Seeing Chung-seop sitting there open-mouthed, Seong-ho smiled and said, “What do you think, Assistant Manager Jo? Doesn’t 50 billion seem about right?”

Chung-seop hurriedly gathered himself and answered. “50 billion is just right. Anything bigger than that runs a high chance of being hard to move. I’ll divide it up sensibly and sell it off well.”

Seong-ho smiled at Chung-seop, who’d caught his meaning.

He really does read between the lines.

When Seong-ho asked whether it was “about right,” what he meant was whether Chung-seop could unwind it cleanly to hit the target. Fifty billion couldn’t be liquidated all at once; it had to be broken across dates and matched to the bid prices, which meant clearing the whole position took anywhere from dozens to, at the high end, thousands of trades. Chung-seop had grasped that at once and answered that he’d handle the unwinding himself.

Around this time was when he left the company, wasn’t it?

Seong-ho recalled the Chung-seop of that former life. After resigning from Ilhyeon Securities, Chung-seop had, with the help of a client he’d met while working there, founded an asset-management firm that posted high returns and rode word of mouth to become, in no time, one of the industry’s most prominent. Having established himself that way, Chung-seop then acquired a securities firm that had come up for sale, setting foot into the very core of the establishment. Even after the acquisition his rise didn’t stop; as the funds he launched posted high returns one after another, capital in the market came pouring rapidly into his firm, and Chung-seop, making good use of that concentration of money, drove his firm’s ranking up fast in a short span.

The prodigy of the securities world.

For always producing outstanding returns through unfailingly accurate judgment in a stock market that could turn from moment to moment, people called Chung-seop the prodigy of the securities world.

Recalling Chung-seop’s path in that former life, Seong-ho put a proposal to him. “Assistant Manager Jo.”

“Yes, Director.”

Still marveling open-mouthed, Chung-seop hurriedly answered the call.

In that former life Chung-seop had been the prodigy of the securities world, but right now he was nothing more than one ordinary man among many.

Seong-ho put his proposal to Chung-seop, who looked back at him with eyes full of trust. “Once you’ve wrapped up this matter cleanly, how about leaving Ilhyeon Securities and setting up an asset-management firm?”

“An asset-management firm?”

Chung-seop wore a startled look, as if it were a proposal he’d never once imagined.

Seong-ho spoke in a calm voice. “I’ll put up the capital. Would you have any interest in establishing an asset-management firm, using the 50 billion I’m going to make as its capital?”

“But… Director. Isn’t that too much of a gamble…? If I were to invest your money badly…”

At the sudden proposal, worry outran surprise in Chung-seop.

“I trust you, Assistant Manager Jo. You need only consult with me reasonably on the broad currents as you go, so there’s no great cause for worry. Anything that goes wrong will be my responsibility.”

“Even so…”

“Have confidence.” Seong-ho explained to Chung-seop why he was making this proposal. “I have a great deal to do going forward. I’m in no position to pour all my attention into the stock market or the financial markets as a whole. So I need someone to move the funds in my stead, and the person I thought of for that is you.”

Chung-seop heard the reason and nodded. Just because Seong-ho couldn’t pour all his attention into the financial markets, it wasn’t as though he could leave capital grown to 50 billion sitting untouched.

“The scale of the funds has grown too large to keep parking and running through Ilhyeon Securities. It’s a situation where I have to take it out and run it separately. So if you accept my proposal, my plan is to invest my funds there.”

“How about you establishing the asset-management firm yourself, Director? I think it would be fine for me to come in as an employee at a company you’d set up.”

Seong-ho shook his head at the suggestion. “No. My funds are money that will be put to use someday. It’s not money that can be tied up in a company.”

Chung-seop nodded. If, as Seong-ho said, it was money to be used someday, then a company couldn’t be built with it.

Watching him, Seong-ho thought to himself, The results he’ll post as an employee and as a president will differ — so Chung-seop has to be the president.

The reason Chung-seop had earned the title of prodigy of the securities world was that he himself had become president and founded the firm. Had he stayed on as someone else’s employee all along, there was a high chance he wouldn’t have traced the same footprints as that former life. And so Seong-ho wanted Chung-seop to build the firm himself, and chose to remain behind as an investor.

There was another reason for this decision as well.

What I need isn’t a new company — only ammunition.

Seong-ho had not the slightest intention of keeping clear of the Ilhyeon family’s tangled war and living a life of his own. On the contrary, he meant to forge ammunition so as to enter the fight with the Ilhyeon family in earnest, and the funds were the ammunition to be spent in that war. By putting Chung-seop out front, he meant to secure still more of it.

To Chung-seop, whose mind seemed to have tilted toward the proposal, Seong-ho offered a final word. “Before long a great game is going to open in the stock market. A land of opportunity is set to unfold — won’t you go there together with me?”

At the proposal, Chung-seop ended his deliberation. “All right. I’ll accept your proposal, Director.” He bowed his head to Seong-ho in thanks. “Thank you truly for giving me such a great opportunity. From here on, whatever you say, I’ll do it — so just give the order.”

“Haha. You needn’t go that far. We’re as good as business partners. You need only run my money well, Assistant Manager Jo. That’s enough for me.”

