A Wall Street Genius's Final Investment Playbook-Chapter 292: Side Story, Jessie (1)

On the plane bound for Philadelphia. Someone gazed out the window with a wistful expression. It was Jessie, returning home after her honeymoon.

“Goodbye, Cancun… I’m sorry I couldn’t really enjoy you this time…”

Though they called it a honeymoon, the trip was practically a business trip. Mornings were filled with work, afternoons allowed only fleeting visits to the beach, and nights meant opening the laptop again in an endless routine.

‘It couldn’t be helped.’

David and Jessie couldn’t completely free themselves from work. Since Castleman patients’ conditions could change at any moment, they had to monitor every update in real time to respond instantly without panicking.

‘And the business side has been busy lately too.’

David was the CEO of RP Solutions, the company created from Ha Si-heon’s earlier proposal. And perhaps because of Si-heon’s continued achievements? Recently, the workload had been overwhelming. But since there was no deputy authorized to make decisions on behalf of the CEO… David ended up grinding through three hours of remote meetings every single day.

At this point, calling it a honeymoon was absurd—it was more like honeymoon remote work. Worse yet—

“For a while, even this might be impossible…”

Not only traveling, but even getting weekends off for the next few years seemed uncertain. That was because news had just arrived from Ha Si-heon.

Things are going to get busy for a while.

—No way… even busier than this? Is that even possible?

At first, Jessie was in shock. But her face changed as she read the words that followed.

According to Milo’s genetic analysis, the cause of Castleman disease has been identified. The silencing of the WFOXO3A gene seems to be the key factor.

The clue they had been searching for all this time. The fundamental cause of Castleman disease. At last… it had been uncovered! The moment they heard the news, David and Jessie clung to each other and cried for a long time. They were so overwhelmed that they couldn’t even speak.

Of course, that alone didn’t solve every piece of the puzzle. The disease mechanism was still complex, unanswered questions remained, and above all, developing a treatment was another challenge altogether.

But.

“Isn’t Sean amazing? How could he accomplish this in less than three years…!”

Jessie’s voice carried a whirlwind of emotions. Overwhelming joy, endless gratitude, and… a pride she couldn’t even put into words. Especially that last one—it was the strongest of all. Somewhere along the way, whenever Sean was mentioned, Jessie’s expression lit up like a mother bragging about her child.

And this time was no different—once she started, she couldn’t stop.

“There are rich people everywhere! Plenty of them with money to burn! But where else do you find a wealthy man like Sean, someone out there running around saving lives? Am I wrong?”

But just as Jessie was getting carried away, she stopped abruptly. David wasn’t listening to her passionate speech—instead, he was flipping through the duty-free catalog.

“Huh?”

“What are you doing? I’m talking about something really important right now, you know?”

David opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again. Saying something like, “This is the tenth time today you’ve said this,”—true or not—was never a good idea. Still, there was a reason he was pretending to be distracted.

“I was thinking maybe I should buy a bottle of whiskey for Sean as a gift.”

Jessie tilted her head.

“A gift? But we already bought one.”

“Oh… that? You’re actually going to give it to him?”

“Of course. That’s why we bought it. Did you pack it properly? Check again.”

With a resigned sigh, David dug into his bag and pulled out a pile of T-shirts. The kind you’d find at tourist traps, with ridiculous slogans printed on them.

[tequila: because therapy is too expensive]

[I'm not drunk. I'm just from Cancun.]

There were four of them in total. One for David, one for Jessie, one for Si-heon, and one for Rachel—perfectly planned matching shirts.

“Perfect! As soon as we get back, we’re wearing these and taking a group photo! We’ll print it right away, stick it on the fridge, and even make holiday cards out of it!”

She didn’t just plan to make Si-heon wear one—she wanted to create blackmail-worthy photos, and even distribute them. Hearing Jessie’s ambitious plan, David carefully voiced his doubt.

“Do you really think Sean will… wear this?”

These T-shirts were as far from Si-heon’s style as one could imagine.

