Back to School
Ever since he bought Osung Electronics stock, his life had changed completely.
"Haaah…"
Kim Tak-su, teaching assistant in the Department of Economics, had become a shareholder of Osung Electronics a month ago.
Back then, not buying it would have been pure idiocy.
But now everything had flipped one hundred and eighty degrees.
The faith that it would climb to Seventy-Thousand Electronics had long since evaporated.
"Delivery food? On my luck…?"
Before investing in Osung Electronics he had been a Baemin VIP, the kind of guy who never even glanced at price tags in convenience stores.
Now thrift was etched into his bones.
Chomp! Chomp!
He stuffed a triangle kimbap bought on a one-plus-one deal into his mouth and washed the hollow emptiness down with water from the cooler.
"What's with the separate recycling? Just chuck it."
He used to be the type who couldn't stand the sight of trash left lying around.
The moment he became an Osung Electronics owner, all thoughts of maintaining dignity vanished.
No matter how good something felt, a gloom settled over him.
Even when things went well he found himself turning the situation over in his mind.
Who am I? A Fifty-Thousand Electronics shareholder.
Muttering it only made the depression return.
This must be why people said the position makes the man.
He was living with a genuine "whatever happens, happens" attitude.
Even the professor who ought to have been like the sky itself now felt hateful.
"Professor, Osung Electronics doesn't seem to have any intention of going up."
"W-well, yeah."
"I thought Fifty-Thousand Electronics was something we'd hold no matter what."
"…"
Yang Min-seok, professor of macroeconomics at Hankuk University, could only feel uncomfortable.
He was the one who had recommended Osung Electronics to Tak-su in the first place.
Back then everyone else was saying it would rise too, not just me.
The experts had said the same.
Even to the eyes of an economics professor the semiconductor cycle had looked rock-solid.
But what was this?
It refused to move in proportion to the company's actual performance.
The direction the stock price took was so far from his expectations it was almost insulting.
Everyone said it would rise, yet it refused to rise.
That only made it more frustrating, and made him more conscious of the eyes on him.
"Professor."
"Y-yeah, Tak-su…"
"Ever since I became an owner of Fifty-Thousand Electronics I can't get any work done. My self-esteem is so shattered I can barely meet the eyes of the convenience-store part-timer."
He felt sorry for the teaching assistant who had once swaggered so loudly.
The kid had put serious money in because he trusted him.
I figured he'd be fine since he bought lower than I did.
Min-seok's average cost was 55,000.
The loss was so large he couldn't even bring himself to cut it.
Even while lecturing his mind kept drifting.
There was one complete lunatic in Hankuk University's Department of Economics.
"Osung Electronics is going to rise?"
In the middle of the macroeconomics lecture, the words reached that lunatic's ears.
Casually digging at his ear with a pinky finger, the guy drawled,
"How the hell is that supposed to go up, you fuck? When everyone says it's going up, doesn't that mean it's obviously going down?"
He spat out the insolent remark without a shred of hesitation.
Min-seok did not like him one bit.
Does this kid not want a grade from me?
A mere student?
He was in no position to talk back to a professor.
Whether he had forgotten that fact or simply had no fear at all, the kid was utterly shameless.
"Ahem! Ahem! Quiet over there. Unless you want an F."
"There's a kid here who says the professor made some crazy remarks."
"M-me?"
"Surely the macroeconomics professor at Hankuk University wouldn't actually buy something like Osung Electronics, right?"
He wanted to scream.
He wanted to drive home the difference in their positions, but—
Tremble, tremble!
He couldn't help shaking.
Because he had, in fact, said those things.
Through the teaching assistants the story had already spread among the students.
No. At least I never revealed my average cost.
It would rise later. That much was certain.
Viewed through the broad lens of macroeconomics, Osung Electronics was a stock with real staying power.
"Considering Osung Electronics' sales figures, it's more than enough to…"
"Are you talking about semiconductor sales and the industry cycle?"
"That's right. It might be a bit advanced for you, but—"
"I've actually been quite interested in that industry cycle myself. If you don't mind, may I offer a brief opinion?"
"Uh… uh?"
The number-one semiconductor company.
Its cash reserves were enormous.
No matter how he looked at it, Forty-Thousand Electronics was far too cheap.
There are even lunatics saying it'll go to Thirty-Thousand Electronics, but…
That was an absurd leap.
As a professor of macroeconomics, this much he could guarantee.
Clack!
Chalk.
Before he knew it the kid had smoothly taken over the lecture in his place.
"Semiconductors are an industry where specialized talent is extremely important. People joke about torturing aliens, but the only ones actually getting tortured are the engineers."
""Hahaha!""
Right in front of a room full of students.
Even Min-seok found himself listening.
"Right now Korea's labor costs are rising steeply. On top of that, starting this July working hours will be forcibly capped at fifty-two."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Protecting workers' rights is something any advanced nation should uphold. But given the semiconductor industry's need for specialized talent…"
An angle he had never even considered.
He had heard that even Professor Choi Myeong-cheol of Principles of Economics had been burned by this lunatic's logic.
Still…
It was true labor costs had been climbing lately.
It was also true various labor policies were being rolled out.
But the burden of labor costs couldn't be that severe, could it?
He had no choice but to admit his perspective had been narrow.
