Harahyang, dldngur1, AreYouCrying, Nathan. Those five."
At that, the already rowdy chat lit up red-hot.
-FrogKing : yesss got first
-Ertel : lol no way the water drops are still backed up
-ChickenBox : lmao thought i walked into a female cam stream
-SquishyCheese : ah fk missed it this time gotta try again tmrw
-PackMan : so we gotta wait til tmrw? :(
-skog : i even scored Im Tae-seong concert tix and still lost today fk
-ChickenBox : everyone who missed today let's fire faster tmrw
-Ertel : anyway reservations cap at five ppl
Ji-hun watched the chat and spoke.
"We go by what I announced."
-Harahyang : yeah that's right hehe
-AreYouCrying : if it bugs you fire faster lol
-SquishyCheese : guess i'm aiming again tmrw
-SsomyeonMaster : this is only gonna get more cutthroat huh
Ji-hun said nothing more.
It was time for the main job.
As he ran his eyes down the reservation list, a chill crept through his whole body.
He opened his mouth.
"Alright, FrogKing. You're up first."
A moment later, FrogKing's voice came through over the mic.
He was trying not to show his nerves, but his voice was shaking far too much.
"U-uh, hello. I'm in."
"No need to be nervous. What do you want to know."
"Uh, first, m-my love life!"
Ji-hun gazed at the monitor for a beat, then tossed it out flat.
"Nothing right now."
Laughter burst out across the chat at once.
-ChickenBox : shut down right off the bat lol
-skog : happy just hearing it
-PackMan : lmaooooo
FrogKing let out a hollow laugh.
He asked hurriedly.
"When you say nothing right now, that means there could be something later, right?"
"It's not that there's nothing at all."
Ji-hun went on in the same even tone.
"You're just not in any state to be meeting someone."
"......Sorry?"
In that instant, Ji-hun's vision wavered for a moment.
Rows of exercise machines stretching out under fluorescent lights, and a discount notice stuck to the wall.
[Annual Membership Sale –50%]
A flash of FrogKing strolling on a treadmill, face bright with excitement.
But then empty lockers and a shutter pulled firmly down overlapped the image.
Ji-hun spoke.
"You were about to buy a one-year gym membership, weren't you?"
"......Huh? My local gym happened to have a sale, so I was going to sign up. How did you know that?"
Ji-hun kept his eyes where they were as he spoke.
"Half off."
"Y-yeah, that's right."
The chat stirred.
-Ertel : he nailed that
-ChickenBox : the half off too??
-skog : first time watching and this is straight up spine-chilling
Ji-hun opened his mouth.
"Don't buy it."
"Huh? Why not?"
"You won't get more than a few months out of it."
FrogKing blinked.
"What?"
Ji-hun cut it short.
"It's going to shut down."
The chat buzzed all at once.
-Harahyang : wtf
-ChickenBox : the gym's going under??
-SquishyCheese : damn how much money did he just save
FrogKing floundered.
"Wait, but tons of people go there and the place is in perfectly good shape?"
"Only on the surface. And you won't get a clean refund out of it either."
FrogKing swallowed.
"Th-then I guess it's better not to sign up."
"Right."
Ji-hun continued evenly.
"You asked about your love life, didn't you?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Tie up your money in stuff like that, let your life get tangled, and it only drifts further away."
"......"
Ji-hun cut in one last time.
"If you want to date, cut out the snacking first. You need to lose weight."
"I quit late-night snacks and I'm watching my diet."
"Then what's that bag of chips on your desk?"
"......Urk."
Ji-hun sliced it clean.
"Next."
***
"Read my fortune for money, please."
Harahyang, the second to connect, was a young man who still had a boyish air about him.
"You haven't been at your company long."
"That's right. I'm only a year in. But I really can't save any money. What should I do?"
Ji-hun answered shortly.
"No luck with big money coming in."
Harahyang voiced his disappointment.
"You mean there's no jackpot, no lottery-win kind of windfall, right?"
"Yeah."
"Ah, well, can't be helped. Anything else?"
Just then Ji-hun's vision wavered.
The feel of an unfamiliar café window seat brushed his fingertips.
When he lifted his gaze, he saw a woman walking in from across the room, smiling as if glad to see him.
A senior Harahyang had secretly had a crush on back in his college days.
As they exchanged greetings after so long and sipped their coffee, the senior pulled a tablet out of her bag.
On the screen were densely listed coverage items, monthly premiums, and a contract.
"Your paycheck's going to bleed out somewhere pointless, month after month."
"Sorry?"
Harahyang asked back, startled.
"But I'm putting money away every month?"
"It's about to change."
The chat reacted too.
-ChickenBox : he's got somewhere money drains every month?
-Ertel : insurance maybe?
-AreYouCrying : my mom signed me up for insurance and 100,000 won drains out every month fk
-SsomyeonMaster : watching him nail these one by one is so fun lol
Harahyang asked cautiously.
"Drains out every month?"
"Soon you'll get a message from that senior you liked in college."
"What?"
"She'll call you out to a meal, says it's on her after all this time."
Harahyang's voice wavered noticeably.
"......R-really?"
The chat stirred.
-SquishyCheese : huh
-Ertel : wait what is this suddenly a romance
-StraightenYourBack : suddenly getting kinda pissed off, just me?
"Finally, springtime comes for me too..."
Ji-hun cut that hope down.
"She's not calling because she misses you."
