6.

People who come to the bank tend to pile in during the morning.

To begin with, there were more people than you’d think who used a half-day morning off specifically to come handle bank business, and on top of that, people who didn’t have jobs also tended to show up mostly in the morning, so the bank clerks really had it rough.

Lee Sujin was one of those clerks.

It wasn’t as packed as a Monday morning, but seeing the crowd that had already formed by Tuesday morning, Lee Sujin let out a quiet sigh no one else could hear.

And just how many problem customers there were.

“May I see your ID?”

“I come here all the time, and you don’t know me!?”

“Pardon?”

“I said I come here all the time! I’ve seen you all the time too, miss, and you don’t know me!?”

Who the hell are you, then!? Holding back the urge to say that, Lee Sujin kept her smile and replied.

“Ah! O-of course I know you! But I still need to verify your ID.”

“I don’t have one, so just do it!”

“Pardon? I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“Why do I have to prove I’m me!?”

“Oh come on, sir, why are you acting like this?”

“Why am I your sirrrr!!!”

In the end, it turned into a whole scene, and she had no choice but to go back and forth with him until the security guard escorted him away.

And there were others too—people who just wanted to withdraw money but said they didn’t know their PIN, people who wanted to open an account and complained about why there was so much to verify, people who threw tantrums demanding a loan.

There were countless problem customers.

After dealing with who knew how many of them...

While Lee Sujin was already pretty exhausted, she pressed the button and called the next number.

And Lee Sujin’s eyes snapped wide open.

“Whoa.”

A young customer was something to welcome, sure, but more than that—

The man walking up after being called was strikingly good-looking.

He was wearing a cap, but it wasn’t the kind of face a cap could hide.

She stared blankly, thinking he might be some celebrity, until the man sat down in the chair across from her and looked at her like, What is it?

Only then did she come to her senses.

Good-looking enough to make someone zone out.

And on top of that, he had a boyish vibe, but his build was good too, so he gave off a very masculine kind of charm as well—she couldn’t help but get hit by it.

Lee Sujin calmed herself as best she could and asked.

“What kind of business are you here for?”

“Ah, I got a text from the bank.”

“A text?”

She tilted her head, wondering if he’d gotten hit with some kind of spam.

It was rare for someone to visit a branch because of a text message.

So she looked at him with a puzzled expression, and the man—Seong—opened the message history and handed her his smartphone.

And then—

“Huh?”

Just like Seong said, there really was a message telling him to visit the branch, so she made a bewildered face.

Did they usually send texts like this?

Thinking that, and just in case, Lee Sujin asked.

“Did you bring your ID with you?”

“Yes, here.”

As he said that and handed over his ID—

Lee Sujin looked at Seong and said.

“I’m going to check your account, just a moment.”

Only after he agreed to various things and handed over his ID could she check the account.

And the moment she did, Lee Sujin’s eyes started blinking like crazy.

The kind of reaction that only came out when you saw something you couldn’t believe.

Seong looked at her, confused.

“Uh, just a second. Is this a system error???”

Lee Sujin, thinking something was off, checked again.

But...

It was still the same.

『Balance: 92,316,021,240 won』

...What?

What the hell is this?

That was exactly how she felt as she stared and verified it—and then, while she was still doing that—

A new deposit entry popped up.

A fresh deposit that had just come in.

And it was—

『Deposit - [Rapid Guild] - 12,668,124,530』

‘Twelve billion...?’

The amount was enough to make her jaw drop.

And with it, the balance changed.

『Balance: 104,984,145,770 won』

Seeing a balance that had gone past ten billion, Lee Sujin just sat there with a stunned expression.

But even so, she didn’t have the luxury of losing her composure and making a mistake.

Lee Sujin hurriedly moved to act.

“C-could you please wait just a moment?”

“Ah, yes.”

Seong nodded, fully understanding.

To be fair, even he was shocked when he saw his own balance.

Thinking that, Seong smiled a little, and, belatedly, Lee Sujin had no choice but to call the branch manager.

At this scale, the branch manager had to step in.

No, honestly, wouldn’t even a branch manager be handling this kind of money for the first time?

That thought crossed her mind, but...

Frankly, Lee Sujin wasn’t in any position to do anything herself.

And besides—

‘No, he’s that handsome, and he’s rich too!’

Looking at Seong like she was seeing a cheat character, Lee Sujin said.

“N-next time you visit our branch, please use the VIP counter over there, not the general counter.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yes. There’s no waiting, so it’ll be more convenient.”

“Ah, thank you.”

