The Absolute Beauty Stock Goddess
Hankuk University main gate.
"This is Hankuk University! As all of you viewers know, one of the prestigious universities that represent the Republic of Korea…"
Things were getting a little noisy.
A filming crew had shown up with professional equipment.
Students walking past stopped in their tracks.
Even when it had nothing to do with them, a shoot always drew the eye.
"Oh, looks like they're filming?"
"Variety show?"
"News."
"Some department professor going on air?"
But it wasn't exactly rare either.
It was a famous university, packed with renowned professors.
The students who had paused started walking again.
It looked like an ordinary shoot—yet.
"Is this the place?"
"According to what the production team confirmed, yes. We already secured filming cooperation in advance…"
Adult circumstances were at work behind the scenes.
The CBS news team had been handed an order they didn't particularly want.
A small issue had cropped up on social media.
University students had made money investing in stocks.
A minor stir.
Whether to run it as an article or not was entirely up to the press—or whoever was paying.
Someone wanted this pushed as news, no matter what.
It's the kind of thing we do all the time, so it doesn't really matter.
Securities firms were among their biggest sponsors.
In return, they demanded all sorts of information manipulation.
Nothing grand, really.
At most, delaying certain stories or nudging the angle off-center.
"The securities expert is supposed to arrive soon as well."
"The analyst, you mean…"
"Yes."
"Well, we just film whatever they tell us to, right?"
And they could make money just from that?
It was almost impressive, in reverse.
No wonder these were the financial forces that moved the Republic of Korea.
A faint sense of admiration stirred.
Thud.
PD Park Chan-il had done stocks himself once.
There had been a stretch when he was pretty deep into it.
In the end he had only ended up with an empty bowl.
Anyone who actually made money off this stuff had to be something special.
"Hello. Yeom Yu-an, deputy manager at Gaemi Investment Securities."
"Wait—no way?"
"Pardon?"
"Aren't you Deputy Manager Yeom? Deputy Manager Yeom! I used to reference you a lot when I was trading!"
"You know me? Thank you for watching the broadcasts."
One of those people.
Conveniently, someone he already knew.
Deputy Manager Yeom was the most famous analyst in the country.
A warm, friendly atmosphere settled in.
Yeom Yu-an, who had arrived tense, now wore a good-natured smile.
Thankfully, not someone holding a grudge.
Analyst work.
A job that involved communicating market trends and individual stock outlooks to ordinary investors.
Sometimes the calls were wrong.
People who took that personally and responded with curses—or even retaliation—were a real headache.
"Sir, one thing I'd like to ask."
"If it's stock-related, after the shoot…"
"It's about the shoot. Is there really a reason to interview college kids?"
At the place they were heading today, that wouldn't be an issue.
The Hankuk University Stock Club.
An article had recently gone up claiming they had made big profits from stock investments.
To be precise, we floated it ourselves.
They had pressured a cooperative outlet into writing the piece.
The kind of utterly routine practice that even illicit stock manipulators used.
"Young investors have been diving into coins lately."
"I've heard! Practically gambling, from what they say."
"Yes. As a senior investor, it's worrying."
"I can imagine… You know the risks of investing, after all."
A foothold for the news shoot.
With the department head's approval, they had made it this far.
You have to approach the younger generation with the younger generation.
Teach the coin addicts that stocks were better.
Having a living example worked far better than a securities firm shouting it themselves.
Knock. Knock.
A proven method.
And on top of that, one more purpose.
The real reason Yu-an had come to the Hankuk University Stock Club.
"Hello. We're from CBS."
"Kyaa!"
"Kyaaa~!!"
"They really were coming!"
The moment the clubroom door opened, chaos erupted.
Young people, after all—their reactions were excellent.
A good feeling that the shoot would go smoothly.
Where is she?
Separate from Park Chan-il's thoughts, Yeom Yu-an scanned the inside of the clubroom.
The person he was truly looking for was someone else.
"Hello. I'm Shin Hye-ri—the one you contacted."
"Hello! We spoke on the phone; you've heard the rough outline of the shoot, right?"
"Yes, I have!"
The broadcast filming got underway.
His turn would come after this.
In the meantime, he found his target.
There she is!
Even amid the noisy clubroom, she sat quietly reading a book.
A female student with a lofty expression came into view.
Even better than he had imagined.
From the outline of her face, it was definitely her.
Having made up his mind, Yeom Yu-an quietly took the seat beside her.
"You're here for the filming, right?"
"Yes, I'm…"
"The club president is Hye-ri. If it's not too much trouble, could you head over that way?"
A thorny tone.
Her walls were as high as her refined looks.
But he had never planned on giving up from the start.
So this student is the famous…
A few months earlier there had been a stir on YouTube.
A Hankuk University student and a professor had clashed.
The content itself had been interesting.
But what had truly seized Yeom Yu-an's attention was—
Gulp.
Those enormous breasts.
It wasn't sexual harassment, exactly.
