Asker of the question that led to merchant Rayyan. It inspired me. Here’s a drabble of merchant Rayyan as told through the eyes of a college student. I know that the IF is set in NY, but merchants and haggling always remind me of Korea, so imagine this is set in Nowon-gu, Seoul instead lol.
It’s a typical August afternoon: hot and humid. The streets near your college campus are filled to the brim with people, mainly students but also some tourists and others unfortunate enough to have to be out in the wet season. The congestion is made worse by the market nearby. And the proselytizing soapbox speaker. Those always draw crowds.
The market is where you are now. A mix of mall with flea market, it’s just a little ways off from the train station, and has a mix of just about everything. Haggling is permitted here, although the recent influx of international attention means that some sellers are operating on fixed prices.
You’re not the best at haggling. There’s an art to it that you just can’t get right. You always feel slightly awkward about it, especially in the mornings when the sellers are first setting up. You’d heard that the first sale of the day is really important to the merchants, and how it goes is supposed to influence the rest of the day’s sales. Even as an adult, aware that this is a superstition, you can’t shake the idea that, by haggling with a merchant, you might be forcing them into a day of no profits.
It’s why you go to the market in the afternoon. Hopefully by then, all the little kiosks will have made sales.
There’s a kiosk right across from where you’re sitting. It’d first attracted your attention because, well, because the person manning it was hot. Damn what that street preacher had to say; God gave you eyes for a reason!
The second thing you’d noticed is that they’re intense. Blunt speech, piercing gaze, fiery energy intense. It should be a little ridiculous juxtaposed as it is against the background of handmade, 100% organic, cruelty-free cat toys, but somehow it’s doing things to you.
As you watch, idly eating and not drooling, a potential customer goes over. Peruses the wares. Points to a scratching post.
It’s far too noisy to hear anything, but from the hand gestures, you can tell that the customer is trying to haggle.
The merchant’s face, already quite somber, twitches downwards into a glower.
Some people are able to command a room through the eloquence of their words. This merchant could do so through stance alone. If used as a source of energy, the auntie manning this food stall could save on propane for the rest of the day.
The potential customer gesticulates less and less until finally stopping all together, as though pinned under the ferocity of the merchant’s glare. Fumbling, the customer takes out a wallet, pulls out some bills and hands them over to the merchant before leaving, sans scratching post.
HAHAHAHAHHAHA
This is so funny and amazing.
God now I need a pt 2!!!! Rayyan as a little organic cat toy kiosk owner who robs poor unsuspecting customers of their money thru sheer force of will is everything I never knew I needed.
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murdered seoul. (series)
“𝐢𝐦 𝐬𝐨 𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬”
GROUP: Nct
ANALYSIS: In which a group of teenagers are determined to solve a case involving an infamous serial killer.
GENRE: Horror, mystery, thriller, angst.
WARNING(S): Kinda gorey? Unrevised.
WORD COUNT: 1k+
A. NOTE: This was originally posted on wattpad by me but I felt like wattpad wouldnt appreciate it tbh. Also, it’s been a while since I’ve posted something. I hope you guys like this series. Please look forward to it! Give me ur feedback pls I can take criticism I swear.
PART 1
Contrary to popular belief, not all teenagers hated Mondays. Not all teenagers hated going to school and having to deal with crowded halls, obnoxious & unnecessarily loud students, and waking up early.
No, Jisung Park loved Mondays. He loved seeing his friends after the seemingly long weekend and he loved seeing the teachers he was close with. Chenle would be the first to notice him approaching in the morning, yelling at him to hurry his ass up. Jisung had always been the last person to arrive in his friend group, which would then lead to him getting a nuggie from each one of his friends. His once neat hair always ended up being a mess with stray hair pieces all over the place.
School for Jisung Park meant being around people he loved. School for Jisung Park had been an escape for him. An escape from his parents constantly arguing. So every time he parted ways with his friends at the end of the day, he walked home slowly to avoid staying at home more than he already had to.
