Chairman Tak-hyeon of the Ilhyeon Group summoned the presidents of the group’s major affiliates.

The item on the agenda for the emergency presidents’ meeting was the Dubo Steel investment that Sang-jong, President of Ilhyeon Construction, had brought in.

Gyeong-eun attended the presidents’ meeting as well. Now that Ilhyeon Hotel too was counted among Ilhyeon Group’s proper major affiliates, she attended as the hotel’s head.

Home again, Gyeong-eun told Seong-ho what had gone on at the meeting that day. “I think my brothers have lost their minds. They decided to raise the Dubo Steel investment all the way to 300 billion.”

“Not 200 billion, but 300?”

“Yes. That’s why Dad convened the presidents’ meeting. He said the scale was too large for Ilhyeon Construction to handle on its own, so each affiliate would have to help.”

Gyeong-eun shook her head and sat in a chair on one side of the room. Looking at Seong-ho, seated across from her, she said, “Just as you said, I opposed it — but my opposing did no good at all.”

“Eldest brother must have turned to approval.”

Gyeong-eun looked with wonder at Seong-ho — who knew so well despite not having attended the meeting — and nodded. “Yes. And raising it to 300 billion wasn’t second brother’s idea either; it was eldest brother’s proposal.”

She shook her head as if she couldn’t understand it. “Why on earth would eldest brother suddenly do that? Until just recently he was clearly in the opposing camp.”

Knowing that the reason Mun-jong had changed his stance was himself, Seong-ho only smiled without a word.

It was true that Mun-jong stood furthest ahead in the succession. But it was no more than a gap that could be overturned at any moment. Because Sang-jong could seize the lead behind him at any time, Mun-jong could never help but be on edge. And so he’d taken Seong-ho’s idea, added his own on top, and approved at the raised figure of 300 billion.

Had a little more time passed and Mun-jong been pulling clearly ahead in the succession, he wouldn’t have accepted my proposal — but now is different. With the breath of the pursuing Sang-jong at his back, his heart can’t help but be anxious.

Through his experience of that former life, Seong-ho had touched Mun-jong’s weak spot, and Mun-jong was moving exactly as Seong-ho intended.

Smiling silently, Seong-ho asked a few more things about the meeting to steer Gyeong-eun’s curiosity elsewhere. “How was the chairman?”

“Dad… he wasn’t actively pushing to invest, but he wasn’t saying not to go through with it either. He just seemed like — since both eldest and second brother approve, well, let’s give it a try.”

“Then you must have been the only one who opposed.”

“That’s right. Everyone was just a little worried about the 300-billion scale, but no one opposed investing in Dubo Steel itself.”

At the situation flowing just as it had in that former life, a smile came to Seong-ho’s lips.

Gyeong-eun watched him and went on relaying what had come up at the meeting. “Executing 300 billion all at once is difficult, so we decided to execute 100 billion first, then gather funds from each affiliate and execute the remaining 200 billion after.”

“And when would that be?”

“They agreed to execute it all within a month at the earliest, two at the latest.” Gyeong-eun answered and leaned back against the chair a moment. “Our Ilhyeon Hotel got allotted 20 billion. I have to raise 20 billion and hand it over within the month…”

Feeling stifled at having to come up with 20 billion inside a month, she looked up at the ceiling. “I used all our spare capital paying down debt, so making 20 billion is going to be so hard… ugh, really. Why did second brother suddenly get fixated on Dubo Steel! No — with second brother, between this and the Jisan Cement business, it’s not the first or second time, so I let it go. But I can’t understand why on earth even eldest brother got buried in Dubo Steel.”

“Gyeong-eun.”

Complaining up at the ceiling, she looked at him.

“Even if the 20 billion you invested vanishes, Ilhyeon Hotel is all right?”

“Sorry? What do you mean? The 20 billion, all of it, vanishing?”

Leaning against the chair back, she straightened up with a startled face and asked.

Seong-ho asked again, with a serious face, “Even if that 20 billion flies away, Ilhyeon Hotel has to be all right. How is it? Do you think it’ll be all right?”