Watch the video and your eyes simply couldn't help going there.
"I actually have business with this student."
"I don't have any business with you."
"You're the Hankuk University student who went viral on YouTube a little while ago, aren't you?"
"…"
Economics department.
Digging a little further, he had also learned she was a freshman.
After that, it was only a matter of time.
Securities firms ranked inside the top three preferred employers for economics graduates.
Gaemi Investment Securities had several of them.
Yeom Yu-an himself was a Hankuk University alumnus.
Once he leaned on the juniors and put out feelers, narrowing the range had been easy.
"You do social media as well, don't you?"
"How did you…"
"Ah! It's nothing like that. I graduated from this school myself. Every year I get recommendations from professors for outstanding graduates we might bring in, and one of them was Student Sora."
"S-Senior… Hello."
She gave a light, slightly embarrassed bow of the head.
What he had just said wasn't a complete lie.
I did get the recommendation from a professor, that's true.
Only the sequence of events was a little rearranged.
Even so, no one went hunting through social media one by one.
They saw that? So companies really do check applicants' SNS… I guess it was true…
For Sora, it was flustering.
An outstanding graduate.
Receiving a professor's recommendation was one thing, but the content she had posted on social media—
"Your profits were quite substantial, I saw."
"It wasn't that much."
"You're being modest. Making several times your money like that is something worth bragging about. I should introduce myself properly. I'm Yeom Yu-an, deputy manager at Gaemi Investment Securities."
"Deputy Manager Yeom Yu-an?!"
Vanity was mixed in.
The profits hadn't come from her own skill.
She knew she had earned them thanks to Chan-wook—she knew, and yet.
I wanted to brag about it once in a while too.
Sora's face flushed bright red.
And a securities firm official had seen it.
Deputy Manager Yeom Yu-an, no less.
Deputy Manager Yeom was a popular analyst.
She herself used to reference his market broadcasts a lot.
"You know me?"
"Yes, I've seen you a lot on the economic channels. Please speak comfortably."
"I see~ So any misunderstanding that I approached you with some shady intention has been cleared up?"
"Of course!"
Meeting Chan-wook had completely shattered her old stock-market worldview.
Even so, the fact that she had once respected this man hadn't changed.
Thump.
The desire for recognition.
Honestly, it was impossible not to have any.
If a senior in the industry acknowledged her, nothing could be better.
"Ah, so that's why semiconductors!"
"Yes—mining coins takes a lot of graphics cards and such, right? So I had a feeling the semiconductor market would improve…"
"Wow~ Hearing this kind of talk not from some analyst but from a student—this is why Hankuk University is Hankuk University!"
Right beside them the filming was underway.
But none of it reached Sora's ears.
Did he see the other posts too? The ones I analyzed.
The content she had put up on social media.
She had briefly summarized each day's mistakes in diary form.
It felt awkward to say herself, but she had gotten quite a few right.
If he had actually looked at them, it would be an honor.
"If I hadn't known your student year, I would have assumed you were at least a graduate—or someone with real experience."
"Is that so?"
"I could feel that an investor's ego had already taken shape at such a young age. For someone like me who only figured it out late, it's enviable."
"An investor, even…"
Theory and practice were different.
Without Chan-wook's help she might have wiped out spectacularly.
She knew that, and still—
Investor. Investor.
Being praised felt good after all.
Getting scolded by someone every single day made it hit even harder.
Mmm~ Excellent. Even better than the photos.
But Yeom Yu-an was thinking something else entirely.
The reason a busy popular analyst like him had come all the way to Hankuk University.
There was a purpose worth the trip.
Yeom Yu-an was seriously eyeing this talent named Sora.
"I also saw that your future hope is to become a trader."
"You… saw that too?"
"How about it? Working at Gaemi Investment Securities after graduation. Though not as a trader—as an analyst."
"An analyst?"
Because she was pretty.
There really was no other reason.
That alone was more than enough grounds to push her as a flagship analyst.
The middle-aged guys go crazy for that.
The absolute majority of stock-broadcast viewers were middle-aged men.
Younger people and women showed up sometimes, but they were a minority.
There was no way she wouldn't land with those uncles.
They put on a refined front, but the moment a young woman appeared they lost their minds.
"Yes, an analyst like me. Or had you never considered the analyst side?"
"It's not that—I'm just flustered. It was so sudden."
"Of course. Student Sora is still only a first-year."
And the purpose of this visit.
To target the younger generation, they needed talent that matched.
As long as she just follows along with what I say.
They would use the news that came out of today's shoot.
They could rocket her to stardom in an instant.
After graduation, an analyst.
He would actively recommend her to upper management so she could come in as his successor.
"I'm not asking you to decide right this second, so take your time thinking it over while you're still in school."
"Ah, yes…"
"And there's one favor I'd like to ask."
"A favor?"
That preliminary step.
There was something that needed to be done first.
For Yeom Yu-an as well, this was an important matter that required immediate results.