A Ready-Made Gift
The Delta One office was, how should I put it.
A place where the only sounds were dry keyboard clatter and the occasional click of a mouse.
No of the usual small talk, none of the endless shouting and sighing I'd grown sick of in the Trading Division. Everyone simply worked like machines, staring at their monitors and churning out complicated formulas and code.
"……"
Even the desks were straightened as if measured with a ruler, every object aligned at perfect angles. It was a place that radiated an almost pathological compulsion.
"What on earth is going on?!"
And yet this very office had been erupting with raised voices since first thing this morning.
"Everyone got the message, right? You don't think the Team Leader's email got hacked?"
"We double-checked it ourselves."
"He basically told us to do it or else……. I've never heard the Team Leader talk that firmly before."
"But didn't he look kind of angry too?"
The office was in an uproar—all because of the violent directive the Team Leader had handed down.
Full cancellation of the Wire Credit project.
That was what had turned the entire team upside down.
"We spent months grinding for that deal, and now he's throwing it all away overnight? Why?"
"And without a word of explanation. Just 'do it or else.'"
"Ha. I'm losing my mind."
"Then when the Team Leader gets in, Section Chief, maybe you could talk to him directly……"
"Are you insane? Walk into a man who'd come out of it without shedding a single drop of blood?"
At that, the staff—including me—collectively let out a small gasp.
"Wh-what? What is it?"
The Section Chief must have realized too, because he slowly turned his head around.
There stood the Team Leader, his face utterly blank.
"Ahaha. T-Team Leader. You're here. Good morning."
"……For the record, if you stab me, blood does come out."
"Y-you heard that? That's not what I meant, I……"
"Never mind that. How are things going with the rare earth ELS? You've read the email I sent, haven't you?"
"Ah, yes. We've actually been setting it up since yesterday. Once the approval goes through, we can start buying immediately."
"Good. Bring me the report later."
"Yes, sir!"
The Section Chief snapped to attention like a soldier.
The Team Leader, who had frozen the entire office in an instant, glanced briefly in my direction.
"……"
His eyes were like knife blades.
Ugh. He's even pricklier than usual today. And he's the one who said he'd throw the project out himself.
"Tell me about it. We've got a mountain of reports due today and this happens."
"Seriously. If this was going to happen, why cancel the project in the first place?"
"……"
I kept my mouth shut and stayed quiet.
Because somehow, I had a feeling the project's cancellation had something to do with me.
'But back then, he clearly didn't even pretend to be listening to me.'
Following my nose, I had recommended the rare earth ELS over the Wire Credit deal that was already in progress. But the Team Leader had just chuckled and hammered it down—no way he was stopping a project that was running so smoothly.
So I'd naturally assumed things would go on as planned.
Then, out of nowhere that very night, the project got cancelled.
Had the Team Leader looked into my advice on his own and discovered something wrong? The team members, of course, had no idea I'd had any hand in this cancellation. And yet I couldn't shake the feeling of sitting on a bed of nails.
Deputy Yoo really was a man of deep affection.
Her worried texts had the corners of my mouth curling up all on their own.
I hesitated for a moment.
But then I worked up the courage and sent the text.
I slightly regretted it the moment I hit send.
Was that too forward?
Ding~.
But the reply came almost instantly.
Before I knew it, I was clenching my fist and shouting "Nice!" out loud.
"……"
Every team member in the tense, stormy office turned to stare at me.
"S-sorry."
I apologized with an awkward smile.
And yet somehow, the seat that had felt like a bed of nails was starting to feel warm and comfortable.
That's right. Whatever department I was in, all I had to do was my job well.
"Who broke off the contract?"
"Daesung Securities, sir. Apparently they dropped the deal with Wire Credit we'd been targeting."
For a moment, Joo Yongwook, CEO of Ilseong Securities, doubted his own ears.
"Are you certain?"
"Yes. We double-checked with their working-level staff. And Wire Credit is sending out emails right now looking for a new contracting party."
"Have those Daeseong bastards finally lost their minds? Kicking over the table when the meal's already served? Why would they dump a deal like that?"
"They say the exact reason is unknown. Just that it was cut suddenly from the top."
So they'd overturned a honey pot—a deal designed to take money in and eat money out.
"……Could it be a funding issue?"
But surely a group the size of Daesung wasn't short three hundred billion won.
"Daesung Group has been quietly carrying out its succession process, hasn't it? Could that be the cause?"
Come to think of it, there would be plenty of places needing money for a succession operation.
"Shall I contact the German side right away?"
"Do it now. The group's already in an uproar over what Daesung pulled on us this time. How could we, Ilseong, let ourselves be beaten by bastards like Daeseong?"
Only recently, they'd had their AS Bio short position discovered by Daesung and forced into a mass liquidation.
The losses had been in the tens of billions of won.
Even if it wasn't a huge sum by the group's standards, being beaten by Daesung was the real problem. The rumor had already spread through Yeouido, and everyone who mattered knew about it.
More than enough to wound the pride.
"Didn't headquarters grill us like catching rats over that? Demanding to know who leaked the position?"
"Exactly. And if they go and spit out a windfall like this in the middle of all that, it's our gain. We might even use it to land a blow on Daeseong. Heh heh. But…… you don't suppose something's wrong with Wire Credit itself?"
