Infinite Buy-Sell Hell
"I gotta hand it to you. Thanks to my little brother, here I am eating premium Korean beef. You've really made it, huh."
"I only just made full-time, that's all."
"Still, look where we are because of you. Right, Mom?"
"Yes. I'm so proud of my son."
Mom and my sister settled into their seats and went straight for the menu prices.
"Insane."
My sister was the first to let out a curse-laced gasp.
"What is with these prices? They've lost their minds."
"Tell me about it. Su-ho, didn't you pick somewhere way too expensive? Should we go somewhere else, even now?"
"Honestly, pork belly tastes better than beef anyway."
I barely managed to sit the two of them back down as they made to actually stand up.
"Days like today are for splurging. What's gotten into you two?"
"Doesn't this splurging cross the line a little? Your first proper paycheck is going to vanish, every last won of it."
"It's fine. For this to wipe me out, I'd have to lease the whole building."
"What? Mom, look at him. The moment he became a full-timer, his nose is about to float up to heaven."
"Hee hee. Let him. He's a full-time employee at a major corporation, after all. All right, today we'll splurge, just like Su-ho says."
"You think?"
Even as they said it, the two of them hesitated over ordering the meat.
"Should we just get three portions?"
"Sure. Three portions, plus cold noodles and rice—that'll be plenty."
At this rate, it felt like we'd leave having gorged ourselves on carbs instead of beef.
"I'll just order. Let's go with this set course, and if there's a cut you love, we'll order more of it after."
For a good while, my plan was to keep ordering in a way that kept the price of the beef far from their minds.
"Eeek! This expensive?!"
"It's fine. I got a pretty hefty incentive along with the full-time promotion."
"Hey. It's just a step up from intern to full-timer—how big could the incentive be?! Anyone listening would think you got hundreds of millions!"
"..."
Without a word, I just twitched the corners of my mouth.
"What? What's that smile supposed to mean?"
"Hmm. I'd say Noona's instincts are pretty sharp."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"The incentive."
"The incentive? Wait. Don't tell me you actually—"
My sister glanced around, then dropped her voice to a whisper.
"Did you get an incentive in the hundreds of millions?"
"Now you get why I'm treating you to all the beef you can eat today?"
"!?"
Mom and my sister shrieked at the same time.
"R-really? How on earth much did they give you?"
I quietly turned my phone around to show them my account.
"No way. Is... is this real? It's not doctored, is it?"
The two of them checked it over and over, as if they couldn't believe their eyes.
"Why would I fake something like this?"
"It doesn't make sense. They just handed you this much money?"
"Yeouido is more honest than I expected. They paid me exactly what I earned, to the won."
The shock must have been enormous—Mom and my sister just stared at me blankly, hands pressed over their mouths.
"......"
I played it off like it was nothing, but the truth was, I'd been waiting on pins and needles, wondering whether the incentive would actually land—and when. These two would never know that.
"I'm going to eat a lot of beef today."
"Yes. Eat until you're about to burst."
"Wow. Dearest brother, you're the best."
"...Please don't call me that."
I still had one more thing to show them.
"Take one of these each."
"Oh my. You got business cards?"
"Yep. To mark the promotion, the company gave me a whole pile of gifts too."
I'd heard in passing that big corporations hand out gifts along with business cards once you go full-time. Sure enough, Daeseong had come through as well: an employee ID badge, a state-of-the-art laptop, a USB drive, a mug, a tumbler, and more. It was far more than I'd expected.
"What a lovely business card."
Of everything, Mom seemed to like my business card best. She spent a long while admiring it, positively glowing with pride.
Seeing her that delighted lifted my spirits right along with her. Her smile, happier than I'd been over the incentive itself, was worth more than the money, I'd say.
"So what are you going to do with all this money, dearest brother?"
"Ugh, that gives me the chills. I told you not to call me that."
"Just teasing. So, savings? Or investing?"
"Already know where it's going."
"Where?"
"Your dream has always been to have a restaurant of your own, Mom."
At that, Mom waved her hands in flustered denial.
"Goodness, no. That money is for your wedding. What are you saying?"
"I'll just work even harder than I do now. You've always said your dream was to run a proper Korean restaurant. Not that I wouldn't rather you quit working altogether and just enjoy yourself."