At his serious face, Gyeong-eun nodded and answered. “There’d be a blow, but… it’s not a sum that would cause a problem. Since you told me to build up our foundations rather than expand, we’ve still got room.”

“That’s a relief.”

Hearing that Ilhyeon Hotel would be fine, Seong-ho smiled. “Gyeong-eun, keep guarding the company against anything that might happen. I’ll take care of the rest.”

At his words, Gyeong-eun only nodded silently. She was curious what it meant for all of that 20 billion to fly away, but by trusting his word that he’d handle it, she set the curiosity aside.

Seong-ho looked at the calendar on the wall and murmured, “A month at the earliest, two at the latest…”

He drew his eyes from the calendar and opened the leather diary. Gyeong-eun turned her gaze to it too. A blank sheet with nothing written on it met her eyes. But on the page visible to Seong-ho were letters Gyeong-eun couldn’t see.

Dubo Steel — final insolvency processed, [X] month [XX] day.

Exactly two months from now…

Seong-ho gazed silently down at Dubo Steel’s bankruptcy date, fixed two months out.

Reading a newspaper while waiting for Seong-ho, Chung-seop clicked his tongue at an article splashed large across it. “300 billion? Wow — so that’s why Dubo Steel’s share price shot up like that?”

He recalled Dubo Steel’s stock, which had kept climbing for the past month.

“Has Dubo Steel’s price risen a lot?”

“Huh? Director.”

Absorbed in the paper and unaware Seong-ho had come, Chung-seop hurriedly folded it and made to rise. Seong-ho gestured that he needn’t get up and sat down. Looking at the newspaper Chung-seop had been reading, he asked, “How much has it climbed?”

Chung-seop spread the paper open and answered. “Just a month ago, Dubo Steel was stuck in the 4,000-won range. Its price, which had been over 20,000 won, kept falling as rumors spread lately that Dubo Steel was in danger. But after bottoming at 4,000 won, it’s risen close to 15,000 over the past month. I wondered what was going on, and… Ilhyeon Group decided to invest.”

Chung-seop shot Seong-ho a look asking whether he’d known.

Seong-ho’s account had already feasted nicely all the way through Sogyeong Machinery and entered its wind-down. So it was a look tinged with regret — that had he known in advance, they might have tastily eaten Dubo Steel too, up nearly fourfold, and walked away.

Seong-ho looked down at the paper, skimming the article. “From 4,000 won to 15,000 — that’s a big rise.”

“Yes. Considering the span of a month, you could call it a considerable jump. Did you know as well, Director?”

“I knew.”

Puzzled, Chung-seop said, “You knew, so why didn’t you tell me?”

Seong-ho being the core of the core of Ilhyeon Group, Chung-seop had assumed he’d naturally know. But since he’d stepped back from the front line, he’d figured he might not know — and thought that was the case. Yet Seong-ho said he’d known as if it were the most natural thing.

With a look of incomprehension, Chung-seop said, “If you’d told me, I could’ve gone in with what was left after clearing Sogyeong Machinery and eaten at least 1 or 2 billion… what a shame.”

“Is there anything to regret? There’s more than enough to eat besides this.”

“That’s true, but there’s nothing as sure a thing as this…”

That there were plenty of places to eat was as good as a stock-market maxim, so Chung-seop thought little of it — just words to soothe the regret. But Seong-ho’s saying there was plenty to eat was in earnest.

“Can Dubo Steel be short-sold, by any chance?”

“Sorry? You’d do what?”

“Short-selling it, betting on the fall… ah — that’s a bit dangerous, is it? Yes, I suppose it could be. If it later came out that I made money short-selling Dubo Steel, there’s a chance it’d get a little troublesome.”

“Director. What are you saying? Short-selling? You mean to short-sell Dubo Steel?”

Chung-seop looked at Seong-ho with startled eyes, then at the newspaper. Since Seong-ho had brought up short-selling after gazing at the paper a while, the thought struck him that there might be something he himself had missed in it. But there was nothing in the article Chung-seop had overlooked.

Seong-ho ordered a drink from the server who’d come over in the meantime and said to Chung-seop, still staring at the paper, “It’s not that I found some new fact in the newspaper and said that.”

