“Idiots. You got scammed.”
Gyeoul rolled her eyes in response to Yeorum’s words.
Scammed?
Of course, she wasn’t rolling her eyes because she didn’t know what the word meant. It was just that she only knew it as a word and had yet to be introduced to the concept. It simply did not feel realistic.
“…Then, what about my item?”
“Of course you can’t get it. You got scammed.”
“…Refund?”
“You think they’ll do it? Didn’t you already send the money to that seller guy? They probably ran away with the money already.”
That was when Kaeul became startled instead, and Yeorum immediately realised who it was that had sent the money in the stead of Gyeoul.
No item nor money and in the end, the only thing in her hand was a brick. Only then did Gyeoul realise how much of a ridiculous situation she was in.
“…T, this can’t be…”
She crumbled down.
Yeorum apathetically clicked her tongue. There was nothing she knew about the situation so she didn’t really feel like teasing them either.
“What did you buy.”
“…Something important.”
“What is it.”
“…A secret.”
“What’s the point of a stupid secret at this point?”
Gyeoul refused to say it and continued shaking her head. Yeorum looked to the side and found Kaeul with a similarly complicated look on her face, looking like she wasn’t keen on saying it either.
“Ah, like what is it. Is this how you’re going to be like? At least I need to know what it is that you ordered to help you, right.”
Yeorum stubbornly demanded for the answer so Kaeul had no choice but to open her mouth.
“It’s nothing. Just a memory crystal…”
A memory crystal was an artifact with a limited use that recorded or sustained the information with mana.
Why would Yu Gyeoul buy such a thing?
Well, that wasn’t the important question for the time being.
“We uploaded a post looking for sellers.”
“On what, a second-hand transaction site?”
“Unn unn. We said we were looking for a 5Y memory crystal and we got a message. The person said they would be selling it at a cheaper price…”
“And how much was that?”
Until now, Yeorum was quite relaxed. A kid was buying something second-hand on the internet so how expensive could it be? That was what she was thinking, but the price that left Kaeul’s mouth immediately changed her mind.
“3,500 dollars.”
“What!?”
“3,500 dollars! That was Gyeoul’s entire fortune…!”
“You idiots! Are you dumb? And you got scammed!?”
Yeorum shouted out loud.
$3,500
It was a large amount of money for an average person, and it was an especially more significant sum for Gyeoul.
Yeorum knew all the things Gyeoul had done in order to earn money. She always dried bananas and sweet potatoes on the terrace with the protector and always bought more umbrellas and coloured papers than necessary. That would have probably given her a few dollars a day.
The prize she got from the school captain incident plus the 400 dollars Yeorum gave her to commemorate the onion core… All that money she had earned diligently over the past few years was gone in a flash.
Like, why did this stupid retard have to get scammed? Why didn’t she ask Yu Bom or Yu Jitae for help if she was going to spend such a large amount of money?
Yeorum became pissed off the more she thought about it. It would have been fine if she was the one stealing all that money, but the fact that it was stolen by someone random gave her the urge to spank Gyeoul.
“Yu Kaeul.”
“Uun?”
“What’s the seller’s fucking phone number.”
“Ah. This one…”
Yeorum called but,
Beep, beep, beep…
As expected, the opponent did not pick up.
“Unni, unni. Should we tell ahjussi?” Kaeul asked but he was currently in the middle of a conversation with Yu Bom. Yeorum judged after eavesdropping that it was a fairly important conversation so she felt disinclined to interrupt them.
“No, I’ll do it myself for now. Do you still have the post? The guy wrote a comment on your post right?”
“Uun. This is the list of posts I made…”
“Let me have a look.”
But the comment was already deleted.
“Ah, I remember seeing the ID…!”
Kaeul suddenly clapped out loud and immediately spelled the user ID number of the scammer. Even though both Yeorum and Kaeul were bad with the internet, they still managed to find the person after working together for some time.
Using the ID number, they looked up the opponent’s list of posted comments while uploading a scam report on the [report forum].
[Manager: Hello.]
At the same time, Yeorum talked to the manager of the scam report forum and looked up the phone number on the internet for any other scam reports. The person indeed was a scammer with two other instances under their name.
“Unni, I found the posts that person uploaded…!”
“Let me see.”
However, all the posts on the list had the label, [Successful Transaction] and it seemed that every other deal had been made successfully. Then what was up with the brick they received?
“Why do all the other ones look fine? They even have the buyer’s comment.”
“Maybe we were the first to get scammed…?”
But after talking about it with the manager, they realised that fake transaction posts could be created to add credibility.
Yeorum clicked her tongue.
“Oi Yu Kaeul. Do you have a picture of the messages you sent them? The scam report manager wants to have a look at it if we got one.”
“Uun? Ah, here! Gyeoul talked to him directly!”
Her eyes naturally went first to the profile picture. It was a picture of a house with a young baby.
“What the fuck? What kind of a freaking guy with a baby scams people online with second-hand stuff?”
“I know right! That’s why Gyeoul and I trusted him…!”
It seemed to be an intricate method to induce trust.
