After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 001

M.J Capital.

An asset management company that handled various types of business.

Among them, Kang Hyeon, who belonged to the investment team, was once again holding his head in his hands while looking at charts today.

‘Haah… Why is it going in the opposite direction again?’

This was already the third time just this month.

Whenever he analyzed and took a position, the chart went in the opposite direction.

If this continues…

Ring ring-!

The phone connected to the internal line rang.

He had a feeling he knew who it was without even answering.

He reached out with a heavy hand and picked up the phone.

-This is Kim Min-ju from the Risk Team. Close your position now.

Risk Team.

A team that manages the company’s risk, and when they judge that an employee’s decision is wrong, they immediately order position closure.

In other words, they were like the grim reapers.

“Could you wait just a little bit? There’s an earnings announcement coming up soon. When that comes out…”

-Then you should have taken the position when the earnings announcement comes out.

She was right.

Why did he enter early and go through this painful time?

-If you don’t close it within one minute, we’ll proceed with forced liquidation.

That was the end of it.

When the Risk Team proceeds with forced liquidation, it reduces the trader’s performance record within the company.

In a situation where it could become dangerous if his performance was reduced any further, Kang Hyeon had no choice but to move his hand.

Click!

A few mouse clicks.

And.

[Sold.]

The position was closed.

[Today’s P&L: -5,854,628 won]

5.8 million won.

For a prop trader, it wasn’t a high loss.

‘In percentage terms, is it 6 percent? Sigh… My trading capital will be reduced again.’

Only sighs came out.

* * *

There’s a saying that misfortune comes all at once.

Today seemed to be that day.

“Oppa, let’s get divorced.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

When he came home, his wife handed him some documents.

[Application for Confirmation of Intention for Divorce by Mutual Consent]

Seeing the words written at the top of the document, his breath was taken away.

It was more absurd than getting slapped while sleeping for cheating in a dream.

“I can’t trust oppa anymore.”

“What are you talking about? Where did you hear something strange again?”

“Again? Oppa always does that. You always shift all the responsibility to me. I’m sorry, but I’ve thought deeply about this.”

“If you thought deeply about it, how can you suddenly hand me divorce papers without having a single conversation? Does that make sense?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t see a future with oppa.”

At the word ‘future,’ he was momentarily speechless.

“I told you from when we first got married. I said I liked an oppa who would make a lot of money. But how is it now? Your trading capital at the company keeps getting reduced.”

“That… that’s temporary. It’s just going through a rough patch…”

“Oppa, they say it might be difficult for you to even renew your contract at this rate?”

“Where did you hear that? No, who did you hear it from?”

“Who… who did I hear it from? Anyway, I can’t live with an oppa who has no future. Let’s get divorced.”

Of course, he refused.

It was now their second year of marriage.

Including their dating period, they had been together for five years.

Moreover, divorce was an important matter in life.

He couldn’t decide suddenly.

But she was adamant.

They started sleeping in separate rooms, and when he came home after work, she wouldn’t say a single word.

When she occasionally opened her mouth, only the word ‘divorce’ came out.

As these days repeated, it began to affect his work.

[Purchased.]

“Huh?”

He had pressed the wrong button.

He had bought back a stock he should have sold.

At that moment, the phone rang.

-What did you just do?! You should be closing your position, how can you buy more?! We’re proceeding with forced liquidation immediately!

The Risk Team forcibly liquidated his position.

This fact was immediately reported to the entire team.

Soon, a meeting with the team leader followed.

“Your recent performance has been poor, and now you’re making trading mistakes too?”

“I’m sorry…”

“Apologies won’t do. This matter will be reported to upper management. Keep that in mind.”

He had nothing to say.

To think he had committed a trading mistake that a trader should never make.

All of these things were hard to endure.

It seemed like he needed to solve at least one problem.

That’s why.

“I signed it.”

He wrote his name on the divorce by mutual consent papers.

“You made a good decision. It would be difficult to live with someone whose heart has already left.”

“You’re really a cruel woman, aren’t you?”

“Call it being realistic.”

In her appearance, the woman he had loved was already gone and nowhere to be found.

* * *

The divorce proceeded quickly.

As for assets, there was only the jeonse house, and he had brought the deposit money.

Since there was no spouse at fault, there was no need to determine alimony.

If there was anything fortunate, it was that they had no children.

So they submitted the documents and entered the deliberation period.

“See you after the deliberation period ends.”

She immediately packed her things and left the house.

