The Crown Prince Hypothesis
Six billion won.
That was the figure sitting in my trading account at the end of the month.
Truthfully, I had made exactly four trades. Two buys, two sells. That was all.
"Ugh, seriously. That's just too much, you know? How do they throw an intern straight into live trading like that?"
"Tell me about it."
"You must have been through the wringer, Suho."
"It really was rough."
No matter how firmly I steeled myself, watching the prices of Han-seong Steel and Geum-young Shipbuilding swing back and forth felt like shuttling between heaven and hell. So when I finally liquidated everything and walked away, I was glad — but also thoroughly drained.
"And today's the day you finally sign your full-time contract, right? Ha. Thank goodness. I was so worried something would go wrong when you suddenly got shipped off to the Trading Division."
But what made me happiest of all was that today, at long last, I was shedding the intern label and signing on as a proper employee. A company where I could walk around without a mask. And on top of that, bosses who were absolute angels to me.
Could there be a better company than this?
"So which department are you ending up in? You're coming back to the Research Center, right?"
"Well, about that..."
That part was still unknown even to me. If I named the department I wanted, would they actually send me there?
"You two came here for coffee together?"
"Oh! Team Leader."
"Perfect timing. Pick out what you want — it's on me."
"Wow, thank you!"
"Th-thank you."
It felt like ages since I'd last seen Team Leader Cheon Doa. Those deep, commanding eyes hadn't changed a bit.
"By the way, you two."
She glanced back and forth between us.
"Do you meet here every day?"
"Not every day, but... fairly often, in the mornings."
"Ah. Don't tell me you two—"
"N-no, no, it's nothing like that! It's just that when Suho was in the Research Center, we moved together every morning, so it kind of became a routine... haha."
"Is that so?"
Watching Juim Han's flustered reaction, the corner of Team Leader Cheon's mouth twitched upward ever so slightly.
"How's life in the Trading Division treating you?"
"Oh, yes. It's fine."
"Hmm. It's not that you're glad to be away from some stiff, cold boss, is it?"
I answered with force.
"Not in the slightest."
Team 7, where I was stationed, was full of good people, to be sure — but it was an intensely individualistic place, and there wasn't much mingling. The most relaxed conversation I'd managed was with Deputy Yoo. Everyone was so on edge over their returns that I was afraid to so much as touch them.
Whereas in the Research Operations Team, just watching Juim Han and Team Leader Cheon felt like a balm. Maybe that was the atmosphere I'd been missing.
"Congratulations on going full-time. I heard you sign today."
"Yes, ma'am. It's all thanks to you."
"What did I even do? It was all your skill, Suho."
She could see it that way, but if Team Leader Cheon hadn't believed in me from the start, those results would have been impossible.
"This is a full-time commemoration gift."
"...I'm sorry?"
"Nothing outrageously expensive. I just noticed you never wear a watch, so I picked one up."
She held out a small shopping bag. I was stunned, but Juim Han beside me looked even more wide-eyed.
Whatever this is, it looks expensive.
I'd never so much as glanced at luxury goods like watches, so I couldn't even tell what brand it was. But with a warranty card inside and packaging this lavish from the very first layer, it clearly hadn't come cheap.
"I chose a brand I thought would suit you. Of course, it might not be to your taste... if you don't like it, just take the warranty card back and return it."
"No, ma'am. I'll treasure it and wear it every day. It's just... so sudden."
"You're the reason our research team's numbers jumped, Suho. Consider it a thank-you for that — and a little something extra."
It was the first time anyone had ever given me a gift this expensive, so I was flustered enough — but knowing that the normally brusque, cool Team Leader had prepared it made it all the more astonishing.
"Suho, I'm sorry. Now that I think of it, I forgot to get you a full-time gift too."
"Oh no, it's fine."
"Ugh, I'll definitely get you something."
"Really, it's fine, I'm telling you."
I was still fending off Juim Han when—
"Suho."
At the familiar voice, I whipped around in shock. It was none other than the president of our hiking club — and Director Geum Gaho of this very company.
"Wh-what brings you here...?"
"What do you mean, what brings me here? You're signing your full-time contract today, aren't you? Hahaha. I came to congratulate you — and I happened to have business here anyway."
I never expected to run into him here. Then again, as a Director of Daeseong Group, visiting the securities firm was hardly a major errand for him.
"Are these folks your colleagues?"
"Ah, yes. They're from the Research Operations Team."
"Is that so? Our Suho here is in your hands from now on. Haha. Well, I'll head up first — I have an appointment. Let's have dinner together sometime soon. We have to celebrate properly."
"Yes, sir. I'll be in touch."
