####
Making money is boring and pedantic.
But spending money is simple and fun.
Overspending, YOLO, impulse purchases, and so on all prove that this is true. Spending is far more enjoyable than earning.
Even so, is it possible to spend one hundred million won in a single day?
Even fun games get tiresome if you play them too much, so maybe spending money is similar.
So today, I’ll experience it for myself.
‘Even if the clothes cost a few million won each, to reach one hundred million…’
The clothes I’d just bought at the luxury boutique came to around ten million won. Roughly calculating, I’d need to buy about ten times what I’d bought so far.
‘Hmm… I don’t have enough hands to carry all this.’
The problem was that I had money, but no hands.
If I had a cart, I could just toss everything in and go around.
Then, suddenly, a scene from a drama came to mind.
When a chaebol’s wife bought things at a department store, the employees beside her would all rush over and carry her bags.
I looked toward the customer service center for a moment.
‘Would I seem like a nightmare customer if I asked them to carry my stuff?’
I wasn’t sure, but I figured I could at least ask.
Besides, I’d spent ten million won today. Couldn’t I expect that much service?
Feeling a little nervous, I approached the customer service center again.
Then the employee who had issued my card earlier greeted me again with a smile.
“Is there something you need?”
You can’t spit in a smiling face.
And you can’t make an unreasonable request to a smiling face, either.
I’d been acting confident this whole time, but now that I was about to say something that sounded like a nuisance customer’s demand, my voice wouldn’t come out properly.
Forcing strength into my vocal cords, I opened my mouth.
“Um… I have a bit too much stuff, so is there anything that can be done about my bags…”
My voice cracked midway through, but I somehow managed to finish speaking.
After hearing me, she glanced at the bags in my hands.
“You’re saying you’re having trouble shopping because you have too much luggage, correct? For Emerald grade and above, we can store your luggage in the VIP lounge. Shall I take care of it for you?”
That was exactly what I wanted to hear.
Rather than strutting around the department store with a swarm of employees carrying my bags, it would be much better to just have them stored.
Feeling the corners of my mouth rise on their own, I answered excitedly.
“Yes, please.”
“Certainly. If you give the bags to me, I’ll have them stored for you. For your reference, the VIP lounge is on the ninth floor of this building.”
It did mean I’d have to go back and forth more, but that was better than walking around like some VIP with an entourage and drawing everyone’s attention.
I just wanted to reach Arcana grade. I had no particular desire to flaunt my wealth to other customers.
Or did I?
‘It’s kind of funny to think that after wrapping myself in luxury goods already.’
Laughing quietly to myself, I handed all my bags over to the employee.
“Thank you.”
“Please enjoy your shopping.”
Enjoy my shopping.
It was time to do exactly that—enjoy shopping.
####
“What? You’re saying there’s a customer who reached Gold grade today?”
Lee Changjin, assistant manager at New Era Department Store.
After receiving a call from one of the senior staff members, he was so startled that his voice rose without him realizing it.
New Era Department Store’s Gold grade.
It was a grade granted to customers who spent over thirty million won a year.
Not only were there not many of them in absolute numbers, but the sort of people who spent that much money at a department store were, by default, at least middle class.
Thirty million won was a large sum to spend at a department store.
In other words, on luxury goods.
It was a grade you could only reach by steadily spending several million won every month, or by spending tens of millions all at once over the course of a few months.
But someone had reached that grade in a single day?
“You are providing VIP service, aren’t you?”
At Lee Changjin’s words, the voice of the senior staff member on the other end of the phone grew quieter and quieter.
[Well, there are almost no VIP customers who reach Gold grade on the same day, so the manual…]
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Senior Staff Han Imin. Your position exists so you can respond flexibly in situations like this.”
[I’ll correct it immediately.]
Lee Changjin let out a somewhat irritated sigh.
Then he spoke again to Senior Staff Imin on the other end of the phone.
“Assign employees to them and provide service immediately. And let me know if there’s anything unusual.”
[Understood.]
“Has the economy gotten better these days?”
After hanging up, Changjin muttered to himself and opened his stock app.
But his account was still full of blue numbers.
A stock account as cold as the chilly weather.
He let out a light sigh and shoved his phone into his pants pocket.
Then he rose from his seat and put on his jacket.
“Honestly.”
####
“Oh… the Gold grade card is different too…”
I had just received the Gold card at the customer service center.
If I threw it and hit someone with it, would it inflict stun?
Laughing to myself at the pointless thought, I smiled.
Gold grade required an annual spending amount of thirty million won.
Emerald had been ten million won, so I only needed to spend roughly twenty million more.
So what I bought was a coat from a different luxury boutique, not the brand I was currently wearing.
I had gone to pick out a coat I could wear in autumn and early winter.
I like coats.
Back in college, I’d even had the strange conviction that I would wear nothing but coats, even if I froze to death.
I really did like dressing up in college.