"That's quite enough. Besides, a woman my age who's worked her whole life only ages faster the day she stops. Still, it's lovely that my son would say such a thing for my sake."
"Then what about me? If Mom opens her place, can't I put up a café right next door?"
"Then I'll just have to work even harder."
"Hee hee. Just imagining it puts me in a good mood."
They were talking as if it were all a joke, but I meant every word. A beloved Korean restaurant with Mom as the owner, and right next door, a café built by my sister...
Just imagining it puts me in a good mood too.
Before I'd joined the company, it would have been a dream I wouldn't even have dared to dream. But the moment I walked through those doors and started delivering results, it was no longer out of reach. It was a dream I could achieve as fully as my effort allowed.
I want to do better.
I wanted to deliver more. I wanted to be recognized as a trader.
......Looks like I'd found a reason to work even harder from here on out.
"Kang In— no, wait. Deputy Kang~."
"You're here?"
"Yep. Early again, huh? Now that you're a full-timer, I half expected you to slack off a little. Guess keeping that beginner's spirit really does matter, huh? Deputy Kang."
Deputy Yoo was putting particular weight on the word Deputy with every syllable.
"I'm sorry, sir. For leaping straight over you to Deputy."
When I bowed my head in apology, he jolted in alarm and hauled me back upright.
"People will get the wrong idea if they see that. It makes it sound like I'm nitpicking you. I was just congratulating you—and messing with you a little, that's all."
I knew that. Which was exactly why I'd tried a little joke of my own.
"Still, our company really is something, isn't it? Look how generously they push talented people up."
"I just got lucky."
"A lucky man turns 3 billion won into 6 billion in a matter of days? You even sold at the absolute peak? Your sell strategy was brilliant. How did you nail the top like that?"
"That was luck too."
"Honestly, sometimes I can't tell whether you're being modest or just pretending to be."
Then his eyes fell on the watch on my wrist.
"Well, well. Got your incentive and bought a watch first, did you?"
"Hm? Oh, this? It was a gift."
"Huh? Y-you got this as a gift?"
"Yes. Why?"
"That's an expensive piece. I know my watches—that's worth ten million won at the very least."
"WHAT?!"
I'd known it hadn't come cheap, but ten million won was beyond anything I'd imagined.
"Getting a gift this expensive. Impressive. Wait—was the person who gave it to you a woman?"
"Well, yes, but..."
"Unbelievable. I'm jealous, so jealous. Handsome on top of everything, so you get gifts like this too. Why is it that I...!"
Like my lamenting deputy, I was utterly bewildered. However you looked at it, giving me a watch this expensive was... why, though?
"Let's get to the meeting first."
"Ah, yes, sir."
I shelved the question for later and headed for the meeting room.
"Everyone's here?"
The team leader was taking attendance when his eyes met mine.
"Then before we begin, shall we give a round of applause for our newly minted full-timer, Deputy Kang?"
The team erupted in cheers and applause.
"Everyone, be good to Deputy Kang. You all know how much he pulled in this time, right? Every won of it comes back to us as team results."
"Shall we give it one more, then?"
"Why not."
An even louder cheer and round of applause came crashing down. For all my resolution to become a better person, all I wanted was to flee. This much attention was outright poison to an introvert!
"All right, then. Any fun news today? Anything we should be watching?"
Thankfully, in the Trading Division, where every second was precious, the meeting got underway at once.
"Bio, most likely. The bio sector on the Nasdaq surged a full 5 percent yesterday—big pharma M&A looks to have lit the fuse, and we expect money to pile into bio on our market today as well."
"So the leading bio stocks are going to take off?"
"Yes. There's a tip making the rounds that Mihan Pharmaceuticals is closing a technology export deal, and word is several other names will be kicking off Phase 3 clinical trials soon."
The sector the market had its eye on today was bio. Bio was famous for lying quiet before suddenly leaping—and for going absolutely vertical whenever a monster catalyst like a technology export broke.
"What's Research saying?"
"They're projecting today's trading value will blow past 1 trillion won without breaking a sweat."
The team leader let out a short whistle.
"So we can run some big-money day trades today, then?"
"Yes. The other institutions are thinking the same and will move accordingly, and there are players already sitting in short positions, so the tug-of-war is going to be tremendous."
"Good. Everyone read your materials carefully, and let's run bio together wherever we can. The short sellers are bound to pull their dirty tricks, so if you need to coordinate, coordinate. Trading may be an individual sport, but there's nothing wrong with teaming up to fleece the market."
