Golden Spoon Investor

Ring! Ring!

Inside the dark hotel room with thick curtains drawn, a young man lying on a large twin bed reached out with one arm, fumbling for the phone as it rang loudly.

"Hello."

His voice was lower and more husky than usual, likely because he had just woken up.

[Mr. Park, it's 8:30 AM.]

The young hotel receptionist greeted him with a "Good morning" and informed him of the time through the receiver pressed to his ear.

Remembering that he had requested a wake-up call at the front desk yesterday, the man brushed his disheveled hair back as he responded,

"Thank you."

After pulling the sheets aside and getting out of bed, the man walked over to the window and threw open the curtains. The dark room instantly brightened with the pouring sunlight. He squinted reflexively, then looked up at the cloudless, clear sky.

"The weather's nice."

The view from the hotel window was a sleek cityscape. The man admired the modern high-rise buildings lining the city streets for a moment before turning away to head to the bathroom.

Shhhhhh—

After washing up under the shower stream, the man turned off the faucet and stepped out of the glass shower booth.

While drying his hair and body with a large towel, he suddenly noticed the mirror above the sink. In the mirror, he saw a man over 180 cm tall with striking features and thick eyebrows.

With broad shoulders tapering down to a perfectly shaped V-shaped torso and well-defined muscles, he had an appearance that any man would envy.

As the man stared at his own reflection in the mirror for a long moment, he murmured softly,

"It's been a month already, and it still feels like a dream."

The memory of pushing aside a mother and daughter who had frozen in fear as a car sped toward them was still vivid.

'I'm going to die like this!'

As the BMW hurtled towards him, Kim Gwang-seop had braced himself for death and tightly shut his eyes.

But when he regained consciousness, it wasn't in the afterlife; it was in a hospital. At first, he thought he had miraculously survived by sheer luck, but that wasn't the case.

Amazingly, he had somehow returned not to 2027 but to the past, to the year 1992, and found himself in the body of a complete stranger. When he realized this, Kim Gwang-seop had nearly fainted in shock.

In fact, he was so startled that he actually passed out, causing quite a commotion.

After regaining his composure, Kim Gwang-seop suffered from a severe fever and headache for an entire day as he was overwhelmed by the memories of the body's original owner.

Afterward, Kim Gwang-seop, now with the memories of two people in his mind, began to live a new life.

"I'm a chaebol third-generation…"

The original owner of the body was named Park Seok-won, the second son of the owner of Daeheung Group.

Daeheung Group, which had initially started with agriculture and fisheries, had, like many conglomerates of the time, expanded by merging with a chemical and textile company, and had its hands in various fields such as distribution, leisure, and finance, ranking 30th in the business world.

Park Seok-won, the second son of Chairman Park Tae-hong, who currently led the group, had been studying business at Harvard University in the United States. One day, however, he had the misfortune of being shot in the chest by an armed robber he encountered on the street.

He was rushed to the hospital but never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead. That was when Kim Gwang-seop's soul entered the body and brought it back to life.

'Huff…!'

As he was being transported to the morgue, he suddenly gasped for breath and opened his eyes, shocking the hospital staff.

'Oh my God!'

'The corpse came back to life!'

'Get the doctor, get the doctor!'

Doctors and nurses rushed over and conducted all sorts of tests on him, but they found nothing wrong.

As he recalled how the hospital had been turned upside down, Park Seok-won smiled wryly.

"Well, it is what it is."

At first, he was incredibly confused and couldn't understand how such a thing could happen, but now he had regained his composure and accepted the situation.

He was able to come to terms with it so quickly because he had little attachment to his former life, where he had been alone after losing his wife and daughter.

"I don't know if it's because God felt sorry for me and gave me a second chance, but I'll make sure I live without regrets this time."

Kim Gwang-seop—now Park Seok-won—clenched his fist as if making a vow to himself.

Dressed in a crisp white shirt and a casual suit, Park Seok-won left his hotel room and headed down to the lobby on the first floor.

In one corner of the lobby, which was luxuriously decorated with natural marble flooring, there was a lounge area with sofas and tables. As soon as a blonde, white man sitting there saw Park Seok-won, he stood up.

