CHAPTER 54: A MILLIONAIRE

The first thing Yohan did after waking up that morning was pick up his phone and check his bank account. He refreshed it over and over for the hundredth time.

"Seventeen million, four hundred and six thousand, two hundred and twenty-three dollars," he muttered, eyes widening.

He still couldn’t believe it. Falling back on his bed, he stared at the ceiling.

"Seventeen million dollars," he whispered. "That’s... a lot of money."

He sighed. Surprisingly, he wasn’t as excited as he thought he would be. The world was still spinning, the sky was still blue. Nothing had magically changed just because there was a fortune sitting in his account.

"I wonder if my name will go into the Forbes list," Yohan thought aloud. "I guess it would... I’m probably one of the richest people in this city."

Even as he spoke about it, it felt unreal.

"I can do anything with this money. I can go anywhere. I might even be able to buy a person if I wanted. Damn..."

But there was nothing Yohan ever truly wanted other than to lead a comfortable life. Well—except for women, obviously. But even that had its limits.

"It’s not like I could have sex with every single woman on earth," he muttered. "Though... maybe I could. We can’t be sure."

His thoughts drifted. "I wonder how my uncle is taking all this."

Unfortunately, when he finally left the house that morning, he hadn’t been able to see his uncle. The man had locked himself in his room, refusing to come out or even go to work.

"It’s not like I was going to laugh at him," Yohan sighed. "I just wanted to see the look on his face."

He imagined it—his uncle raging like a bull, instead of the broken, pathetic puppy he had become.

"If only he had listened to me," Yohan muttered.

That morning, he visited the loan shark before going to work.

"I’ve transferred your complete money," Yohan said.

Gunjoo’s eyes raised, "Everything?"

"Yeah, everything," Johan repeated.

"Wait a minute..." the loan shark clicked a few buttons on the laptop sitting on the desk. His eyes widened. "Wow... it’s all there."

An excited smile spread across his face. He looked back at the kid sitting on the other side of the table with deep fascination.

"Are you some kind of genius? It’s only been three days."

Johan smirked. "Hmm... a genius? Maybe I am—in this lifetime, at least."

Gunjoo continued to stare at him in awe.

"Well... I guess it’s been great doing business with you. And if you ever need cash, you know where to find me. I’ll be ready to give you a discount," he said.

The more he spoke, the more his enthusiasm increased. People like Yohan, who actually paid their debts back, were rare in this line of business, mostly because of the crushing unfairness of the interest rates. To him, Yohan was like a rare gem. Building a healthy relationship with someone like this was a very big business opportunity.

’Too bad I won’t be needing his services ever again’ Johan reasoned, shaking his head slightly. ’I probably even have more money than him’.

"You know," Johan leaned back, his tone casual, "there’s one more thing you could do for me"

"What do you need?" Gunjoo cut in quickly. "I assure you, I’ll do everything in my power to help you."

"That house, my uncle brought in. When you’re ready to sell it, I’d like to be the first person you call."

"Okay," he agreed, though still a little confused. "I don’t understand... your uncle only took out the loan a few days ago. He hasn’t even defaulted yet."

"Just trust me, he will. And also, don’t mention anything about me to him. You understand?"

"Of course. You have my word."

"Good," he got up to leave, "Have a good day."

When Yohan arrived at the shop, Mia was waiting outside.

"Mia, I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I had a little matter to attend to."

"It’s fine," she said, her tone clipped. "I only just got here."

She wore a black shirt and blue tights, her busty cleavage very visible from above. Johan caught himself staring.

’I thought I’d never get to see those pretty girls again’ he mused. A tear almost slipped from his eye before he snapped back to reality.

"Let me get the door," he said, fumbling with the lock before it clicked open.

He grinned. "It’s good to have you back,"

Mia chuckled. "I can’t say it doesn’t feel good to be back."

"That’s good. How about your other job? Have you already quit?"

"What do you mean did I quit, I never actually started, I was supposed to start today... but I did call the boss and told him I wasn’t going to come anymore, and he didn’t take it so well," her tone dropped.

Yohan noticed it, "I’m sorry about that,"

"It’s fine, they weren’t even offering to pay as much as you did and I could honestly use the money right now. With Jamie gone, I have to pay the rent and everything else on my own,"

"Damn, that must be rough,"

"It’s okay honestly. I’m not complaining, I can handle everything on my own," she tried to force a smile, "I realized that I really shouldn’t have depended on him too much,"

Hearing her complain about her money problems, Yohan was reminded of his enormous fortune. That meant money was never going to be a problem for him since he already had more money than he could ever imagine.

He actually didn’t even need to work anymore.

"Mia, if you had a million dollars, what would you do?"

"Huh, what kind of question is that? I’ll buy a lot of things, clothes, shoes, a car, maybe even a big house..."

"Then what else?"

"Hmmm," She thought about it for a moment, "I’ll probably put the rest in charity and give to those who don’t have enough,"

She said what most normal people would say if they were asked such a hypothetical question, but for Yohan it wasn’t a hypothetical question. He was actually wondering how he would spend his millions.

Those kinds of things would attract too much attention, and then his quiet life would all of a sudden be filled with so much responsibility and attention.

’then there will be no time to have actual fun’

But that wasn’t even the only thing he was worried about. There was something called the butterfly effect.

After what happened with his uncle he was worried about how much of the future his actions could change. There were certain things that were meant to happen and some people he wanted to eventually meet and he could only do these things under special circumstances.

If he went on a spending spree he could greatly alter the course of his life, and that would render most of the information he had about the future useless. So for now he needed to keep his wealth hidden.

’but that doesn’t mean I can’t spend a little bit of it’

"Mia, why don’t we go shopping?" He said excitedly.

...

"Yohan, where are we going?" Mia asked as he pulled her along

"I already told you, we are going shopping,"

They hopped in a taxi and headed to the mall.

"Pick anything you want, I’ll pay," he said as they entered.

"Yohan what kind of joke is this?" Mia said disappointed, "we should be back at the shop working, the massage parlour is already struggling enough we can’t be randomly closing like this if not we would run out of business,"

"Yeah, I know," but how could he tell her that the shop was now more like a hobby than an actual business to him. It was no more about the money.

"Why don’t we quickly finish up here before heading back, I was planning on buying a few things but I didn’t want to come on my own. Come on, let’s just have some fun?"

"okay," she sighed, "what did you want to get?"

"Hmm... let’s first start with some clothes, do you think they’ll have some good ones?"

Mia turned to see the shop Yohan was pointing at, it was the most luxurious clothing shop in the entire mall.

"Yohan we can’t go to that one," she laughed, "it’s not for people like us,"

She figured Yohan didn’t know any better since he was a guy, only girls cared about things like that.

"What do you mean?" Yohan wondered.

"I mean it’s far too expensive, a single T-shirt would cost like a thousand dollars. Don’t worry I’ll take you somewhere where we can get some cheap clothes,"

Yohan chuckled, if only she knew that for him a thousand dollars was just like a drop of rain in the ocean.

"C’mon let’s just check it out," he held her hand and led her in that direction.

"Yohan wait... you don’t understand, it’ll be so embarrassing to go in there and come out empty handed,"

But before she could finish they were already inside.