1. A lower price than others,
2. The posts all seem to be of successful transactions,
3. A profile picture of a cozy house and a baby and;
[JunYungKwon: Hello ^^~ I would like to sell a memory crystal. Are you still looking for one by any chance?]
4. He sounded like a nice person
It was no wonder that Yu Gyeoul was scammed.
[Me: Aht]
[Me: Yes…]
[Me: Hello…]
Displayed on the screen of the watch were messages Gyeoul had sent.
Yeorum continued scrolling down.
[JunYungKwon: Thank you for replying T.T. In fact, I was in a hurry trying to sell it because I’m in need of a big lump of money, but no-one wanted to buy it.]
[Me: I see…]
[Me: Memory crystals aren’t that popular after all.]
Why was this stupid Yu Gyeoul calmly having a conversation with him?
The opponent had a decently urgent excuse as well. He said his child was sick but they didn’t have enough money to pay for the hospital fees.
[Me: Oh no… Q.Q]
A 5Y memory crystal’s market price was around $6,200 and second-hand goods were usually sold at $4,500 a piece so Gyeoul was probably delighted by the cheaper price.
[Me: T.T…]
[Me: Hope the baby becomes healthy again very soon.]
[JunYungKwon: Thank you T.T]
And here Yu Gyeoul was consoling the freaking scammer.
“Like…”
After reading that far down, Yeorum had to swallow all sorts of profanities that were threatening to leave her throat. She was feeling more and more irritated but that was when Gyeoul tried to snatch the watch back.
“What are you doing?”
“…Give me, my watch.”
“What’s this about? I haven’t finished taking a picture yet.”
“…Give it back.”
Kaeul had to calm her down by saying, “Gyeoul, let’s stay still.”
On the other hand, Yeorum wondered what was wrong with the kid. Gyeoul had an extremely gloomy look on her face and gave off a strong feeling that she was embarrassed about her mistake.
It was all out in the open already so what more was there to be embarrassed about?
In doubt, Yeorum scrolled all the way down to the recent messages.
[Me: Thank you so much for selling it at a cheap price…]
[Me: ([MM Supplement] x 1 – The gift has been sent successfully!)]
[Me: This is a present…]
[Me: You must be exhausted looking after the baby T.T…]
Gyeoul sent a supplement that was worth 50 dollars as a gratitude but the opponent did not even say anything in return. Yeorum felt like her blood was flowing in the opposite direction.
“Aoh, you freaking fool…”
What was below was even worse.
[Me: Hello.]
[Me: Umm…]
[Me: You are sending it tomorrow right?]
[JunYungKwon: Yes, I will.]
The opponent suddenly changed his attitude.
[Me: It didn’t come today…]
[Me: Excuse me…]
[Me: ??]
[Me: Excuse me T.T]
[Me: It hasn’t come yet…]
[Me: When is it coming?]
[Me: Hello? When is it coming?]
[JunYungKwon: Just wait, there’s an error with the company]
[JunYungKwon: Will send tomorrow]
And the opponent continued postponing it. After reading that much, Yeorum could not control her anger anymore and asked.
“Oi, Yu Kaeul. Did you not know about this?”
“…”
Kaeul also had a fairly upset look on her face, so Yeorum’s arrowhead of fury soon pointed at Gyeoul.
“Oi, Yu Gyeoul. You pretend like a smartass everytime so why’d you do something so stupid? Why did you do such a stupid freaking thing while hiding it from us and ahjussi. Huh?”
“Unni! Don’t be so mean to Gyeoul…”
“Huh?”
“There’s a reason why I only sent the money for her. This was an extremely important thing for her, and there’s a reason why Gyeoul was trying to do it by herself…”
When Kaeul whispered the reason into her ears, it really was an important reason so Yeorum unknowingly heaved a deep sigh.
“Ah, for fuck’s sake…”
In any case, she could no longer be satisfied by just reporting it as a scam. Yeorum was so angry that she would rip the limbs off and pull the eyeballs out of the scammer if he was standing in front of her right now.
She was annoyed at Yu Gyeoul for being so nice to the scammer like a fool, but the fact that her act of kindness had been betrayed made her even more irritated.
“Ahjussi…”
While Yeorum was trying to let off steam by herself, Kaeul knocked on Yu Jitae’s door as the representative.
*
“What?”
Gyeoul had a complicated look on her face and both Yeorum and Kaeul also looked extremely unhappy. After listening to their story, he realised why.
If she needed more money, she could have just asked him for more money, but it seemed that she had gone to an unfamiliar second-hand transaction website so that she could do it with her own hands.
Yu Jitae looked at Gyeoul. The child couldn’t even look back into his eyes as if she had done something terribly wrong.
“So you see? I helped Gyeoul send the money. But…”
“Hmm. I see.”
“…I, didn’t want, the baby to be sick…”
“You did well.”
“I talked to the manager of the scam report forum about it. That fucking shithead…”
“Yeah. Okay.”
The children surprisingly began to feel more relaxed as Yu Jitae calmly listened to their stories.