The man, wearing a gray summer suit and a blue tie, with his hair slicked back with gel, was named Landon Shore. He was the lawyer assigned to assist Park Seok-won today.

"Good morning."

Seok-won grasped Landon's outstretched hand with a smile and responded in fluent English.

"Did you wait long?"

"No, I just arrived myself."

In his previous life, he hadn't spoken a word of English, but after absorbing the original owner's memories, he naturally became fluent in both English and Japanese.

'I guess you could think of it as a perk of getting a new life in the past.'

Landon checked his watch and looked at him.

"We have a bit of time, but what would you like to do?"

"Let's go right away."

"Very well."

As they stepped outside the hotel through the glass doors opened by the doorman, a large, muscular Black man approached. Noticing Seok-won's gaze, Landon spoke up,

"This is the bodyguard I hired."

"..."

"It's better to have him with you while you're in Austin since once the news of your win gets out, you might attract some unwanted attention."

Since it wasn't an unreasonable suggestion, Seok-won nodded slightly. At that moment, Landon gestured to a black Cadillac Escalade that slowly approached and stopped in front of them.

"Please, get in."

Seok-won got into the Escalade's back seat with Landon, passing through the door opened by the bodyguard. The Escalade glided smoothly away from the hotel entrance and soon arrived at the Lottery Commission headquarters located downtown.

The group entered the spacious lobby decorated with faux marble in gray tones and headed straight to the information desk on the left.

"How can I help you?"

Landon answered on his behalf,

"We have an appointment with Mr. Urban. My name is Landon."

"Please wait a moment."

After checking the memo in front of her, the receptionist looked up and spoke again,

"Please take the elevator over there to the 7th floor."

Landon thanked her and guided Seok-won.

"Let's go."

They took the elevator up to the 7th floor as directed. As soon as the doors opened and they stepped into the hallway, a polite-looking white man with neatly combed brown hair was waiting to greet them, likely having been informed of their arrival.

"Mr. Landon?"

"That's correct."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Urban, with whom you spoke over the phone."

After a light handshake with Urban, Landon introduced Seok-won with a polite demeanor.

"This is my client."

Urban shifted his gaze to Seok-won, quickly assessing him before breaking into a gentle smile.

"I was curious to see who the lucky winner was, and it turns out to be you. Congratulations."

"Thank you."

Seok-won shook hands with Urban and gave a slight nod.

"You speak English quite fluently. Do you happen to live in Texas?"

"No, I'm just traveling. I happened to buy the lottery ticket on a whim while on this trip."

Urban pursed his lips in surprise.

"Ah, I see. You must truly be a lucky man."

Urban looked amazed, commenting that winning was less likely than being struck by lightning.

"I'm rambling on. There are a few procedures to follow to claim your prize, so please follow me."

Leading the way, Urban guided Seok-won and his party to a separate reception room.

Leaving the bodyguard to wait outside, they entered a room decorated with a soft cream-colored carpet and sophisticated interior, giving it a luxurious feel.

"First, could you please show me the winning lottery ticket?" Urban asked, looking at Seok-won and Landon sitting across from him.

Seok-won took out the Powerball ticket from his inner pocket and handed it over. Urban carefully examined the printed winning numbers with a serious expression.

"1, 2, 3… 12, 22. All seven numbers match."

Originally, there wasn't supposed to be a winner for this round, so the prize would have rolled over to the next one.

'In the next round, only two numbers would have been wrong, and then someone else would win with the same numbers, causing such a big stir that there were even allegations of manipulation in the U.S.'

Seok-won had remembered the winning numbers from watching a reenactment on TV and occasionally used them for fun when buying lottery tickets.

'I never thought it would come in handy like this.'

In the next round, a jackpot exceeding 200 million dollars had been won by someone who, overwhelmed by the sudden windfall, had squandered it on gambling, women, and drugs, eventually dying of an overdose in less than two years. Considering that, the fact that Seok-won's win had reduced the next jackpot might have actually been better for that person.

After meticulously checking the barcode to ensure it wasn't a forgery, Urban straightened up.

"We'll need your identification for verification. Did you bring it?"

Already advised by Landon, Seok-won promptly handed over his passport.

"You're Korean?"

"Yes. I'm studying at Harvard. As I mentioned earlier, I'm only in Texas for a short trip."