As if she had been waiting only for this moment, there was no hesitation whatsoever.

And so he was left alone in the 30-pyeong apartment.

“Was this place always this spacious?”

The living room with the lights off.

The kitchen light was casting a soft glow.

The desolate scene, as lonely as his own heart, made him sigh involuntarily.

“I had something I needed to do.”

Since the divorce was decided, I had to tell my parents.

They say you’re supposed to talk about these things before they’re decided.

After seeing my wife whose heart had already left… no, my ex-wife, I thought there would be no point in telling my parents.

So I decided to tell them after everything was settled, and that moment was now.

Ring ring-!

-Oh~ son.

After the short waiting tone ended, hearing my mother’s familiar voice made emotions surge up for a moment.

I suppressed those feelings with effort and opened my mouth.

“What are you doing?”

-Just staying home. Did you eat dinner?

My mother’s response, always starting with asking if I’d eaten, pierced my heart especially today.

“I ate. Mom, actually I have something to tell you.”

-Hm? What is it?

“I’ve decided to get divorced.”

-What?! What are you talking about? Divorce all of a sudden?

It was natural for her to be shocked.

But everything had already been decided.

I calmly explained the situation.

After hearing the whole story, my mother gave an unexpected response.

-Alright, I understand.

“…Are you okay?”

-What would I be okay about? You two aren’t children, you must have discussed it well and decided. Come down sometime soon and have a meal.

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

After hanging up, I stared at my smartphone for a long time.

“She accepted it more calmly than I expected.”

I had anticipated a more intense reaction.

Her calm response actually put my mind at ease.

“I should visit home sometime soon.”

With that thought, I ended my first day alone at home since getting married.

* * *

The deliberation period was short.

If there are children it takes longer, but without children the period is shortened.

Since it was a mutual divorce, there was no need for legal disputes, so the divorce ended swiftly.

‘Do they usually end this quickly?’

That’s what I thought.

And so, on the day of the ruling.

My wife whom I met after a long time, no.

Han So-ye, who had now become my ex-wife, looked more radiant than usual.

Like when I first saw her on that blind date, she had glamorous looks and was carrying a designer bag I’d never seen before.

“Looks like you’ve been doing well.”

“Oh, let’s go in.”

There was no greeting.

With a response colder than to a stranger, we entered the Family Court and stood before the judge.

“Mr. Choi Kang-hyeon, Ms. Han So-ye. Are you still firm in your intention to divorce?”

If only I could turn things back even now…

“Yes. I’m firm.”

The answer came from Soe’s mouth first, and the judge’s gaze turned to me.

Nothing had changed.

“Yes, I’m firm.”

“Your mutual intention to divorce has been confirmed as genuine.”

After the simple procedure ended and we received the confirmation, we went to the Community Center and submitted it.

“It has been processed.”

That was the end.

The curtain fell on our married life, which had been short if short, long if long.

“Take care.”

With those words, Soe got into the car she had come in and disappeared.

Geez, she was selfish to the very end.

“Now I’m divorced too.”

Still, I felt relieved.

Maybe everything would work out well from now on?

That’s what I thought.

But that was a mistake.

“Mr. Choi Kang-hyeon, due to internal company circumstances, we’ve decided not to proceed with contract renewal.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your recent performance has been too poor and you’ve made many mistakes, so we can’t continue working together. Thank you for your hard work.”

Notice of non-renewal.

In other words, I was fired.

“Ha… haha…”

Divorced and now unemployed.

I thought this was rock bottom, but it turned out there was a basement.

* * *

I spent several days like a shut-in.

I wondered if there had ever been a time when so many things hit me all at once in life.

Today too, I was lying in bed like a shut-in, watching shorts.

[Successful people always experience failure.]

My finger stopped at a video that came up through the algorithm.

[After experiencing this failure, they achieve indescribable success.]

I laughed.

“If that were true, wouldn’t everyone in the world be rich?”

While I was watching that typical motivational video, a KakaoTalk message came in.

[Lim Kwang-ho: Are you alive?]

It was Kwangho, my close friend.

[Me: Yeah, still surviving]

[Lim Kwang-ho: I’m coming over now.]

[Me: Okay]

He was a grateful guy who stopped by occasionally, probably worried about his friend who had become a shut-in.

“Let me at least brush my teeth.”

I got up and brushed my teeth, then sat on the living room sofa for a moment when the doorbell rang.

When I went to the entrance and opened the door, Kwangho was standing there with both hands full.

