Looking down at the calligraphy he’d just written in his study, Tak-hyeon Lee wore a displeased expression.
Having gazed at the characters for a while like that, he spoke, eyes still on the writing.
“So? He reassigned everyone across the board? Just because he didn’t like the staff arrangement?”
Chief Secretary Do-beom Hwang, who’d been grinding ink beside Tak-hyeon Lee as he wrote, carefully set the ink stick down and answered.
“It doesn’t seem to be that.”
“Then what — you’re saying there’s some other reason?”
“Yes.”
At that answer, Tak-hyeon Lee’s gaze, which had been on the calligraphy, slowly turned toward Do-beom Hwang.
Do-beom Hwang, under Tak-hyeon Lee’s eyes, relayed the reason the secretariat had determined.
“Director Kim seems to want to clear out every single employee.”
“He wants to clear out every last employee?”
Tak-hyeon Lee wore a puzzled expression, apparently not having expected this answer at all.
At Tak-hyeon Lee’s look, Do-beom Hwang nodded and said,
“Yes. Which is why, as far as we can tell, he reassigned every employee.”
“So you’re saying he did it so they couldn’t hold on and would leave on their own?”
“Exactly. Cutting the entire staff outright could cause problems, so it looks like his judgment was to make them leave of their own accord.”
“Hahaha.”
Tak-hyeon Lee burst out laughing as if he found it amusing and set down his brush.
Rising from the desk, he walked toward the window and said,
“At Ilhyeon Watch he used money to make them leave on their own, and now at Ilhyeon Hotel he makes the staff unable to endure it and drives them out? Is this really the same fellow who did nothing but field sales runs at Ilhyeon Distribution? How is he this skilled at it?”
“I found it strange too, so I looked into it again… but it’s confirmed. Since joining Ilhyeon Distribution, all he ever did was stock supermarkets and neighborhood corner shops.”
“Of course. Didn’t you already check into this several times over, back when he first said he’d marry Gyeong-eun? There’s no reason checking again now would turn up anything different.”
Tak-hyeon Lee, still wearing an amused expression, sat down on the sofa.
“But the union’s backlash is expected to be severe. What should we do about that?”
Do-beom Hwang asked this wondering whether, if Tak-hyeon Lee approved of Seong-ho Kim’s decision, he might step in to block the union’s opposition.
Because if Tak-hyeon Lee moved, he could easily suppress any union backlash.
But contrary to Do-beom Hwang’s expectation, Tak-hyeon Lee had no intention of doing so.
“Leave it be.”
“Leave it be?”
“Yes. He wouldn’t have moved without anticipating that either, so just watch quietly and see how he handles it. I’m curious how he’ll untangle it.”
At Tak-hyeon Lee’s instruction, Chief Secretary Do-beom Hwang bowed his head and answered,
“Yes. Understood.”
Sitting with his legs crossed, Tak-hyeon Lee pictured Seong-ho Kim in motion at Ilhyeon Hotel and let out another laugh.
“Hah. That fellow really is entertaining. Here I wondered what kind of husk of a man Gyeong-eun had dragged home, and it turns out she had quite the eye. He’s the real thing.”
“Ah, and Chairman, there’s something else I need to report.”
Tak-hyeon Lee, still laughing, turned his head to look at Do-beom Hwang, who seemed about to bring something up cautiously.
Chief Secretary Do-beom Hwang offered Tak-hyeon Lee one more piece of news related to Seong-ho Kim.
“It’s about the Soyoung Packaging stock Director Kim purchased.”
“Right, the stock Director Kim bought with the money I gave him.”
“Yes. That’s…”
Seeing Do-beom Hwang hesitate for a moment, Tak-hyeon Lee, still smiling, looked at him strangely and asked,
“What? Did something go wrong? Was it delisted?”
Delisting was the first thing that came to Tak-hyeon Lee’s mind at Do-beom Hwang’s hesitation.
It made sense, given that it was the kind of company that wouldn’t have been surprising to see shut its doors the very next day.
But Do-beom Hwang’s hesitation was for an entirely different reason.
“No, it’s not a delisting…”
“If it’s not a delisting, then what? What could possibly be worse than that?”
