Membership (2)
Back to reality.
Thud—
The ball dropped and struck the floor. A dull sound rolled through the lounge.
Lee Jaseung slowly bent down and picked it up. The solid weight in his palm yanked him fully into the present.
This is reality.
Moments earlier he had been in the future—standing in a snow-whipped Seoul in January, watching natural gas prices crash—then returned.
After living long enough for the seasons themselves to change, his memory of what he had been doing back here was hazy.
Why is Seo Minjae sitting here?
Buying himself a few seconds, Jaseung lifted the glass in front of him and took a sip.
The aggressive taste of coffee-laced cola slammed across his tongue.
And with it, memory snapped into perfect clarity.
The Facenote deal just finished. Next stage.
Composure restored, he set the glass down.
“I have information on the derivatives side.”
“Derivatives? Which market?”
Jaseung recalled the future.
The chairman of Seonkang Group had poured money into natural gas futures and lost a clean one hundred billion won.
“Natural gas futures.”
“……You’re going into natural gas futures?”
Shock flooded Seo Minjae’s voice.
“Hey, do you even know what you’re saying? Even inside energy markets, natural gas is pure gambling. You know why?”
“Because you have to call the weather.”
You had to predict weather that even the meteorological agency couldn’t get right. That was why natural gas futures earned the nickname of a casino.
But Seo Minjae also knew Jaseung never gambled without reason.
“You hear something solid?”
“I heard the Seonkang Group chairman is looking to sit at that table. Check it yourself if you don’t believe me.”
In a week Seonkang would name Seo Minjae and put him in an awkward spot, but Seo Minjae had no way of knowing that. He simply marveled.
“If even the Seonkang chairman is joining…… damn, this is going to be a huge table. You’re getting in too, right? Raising another fund?”
Jaseung shrugged.
“Hard to say. Just playing fund manager feels a little thin. My real job is consultant.”
“Well, yeah, but……”
He had only run a fund briefly during Facenote. Consulting was still the core business.
Yet Seo Minjae was certain.
This bastard was going to become a legendary fund manager.
He might end up pulling every investor on the planet.
“Doesn’t it feel like a waste to just drop the fund side?”
“What do you mean, drop?”
“You just said consulting is the main job……”
“I mean it would be a waste to take this information and only run a fund with it. I’m a consultant.”
“……”
Seo Minjae admitted he had badly misread the man.
This guy would suck the marrow out of every bone.
“So what’s the plan?”
“I’m adjusting the business model.”
From now on he would harvest countless futures.
Tomorrow’s stock rising. Next week’s currency spike. Gold collapsing in a month. A company going under in two months……
Even with dozens of sure-fire pieces of information, one man could never seize every opportunity alone.
I can’t handle every future by myself. My time and energy are finite.
Information was infinite; resources were not.
Surplus information appeared.
Historically, there had always been only one way to process surplus value.
Commodify it.
Commodify the future.
The most valuable futures he would keep exclusively for himself.
You never put a museum-grade jewel on the open market.
But there would still be futures that, while not jewels, remained exceptional.
Those were luxury goods.
Sell them only to the highest-tier members who paid premium prices.
And the lowest-yield, easiest-access opportunities?
Those were ordinary consumer goods.
Individual margins smaller, but scale created profit. Exactly like a long-only fund.
In short, the model was……
“Membership.”
It would become a membership.
Lee Jaseung sent formal letters to his existing investors.
Han Juhyeong and Chae Eunchae.
The two met specifically to read the letter together.
Han Juhyeong opened the envelope and drew out the heavy, high-quality stationery.
Dear Respected Mr. Han Juhyeong,
We sincerely thank you for participating in Makers’ first investment opportunity.
We now wish to introduce an exclusive membership program available only to a carefully selected circle of investors. Enclosed materials detail the specific benefits and conditions for Black, Platinum, and Gold members.
In particular, the forthcoming investment opportunity will be disclosed first to Black members.
Han Juhyeong suddenly squared his shoulders.
“See that?”
“See what?”
“It says it respects me.”
“……”
Chae Eunchae gave him a look that could freeze coffee. Han Juhyeong cleared his throat and kept reading.
When they finished, both of them stared at each other in blank confusion.
“Membership?”
Creating tiers when recruiting investors was an obvious strategy.
Whenever a prime opportunity like the Facenote short appeared, Black members received a forty-eight-hour exclusive window. Only if capital remained after they finished would the chance cascade downward.
The letter closed by teasing a new investment opportunity.
After reading everything, the two of them wore identical expressions of disbelief.
The real meaning of the letter was simple.
“He’s going to make us compete.”
A good opportunity was coming.
If you wanted in, fight for it.
“This guy seriously treats his investors like the underdog!”
Chae Eunchae grumbled, but there was nothing she could do.
Another Facenote-level deal?
She would be first in line with cash in hand.
Han Juhyeong asked,
“What’s the membership criteria?”
“Money, obviously. Whoever brings the biggest capital usually sits at the top tier.”
It was not.
“……”
“……”
They opened the enclosed brochure and lost the ability to speak.
Han Juhyeong double-checked the numbers with a stunned face.
“Annual fee? Joining fee? What is this, a credit card company?”
Lee Jaseung had gone further than either of them expected.