"Yes, sir."
"Now hurry and get ready. Feels like we'll be trading blows with the big players all day like lunatics."
One thing I'd learned since joining the Trading Division: the stock market was a game of land-grab, with the big powers at each other's throats.
Some tried to pump the price while others tried to drag it down, each side reading the other's every move.
Then someone would throw up a massive Sell Wall to drown the retail investors in terror, or spray rumors across the internet to send them charging in.
Every scheme and stratagem ran rampant on this game board, where you crushed your opponent and took their money. But even that was only possible if the volume was there to back it up.
In a sector expected to clear a trillion won in volume like today, every power in the market latched on, waging war against one another for a piece of the pie.
"Blood's boiling today, heh heh."
"No kidding. Should be quite a show."
"One wrong move and we'll be losing our desks, won't we?"
"If that scares you, you've got no business being in Yeouido."
How should I put it. None of these people were in their right mind.
Every one of them had the gleam of battle in their eyes, like soldiers heading to an actual war zone. I suppose they were all worked up over the prospect of throwing big money at day trades, just as the team leader said.
"...I really can't get used to this."
None of them seemed to know fear. The people here actually called me the fearless one—a mad trader with something beyond a beast's heart—but they didn't know.
That I, too, was still more tense than anyone.
Maybe I'll sit back and watch for now?
I studied the bio sector closely. Prices were already churning in the pre-market, before the opening bell had even rung.
Beep-beep-beeeep!
At last the market opened, and while everything else stayed quiet, only the bio charts began to heave. Names that seemed to be climbing suddenly dropped; others looked to be hitting bottom, then surged again.
I could see it all too clearly: the big players performing a sword dance with money, sending their troops at each other in open battle.
"...This is insane."
My hands trembled at the sheer volatility. My capital currently stood at 6 billion won. With the tension of knowing those 6 billion could be cut in half in an instant if I misstepped, I couldn't bring myself to move rashly.
If I want to open Mom's restaurant and my sister's café, I'd better keep my head on straight.
Thinking that way, I'll admit, my heart leaned toward the safe play. If I just didn't get greedy and skimmed 1 or 2 percent a week, I'd have every reason to be thankful.
Still, no need to be too conservative...
The moment those words formed in my mind—
"...!"
As if to seize my hand as it reached to pull away from bio, a rotten stench pulsed through the air, and my whole body locked up. Only when I eased my grip off the mouse did the stench fade.
In its place, a fragrance rich and refreshing came drifting up in waves. I knew exactly what it meant. It was the signal to buy the stock my sense of smell had blessed.
Am I gambling too much again?
This wouldn't be a sensible choice either. If things went wrong, incentive or no incentive, I'd lose my desk before anything else. And Mom's restaurant dream would go down with it.
...No.
But more than that, I had faith in my gift. And I believed this choice would, in the end, light the road ahead of me.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I pressed down hard on the buy button for the stock with the sweetest fragrance.
"All right. Let's trust it."
So far, at least in this place, my nose had never once let me down. Every prediction had landed.
So all I had to do was wait patiently this time too. Like with Han-seong Steel and Geum-young Shipbuilding, a few days of watching would likely bring a big payoff—
"Ugh!"
But contrary to all my expectations, another burst of stench came roaring out. From a stock that had smelled positively fragrant mere moments ago.
Is this telling me to sell, and fast?
It hadn't even been that long since I'd gone all-in. I hit the sell button immediately.
With volume exploding across the bio sector, unloading 6 billion won took mere seconds.
"Looks like I made a little money?"
It was surreal. It couldn't have been five minutes, and in that sliver of time I'd booked a full 5 percent gain. My minimum monthly return target, met.
"What a relief."
Right. This was plenty. But my sigh of relief didn't last long.
"...!?"
Another fragrance exploded from a particular stock, pulling me toward it.
Now it wants me to buy this one?
With my target return already met, I ached to stop—but the moment I refused, the stench swallowed me whole.
Fine. Just this one, then...
The problem was, this was only the beginning. Barely had I finished buying when the stench hit again.
"A-and now sell again?"
Then the moment I sold, the fragrance rose once more. My hands and my nose got no rest at all.
"Please, just... stop."
I had fallen headlong into an infinite buy-sell hell.