“What did you buy so much of?”

“My wife made some side dishes for you to eat.”

“Tell her I said thanks.”

“Okay.”

I took the shopping bags from my friend’s hands and organized the contents in the refrigerator.

As the empty refrigerator was gradually being filled.

Kwangho, who was sitting at the kitchen table, spoke.

“I heard our company is recruiting new traders this time. Why don’t you submit a resume?”

He was also a trader.

Not doing daily trading like me, but working in quant, but anyway he was in the same industry.

“If I trade in this mental state, I’ll definitely have an accident.”

“Tsk. Oh, I saw my sister-in-law recently… no wait. I saw Soe.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, we had a company dinner after a long time and were moving locations. She was going into Haru.”

Haru was a high-end Japanese restaurant located in Yeouido.

Although the prices were high, Soe had her own capabilities and was quite pretentious, so it wouldn’t be strange for her to go to a high-end omakase.

But Yeouido was unexpected.

“She was going in with some guy. I wondered where I’d seen him before, and it turned out she was going in with David from Cleverus?”

“What? David, as in Choi Chang-wook?”

David Choi.

Though they weren’t close, he had attended the same school as him and Kwangho until high school.

After that, he went to study in America, got citizenship, and came back to Korea.

He specialized in the same trading as him, but the difference in scale was incomparable.

“Huh, but did those two have any connection?”

Human relationships are just like that…

“Wait…”

A memory from the past flashed through his mind.

“Come to think of it…”

“What? Is there something bothering you?”

“Soe came to our company briefly before because of some documents. She briefly greeted Chang-wook in passing then.”

“What?”

“But it was really just a formal greeting…”

“Hey, but would smoke come from a chimney that’s not burning? Didn’t they hit it off then?”

He wasn’t certain.

But the reason that had been hidden in fog became a little clearer.

“She found another guy and demanded a divorce from me?”

“Those bastards.”

Kwangho said what he wanted to say for him, and it felt like a weight lifted off his chest.

“Are you just going to sit back and watch?”

It was already in the past.

Besides, the divorce was over.

The affair would be difficult to prove.

There was nothing he could do.

But.

“Are you going to stay like this as a wreck? What would they say if they saw you like this now?”

“They’d think I’m a loser.”

He couldn’t remain a loser.

* * *

Kwangho left.

The living room fell silent again.

He sat alone lost in thought, then soon got up and moved.

“Let me do something.”

Sitting still made his head complicated.

He felt like moving his body would shake off the distracting thoughts.

So he started organizing his belongings.

He went into the dressing room and cleared out unnecessary clothes.

“If she was going to take things, she should have taken everything.”

Soe had packed her things, but traces of her still remained in the house.

He put all of them into garbage bags.

He would get rid of everything.

‘She was meeting another guy while living with me? And then she blamed me?’

Anger surged through him.

And he felt indignant.

He wanted to go find her right now and slap her face.

Thud!

Thud!

He vented that anger by roughly shoving clothes into bags.

After finishing organizing the dressing room, he went to the pantry and cleared out miscellaneous items too.

‘And what’s with that bastard Chang-wook? No matter how much he liked her, how could he touch a classmate’s wife? Is that human behavior?’

He had never liked Choi Chang-wook from the beginning.

His family was so well-off that he looked down on his classmates.

It was the same when they met again as adults.

The guy, a successful trader from Wall Street, didn’t hesitate to make disparaging remarks when he learned they were in the same industry.

‘Did that bastard also tell her about what I was going through at the company?’

This industry was both wide and narrow.

It was common for news from one company to spread to another through just one connection.

It seemed like Soe had learned about internal company matters through such a route.

“Those bastards…!”

Filled with rage, he grabbed a box and threw it into the garbage bag.

Thunk!

The box that didn’t fit in the bag fell to the floor.

The lid opened and the contents spilled out.

There were many miscellaneous items.

Old photos, a mouse, CDs and USB drives that were no longer used.

Most of the photos were taken with Kwangho.

“Ah… I miss those times.”

Looking at photos from college brought back old memories.

“So this was here.”

It was an important box that contained his memories.

He had wondered where he put it when moving, and it was in a corner of the pantry.

In this spacious house, this was the only place allowed for him.

“I should keep this safe.”

He couldn’t throw away old memories.

So he put the contents back into the box one by one.

Then a post-it note on a USB caught his eye.

[BTC]

Three simple letters.

BTC.

He could immediately tell what this meant.

“Bitcoin?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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