“It’s… it’s not that something bad happened.”
At Do-beom Hwang’s words, Tak-hyeon Lee felt his patience thinning and grew irritated.
“If it’s not something bad, then what is it? Did it go up tenfold or something?”
“Not quite tenfold, but… the share price, which was 3,500 won, has crossed 10,000 won.”
“What are you talking about? How does something at 3,500 won cross 10,000?”
“Along with news that Soyoung Packaging developed an eco-friendly packaging box, it’s already hit the daily upper limit for a straight week now.”
At the news that it had hit the daily price ceiling for a full week running, Tak-hyeon Lee burst into laughter.
“Puhahaha. So he turned 100 million into 300 million in one stroke? Hahaha. Is that fellow blessed by the god of wealth or something? Tripling the moment he puts money into it?”
In the middle of his laughter, Tak-hyeon Lee suddenly recalled something and asked Do-beom Hwang urgently,
“He’s not pulling some kind of trick, is he?”
The suspicion had suddenly struck him that Seong-ho Kim might be colluding with a manipulation ring to rig the stock price.
Do-beom Hwang, with an expression showing he understood exactly what Tak-hyeon Lee was worried about, shook his head and answered,
“I was so puzzled myself that I checked through several channels, but I couldn’t find any sign of wrongdoing whatsoever.”
“So you’re telling me he earned that enormous a profit through pure skill?”
“Whether it’s skill or luck, I can’t say… but it does seem certain, at least, that it’s clean.”
“Hahaha.”
When Tak-hyeon Lee had first heard that Seong-ho Kim had bought stock with the money he’d given him — and that he’d put the entire sum into Soyoung Packaging, no less — he’d felt a flicker of disappointment.
But now, hearing that the money had tripled in no time at all, he found himself looking at Seong-ho Kim in a whole new light.
Watching the stock surge on something as far-fetched as an “eco-friendly packaging box,” Tak-hyeon Lee even began to wonder whether Seong-ho Kim was genuinely blessed by the god of wealth.
Tak-hyeon Lee thought that turning 100 million into 300 million was, by itself, a fine investment.
But Seong-ho Kim was looking toward a place far higher than anywhere Tak-hyeon Lee’s gaze had reached.
And Tak-hyeon Lee had no idea yet that the Soyoung Packaging affair was nothing more than a small step toward getting there.
Assistant Manager Chung-seop Jo of Ilhyeon Securities looked around the office while waiting for Seong-ho Kim.
After a while of taking in the surroundings like that, the door opened and Seong-ho Kim came inside.
Seeing Seong-ho Kim enter, Chung-seop Jo hurriedly rose from his seat.
Seong-ho Kim raised a hand toward him and said it was fine.
“No need to stand.”
Walking quickly to the table where Chung-seop Jo sat, Seong-ho Kim pulled out a chair, sat down, and said to him,
“You wanted to see me?”
“I’m sorry to trouble you when you’re so busy.”
Chung-seop Jo apologized first.
Seeing Seong-ho Kim looking even busier than he’d expected, he wondered whether he shouldn’t have come at all.
Seong-ho Kim smiled lightly at his apology and said,
“It’s fine. Whatever else is going on, I’ll always make you my top priority, Assistant Manager Jo, so if something urgent comes up again, don’t hesitate to come find me — understood?”
Chung-seop Jo thought Seong-ho Kim understood the market well.
Because no one who didn’t understand the ever-shifting nature of the stock market could say something like that.
Which was why he got straight to the reason he’d come today.
“Director. It’s nothing else — it’s about Soyoung Packaging.”
“I was curious about that too, as it happens. What did it close at today?”
“It closed today at 12,500 won.”
“That’s quite a rise.”
“Yes. That’s exactly why I’ve come.”
Chung-seop Jo, his mouth apparently dry, took a sip of water and said to Seong-ho Kim,
“The profit has exceeded 250 million won, so the amount you entrusted to me now totals 350 million won. Director, this is a truly enormous return in such a short time. I felt it might be wise to cash out around this point, which is why I’ve come to see you today.”
Seong-ho Kim smiled lightly at the seriously-faced Chung-seop Jo and said,
“Was the price written on the paper I gave you 12,500 won?”