The moment they saw the figures they nearly fainted.
Concurrent Member Limit: 3
Annual Fee: 30 billion won
Joining Fee: 10 billion won (one-time)
“Th-th-thirty billion!”
“Juhyeong. There’s a joining fee too. Total forty billion.”
“This crazy bastard!!!”
Han Juhyeong foamed at the mouth and checked the benefits.
“Let’s see how incredible the perks are.”
The moment they read the list, both of them froze.
“Hmm.”
“Hmm.”
1. 48-hour exclusive priority on every investment opportunity
2. Custom information provided once per month
3. Crisis prediction and response strategy
4. Dedicated succession roadmap construction
5. Quarterly business strategy report
For thirty billion the list looked sparse. Yet two items seized their attention completely.
1. 48-hour exclusive priority on every investment opportunity
2. Custom information provided once per month
“Exclusive investment rights?”
Extremely tempting.
“He said there’s a new opportunity coming. That must be it.”
“Probably.”
Chae Eunchae answered shortly, then stared holes through the letter. Han Juhyeong asked,
“What? Something wrong?”
“Juhyeong. Doesn’t this investment feel like it’s going to be huge?”
“Huh?”
“It’s the first deal after he deliberately stirred up aggro with a membership. You think he’d prepare something boring?”
Their eyes met.
“Facenote level again?”
“Could be.”
“If Facenote comes a second time, I’m all in no matter what.”
He had made thirty billion off that single trade. If Jaseung delivered even half as well again, the annual fee would pay for itself many times over.
Then Chae Eunchae pointed out the obvious.
“But everyone else will think the same. If the opportunity is that good, I’ll be the first one jacking my capital sky-high just to get in.”
“……”
Suddenly competition felt inevitable.
Han Juhyeong glared at item number one.
This bastard didn’t put exclusive investment rights at the top for no reason!
The heart that had seized up at the sight of thirty billion slid one square toward positive consideration.
Chae Eunchae tapped the second item.
“What’s the monthly custom information supposed to be?”
“Probably bid prices. The kind that burned you last time.”
“Fuck…… That leak came from Hanyeong Heavy Industries, not me. Anyway—he can hand out that level of information again? They locked those bids down tighter than a vault! How is that even possible?”
“If we’re talking about impossible, look at how many impossible things this guy has already pulled off. He bet on the U.S. credit downgrade, dismantled Yuseong Group, let Seo Minjae recover every last won of bad debt, handed me Yuseong Steel, and saved your neck during Facenote.”
“……”
Amazingly, every single one of those events had happened inside a single year.
As he spoke, Han Juhyeong realized something.
In a way, this is a chance to chain Lee Jaseung to Hanyeong Auto.
Thanks to Jaseung he had become president of Hanyeong Steel. If he could use Hanyeong Steel as a springboard into Hanyeong Auto itself……
Just think of thirty billion as salary. Expensive, sure, but modern CEOs walk away with a hundred billion once you add incentives and stock options.
Plenty of CEOs coasted on empty titles. Lee Jaseung actually delivered every won of his value.
No matter what it took, he would make the thirty billion worth it.
That’s his pride.
Resolve settled over Han Juhyeong’s face.
“I’m doing it.”
“You’re seriously going to drop forty billion?”
“If I can put Lee Jaseung to work for Hanyeong Auto for a full year? I call that a solid investment. And more than anything—”
“More than anything?”
His expression grew deadly serious. Chae Eunchae automatically matched him.
“I just made thirty billion.”
“Yeah?”
“Lee Jaseung made that money for me, so the thirty billion is basically free money, right?”
“……?”
“All I have to put in of my own is ten billion. Ten billion to become a Black member. Completely rational, no?”
“……”
She had heard that exact logic somewhere before.
That’s literally the excuse I use when I go shopping……
Chae Eunchae hesitated.
“Still, thirty billion feels steep to me.”
“Then drop one tier and go Platinum. How much did you clear this time?”
“Nine point six billion.”
Platinum annual fee was five billion, joining fee one billion.
Han Juhyeong applied the same logic to her.
“Even after peeling off six billion you’re still left with three point six. That’s free money, right?”
“I-is it?”
When he put it that way it almost sounded reasonable.
She checked the Platinum benefits. Being two hundred fifty billion cheaper than Black, the services shrank dramatically.
1. 24-hour investment priority after Black members participate
2. Custom information provided once per quarter
But I don’t care about succession or actual business. I just need to make money.
Safe fund management.
Guaranteed fund returns.
Chae Eunchae decided.
“Fine. I’ll go Platinum. They only take five people for Platinum too. Exclusive enough.”
Five billion a year.
After staring at thirty billion, five billion looked absurdly cheap—a neat little piece of psychological magic.
Chae Eunchae found herself impressed all over again.
“Paying that much in one shot…… you really are a chaebol, Juhyeong.”
“Heh. My assets are over a trillion.”
Han Juhyeong swaggered out of Chae Partners.
The second the elevator doors closed he dialed Lee Jaseung.
"Jaseung. I’m bringing one more person, so how about a discount?"
※ This work is a work of fiction. All persons, groups, place names, and events appearing in the story are entirely fictitious and have no connection to any real entities. Specialized knowledge described herein has also been restructured and adapted for narrative purposes and may differ from actual information.