Chung-seop lifted his head.

Pulling the ashtray from one side of the table toward himself, Seong-ho put a cigarette to his lips. Lighting it, he said, “How’s the asset-management firm coming along? Going well?”

“Yes. The plan is to set up an advisory firm first, then hire new staff and keep expanding until it becomes a management firm.”

“Good. Rather than going straight to an asset-management firm, it’s better to climb the steps one at a time. Work your way up to a securities firm like that.”

“A securities firm?”

It was a goal Chung-seop hadn’t even considered. He’d been advancing with an asset-management firm set as his greatest goal, so Seong-ho’s talk of climbing all the way to a securities firm sounded only astonishing.

Seong-ho nodded, drank the beverage the server had set down, and said, “It’ll be hard right away, but advancing step by step as you are now, you’ll get to a securities firm.”

“Yes, well… there’s a saying that you should dream big.”

Chung-seop took it for the sort of dream people commonly talk about. But knowing the Chung-seop of that former life, Seong-ho only smiled and said, “Whether it’s a dream or a goal, Assistant Manager Jo, set your sights on a securities firm and press forward. I’ll back you from behind.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Chung-seop still took it as merely something Seong-ho said to bolster his courage. Seong-ho knew Chung-seop’s mind, too. For a man who’d only just thrown down his resignation and was setting up an advisory firm, the goal Seong-ho named was like an elementary schooler thinking he’d grow up to be president someday. So Seong-ho meant to tell him a way to step one pace closer to that dream.

“How far along is the wind-down of my account?”

Chung-seop reported the account’s status as settled as of that day. “Today I cleared 5,000 shares at 100,000 won and 8,000 shares at 110,000. I’ve cleared 40 billion so far, and if I keep unwinding through next week, it should be finished.”

“So reaching the 50-billion target will be no trouble?”

“Yes. At this rate, there’s a high chance it wraps up around 55 billion.”

“55 billion, is it…”

Seong-ho thought a moment at the satisfying figure, then said, “The reason I asked to see you today, Assistant Manager Jo, is none other than that I want to take a sell position from here on.”

“A sell position? What sort of sell position do you mean?”

Chung-seop cocked his head a moment and looked down at the paper. Recalling what Seong-ho had said earlier, he said, “Is it that you want to short-sell Dubo Steel, as you mentioned before?”

“I’d like to, in my heart, but I can’t. As I said, if it came out that I turned a profit short-selling, I could draw some strange misunderstanding for no reason.”

At Seong-ho’s words, full of conviction that Dubo Steel would fall, Chung-seop cocked his head. The newspaper clearly said Dubo Steel had cleared a major crisis by attracting Ilhyeon Group’s investment. Ilhyeon Group, too, was being assessed as having secured a 15% stake in Dubo Steel, strengthening its cooperation and even rising to a position from which it could consider acquiring the company outright. That was why Dubo Steel’s share price had surged.

Yet Seong-ho wanted to short-sell Dubo Steel — and beyond that, was even thinking of turning a profit on it. Chung-seop looked at Seong-ho, thinking so differently from what the outside world knew, with wondering eyes.

But that look turned to shock at Seong-ho’s next words. Because what Seong-ho, wary of short-selling Dubo Steel, chose instead was something Chung-seop had never once imagined.

“Dubo Steel is a bit much, so…”

Seong-ho handed the first job to Chung-seop, who’d left Ilhyeon Securities and set up his advisory firm.

“I mean to sell the entire KOSPI. If I take a futures short position, it’ll have the same effect as selling the whole KOSPI, won’t it? And with the money that’s left, I want to exchange into dollars.”

“Sell the entire KOSPI and take a futures short position…? Are you saying you’ll sell the Republic of Korea right now?”

“Yes. I mean to hold it until the KOSPI index sees the 300s.”

“300?”

Chung-seop looked at him with startled eyes.

The KOSPI, which had once passed 1,000, had lost steam and fallen, but the index right now sat at 800. At Seong-ho’s words that he’d sell the Republic of Korea, Chung-seop couldn’t gather his wits.

(End of Chapter 62)