After the club president left, Juim Han tilted her head, clearly having no idea who that man was.
"...!"
Team Leader Cheon, by contrast, had frozen solid, her eyes gone perfectly round.
"I had a feeling you'd come see me eventually."
"You don't look exactly thrilled about it."
"Of course not. I may be CEO of the securities firm, but at the end of the day I'm still a group executive. It would be rather awkward for you and me to be seen meeting here, wouldn't it, Director?"
The man facing Geum Gaho — CEO Kwon Junyong — was impeccably courteous. A CEO, after all, was expected to hold that posture no matter whom he met. And yet even he found it difficult to maintain such formality with the man before him today.
Proof of it: despite his rigid bearing, the man was smiling. It had been a long time since he'd last seen the mentor he had once served so closely.
"Look at you, Kwon Junyong — you've filled out nicely. They do say the position makes the man."
"I'm no longer the wretch in rags who used to trail after you begging, Director. Haha."
"That's right. I picked up some bear of a man somewhere and raised him, and now look — a proper human being."
"Yes, sir. Everything I am today, I owe to you."
The two exchanged small talk for a while before a brief silence settled between them.
"Junyong."
"Yes, sir."
"Do you resent me?"
"..."
CEO Kwon Junyong shook his head slowly.
"When you left this industry overnight like that, I'll admit I felt a little abandoned."
"I'm sorry. Back then, I had no room in my head to look after anyone."
"I understand that completely, sir. That's why I never resented you. Besides, as you can see, I wasn't cast out of the company — I've done quite well for myself. That's your doing too."
"...You knew?"
"That you went to see the Chairman? Yes, I knew."
After losing his son, Geum Gaho had resolved to leave the company entirely — but he could not simply abandon the people who had trusted him and followed him all those years. So he had struck a deal with the current Chairman: in exchange for using his shares to back the man's claim to the chairmanship, his people would be left untouched.
"You came today because of the intern, Kang Suho. Am I right?"
"You knew? Well, of course you did. Nothing escapes the CEO of a securities firm."
"Indeed. And a remarkably capable young man he is. He showed exceptional talent in the Research Center, and now that he's in the Trading Division, he's already posting insane returns. At first I wondered if he was simply blessed with absurd luck — but when I saw the timing of his sell-off, I knew it was genuine skill."
"Is that so?"
Kwon Junyong brought over a document and showed it to Geum Gaho.
"Look at this chart — right here, just before the volume peaks. That's where he sold every last share of Han-seong Steel and Geum-young Shipbuilding. He identified the overcrowded trade with precision and dumped everything at the absolute top."
Even to Geum Gaho's eye, the sell timing was pure artistry. This was the very chart every trader dreams of — buying at the bottom, selling at the crest.
"A moment later and he couldn't have exited at the peak. He held the shares all the way to the point where trading volume hit its maximum — and he alone knew exactly where that point was. Where on earth did you dig up a monster like this?"
Now I understood why Kwon Junyong — a man whose instincts had been honed razor-sharp by decades in the securities business — was getting so worked up in admiration.
"Then, Director, let me ask you one thing."
"Ask away."
"Are you... coming back?"
"What?"
"For that dream of yours — the one you never realized back then."
Geum Gaho's dream. He meant that ambition — to take this company in hand and build it past Korea's shores into the world's greatest financial group.
"..."
To his old subordinate's question, Geum Gaho said nothing. He only wore a meaningful smile.
Could he truly have some other design in mind?
"I just came to ask you to look after our Suho."
"I see... Though I know every last member of the Geum family, the name Kang Suho has never crossed my desk before. What exactly is he to you...?"
Nothing so grand, in truth. On paper, they were merely the president and a member of a hiking club.
"He's... something like a son to me, I suppose."
"!?"
But to Geum Gaho, Kang Suho had become something far more than that. In the beginning, he had projected his dead son onto the boy — but now, he cherished Kang Suho for the man he himself was.
Which was precisely why, afraid the boy might slip away, he had used the job as an excuse to keep him tethered to this company.
"If our Suho really is as capable as you say, then shouldn't you push him hard and fast — if only for your own sake?"
"I beg your pardon?"
For my sake?
"Well, I've said what I came to say. I'll be going."
"You won't stay a while longer?"
"The market opens soon, and you'll be buried. I can't keep a busy man tied up. Besides, the higher-ups at Daeseong Group will know I came here by now — lingering would do neither of us any good. So don't see me out. Get to work. You've got money to make."
"Director...!"
With nothing more than those parting words, Geum Gaho walked out of the CEO's office. There hadn't even been time to stop him. The man was as free of excess now as he had ever been.