"Look at the representative competitor, Taiwan's TSMC. Their labor costs are half of ours, and their labor regulations are far more flexible. In the seven-nanometer FinFET process the two companies are currently competing over, which side has the advantage is as clear as day."
Global standard.
The semiconductor industry was not limited to the domestic market.
You never knew when a rival might surge ahead.
Gulp.
He was rattled.
Points he had never even thought of were connecting to one another.
And what bothered him even more was—
"We'll only know which is longer once we measure them, won't we?"
"Calculating that is the investor's job."
"Even so, as the number-one company in semiconductor market share, Osung Electronics…"
"That's memory semiconductors. The non-memory sector is different. The high PERs are applied on the non-memory side."
—the fact that Osung Electronics stock could fall even further.
Having actually invested, this was no longer someone else's problem.
"Professor really got bag-held, huh."
"Can't even make a peep."
"I heard these days if you're a Fifty-Thousand Electronics shareholder they treat you like an idiot…"
His desperate reaction.
There was no way to hide it.
At the students' whispering his face flushed bright red.
He fled the lecture hall as if running away.
The words left on the board were, to anyone's eyes, a clear admission of defeat.
Refuting a professor.
It wasn't as if I had wanted to do something that annoying.
Last year it just sort of happened.
A professor had thrown a question.
The situation snowballed until it even hit YouTube.
Student reactions had been negative.
For a while I had become the public enemy of the economics department.
But recently—
"Water Rocket—Ziiik!"
""Waaaaaah~!""
—they actually liked it.
They had been waiting for me to say the words.
Ah, fuck it.
If I didn't give it to them they would feel disappointed.
It had settled into a full-blown trend.
"Hell yeah! Class ended early."
"Once that senior starts running his mouth we get to leave early, so I love it."
"…"
There were even kids who liked me for the free time it created.
But I wasn't doing it for nothing either.
I'd rather teach them myself than sit through some low-quality professor's lecture.
I injected knowledge they could actually use in the real world.
"Senior, do you think Osung Electronics is going to drop further?"
"Yeah."
"But it's still Osung Electronics…"
"Hey! Who are you to talk back to your senior!"
Disciples were even forming inside the department.
As far as I was concerned, that was exactly the sea I had been waiting for.
The club's already on a stable trajectory, so…
I would make it mainstream inside the economics department.
That way I could gather even more talent.
"Is that the guy who got on YouTube?"
"It's Senior! Call him Senior!"
"Oh, right. He's a senior now."
The reaction from the freshmen was good too.
Getting on YouTube had turned into a blessing in disguise.
If they already know about me, the conversation goes easier.
It wasn't just the existing department students.
I had to spread it to the freshmen as well.
The focal point.
Nothing was easier or faster than making the professors look like idiots.
"Water Rocket—Ziiik!"
""Water Rocket—Ziiik!""
Next lecture.
The atmosphere in microeconomics was already asking me to pull off another one.
I accepted the students' expectations.
I was a little itchy for it myself.
That way I get to spend another year in peace.
I had done it once last year and nobody had touched me since.
If I could gather disciples on top of that, even better.
"Water Rocket!"
""Ziiik!""
"Water Rocket!"
""Ziiik!""
Together with department students who had practically turned into a mob, we headed for the next lecture hall.
No—it was a march.
"What the hell are those crazy bastards?"
"Look like economics kids…"
"I heard there was one lunatic over there, but now the whole group's gone insane."
The more fanatical the atmosphere, the better the effect.
There was a reason cults thrived.
I can show off my dignity too.
The professors would start watching their step.
I would turn Hankuk University's Department of Economics into my own colony.
"Professor!"
"U-uh…?"
He would have to serve as the sacrificial lamb.
I felt a little sorry for the microeconomics professor, but—
You just look really easy to pick on.
I would grab some convenient loose thread and tear into it.
And right on cue, something perfect caught my eye.
The current lecture content.
The idea that the government's interest-rate policy had to be carried out preemptively in order to achieve its goals.
"Isn't the claim that the government must intervene in the market just a one-sided assertion of the Keynesian school?"
"W-well, theoretically speaking, yes, but…"
"The problem is that the theory is rooted in the Keynesian school."
There was considerable disagreement on this point.
From the start, the very idea of adjusting interest rates—
is a logic that only appeared extremely recently.
Specifically, less than thirty years ago.
And they were teaching that as theory.
"Those people are the lunatics who say you have to print money if that's what it takes to save the economy, right?"
"Even so, it is recognized by academia…"
"Regardless of academic recognition, if there are problems, shouldn't you clearly explain those parts as well?"
The holes were gaping wide open.
Later on, so many problems would surface that the textbooks would be completely revised.
Just like when we were kids and learned that the tongue had a taste map, and that Pluto was the ninth planet of the solar system.
Things change with the times.
I had thought I could leisurely launch a water rocket, but—
"I think the one with the problem is you."
A woman who appeared out of nowhere blocked my path.
It was only natural that every student's gaze in the lecture hall swung toward her.
"Who's that?"
"I heard she's the new teaching assistant…"
"A foreigner??"
"Must be an international student."
"Damn, I want her as my TA."
She was pretty.
Attractive.
I wanted to fuck her.
What startled me even more than that was—
What the hell are you doing here.
It was a face I should never have been seeing.