That night was no different. Other than the fact that he was going home later than usual as he stayed after school for soccer practice. Despite the night overcoming the city, despite the awfully quiet streets of the backroads he took, despite the lack of people around him, Jisung continued to walk slowly home. That night, Jisung couldn't care less about his safety. All he wanted was to not go home. His parents were fighting more than usual, and frankly, he didn't want to hear it anymore. He was tired. So he didn't notice the footsteps that had followed him, he didn't feel the eyes that bore into the back of his head, nor did he notice the harsh breathing behind him.
And once the knife had sliced vertically on his neck, cutting open his larynx all the way down to his trachea, it had been too late. The last thing Jisung Park saw that night was the full moon that overlooked Seoul. When did the moon become so pretty?
....
Yuta groaned and rolled his head back inbetween his shoulders as fatigue overcame him. The coffee he mixed with five hour energy was definitely not doing him justice for his graveyard shift at the police station. It was two in the morning and all he wanted to do was sleep. His eyes shifted over to the glass front doors, watching the droplets of rain slide down.
"When the hell did it start to rain?" He muttered to himself and stretched his arms behind his back.
"Dunno, seems like it came out of nowhere honestly." Jaehyun replied as he leaned against Yuta's desk with his left hand as he sipped coffee with his other. He shifted his police badge, which rested on his right chest, and sighed.
"It's summer, this is ridiculous. This right here is an example of climate change." Taeil comments from the front desk and leaned against his rolling chair, 'tsking' away.
"Okay, boomer." Yuta snidely remarked.
"That right there is a false allegation because boomers don't believe in climate change, try again Nakamoto." Taeil grumbled and crossed his arms.
"Whatever, know it all," Yuta shrugged and stood up.
"Where you goin'?" Jaehyun asked the rather tall man who sported a man bun.
"To pee. Why? Wanna join, Jung?" Yuta smirked and chuckled at his own snarky comment.
Before Jaehyun could reply with his own comeback, the phone rang suddenly, causing the three men to jump in surprise. Truth be told, this scared the men. Despite them being in Seoul一an awfully large and urban city一they barely received night calls from their district. Due to them being surprised, there was a moment of silence in the police station of the Nowon-gu district, the only sound being the ringing of the phone.
“Well answer it, Taeil!" Yuta shouted at the man who had frozen up at the front desk.
As if he snapped back into reality, he clumsily reached for the phone that sit beside his computer, and picked it up.
"Nowon-gu police station一" He stopped abruptly as the yells(which were loud enough for the two other police officers to hear) came through the phone. "Ma'am please, I can't understand you when一 Yes... Yes.. Can you tell me the address?" Taeil then had grabbed a nearby pen and a random paper near him and began scribbling the address down. "We'll be there soon, ma'am."
Taeil hung up the phone and quickly stood up from his chair. As he put on his vest he turns to his colleagues, "A teenage boy is missing. Jaehyun, come with me. Yuta, watch the station."
“Yes, sir." Jaehyun said quietly and followed Taeil to the police car. Before closing the glass doors behind him he turns to Yuta, "Call the Chief."
....
Jisung's mom was hysterical. She couldn't even breath correctly; so much so that she nearly passed out as she explained to the two police men in front of her the situation.
"Ma'am, I'm going to need you to calm down, please." Taeil assured her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Or else we won't be able to help you."
The woman breathes slow yet jagged breaths and grips her left arm tightly. "W-well... I- Where the fuck do I even fucking start my little boy is missing!" She cries out.
A man, who the two police men assume to be her husband, jogs over past now crowded area and sets a hand on her shoulder. "Jisoo, I'll talk with them."
As she left, the man had turned his attention to the two officers and rubbed his temples and sighed. "My name is Minsung Park," he introduced himself. He hesitated as he collected his thoughts. "My son... Jisung... He usually gets home late and goes straight to his room. My wife and I... Well, we were too busy fighting to notice that..." The man scoffed angrily. "We were too busy fighting to check on him. Jisoo-my wife, she has trouble sleeping. She went to check on Jisung, you know? How parents just check if their kid is sleeping and shit. That's when she didn't see... He wasn't there."
