Chapter 52 – Playground – Part 3

Chapter 52 – Playground – Part 3

“What’s your dream?”

“I want to earn a lot of money. I want to be a good daughter to my grandmother. And I want to buy and eat a lot of delicious food.”

Woojin, looking at Han Bora, slowly nodded his head.

Woojin thought Bora resembled her teary-eyed grandmother and her father, who had passed away.

People inevitably grow to resemble their parents.

Because her father unconsciously taught Han Bora her character, the character she saw and unconsciously learned would not disappear.

Since a person’s core personality doesn’t change easily, her character didn’t change much even when she was with her mother.

If you were to judge Han Bora based on what many people say, she is kind.

But being kind alone wouldn’t allow Bora’s dream to come true.

However, if someone teaches her, the possibility is high.

Because she was smart.

Woojin, smiling faintly, asked,

“You want to earn a lot of money?”

“Yes.”

“Then what should you do?”

“Hmm… I need to study hard.”

“What kind of studies should you do?”

“The studies they teach at school.”

Woojin thought it was natural for Bora to respond that way.

Because Mom made the rules and trapped Bora in them.

But Bora had broken those rules before.

She broke the rules of spelling and the alphabet to express herself.

If given information, Bora was a child with the sensibility to always overturn her thoughts.

“What School teaches is basic common sense, and knowing more basic common sense than others doesn’t mean you’ll make a lot of money.”

“Basic common sense… what is that?”

“What many people know, that’s what we call common sense.”

“Oh…”

“School is a place that teaches basic common sense that people should know, like English, math, and Korean. Knowing a little more of this basic common sense than others won’t make you a lot of money. If it could, everyone who went to School would have made a lot of money.”

As Woojin spoke, he was also reading Bora’s expression.

Her eyes moved to the upper right, then back and forth to the upper left.

And she slightly parted her lips, nodding her head subtly.

It was proof that she was trying to understand his words, and that she was indeed understanding.

Woojin continued speaking.

“Making a lot of money means making more than those who went to School. If people who went to School earn ten thousand won a month, then for you, Bora, earning twenty thousand or thirty thousand won means making a lot of money.”

“Then… can’t you make a lot of money at School?”

“No, at School you learn common sense, and you can study how to make money separately.”

Just then, Grandmother brought yogurt on a tray.

“Have some of this.”

“Thank you.”

Woojin gently tore the back of the yogurt with his teeth and sucked it up.

Han Bora mumbled, watching Woojin.

“Studying how to make money…”

Woojin nodded and said,

“What School doesn’t teach, that’s called ‘Finance.’ Don’t you want to learn it?”

I want to learn it.

Oh really?

Bora bowed politely as before.

Yes. I would be grateful if you could teach me.

Woojin nodded slightly.

He wanted to raise this child, who reminded him of himself, to see what would become of her.

So the first thing to do was to change the meaning of money in Bora’s mind.

Woojin began using a psychological technique.

Bora, why do we call the money you’re holding ‘money’?

Hmm… because the person who made it decided to name it ‘money’?

Why did the person who made it name the paper ‘money’?

Bora’s expression, which had been lost in thought, changed to one of confusion.

Things were going according to Woojin’s plan.

Semantic satiation.

People sometimes look at an object and suddenly wonder, ‘Why is this called this?’

There are times when a familiar word feels strange.

A brief confusion sets in, like ‘Why is it called this? Its shape is like this?’ and so on.

In other words, there are times when one forgets the concept and definition of an object, and a lot of individual, personal meaning is given to it.

That’s what semantic satiation is called.

Woojin was using this.

I don’t know.

Bora, instead of calling the paper you’re holding ‘money,’ think of it as ‘paper with numbers on it.’ Want to try repeating that?

Semantic satiation disappears quickly, so it needed to be continuously implanted into the unconscious.

Paper with numbers on it.

Paper with numbers on it.

“Always say that out loud every time you see money. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Can you get me a notebook and a pen?”

“Yes.”

As Bora happily skipped to the room, Kim Taehyun asked,

“Are you giving her private lessons?”

“Her starting point is different from other children, so I think I should teach her the basics.”

Her starting point would be very different in other ways.

Woojin continued speaking.

Woojin, who received the notebook and pen, began to write something.

[9 – 3 ÷ ⅓ + 1 =]

Kim Taehyun, who was sitting with one leg crossed, frowned as if thinking about the problem.

“Isn’t this a middle school problem?”

“It’s an elementary school 5th-grade level problem. Detective Kim, it’s okay. Only 60% of adults get it right.”

“Then I’m in the 40%…”

As Detective Kim laughed in exasperation, Woojin asked Bora,

“I’ve never seen a problem like this before…”

“Since it’s a problem with all four basic operations, you calculate it in the order of multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.”

Bora’s eyes sparkled as if she had realized something.

As Woojin handed her the pen, Bora’s small hands moved quickly.

Woojin smiled, amused by Bora’s way of avoiding the trap.

“So, it becomes… the answer is 1.”

“You’re smart.”

“Hehe, thank you for teaching me.”

Watching that, Detective Kim Taehyun almost cursed.

He was also someone who had studied hard to become a detective in his own way.