While Seong was thanking her—

At Lee Sujin’s call, a middle-aged man with a slightly bald head came running out of the branch manager’s office.

It was Branch Manager Han Sangman, the manager of this Nara Bank branch.

“Oh my, you came to the general counter. I’ll escort you.”

At the branch manager suddenly appearing, the other people looked a little surprised and started looking at Seong differently.

At first, they’d been sneaking glances because he was a handsome young man.

But now the branch manager had personally run out to escort him—

So, yeah. He really is different, huh.

With those admiring looks, they started murmuring.

“Wow, he’s handsome, and he’s rich too?”

“Being a bank VIP doesn’t always mean you’re rich, but...”

“If the branch manager himself is doing that...”

“He’s gotta be loaded.”

“Man, I’m jealous. What would life like that even be like?”

“Huh? But I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere???”

“Is he a celebrity?”

“Maybe?”

Leaving those comments behind, Seong was guided by Branch Manager Han Sangman to the VIP room located all the way in the back of the bank.

7.

‘Whew. I can’t believe he went to the general counter.’

He truly hadn’t expected that.

He wondered because the guy was young, but...

He really was pretty naive.

Thinking that to himself, Han Sangman was also letting out a quiet sigh of relief.

He’d been wondering what was up since the man had just been letting that much money sit there doing nothing.

But he seemed like a young man who genuinely didn’t know much, and Han Sangman thought he couldn’t miss this opportunity.

Banks, by nature, operated by rolling customers’ money to generate profit, then paying interest based on that profit and so on.

And the better each branch was at operating that money and making it work, the more “crumbs” would drop from HQ.

Han Sangman had absolutely no intention of letting this chance slip away.

‘Ten billion. Ten billion!’

Managing the full ten billion wouldn’t be easy, but even if he handled only half of it, he’d definitely get a huge bonus.

And if it wasn’t management but even just getting him into a savings product?

Things would get insane.

Especially at this amount, he could even process loans requested by nearby mid-sized companies, so he’d be able to rake in serious profit.

That was why—getting him into a product no matter what was Han Sangman’s goal.

“Heh heh heh. Looks like this is your first time at a VIP counter.”

“Ah, yes. I didn’t even know a place like this existed.”

“That can happen. It’s a bit unfamiliar, after all.”

As if he’d finally found his place again, Branch Manager Han Sangman wiped the sweat pouring off him with a handkerchief.

Seong, curious what would come next, stayed quiet and listened.

Han Sangman spoke to him about this and that.

“From now on, not just at our branch, but at any Nara Bank, you can use the VIP counter.”

“Ah, then there’s no waiting?”

“Oh! Of course! Not only is there no waiting, you can also talk comfortably like this.”

Not long after the branch manager said that, an employee brought over a drink.

It was a cold beverage served in a very high-end glass.

Thinking the service was pretty good, Seong took a sip.

It was a chilled tea, and he liked the refreshing crispness, so he drank with satisfaction.

Then Branch Manager Han Sangman carefully opened his mouth.

“The reason we asked you to visit today is because it seemed a shame to leave such a large amount of money just sitting idle, so we sent you a text to recommend a few products. Thank you for taking the time to come.”

“Ah.”

So his older sister had been right.

Seong nodded.

She’d said it wouldn’t be bad to keep about 50% and invest the rest, right?

Thinking of that, Seong nodded again.

Seeing that as a fairly positive signal, Han Sangman brightened noticeably and said.

“Then I’ll show you the products right away!”

As he said that, he explained various products, and Seong listened quietly.

But of course—there were almost no products with absolutely zero risk, and among the options, what appealed to him the most was a savings product, but when Han Sangman explained that it would be difficult to put an amount this large into savings products alone, Seong tilted his head, puzzled.

Then there wasn’t really anything that pulled him in.

And even if he did nothing, they’d keep paying him interest anyway.

He didn’t really see what other products had that much merit.

‘Wouldn’t it be better to invest in big tech stocks instead?’

He’d heard these days it was trendy to invest in stable stocks with strong reliability, like big tech, rather than savings products.

Wouldn’t that be better than leaving it with a bank?

Sure, that would have more risk than a bank, but...

Seong wasn’t really thinking that far.

After Han Sangman had explained for quite a while, Seong said.

“Hmm. Nothing really grabs me. I’ll just leave it /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ as is.”

“...Excuse me?”

“Thank you for the recommendations. Then.”

With that, Seong left the VIP counter, and Branch Manager Han Sangman could only stare after him with a blank, devastated expression.