“Did you check with his friends or his friends' parents? Maybe he's just sleeping over?" Jaehyun asked the man after he took notes.
"They would've told us if he was," Minsung answered quickly and pulled at his hair. "He-he had soccer practice today until six. He always went home right after—always." His eyes begin to water and before he knows it, Minsung Park is sobbing with grief. With regret. Regret for not spending enough time with his only son. With his only child. "G-God!" He exclaims as he grips at his hair. "I should've been there for him more.." Taeil locks eyes with Jaehyun, as he spots another police car arriving at the scene, and nods.
Jaehyun led Minsung away with a hand rested on his upper back, rubbing it in a reassuring manner.
"Chief Kun." Taeil greeted his colleague as he got out of his car.
"Taeil." He replied as his eyes scanned the scene. Before Taeil is able to explain the situation, Kun spoke in stoically. "Missing teen? Could just be a runaway, you know."
"But chief, I have a feeling this isn't-"
"Don't let your past influence this case, Moon." Kun interrupted him, his tone cold. "Understand?"
"Yes, Chief." Taeil muttered and looked at his feet. Taeil didn't realize his tightened fists beside his sides but released them. He heard Kun's footsteps walking away from him and Taeil finally looked up and closed his eyes. He strained his neck up so he was facing the sky and sighed as he opened his eyes slowly, his gaze finding its way to the full moon in the night sky.
A full moon. Just like that night.
PART 2
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STOP These Hidden Money-Repelling Beliefs - For Quicker & Easier Wealth Attraction - Part 4 of 5
Will Money Make You A Bad Person? The Undisputed Truth…
At the time of this writing, Netflix is raising its prices by $1 or $2 per month, depending on the plan. And some people are absolutely livid about it.
Furious outrage has sparked on social media:
One Twitter user wrote, “Here’s an idea, stop making 100 different new shows a year, most of which are crap and stop making us bear the costs.”
Said another Twitter user: “Netflix doesn’t need to raise their prices. We didn’t ask for all these trash originals that they cancel after one season.”
So here’s the question:
Do those people have a right to be angry? By raising their prices, is Netflix preying on people for profit?
Are they being greedy opportunists? Taking advantage of their user base?
Your response to that question
is an indicator of your earning potential.
Now, if you’re reading this and you’re a Netflix user… you probably don’t mind the couple-dollar price hike.
But this kind of thing exists on a spectrum—and the way you think about it as a whole has a hidden impact on your income. One you may not be aware of…
Getting the idea out of your head that the wealthy are greedy, bad people preying on those less fortunate…
…and becoming okay with occasionally being mislabeled as a “predator” when you do what you need to do to live your dream life…
…is necessary to become rich.
Because “opportunism,” as we’ll call it, exists to some degree in every single form of wealth accumulation.
And it’s NOT immoral. You’re about to discover that in this post.
Welcome to Part Four of our series on the Hidden Money-Repelling Beliefs!
We’re about to eradicate the misconceptions and lies you’ve been told—that money will make you a greedy, “bad person” who takes advantage of others…
If you haven’t read the first three installments of this Money Mindset Series, check them out below (your future bank account will thank you):
Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
Now as you read on—if you believe you’re free and clear of the notion that money makes you a bad person… don’t be so certain.
As you’ll see in a moment, it can sneak into your subconscious mind from the most insignificant events—and cause you to sabotage your wealth-creating efforts!
In the previous installment, we covered Beliefs 3 through 5. So we’ll pick up where we left off, and start with…
Money-Repelling Belief #6:
“Having Money Will Turn Me Into A
Greedy Opportunist Or Downright Bad Person”
Here’s a less “extreme” example—but one a LOT of people still complain about:
A gas station owner raises his prices on the Friday before a holiday weekend.
What’s your reaction?