“Sean in a T-shirt? I honestly can’t picture it…”

David’s doubt was reasonable. Si-heon always wore luxury suits and crisp shirts, never allowing the slightest wrinkle in his appearance. Even that one night when the four of them drank until dawn at a hotel—he stayed in his suit until sunrise. And the next morning, he appeared in a freshly pressed suit, calmly sipping coffee.

‘What if his pajamas are suits too? Do they make sleepwear suits?’

David had seriously wondered about it. But for someone like Si-heon, who seemed practically born in a suit—

[Cancun Hangover Champion.]

—making him wear that? That was practically a cultural clash experiment. Jessie, however, didn’t care one bit.

“It’s fine! We didn’t buy them for him to wear seriously, we bought them to laugh together.”

“......”

“What I’m saying is, I can see him scowling at it instead of laughing—”

“......”

“That’s just because he’s not used to this kind of thing! That’s why it’s our job to show him the fun and joy in everyday life!”

A strange determination flashed across Jessie’s face.

“This is something only we can do. Because… we’re Sean’s new family now.”

This was the mission Jessie had recently devoted herself to. To gift Ha Si-heon with “family happiness.”

“Family means things like tacky matching T-shirt photos. Making prints and mailing them as cards… Sean’s never had that, right?”

Suddenly, a flicker of sorrow touched Jessie’s eyes.

“He lost both of his parents in high school…”

Whenever family came up, Si-heon always showed obvious discomfort and tried to avoid the subject. His expression was that of someone burying a deep wound inside. The “precious people” he had lost were clearly his family. And whenever the topic arose, Si-heon—so usually stoic—would show a face filled with sorrow, so much so that to this day, they hadn’t heard the details.

‘He’s just not ready to talk about it yet…’

It must be that painful of a memory. Every time she saw it, Jessie’s heart ached.

‘At first, I thought he was just a coldhearted money-obsessed man.’

At the root of it all was the misfortune of his childhood, and that misfortune still clung to him.

“That’s why his emotions come across so stiff, and why he keeps people at arm’s length. But still!”

Determination once again returned to her eyes.

“We can’t just let him live like that forever, can we? From now on, he has to be trained to get used to warmth and family life.”

Jessie had been making every effort to help Ha Si-heon experience the “warmth of family.” For example, on days like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Independence Day—holidays meant for families—she always sent him invitations.

‘Though Sean has never once accepted any of those invitations…’

That was only because he was always too busy. But Jessie couldn’t just let him keep dodging forever, so she used other ways to drill in the message: “We are family.”

Like registering each other as emergency contacts. Or declaring that if she and David ever had a child, Sean would be the godfather.

—Godfather? And what specific duties and responsibilities would that entail?

Recalling the stiff look Sean had shown that day, David spoke carefully.

“Don’t you think if you push too hard… it might feel like too much for him?”

But Jessie was firm.

“That’s only because he’s too used to living without a family. It just feels awkward. Once he gets used to it, that’ll fade.”

“Still, if it feels like you’re forcing it—”

“That’s what family is!”

Jessie answered without a moment’s hesitation. She thought of her own mother.

“Family is supposed to be like that, isn’t it? Burdensome, inconvenient, annoying… but no matter what, you can’t cut them off! We have to show Sean he has people like that too.”

“Even if he doesn’t want it?”

“Family isn’t something you get to choose!”

“And besides… isn’t it better if he finds us annoying and inconvenient sometimes? The alternative is way too lonely.”

Jessie often imagined it. What if, one day, burnout finally hit Ha Si-heon, who was always impossibly busy? And at that moment, if he thought, ‘I’ve lived like this all my life, and in the end, I have no one by my side’? That, she could never allow.

She would rather he be constantly pestered—nagged every day, dragged into making memories, unable to escape no matter how he tried—than be left with nothing.

“Sean deserves to be happy. More than anyone.”

Jessie was determined to give him happiness. Even if he didn’t want it himself. Because that’s what family does.

And in that same spirit, Jessie currently had one project she was most obsessed with…

“Well? Do you think the two of them have made any progress?”