Harahyang shot back right away.
"Th-then why?"
"She'll quietly steer it around to insurance."
The chat spiked instantly.
-ChickenBox : fk nice! that's the stuff
-SquishyCheese : oh she's running a sales pitch lmaooo
-FrogKing : you don't get to be the only happy one!
-skog : fresh into the workforce, perfect target
Harahyang said in a flustered voice.
"Insurance? That senior isn't that kind of person."
Ji-hun said calmly.
"You'll end up signing in the end."
Harahyang couldn't get a word out for a while, then finally managed to part his lips.
"What should I do?"
Ji-hun answered with a flat expression.
"Go or don't, that's your call. Just don't sign anything."
"......Okay."
"Next."
***
Before he knew it, the fourth viewer, AreYouCrying, was getting their Spirit Reading.
Leaning back against his chair, Kim Tae-jun stared hard at the monitor.
The gym's annual membership.
The senior's insurance pitch.
Normally it was the kind of thing he'd have laughed off.
But not today.
Because his turn was coming up soon.
Then, the moment AreYouCrying's session ended, Ji-hun said curtly.
"Next."
The chat boiled over as if it had been waiting.
-ChickenBox : finally the big spender's turn
-Ertel : Nathan's here
-SquishyCheese : the Chairman flexing again today?
-FrogKing : yo he actually cracked the top five
-SsomyeonMaster : not using a macro right?
Ji-hun parted his lips.
"Nathan."
Kim Tae-jun, who'd jumped straight into Discord, switched on his mic.
"Hey, it's me."
The chat stirred again.
-Ertel : Chairman has arrived!
-ChickenBox : Chairman has entered!
-duel : got in right as the door closed so the dopamine's gotta be insane
Ji-hun asked in a frosty tone.
"What do you want to know?"
"I have to pick one of two."
"Again? What is it."
"One of them, everyone says I should choose. They say it's the stable one."
"And the other."
"High risk. Most people figure it'll fail."
The chat started to focus too.
-Ertel : whoa look at the scale of the Chairman's dilemma
-ChickenBox : suddenly getting serious here, damn
-SquishyCheese : today's a real legit dilemma huh
Kim Tae-jun went on carefully.
"But I keep getting the feeling the second one's going to work out."
Ji-hun closed his eyes.
In that instant, a Vision flickered past.
A research-building conference room, late at night.
At a table strewn with file folders sat a middle-aged research director.
Across from him, someone in an expensive suit and a luxury watch sat with their back turned.
The face wasn't visible.
After a moment, when he slowly slid a single contract across the table, the research director gave a final nod.
Then the scene changed.
An unfamiliar press hall.
Bursting camera flashes.
A flood of articles.
[Trending] PJ-301, Clinical Results Beyond Expectations
[Breaking] PJ-301 Clears Trials... Heading Into Launch Prep?
On the podium stood the research director, the man in the expensive suit from before, and a smiling Chairman, all together.
In his hesitation, that achievement slips into someone else's hands.
Ji-hun parted his lips.
"Hesitate and you'll hand it right to someone else."
The corners of Kim Tae-jun's eyes trembled.
"......Spell it out for me."
"You're set up to do all the work for somebody else's gain."
The chat stirred.
-ChickenBox : oh
-Ertel : looks like he saw something
-SquishyCheese : here we go again
Kim Tae-jun asked again.
"So what should I do?"
Ji-hun said coldly.
"You've already made up your mind."
"......"
"How long are you going to wait for somebody else to decide for you?"
"What?"
"You've decided, so go with your gut."
A short silence passed.
Kim Tae-jun said nothing for a while.
But when he opened his mouth again, his voice was far steadier than before.
"I figured you'd say something like that. Fine. I'll go with my gut."
He thought that was the end of it, but the very next moment came.
A Vision flashed.
Thundering music.
Flashing lights.
People tangled together.
Shouting.
Someone filming on a phone.
[Exclusive] Third-Generation Chaebol Heir Kim Tae-jun Linked to Brawl Outside Club
[Trending] Kim Tae-jun Caught in Scandal Again Amid Succession Battle
Ji-hun's brow twitched.
"You."
"There's more?"
"Stay away from clubs and places like that for a while."
Kim Tae-jun snorted out a laugh.
"I haven't set foot in a club in over two weeks."
"That day, you'll end up going."
"Ha, fine. I just won't go, then."
But it wasn't over.
"Wait..."
Another Vision came crashing over him.
A rain-soaked road.
A mangled car frame.
A shattered headlight.
The lights of a police car.
Kim Tae-jun slumped over in the driver's seat.
And then, the headlines that began surfacing right after.
[Exclusive] Taesung Group's Kim Tae-jun in Drunk-Driving Crash
[Trending] Third-Generation Chaebol Heir Mired in Scandal Yet Again.
Kim Tae-jun saying something, as if pleading his innocence.
Camera flashes went off without pause, and beyond them, the Chairman's face came into view, hardened cold.
Instead of answering, Ji-hun quietly looked at the chat.
His eyes scanned the lines scrolling rapidly upward, and his gaze sank into something cold.
There was clearly a future to be avoided.
But the moment he warned of it, another disaster latched on right behind it.
This was the first time he'd run into anything like it.
Whoever was behind it hadn't prepared just one move.
They'd plainly laid down trap after trap to come after Tae-jun.
"......That's it for today's broadcast."
*****
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