Most people only see raised prices and curse that he’s gouging them. But if you want to get rich, think twice before you get angry at something like that…
Partly because that price hike is part and parcel of what he MUST do.
See, at other times during the year, there are price wars in his neighborhood. He’s forced to sell gas for less than it costs him in order to stay in business.
And if he’s in a truly competitive area…
He sells his gas at a loss the entire time. Just so a fraction of those people will give his general store business or buy a car wash.
There are all sorts of fluctuations in his business. He better make maximum profits when the opportunity presents itself—in order to make up for the times he can’t make any profit at all.
Here’s why that’s important for you:
If you feel bad taking advantage of opportunities when the situation calls for it, you’ll never acquire much wealth.
That’s what entrepreneurship IS. Opportunism.
Every man’s tragedy is someone else’s opportunity. And that’s not a bad thing. That’s COMMERCE:
The fire alarm business wouldn’t exist if there weren’t tragic fires.
The finance industry wouldn’t be so lucrative if most people didn’t have to borrow due to not making ends meet.
The medical industry wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have catastrophic health issues.
Law firms wouldn’t exist without ugly, painful legal disputes.
If we could eliminate crime tomorrow, millions of police officers would be out of jobs.
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Shop NowOne Of The Leading Reasons Money Flows
Is Because Of Tragedy.
Disaster. Problems. Painful Events.
Does that make entrepreneurs bad people—who take advantage of tragedy for profit?
Well, is anyone else willing to solve those problems for free? It appears not, or there’d be no market for those businesses.
If you call opportunism a bad thing—but still desire solutions to your problems…
The point is—problems require solutions. The bigger the problem you can solve, the more money you’ll get paid for it.
So PROUDLY call yourself an opportunist. You’ll be fully congruent with the actions necessary to shamelessly seize the opportunities all around you—and rake in the cashola for yourself.
But What About Being
OVERLY-GREEDY?
Too often, achievement, accomplishment, and ambition is defined as greed.
People claim the rich “hog” money for themselves and leave everyone else out to dry. This is a complicated and touchy subject.
But here’s the million-dollar question (quite literally):
If you’re getting the most money possible for the goods or services you deliver… is that greed or intelligence?
Greed or ambition?
Are you a better person if you voluntarily take less money than you could for your product?
Not in our book. That’s a SMART thing to do:
Because—as we proved in Part One of this series—money is NOT zero-sum. There’s plenty of it for everyone.
You can’t, in any way, help those less fortunate by making less money for yourself.
That does NOTHING for them!
And you don’t hurt anyone else by making as MUCH money as humanly possible for yourself.
Being called “greedy” is not the business owner’s problem or responsibility. It’s the consumer’s misconception.
So replace the word “greed” with ambition. Achievement. Accomplishment. That’s what it really is. And as you’ll see in a moment—the richer you become, the more good you’ll be able to do anyway.
The next part of this massive, money-repelling misconception is the concept of…
Taking Advantage Of
Market Conditions:
You’ll hear the term “excessive profits” thrown around in the media. It’s in places it shouldn’t be, like the Wall Street Journal.
It’s the idea that the highest person in a company—the CEO—should only be paid a multiple of the lowest person.
Sounds logical at first glance, right? But it’s the most irrational idea a business can adopt.
In the real, physical world of commerce, that would be a fast way for a business to fail. It goes against the way things HAVE to work!
Here’s why:
First, CEO payment (and anyone’s payment) is based on marketplace value.
And if the CEO takes too much money for himself too many times in a row, the marketplace will catch up to him—and profits will be gone.
If he’s truly being unfairly and irrationally compensated, like many people say… he’ll be in DEEP trouble. The company will either cease to exist, or he’ll lose his job. And he’ll have an impossible time getting hired ever again.
But if a CEO does an outstanding job to make the company superior and remarkable in every way… that’s the most valuable thing a company can have! They’ll create more valuable products, hire more people, and expand to new heights.
That’s why companies WANT outstanding CEOs. They’re in-demand.