"I see."

The mention of Harvard caused a brief flicker of surprise on Urban's face. As one of the top Ivy League schools, Harvard was well-known to every American.

Quickly regaining his composure, Urban began explaining the prize collection process without further prying.

"As you may know, even if you're not a citizen, as long as you purchased the lottery ticket in the U.S., you can claim the prize."

Seok-won nodded to indicate he understood.

"However, even as a foreigner, you'll have to pay federal and state taxes on your winnings…"

Urban smiled slyly as he continued,

"Since our state of Texas doesn't impose taxes on lottery winnings, you'll only need to pay federal taxes."

The reason Seok-won had bought the Powerball ticket in Texas instead of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard is located, was precisely because of this tax exemption.

"To claim your winnings, you'll need an account with a U.S. financial institution. Do you have one ready?"

"You can deposit it here."

Urban checked the Wells Fargo account book handed to him and asked,

"You can choose to receive your winnings either as a lump sum or as an annuity over 29 years. What will you do?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Seok-won answered,

"I'll take the lump sum."

"In that case, you'll be subject to the highest tax rate of 37%. Are you okay with that?"

"No problem."

Urban couldn't help but feel a pang of regret, even though it wasn't his money, as a significant portion of it would go to taxes. However, since how to receive the winnings was entirely up to the winner, Urban didn't press further.

"As you may know, since there were no winners for several rounds and you're the sole winner, the prize is quite large."

Urban continued with a smile,

"After deducting federal taxes from the total prize of 190 million dollars, you'll receive approximately 119.7 million dollars."

At the current exchange rate of 780 won, this amounted to a staggering 93.4 billion won.

Considering that the average monthly salary for a Korean worker in 1992 was less than 1 million won, this was an enormous sum.

"We'll proceed with the prize disbursement right away. However, it's standard practice to disclose the winner's identity, so your name, place of residence, occupation, and age will be made public through the media."

Although he would have preferred to keep his win a secret, Seok-won knew that revealing his identity was mandatory, so he nodded slightly.

"I can't avoid the photo, but I won't do any interviews. Is that possible?"

"Hmm, that… I understand."

Faced with Seok-won's firm stance, Urban reluctantly agreed with a disappointed expression.

Since the Lottery Commission wanted to maximize publicity for the nearly 200 million dollar jackpot, they were keen on doing so, but they couldn't force the winner, Seok-won, to comply against his wishes.

A short while later, Seok-won posed with a large panel reading $190,000,000 in front of the gathered reporters and had his photo taken.

After completing all the procedures, it was well past noon when they left the Lottery Commission by car.

"It's all done now."

Landon, sitting next to him, offered his congratulations,

"Congratulations on becoming a billionaire."

"Thank you."

Feeling relieved after finishing such a big task, Seok-won smiled slightly.

"With all that money coming in soon, have you thought about what you'll do with it?"

"I'm thinking of investing it."

Landon responded in surprise at the unexpected answer.

"Most people would start by thinking about buying a big mansion, a fancy sports car, or maybe a yacht to enjoy life. That's unexpected."

Seok-won silently smiled, already thinking about the massive bet he was about to make. The thrill and anticipation of joining a gamble that would shake the world sent a shiver of excitement through his body.

"Ah."

Suddenly, the thought of his family in Korea crossed his mind. Once today's photo appeared in the newspapers, it wouldn't be long before his father, Chairman Park Tae-hong, found out about his win.

"Maybe I should tell him in advance…"

Seok-won sighed, covering his mouth with a slightly embarrassed expression.

TL/n - 

In South Korea, the terms bronze, silver, and gold spoon are part of the "spoon class theory," which categorizes individuals based on their family's socioeconomic status. This concept is derived from the English idiom "born with a silver spoon in one's mouth," but it has been expanded in South Korea to include various levels of wealth and privilege.

Gold Spoon (금수저): Represents individuals born into very wealthy families. 

Silver Spoon (은수저): Refers to those born into moderately wealthy families. 

Bronze Spoon (동수저): Indicates individuals from families with average or slightly above-average wealth. 

Dirt Spoon (흙수저): Describes those from less affluent or poor families, facing significant economic challenges and fewer opportunities.