With a hollow laugh, Kwon Junyong sank back into his chair and slowly turned over his conversation with Geum Gaho in his mind.
"A son," he murmured.
The answer had startled him badly. What had a son meant to Geum Gaho? The most precious thing in his life. And yet this Kang Suho — who was he, to earn such words?
"He was clearly saying one thing and meaning another."
The Director was meticulous, and he never bared his true intentions. If he had returned to resurrect the ambition he once cast aside, he would hardly go broadcasting it to the world — not even to a subordinate he trusted.
And then there was the matter of Kang Suho's ability. Call it luck all you like — the boy had distinguished himself in the Research Center, and again in the Trading Division. That was no coincidence.
"And the timing is far too exquisite."
Daeseong Group was currently laying the groundwork for its succession. At this most delicate of moments, Director Geum Gaho had returned — and immediately planted an intern into the firm. An intern he claimed to regard as a son.
"Then surely our Director isn't..."
There, the tangled puzzle pieces seemed to click into place.
"Is he trying to make this boy Kang Suho into the crown prince?"
The crown prince. Just as the Geum family was now moving to forge a new emperor of Daeseong Group — if the Director intended the same thing?
"So that's what he meant."
Push this boy hard, and it will do you good too. Those words had been no figure of speech.
"Secretary Lee. Come in for a moment."
At his call, the secretary slipped quickly inside.
"Have the HR Team Leader come up. With the contract documents for Kang Suho's signing."
"Yes, sir."
If the Director's intent was truly what he suspected, then Kwon Junyong, too, ought to read the room and play his part — just as he had back when this very man had tried to swallow Daeseong Group whole.
I'd been to HR maybe two or three times before, but somehow this place never failed to make my nerves hum.
"Well, look at you — official contract at last. Congratulations."
"Thank you, sir."
The reason for my nerves, I suspected, was that department heads and above always handled my paperwork personally. It had puzzled me at first, but by now I'd simply learned to accept it. Given my recent results, it wasn't all that strange.
"Now, here's what you need to look at in this contract. Since you're currently in the Trading Division, Mr. Kang Suho, you'll be signing directly with the company alongside your rank. Most securities firms start you at ten percent, fifteen from the manager level, and twenty from team leader level."
"Ah, yes, sir."
The base salary was in the tens of millions of won. Even so, for a fresh hire like me, it felt like an enormous sum.
"Once you sign today, you're no longer an intern — you'll be Deputy Kang Suho."
At that, I faltered.
"Deputy? Not junior associate?"
"You'll be trading under a direct contract with the company, won't you? Then you have to start as a deputy. Junior associates aren't permitted to trade."
"Ah—"
Hold on a moment. Did that mean I was staying in the Trading Division after all?
"Oh, that's already been discussed upstairs. You've posted outstanding results in both the Research Center and the Trading Division, haven't you? So the suggestion is that you rotate through a number of departments at set intervals, try the work firsthand — and if somewhere truly wins your heart, you choose it and settle in."
"...Is that really allowed?"
"Honestly, I've never seen anything like it myself. But you keep proving your worth, don't you? So the company is giving you the treatment you've earned. Haha."
I could feel how generous, how undeserved the treatment was — and yet, in a way, the weight of it pressed down on me.
"Also, we'd originally planned to sign at the start of next month, but you've got incentives hanging over you, and to release those we need to move quickly — by the end of this month."
"Incentives?"
"Of course. If you produced results, you deserve to be paid for them. Yeouido can be a stingy place in a hundred ways, but when it comes to rewarding a job well done, it pours without limit. And your incentive rate, Mr. Kang Suho, is a full twenty percent. I've never seen them give that much to someone just becoming a deputy."
Then it dawned on me — the memory of our club president visiting the securities firm. Could he have quietly pulled strings for me?
"So how much... is the incentive?"
"Let's see here."
How much would it be? It was performance I'd built up as an intern, so it couldn't be that large.
Not that I had any grand expectations. The contracts I'd won in Research had been influenced by me, sure, but I hadn't negotiated them myself. And in the end, those deals were fee business anyway — in hard numbers, they couldn't amount to much.
Granted, there was also what I'd earned in the Trading Division. Though since I hadn't signed a direct contract yet, perhaps that wasn't even included.
"Five hundred and fifty million won."
"...I'm sorry?"
For a moment, I doubted my own ears.
"That's the combined total from the Research Center and the Trading Division. It was actually more than that originally, but after taxes, fees, and this and that, it comes to exactly this. Wow. The performance you've put up in this short a time is staggering."
The figure was too surreal to grasp. All I could do was stare blankly at the department head's face.