That’s also why CEOs make salaries proportional to what they can accomplish for the company. Because of what they DO.
How To Increase The
Money You Get Paid Immediately:
Let’s say your job is to tighten a bolt on the side of a doo-hickey in an assembly line.
If you were tightening the same bolt the same way 5 years ago that you are today, that’s not worth any more money than it was 5 years ago. You’re doing the same thing.
BUT—if you:
Tighten the bolt 50 times faster to increase production…
Tighten the bolt in a way to cut the recall rate by 50%…
Invent a machine that tightens 50 bolts at once, saving the company money…
That’s worth higher pay. Simple, right?
But most people don’t understand that. They see other people getting pay increases and just assume it’s unfair that they’re not getting paid the same way.
In other words, “those who expect higher pay when they haven’t increased the value of what they’re doing.” That’s completely irrational.
In many cases these are people who HAVE seen entrepreneurship. They know about it. And they have every opportunity to create value and get paid more…
They just don’t.
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Shop NowHaving Money Will Change
You Into A Bad Person.
Even if you’re actively pursuing wealth, and do not hold this belief consciously… it can hide out in a dark corner of your unconscious mind. It was probably put there in your childhood.
And it will sabotage you.
Disney movies, fairytales and comic books of all kinds—more often than not—portrayed wealthy people as the evil antagonists.
Usually because the writers of those stories weren’t wealthy themselves and didn’t know better.
Ironically, that kind of story sells more in the public, too!
But as a result of this misconception, entrepreneurs and business owners fear becoming wealthy.
…As if, once they get past a certain income level, the number in their bank account will start affecting their morality…
They’ll start thinking evil thoughts. Being unkind to their neighbors. Getting grumpy. And descending into a permanent pit of corruption. They’ll start taking advantage of people. Lying. Cheating. Stealing. Oh, the horror.
Those are all lies. Because…
Here’s The Indisputable Truth:
Whether you’re wealthy or poor has nothing to do with being a good or bad person. Character is NOT changed by money.
Money only amplifies the quality of character you’d have anyway. We’ll get to that part in a second as we wrap this post up.
But first, remember this:
So far, in the entire history of the convenience store industry… there has yet to be a robbery by a person who pulled up in a Lamborghini.
Never has a getaway car for a bank heist been a stretch limo.
No one pickpockets a wallet from a stranger, then retires to their yacht.
At the same time, wealth allows those with GOOD intentions to multiply their good deeds at a prodigious level!
Just look at the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation. What they’re doing to help people in developing countries gain better health, education, and resources is FAR more good than most have accomplished.
And it’s NOT because Bill and Melinda Gates are “better people” than you or I.
They have the same good intentions and even motivation millions of others may have—they just have more money. It allows them to multiply their good.
No one can argue that!
We’re not saying there aren’t also rich people with questionable morals. There’s tons of ‘em! But getting rich didn’t make them that way—they were like that before becoming wealthy.
Money Is An Amplifier.
If you want to do good things in the world, money will allow you to do exceedingly more good than you could have done without it.
Unfortunately, the same is true if you want to do bad things.
But that should give you more motivation to get rich. Not prevent you from it.
If you consider yourself a “good” person, who wants to help people and do good things in the world…
…you’re doing yourself and all the people you could help a MASSIVE disservice by not getting rich.
Your good intentions could be multiplied a thousandfold with more money!
So un-link this idea that somehow money will corrupt you. Money is neutral. If you want to do good, money can ONLY help you.
Once you fully grasp that it’s your DUTY to get rich—so you can have a bigger impact on the world, and everyone will LOVE you for it…
…a brand new level of focus and motivation sets in.
You’re not just doing it for yourself. You’re helping others by helping yourself. You’re being a jerk to them by NOT getting rich.
So imagine the day when hoards of people are cheering you on for impacting their lives profoundly—and realize the wealthier you make yourself, the easier it will be for you to make that a reality.
–
To Your Success,
Inktuitive
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