I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Chaebol Family-Chapter 52: Yoo Seon-jun (2)

“...Why?”

“Because it seemed like the others kind of agreed with me. We might argue a bit, but let’s not go full-out like the other side of the family. But then you showed up out of nowhere, and I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe I was wrong.”

“So they’re all the same, but I’m different?”

Yoo Seon-jun asked back like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You think you’re the same as us? A kid who wants to run a company before they even graduate elementary school? And... that’s not even what I meant. Ha-yeon, you’re different from us. You’re more like Uncle Jin-ha or Grandpa.”

A burning greed.

That was the biggest difference between me and Yoo Seon-jun, between Yoo Jin-ha and Yoo Jin-seok.

“...You’ve got a better eye than I thought, oppa.”

I figured he was just a dumb playboy wasting his life away on gambling, but turns out he’s just a soft-hearted fool.

I pouted a little.

Makes it hard to be cold to him. What kind of upbringing did he even have?

If you’re a third-generation chaebol, act like it—drunk driving, drugs, sex scandals or whatever... Oh right, he did do drugs.

But looking into his eyes now, he seems clean.

“So what are you gonna do? Just live like this and let Lee Seon-pyo stab you in the back? Quietly step aside when the time comes?”

Do you even have a backup plan?

“....”

He placed a 500-won coin in my small hand and said,

“Flip the coin.”

“...?”

A fiery intensity lit up in his eyes. Oppa leaned in and whispered in my ear with a low, even voice.

“If it lands on heads, I’ll be on your side for life. No matter what you do to Uncle—stab him in the back or whatever—I won’t care.”

“What? Th-that kind of—”

I was caught off guard. This... this lunatic...!

Yoo Seon-jun laughed.

“Nice. That face—I wanted to see it. You always go around with that stiff face, acting like the whole world is under your control. I hated that.”

“...What if it lands on tails?”

“Then I’ll give up. If I don’t even have the luck to land heads here, what kind of business luck could I possibly have? I’m betting my whole life here—the least I need is a little luck.”

“That’s... that’s gambler’s fallacy. Just because you’re lucky here doesn’t mean you’ll be lucky in business...”

“Well said. I am a gambler. A superstitious fool who believes in luck.”

Step.

Yoo Seon-jun came closer. For a second, his worn-out face seemed to show a flicker of madness.

“So go on—flip the coin! Test your luck, Yoo Ha-yeon!”

He pressed the coin into my hand and said it.

‘...’

I frowned slightly.

“What if this is one of those double-headed coins...”

I opened my half-closed fist and examined the coin. Just an ordinary 500-won coin.

He chuckled like it was funny.

“Of course you’d think that, my clever little sister. Sadly, that coin is in my pocket.”

Yoo Seon-jun pulled out another coin from his pocket. It had heads on both sides.

“...Why did you even bring that?”

“To mess with you.”

“....”

This guy...!

Kinda impressive.

‘I’ll have to try that trick on Si-hyun sometime.’

As I idly thought that, I stared at the coin.

“...So I just flip it?”

“Well... if you beg this dear older brother, I might let you use this special coin instead? Go on, call me oppa, Ha-yeon.”

Yoo Seon-jun grinned playfully.

“No way. I can’t do that.”

My pride wouldn’t allow it. I bit my lip and flipped the coin.

Ping!

The result came immediately.

Heads.

Success.

“Lucky you.”

Yoo Seon-jun muttered.

***

Thanks to winning the bet, I got the trick coin as a bonus.

‘Guess he used it a lot....’

While I sat quietly, fondling the smooth coin and staring up at the sky, Yoo Seon-jun smoked a cigarette right in front of his cute cousin—that’s me, obviously.

“If you go all out against each other... my dad can’t win.”

Fwooo.

The cigarette smoke drifted over.

“If I sided with my father, who knows what would happen... but either way, our family would be screwed.”

“So that’s why you’re siding with me?”

“Yeah. I don’t know Uncle’s personality, but I think I get yours. You’re too greedy to cut off people close to you. Even if your ambition is huge, your competence is just as real.”

“Hmph, you sure like making assumptions.”

“Isn’t it true? You say I’m foolish, but you’re no different, Ha-yeon.”

