_{There are many stories swirling about in the Land of the Morning Calm, and this is my contribution. This is the seventh part of my love letter to South Korea.}

"Five thousand," the vendor replied, with a smug look on her face.

The buyer paused for a minute, mulling over her options. She closed her eyes, sighed and let out a counter offer. "One thousand."

"One thousand!?" the vendor shouted in disgust. "What do you think this is? A charity?"

"Okay, fine. Let's meet at the middle. Three thousand."

"Four thousand five hundred. You take it, or you look somewhere else."

So, the buyer did. Look somewhere else, that is.

The wares went unsold for a number of days, collecting dust while the vendor was losing money. It came to a point where the vendor was sick and tired of looking at it. One day, the vendor came across the very same buyer and offered the wares for a cheaper price.

"You wanted to buy this for three thousand, right?" the vendor asked. "Go on, take it. Three thousand."

"I wanted it for one thousand actually."

"One thousand!?" The vendor paused, thought about it and realized that it was better than nothing. "Okay, okay. One thousand. Happy? Go, take it."

"But, I don't want it anymore."

"Why? It has only been a few days. Nobody has even touched it. It's practically brand new!"

"I saw that the same thing was being sold for five hundred somewhere else. I'll swing by there and buy that instead."

"Five hundred?!" the vendor exclaimed. She thought the price was ridiculous, but her competitive spirit kicked into high gear. "Take this for free, just tell others that my wares are better and cheaper."

The buyer took it without any questions, and walked away smiling, with all her money intact.

Is the title too on the nose? Sorry about that. Back in September 2017, I put up my first and only contest here on Steemit. It centered around koans, and I thought that it would be a good riff off "Korea". I initially planned on doing a music post here, but I couldn't finish the production in time. I do hope that you still enjoyed this little throwback that I did.

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