“…No.”
“Do you happen to remember what price was written there?”
“How could I not remember? I had the paper you gave me laminated… I carry it with me at all times, like this.”
Chung-seop Jo pulled the laminated paper from his inner pocket.
Seong-ho Kim pointed at the paper Chung-seop Jo had produced and said,
“What price is written there?”
“That’s…”
Chung-seop Jo glanced down at the paper and answered,
“It says to sell around 85,000 won.”
“And what’s the price now?”
“Director, still… you wrote that before this whole issue broke, didn’t you?”
Chung-seop Jo spoke with the thought that he had to persuade Seong-ho Kim somehow.
“If it keeps hitting the ceiling day after day on this eco-friendly packaging box story, I think our response needs to change too. Once a short-term story like this fades, the price can revert quickly to its old level — sometimes it even falls below where it started. So…”
At Chung-seop Jo’s words, the smile on Seong-ho Kim’s face hardened slightly.
“I understand your reasoning well enough, but didn’t I ask you something before we began this? To do exactly as written on the paper. That was my one and only request — are you telling me now that you can’t even honor that?”
At Seong-ho Kim’s words, Chung-seop Jo felt the hair on his arms stand on end.
He had ears too, after all, and had heard plenty about Seong-ho Kim.
Between everything that had happened since he became the Ilhyeon Group’s youngest son-in-law and what was currently unfolding at Ilhyeon Hotel, Seong-ho Kim had become one of the biggest newsmakers in the Ilhyeon Group lately, so there was no shortage of talk about him.
Which was why, when this same Seong-ho Kim hardened his expression and spoke in a low voice, Chung-seop Jo couldn’t help but tense up.
But Chung-seop Jo believed that even if the mood turned unpleasant, he shouldn’t hold back what needed to be said.
“Even so, I must say it. Director, an unforeseen event has occurred, and when you’ve already made a great deal of money, cashing out some portion is a basic principle of the stock market. If you won’t do the full amount, please at least cash out part of it. That’s the only way to protect the principal.”
Seong-ho Kim gazed quietly at Chung-seop Jo, who wouldn’t stubbornly back down from his position even after hearing him out.
Under Seong-ho Kim’s gaze, Chung-seop Jo swallowed dryly.
He began to grow anxious, wondering whether his own conduct might cause Seong-ho Kim to cancel the arrangement altogether and tell him to leave Ilhyeon Securities as well.
Having gazed at Chung-seop Jo for a while like that, Seong-ho Kim let a smile rise to his face and stood up, saying,
“It’s exactly because of this side of you that I trusted you with my money in the first place.”
Chung-seop Jo, the conversation not yet finished as far as he was concerned, rose from his seat in an awkward posture, following Seong-ho Kim’s lead.
Seong-ho Kim came over to him, put a hand on his shoulder, and said,
“I have another meeting right now, so I can’t talk long.”
“Then what should we do about Soyoung Packaging…”
“So let’s do this.”
Looking up into the air for a moment, recalling what was written in the leather diary, Seong-ho Kim said to Chung-seop Jo,
“Wait for the next six months. Just hold for six months.”
“Six months?”
“Yes. Once six months have passed, I’ll do whatever you propose, so until then, please follow what I propose.”
“I can’t even guarantee a month from now, let alone six months…”
Seong-ho Kim smiled at Chung-seop Jo, who still believed Soyoung Packaging should be sold off, and said,
“Assistant Manager Jo. Remember who I am. 100 million is a large sum, true, but even if that money vanished entirely, it wouldn’t change my life. So don’t worry, and follow what I say.”
Chung-seop Jo had no choice but to nod in agreement at Seong-ho Kim’s words.
His face wore a smile, but there was a weight in his words hard to put into language.
“I have urgent business, so I’ll be on my way first. Let’s meet again soon.”
Seong-ho Kim lowered the hand from Chung-seop Jo’s shoulder, shook his hand, and left the room first.
Chung-seop Jo could only stare silently at the door Seong-ho Kim had left through, wondering whether he truly believed Soyoung Packaging would cross 80,000 won again in six months.
(End of Chapter 36)