“...I have my reasons.”

I shook my head.

I didn’t want to get into that line of thought right now.

“...Oppa. But why now? I won’t ask ‘why me’—I’m special, obviously. But... I haven’t done anything yet. Talent aside, I’ve got no power or influence right now.”

No matter how smart Yoo Seon-jun is, there’s no way he could know what I’ve done. Even Yoo Jin-ha, who’s got more experience and brains to match, barely noticed anything.

“Oh? Isn’t it obvious? It’s because you haven’t done anything yet... that’s when I’m valuable. If I made this same offer when you were twenty, do you think you’d have accepted?”

There’s no way I would’ve accepted such an arrogant deal.

“....”

“See? Told you. And gamblers don’t calculate odds. They just... jump in when the pot looks good.”

Yoo Seon-jun flicked the coin.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

Spin.

The coin spun. It landed heads.

“Heads.”

I murmured. Yoo Seon-jun shrugged and smiled.

“Yep, heads. But even if it had landed tails, it wouldn’t have mattered. Right? What does a coin even mean, really.”

“Whew...”

I let out a sigh. Now I understood what he meant.

“The coin toss never mattered in the first place. The decision was mine.”

It was just... a show to mess with my rationality for a moment.

Regardless of social status, Yoo Seon-jun had no choice but to cooperate with me. He was the one in a rush, not me.

“Smart as always. That’s my clever little sister. Looks like I don’t have many chances left to tease you.”

Yoo Seon-jun spoke wistfully and patted my head.

“...You smell like smoke. Hands off. Quit smoking already.”

I shook my head.

“There’s nothing you won’t say to your oppa, huh.”

Grumbling, Yoo Seon-jun lowered his hand and stared absentmindedly at Yoo Ji-won and Yoo Ho-jun, who were walking over from the other side of the pension. Jin-ha’s two kids were bickering and carrying a bag full of ice cream.

“I hope they didn’t just get cheap stuff.”

“Please not Bibibik... Don’t they have Baskin here?”

“There’s barely one in Seoul, why would there be one in this countryside?”

Tch.

At least food’s gotten better these days, which is nice.

From far off, Yoo Ji-won waved at us.

The other kids, now lively middle and high schoolers, came out one by one to grab their ice cream.

So when it came to our turn, there was barely anything left. Yoo Ji-won glanced awkwardly at Seon-jun oppa.

“Sorry, there wasn’t much, so I just grabbed what was there... This is all that’s left.”

...Two Bibibiks and a SsangSsang Bar.

“Hahaha, it’s the stuff Ha-yeon hates. I’ll eat the Bibibik, so you take the chocolate one, Ha-yeon.”

I pouted, displeased, and picked up the last SsangSsang Bar.

Snap.

Fair and square, half and half.

“Here, oppa, take this. One Bibibik and half a SsangSsang Bar. That enough?”

“...Yeah.”

‘Tch, barely anything left. I can’t just chew through it like usual.’

This is why I don’t like nice people.

I slowly licked the half ice cream, letting the sweet chocolate melt into sticky patches around my mouth.

***

A few days later.

I sat down with Yoo Seon-jun, calmly laid out the documents, and began explaining.

“So... what I need you to do is go to the investment finance companies and smooth things over. I was a bit worried Uncle might find out, but this works out. Even if the company goes down, we just need to give the higher-ups an escape hatch... something like that.”

“...Wait, wait. What even is all this?”

Yoo Seon-jun’s confused eyes darted between the papers and me.

“Hmm... It’s the debt left over from Japanese investment failures by those firms?”

“Why do you have those papers?”

“Because I arranged those investments...? Don’t worry. Daehwa Securities won’t take any damage.”

“Judging by the scale... if I’m reading this right... there’s no way this ends quietly!”

“Yup yup, put it all ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ together and it’s several hundred billion won. A perfect little bomb to set off when the time’s right.”

Hydrogen bombs use atomic bombs as detonators. This will be the detonator for the upcoming IMF crisis.

“....”

Thump.

The cigarette dropped from Yoo Seon-jun’s mouth. I smiled playfully and patted his shoulder.

“Oh, did you finally succeed at quitting smoking today?”

Yoo Seon-jun didn’t respond.