But looking at the two of them, what should I say?

They speak simply and understand simply.

Even though they were in the same space, he felt a sense of disconnect, as if he was isolated.

However, having spent a lot of time with Woojin, he quickly got used to it.

It was just one more kid in front of him.

“Earlier, I told you to think of money not as money, but as numbers, right? Right now, Bora is doing Number Study to earn money. Numbers have a flow. If you can’t solve the law of that calculated flow, you can’t earn money. If you get the answer right, you can earn money.”

“How hard do I have to study numbers to earn money?”

“Until this uncle tells you to stop. And the fact that money is numbers is a secret only Bora and this uncle know. You shouldn’t tell anyone else, okay?”

Bora beamed, her eyes sparkling like candles, and said,

“Will you come see me again? Really?”

“Of course, come on, it’s a promise.”

A secret was enough to foster a bond.

If it’s considered a good secret, people perceive themselves as special compared to others, so the secret shines even brighter.

It is also used to tempt the opposite sex.

“I’ll come again in three days. Bora needs to keep a diary.”

“A diary?”

“It’s a diary that not many people write.”

Woojin drew a square in the notebook. Then he drew a line to create two columns.

And he wrote short words in each column.

Income, Expenditure.

“When Bora writes numbers, she’ll write down how much she spent on expenditures as numbers. Things like pocket money, if money comes in, she can write the numbers in the income section. Once a day, ‘Oh, I got 10,000 won today?'”

Kim Taehyun clicked his tongue.

He was telling a 7-year-old child to write a household ledger diary.

Woojin’s expression at that moment made it seem like he would be teaching balance sheets or accounting in a little while.

What’s even more ridiculous is that I feel like Han Bora would understand all of it.

When Woojin handed her the pen, Bora wrote ‘Mister 10,000’ in the imported eggs section.

“Good job. You just need to ask Grandmother and write down the money that came in and went out that day.”

That’s how Woojin left the house, receiving deep bows from Detective Kim and Han Bora.

As Woojin went down the stairs, he suddenly looked back and saw Bora, who had been watching him from the front gate, bowing again.

Woojin waved his hand one more time and then turned his back again.

Bora stood there until Woojin’s figure disappeared from her sight.

And she murmured.

“Mister… Daddy-Long-Legs.”

“Are you going home?”

Woojin buckled his seatbelt and replied to Kim Taehyun, who was holding the steering wheel.

“Yes.”

“Wow… By the way, Bora seems really smart, doesn’t she?”

“Yes. She’s a smart child. I think she’ll be able to take care of herself well.”

“You should teach me how to make money too.”

“Detective Kim, as a Civil Servant, you have many restrictions.”

Kim Taehyun wore a confident expression.

“Still, this brother, at this age, has built an asset. I’ve paid off all my house loan. You know it’s hard to do that in your 30s, right? Hahaha!”

“It’s not an asset, it’s a liability.”

“Huh? My house is a liability? I paid it all off?”

“You pay property taxes, don’t you? You can think of it as living in a rented house by putting down a deposit with the country.”

“What about when you sell it for a capital gain?”

Woojin nodded his head.

“What will you do after making a profit?”

“I’ll direct it to a better place, of course.”

“So that house is also a debt?”

Kim Taehyun blinked and asked.

“Then what should I do to make it entirely my asset?”

“Instead of using the profit to move to a more expensive residence, Director, split your money, add it to a loan, and buy a residence and a commercial building. If you rent out the commercial building, you can use that rent to cover the bank interest and property taxes, and then wait for the market value to increase for both the commercial building and the residence.”

Kim Taehyun nodded as if he understood.

It was something he knew a little about, but he was too timid to do it.

“The important thing here, I think, is to consider whether the purchased residence and commercial building can generate profit due to inflation. Prices are constantly rising. This is proof that the value of money is falling. If an ice cream cost one thousand won and now costs one thousand one hundred won, you could say prices have risen, but if you consider the value of money, you can’t say it has increased. Similarly, if a commercial building assumed to be one hundred million won became one hundred ten million, that’s not profit. One hundred twenty million would be profit.”

“You mean I have to look for a good location?”

“Yes. You need to know well, both macroeconomically and microeconomically.”

“Should I go on site visits or something?”

“That’s not bad, but you can check the electricity bill of the area you want to invest in. High electricity usage often means that the area is becoming active. In Detective Kim’s case, you should aim for new commercial buildings. Prime commercial buildings are almost never put up for sale until someone dies, usually.”

“Can I… can I do it?”

“Many people are doing it right now. You can do it. Detective Kim, you’re a smart person.”

“I’m not smart?”

“That kind of framing, limiting yourself, isn’t good.”

“Woojin, when people deal with you, they’ll think differently, right? Like feeling self-defeating? Think about what you’ve shown so far.”

“It’s just ordinary…”

“Damn it, ugh…”

Just then, Woojin received a call.

It was Manager Lee.

“Yes, Manager.”

-Did you have a good career counseling session with your sibling?

“Yes. Thanks to Manager Lee. Thank you.”

-You need to come to the company now. Sales Team 4 is pushing a project, and Jessica from Lpon? She wants to talk to you. Do you know her?