Maybe it was because I was so rotten inside back then.
‘I should wear them often from now on.’
A coat after three years.
How much was it again? About five and a half million won, roughly.
A single coat cost that much.
Honestly, I was really shocked, but since it was a famous brand, I could understand.
The brand that came to mind immediately when you talked about coats.
That was why it had been my dream brand back in college.
‘It feels strange buying it after becoming younger.’
I didn’t buy it after becoming an adult; I bought it after becoming younger.
They say life is full of twists and turns. You really can’t see an inch ahead.
Anyway, aside from that, I bought other things from the store too.
I bought a regular coat and a trench coat as well. The sneakers were pretty, so I picked up a pair, and I thought it would be nice to have a card wallet, so I bought one of those too.
As I picked up this and that, I surpassed twenty million won in an instant.
Maybe one hundred million won isn’t as much money as I thought.
‘Since you can’t even buy a house with one hundred million, maybe that’s true.’
There’s a saying that even if you win the lottery, you don’t become rich; your life just gets a little more comfortable.
In other words, with ten to twenty billion won, you still can’t escape the world you currently live in.
It’s an ambiguous amount—enough to live comfortably in your original world, but not enough to encounter a new one.
Well, I’m not exactly one to talk, considering I desperately bought a ticket every week hoping for that very lottery.
Holding the paper bags filling both my hands with great care, I began thinking about what to buy next.
“Customer Choi Yeonbi!”
“Huh?”
Someone called me, and I ended up answering with a slightly vacant sound.
When I turned toward where the voice had come from, several employees in suits were standing neatly in a row, looking at me.
Department stores must hire people based on their faces and height. Every single one of them was tall and handsome.
‘So that’s why I got rejected every time I applied for a department store part-time job.’
With that slightly bitter thought, I looked at them.
“I apologize for the delay in our service. I’m Lee Changjin, assistant manager at New Era Department Store.”
A man suddenly offered me his business card and smiled warmly.
I did think of him as an ahjussi, but if I’d been an ordinary woman rather than a man, I might have seen him as the kind of man with mature, middle-aged charm.
Of course, I don’t really like that sort of thing.
In the past, one of my friends kept posting that kind of stuff in our group chat, and we even got into a fight over it.
“Customer? Is there anything that’s causing you inconvenience?”
“Ah… no.”
I was startled out of my useless thoughts. Accepting his business card, I shook my head lightly.
[New Era Department Store Assistant Manager Lee Changjin.]
It was a clean and refined business card.
What had my business card been like? The company name was pointlessly long, so people looked at the company name instead of my own.
‘I wonder how much an assistant manager at a department store makes.’
Judging by Lee Changjin’s face, he seemed to make a lot.
After all, appearances are determined by money.
‘Anyway, why did they come in such a crowd?’
“I understand that you became a Gold member today. We intend to provide service befitting your grade, customer.”
He answered as if he had read my mind. Feeling a little flustered, I scratched my head.
Did they normally rush over in a group like this the moment you reached a grade?
I had no idea.
In the first place, it would be stranger if I did know.
‘…Then, since they’re here anyway.’
“Um… my hands are a little full, so could you help me carry my bags?”
“Of course. What would you like us to do with them? Shall we move them to the lounge? Or would you like us to load them into the vehicle you arrived in?”
Now that I thought about it, I’d left the car at the hotel.
If I’d known I would buy this much, I should have just driven here.
In the first place, I’d bought one with a large storage space because I intended to use it when grocery shopping.
Thinking that I’d done something stupid again, I told them to move the bags to the lounge.
I was going to reach one hundred million won today anyway, so I could put everything in the lounge and take it all at once later.
“Will you be continuing your shopping?”
Lee Changjin and the employees behind him were carrying a mountain of bags.
Feeling strangely odd about it, I stared at them for a while.
‘It’s like a drama.’
Looking at the somewhat unreal scene, I nodded.
“Yes. I’m going to reach Arcana grade today before I leave.”
“I see… wait, pardon?”
Lee Changjin was startled.
The expressions of the employees behind him stiffened a little too.
They looked like their faces had frozen at the thought of continuing to carry bags.
I felt a little sorry, but if they didn’t work at times like this, when would they? It wasn’t as if there were many customers like me who bought this much.
Maybe I should buy them something tasty instead.
“I’m thinking of going around mainly to the luxury boutiques… Could you keep helping me move my bags?”
“O-of course!”
At my words, Lee Changjin’s face brightened more than before.
Then, now that the problem of my hands was solved, there were no issues left.
The remaining amount was about seventy million won.
What should I buy to make people say I bought well?
‘Ah, right. There’s that store, isn’t there?’
There was one brand that proudly held first place in the luxury bag hierarchy.
To be honest, it was funny that people even ranked luxury goods by class, but since I was here anyway, wouldn’t it be good to buy at least one top-tier bag before leaving?
“I’d like to go to the Ers boutique… Where should I go?”