"Does this…… make any sense?"

Sim Taejun, branch manager of Daehan Bank's Jamsil branch, under DB Financial Holdings. He checked one of the VIP accounts he handles and froze where he sat.

Sunday morning.

Work has been backed up lately, so he had come in to the branch on the weekend as well and was clearing the paperwork.

The transfer season is coming. Promotion is riding on it.

He has to show as much visible performance as he possibly can. For that, the first thing is to have the financial position of the clients he handles clear in his head.

Then he opened one account and his mind went hazy at a figure he simply could not believe.

A Daehan Securities linked account.

Swallow.

Sim Taejun swallowed on a dry throat.

Wondering whether he had misread the number, he refreshed the screen three times over.

—Client name: Ha Tae-ung.

—Balance: 1,217,300,000,000 won.

All ten fingers were trembling.

"Th-that time. I…… turned him down…… with a smile on my face, didn't I?"

A trillion! It is a number shining quietly on the monitor screen.

Sim Taejun the banker had carried his nose in the air, and his pride collapsed in front of the number.

Pride that had not been worth one won. The account balance, holding the number up plain and clear, was a reality that hurt to the bone.

"Mm."

Sim Taejun swallowed a groan and slowly closed his fist.

It was time to throw his pride away and calculate, to choose survival instead of hesitation.

"Ha Tae-ung has already proved it!"

Sim Taejun took his eyes off the monitor and stood up slowly. He went over to the window and looked at the view outside.

It is a clear Sunday morning.

The sky was unusually bright. On the clear glass he called up the tracks he had left behind him.

Until now he had lived with his neck hung on performance. He had taken pride in it as an ability of its own — lining up well, to get as far inside the safe ground as he could.

Sunday…