It was strange. Was this not that big of a deal? Seeing Yu Jitae listening to them speak as if the whole thing wasn’t that big of a deal, they began to doubt themselves for being so frustrated over something so insignificant.
“But why do you look so down. Yu Gyeoul.”
“…Sorry?”
“You did nothing wrong so why are you feeling down?”
“…Because I didn’t know… and I got scammed like a fool.”
Gyeoul replied while pushing her index fingers together.
What would Yu Jitae of the past have said in response? He wondered, but couldn’t exactly find the right answer. Regardless, now that he was retrieving his daily life, Yu Jitae found her reply to be very peculiar.
“What a very strange thing to say. It’s the scammer’s fault for deceiving you.”
“…But, …if I did better.”
“No. Even if you were clumsy, it’s still the deceiver’s fault.”
Gyeoul blinked her eyes. He simply threw those words out without thinking too much about it but it was a mysteriously consoling sentence for Gyeoul.
But even then, the situation at hand was still a very frustrating one.
“Then, uum, what should we do now…?”
Kaeul asked carefully.
“It’s simple.”
He wasn’t the type to abuse his abnormal authority for things that happened inside the spectrum of a normal daily life. However, he made this an exception because the opponent had ruined Gyeoul’s daily life.
The opponent was a Korean and had used a Korean number to message Gyeoul.
Yu Jitae turned on his watch and gave a call. Several urgent beeps that were unique to a special hotline rang as the kids nervously waited by the side.
– Central Security Agency speaking.
Soon, the top intelligence agency of the International Association of Superhumans picked up the call.
“It’s me. There’s something I want you to do for me in secret.”
– Yes, Chief. Please give us the command.
And within merely 30 seconds,
Every bit of information about the scammer including their full name, education level, family register, current address, family condition, national registration number, phone number, interpersonal relationships, internet cookies and SNS interactions were sent to Yu Jitae’s watch.
The scammer’s identity revealed was like the following.
Name. Jun Yungji.
Female.
Residence in Seoul.
Up to there was normal but… there was something astonishing about the scammer’s identity.
“Huh, wait what? Is this actually the scammer’s face?”
“Apparently.”
Yeorum frowned after seeing the photo.
It was a kid.
The scammer was underage no matter how you saw it, and she looked to be around the same age as Gyeoul. She looked just like a random kid that would chat with her friends and carry her bag to a school.
“How old is she?”
“13 years old.”
“That’s ridiculous. She speaks like a freaking bitch and she’s only 13 years old?”
“Oh wow… why would such a young child do such a bad thing?”
Yeorum and Kaeul focused on different aspects after hearing her age.
The world was wide and there were all sorts of unique people everywhere.
The problem was that her residence was in Korea. Even after the New Era, Korea had a juvenile protection act for those above 10 and below 14 in age. In other words, minors could still breach the law and go practically unpunished.
So although they could physically bash her up and snatch the money back, it was impossible to give the child a legal punishment through the law. Yeorum and Kaeul were dumbfounded about the legal system whereas Gyeoul had a slightly astonished look on her face.
“…Then, …we can’t get the money back?”
“No. Of course you can get the money back.”
It was possible to get it back – thinking that, her expression finally eased a little.
But wouldn’t it be frustrating to be on the receiving end of such an unethical incident only to have the same amount of money back? After some contemplation, Yu Jitae added more words.
“Gyeoul.”
“…Yes?”
“The kid made another post on a different second-hand website last night. Do you want to have a look?”
“…Ah, yes.”
(Buying an artifact)
– Looking for the semi-perpetual perfume, ‘MX12’
– Price: [Beneath $4,000]
– Note: Please contact me only if you are okay with a negotiation
Simply put, she was a young girl who diligently used up the money she earned through scamming to decorate herself.
“How about you sell it to her.”
“…But, …I don’t have, this perfume.”
“What do you mean?”
“…?”
He lifted the brick.
“You have one right here.”
Yeorum immediately floated a bright smile as if she imagined a brilliant outcome while Kaeul was surprised. Matching a scam with another scam? That was what her eyes appeared to be saying.
What was important here was Gyeoul’s opinion. She had a slightly brighter look on her face after understanding his words but turned gloomy again after a while. She appeared hesitant.
“What’s wrong?”
“…But, 4,000 dollars, … is too much.”
Even though it was only 500 dollars more, she was reluctant.
For Gyeoul, it seemed that those 500 dollars were a very important issue. Worrying about such a thing… It really suited her, who never crossed the line despite her wants, who wanted Yu Jitae to be a ‘good person’.
“That’s fine. You don’t have to take the whole money.”
“…Then?”
“Didn’t this girl sell it at a cheaper price? You can do the same. Sell it for the 3,500 dollars that you lost.”
“…!”
It was a remarkable solution.
Gyeoul gave a bright smile.
*
[Winter: Hello ? I saw your post on the second-hand marketplace. I’m looking to sell the semi-perpetual perfume, ‘MX12’ in a hurry.]
[Me: Oh wow! Hello! How much are you thinking of?]
[Winter: I can bring it down to 3,600 dollars.]
Kaeul and Yeorum giggled seeing her small revenge.