“Business partners? That’s far too much. You lifted me up this far and gave me the opportunity, so I’ll repay your faith.” As if to show these weren’t mere words, Chung-seop looked at Seong-ho with an earnest expression and bowed his head once more.

“I’ll support you with everything I have, Director. And please, treat me comfortably. That’s all I want.”

Seong-ho only gazed quietly at him and smiled, saying nothing.

After her first day at the company, Gyeong-eun spent time so busy that the evenings she ate at home could be counted on one hand. The various ventures Seong-ho had set in motion were reaching their proper stride, and it kept her run off her feet.

Taking her coat when she got home past ten, Seong-ho asked first whether she’d eaten. “Did you have dinner at the hotel?”

“Yes…”

As if she hadn’t even the strength to answer, Gyeong-eun plopped down before the vanity. Then, catching Seong-ho’s eyes on her with a look of concern, she put on an air of unconcern. “Don’t worry. Where I am is a hotel, isn’t it? Eating, at least, I’m doing well.”

“Work must be keeping you quite busy.”

Gyeong-eun nodded and, looking up at him, began to tell him about what she’d been pressing ahead with lately. “Thanks to you, as the company got onto a sound track, we’ve come into some room in our funds. Lately some decent hotels have been coming up for sale, and I’ve been meaning to buy with that spare capital.”

“You mean to expand?”

“Yes.”

When Seong-ho frowned, Gyeong-eun asked with a worried face, “Why? Is something wrong?”

“Hmm…”

Still with her coat over his arm, Seong-ho let out a short groan. He looked, for a moment, sunk in some thought.

Seeing it, Gyeong-eun asked with a face grown more worried still, “Seong-ho. What is it? Isn’t expanding a good thing?”

“No. It’s not a good thing.” Seong-ho nodded and walked toward the bed. He perched on its edge and put a few questions to her. “What are the properties you looked at?”

“Hotels over in Sokcho and Pohang, and a resort in the Suncheon area.”

“Even with the spare capital, buying all three would leave you short, so you meant to cover the shortfall with loans?”

“That’s right.” Gyeong-eun nodded and laid out their plan. “We were going to raise about 200 billion from the banks and cover the rest by issuing bonds. Acquire the three that way, and secure funds for the others over time.”

“The others? There are more, beyond the three?”

“There are properties coming up in Incheon and Busan too. The business division has been saying they’ve come out below market, so why not acquire those as well.”

Seong-ho smiled lightly and nodded. He hadn’t sat in on the meeting, but he felt he knew exactly what had been said there and how the talk had gone.

He looked at Gyeong-eun. “Do you happen to know how much in bonds has been issued under the Ilhyeon Hotel name right now, and at what issue rate?”

“That… I’m not sure.”

Seong-ho nodded understandingly. However much she was president, it was only natural she wouldn’t know down to the scale and rate of bond issuance.

He offered her his counsel. “I think it would be best not to expand.”

“Not to? Why?”

It wasn’t a question asked out of resistance to his opposing the expansion. Gyeong-eun took it as given that Seong-ho’s word was right, but she asked the reason because she’d need to know it in order to persuade the others.

Seong-ho knew in what spirit she asked, too. So in a calm voice he explained why now was not the time to expand. “Right now is a time to clear up debt, bonds included.”

“Clear the debt first?”

“That’s right. However much money piles up in the warehouse, if you’ve borrowed a great deal from outside, there’s a high chance the interest alone will eat all of it up. So pay down the debt first. Now is a time not to expand but to build up your foundations.”

“I’m of the same mind, actually. But the business division says if not now, we won’t be able to acquire hotels that have come out this cheap…”

“Sokcho, Pohang, Suncheon, Incheon, and Busan too… Last year, when I was at the company, these weren’t properties I ever heard of. And yet it’s been hardly any time since I left, and this much inventory comes out all at once — doesn’t something about that strike you as strange?”

“They said that’s why it’s cheap, though?”

Gyeong-eun relayed to him, word for word, what she’d heard from the business division.

Seong-ho shook his head. “When something’s cheap, there’s a reason for it. And make it firmly clear to the staff that our Ilhyeon Hotel isn’t a place that snaps up this and that just because it’s cheap. Buy up this and that just because it came out cheap, and you’ll chip away at the image and the value of a premier hotel.”

Hearing him, Gyeong-eun wore the look of someone realizing something. “Now that you say it, that’s true. The resort that came up in Suncheon is a property beneath our level to acquire, and the Pohang hotel is business-hotel grade, only three-star — not a property that suits our Ilhyeon Hotel, which aims to be the finest.”

With a face gone much clearer, she looked at him. “Ever since the expansion talk came up it nagged at me terribly, and hearing you explain it, I understand what it was that nagged. Just as you say, I should clear the debt first. Expanding is the right order after the debt is cleared, when there’s a property that suits our level.”

Seong-ho felt relieved that she’d understood. From the standpoint of a man who knew what lay ahead, if Gyeong-eun had insisted on expanding, a thorny situation could only have followed.

He turned his head and looked at the leather diary set on one side of the table. Until moments ago he’d been checking what was written in it, and he couldn’t help but worry over the future drawing near. The event to come was one that would shake not only the Republic of Korea but the whole of Asia.

And the first button of that event, Sang-jong bit down on — and came to Pyeongchang-dong.

(End of Chapter 58)