“You mean… Rachel?”

That’s right. Jessie’s shameless matchmaking project. It was all about pairing Ha Si-heon with Rachel.

“No matter how I think about it, it has to be Rachel. Who else could it be? Sean is impossibly picky!”

Rachel was the future daughter-in-law Jessie had set her sights on, as someone who prided herself on being “practically Sean’s mother.”

“She’s so kind! She understands him so well! Sometimes she even reads his mind better than we do… and on top of that—”

Jessie pulled out her phone. She scrolled through her gallery until she found a photo and held it up.

“Look! Don’t they look perfect together?”

It was a shot of Ha Si-heon and Rachel taken together at Met Gala. When Jessie first saw it, she had literally squealed like a dolphin and jumped up and down on the living room sofa in the middle of the night. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

“The fact that Sean even brought Rachel to an event like this is huge progress! Doesn’t it mean he wanted them to be seen as a couple in public?”

And in fact, online spaces had been flooded with speculation about “Sean’s girl.” Every time, Jessie made the rounds on every site, obsessively posting comments like, “They’re the couple of the century,” and, “Just get married already!”—pushing the narrative with all her might.

Remembering those days suddenly stirred up an unpleasant memory. That was the only time in her life Jessie had ever fought a full-on keyboard battle.

[OrangeJuice: It’s extremely rare for people to bring their actual partner to events like this.]

[OrangeJuice: Most of the time it’s just a colleague or PR partner. Don’t get the wrong idea.]

[OrangeJuice: Stop spreading false rumors like this. Do you want to get sued? I’m saving screenshots of all malicious speculation.]

Who even was that “OrangeJuice” guy, and what right did he have to butt in and throw a fit?

‘The world is full of lunatics.’

But Jessie quickly shook off the unpleasant memory. After all, that moment had been historic for the two of them! It was undeniably a turning point in their relationship. So she kept a close eye on them afterward…

‘Why is their progress so slow!’

To Jessie, their pace was agonizingly sluggish. Of course, she knew the general reason. Ha Si-heon was far too busy, and Rachel, considerate as always, never wanted to bother him.

‘Maybe because she’s not family yet…?’

If she were family, she’d have kept pushing even if it felt intrusive. But Rachel always stepped back, always respecting his space. Respect was admirable, yes—But too much respect only created a lifelong parallel line. From Jessie’s point of view, that was the very thing holding back their relationship.

And then, just when she was worried sick over it all… Something unbelievable happened. Ha Si-heon announced that he would be staying at home with Rachel—just the two of them!

“Doesn’t this mean Sean made some huge decision? He’s never done this before, right? And while we’re away too! Just him and Rachel!”

Suspicious. Way too suspicious. Suspicion was practically pouring over the edges.

“Think about Sean’s usual self! A hundred percent hotel, a thousand percent privacy, a hundred thousand percent solo space! And now he—”

To send David and Jessie away, only to remain at home with Rachel?

“This means he’s serious this time!”

Clearly, he was seizing the chance to close the distance with her.

“A man and a woman living together for a week? If nothing happens, wouldn’t that be stranger?”

“Well… if it’s those two, I could actually see nothing happening…”

“What kind of nonsense is that!”

Jessie snapped, as though that was utterly impossible. But then she realized—It was possible. Rachel and Ha Si-heon. The excessive politeness, the respect, the caution between them. If they clung to that again, then yes—there might be no progress at all.

Still—

“Heh heh heh.”

A smile spread across Jessie’s lips.

‘With a little help, things could be different.’

“Wait… don’t tell me you did something?”

“Relax! This time it wasn’t ‘forcing.’ I just… gave them a little help!”

She had no intention of interfering outright. Romance forced by family pressure would never end well. But instead—subtly, naturally, invisibly… Jessie had planted “devices” all throughout the house. Little traps designed to trigger romantic events.

‘Did they work?’

For a moment, she worried. But then Jessie brushed the worry aside.

‘With so many set up, at least one of them had to work!’