"Just in case, we investigated thoroughly, but Wire Credit is perfectly fine at the moment. Their financial indicators are solid, and their future growth prospects are very strong."
It was a little unsettling that Daesung had suddenly broken off a deal with such a good company.
"Perhaps it's a gesture of reconciliation?"
"A gesture of reconciliation?"
"You placed a direct call to the CEO of Daesung Securities yourself, didn't you? Right after that, Daesung abruptly dropped this deal."
"You mean they're asking us to let the AS Bio incident slide as an honest accident?"
"Yes. The Three Major Financial Groups may be bound together, but Daesung hardly wants to make an enemy of us. If Ilseong harassed them in the middle of their own succession battle, they'd be in a bind too."
There was logic in the Division Head's words.
Kwon Junyong, that bastard.
So he knew how to tuck his tail between his legs after all.
"What about the other brokerages?"
"The moment word spread that Daesung dropped it, they all started contacting the German brokers."
"Then we'd better snatch it up fast. We can't refuse a gift Daesung worked so hard to prepare for us, can we? Tell Wire Credit: we'll offer a lower fee than anyone else, and we'll take the deal. And tell them we'll deposit the three hundred billion immediately."
"Yes, sir. I'll relay it at once, sir."
After the Division Head left, Joo Yongwook leaned back in his chair and smiled.
The bio short-selling fiasco had thoroughly humiliated him, but this looked like it might make up for it a little.
"I should have a drink with him soon."
Once this deal wrapped up nicely, he'd have to buy Kwon Junyong a drink.
Men of business fought each other all day, but settling it over a drink—that was their duty, wasn't it?
"So Ilseong took it in the end?"
"Yes, sir. Ilseong snapped it up immediately."
"I see."
Team Leader Song's anger flared at Managing Director Park's serene posture.
The man had thrown away a three-hundred-billion-won deal, and now a competitor was toasting its own good fortune as it walked away with the prize.
"Managing Director, sir. I simply cannot understand. Why would we have to throw away a deal with guaranteed profits like this? I'll grant that Deputy Kang Suho has talent. But even so—to void a deal over one remark from a mere Deputy?"
At the sight of Team Leader Song seething, Managing Director Park let out a quiet chuckle.
"Do you take me for a fool? Do you really think I don't know it's a contract that amounts to an ATM that prints money?"
"Then why on earth——"
"Let's call it the adults' circumstances."
"Sir?"
"That Deputy Kang Suho. He's the parachute Geum Gaho the Director planted. A member of the Royal Family, in other words."
"!?"
Only then did parts of this mess begin to make sense.
But even so—throwing away a three-hundred-billion-won deal for it?
"The group doesn't welcome Director Geum Gaho's return. And on top of that, he's so openly trying to groom Deputy Kang Suho. But this kid keeps producing results. So what do you suppose needs to happen?"
"……His reputation has to be deliberately dragged down."
"Precisely. We plant the perception that everything he's built up until now was pure luck, that he's really nothing special. Then our scheming Director Geum's plans turn to dust."
In a word, a contract they had sweated months to secure had gone up in smoke for the sake of internal office politics.
"I'm sorry about this, Team Leader Song. But you want to keep climbing too, don't you? Then you'll have to get used to these filthy political games. Am I wrong?"
Filthy political games.
The phrase fit perfectly.
These were superiors who trampled on their subordinates' months of hard work without a second thought.
But what confused him even more was Kang Suho himself.
At least as far as Team Leader Song could see, Suho looked nothing like a Royal Family favorite, and nothing like a man harboring some sinister scheme.
He just looked like someone who worked hard, that was all.
"……Is Director Geum Gaho really plotting something with Deputy Kang Suho?"
"If not that, why would the man have suddenly brought the kid in out of nowhere? And of all times, right when our group is in an uproar over the succession?"
"……"
"In any case, consider this matter settled. Neither I nor you will be hurt by it. As the one in charge, the CEO will give me an earful, but the group will rate me very highly for this. And when that happens, I'll make sure you look good too, Team Leader Song. Okay?"
"……Yes, sir."
"Ah, and about the rare earths. Blow the business up as big as you can. You're saying it's an ELS right now? But isn't that too weak? Switch it to a DLS and scale the whole thing way up."
Where an ELS used rare earth-related company stocks as its underlying assets, a DLS meant placing the rare earths themselves at the center.
"You want us to do both, the ELS and the DLS?"
"That's right. To put the blame squarely on Deputy Kang Suho, the business has to be big. Build the board as large as possible."
"B-but if we do that, the company could suffer serious losses——"
"Tsk. Did I not tell you? Neither I nor Team Leader Song will suffer any harm. Even if losses occur, it all becomes Deputy Kang Suho's fault for so strongly recommending rare earths. What's our objective? To shred Deputy Kang's reputation to ribbons. So his name never comes up again."
It seemed Managing Director Park was planning to use any major losses from this project to have Kang Suho expelled from the group entirely.
All while using the excuse that he'd had no choice, afraid of Geum Gaho standing behind Suho.
"Understood? Then get going. I'll take good care of things behind you, Team Leader Song."
"……"
Team Leader Song left the executive's office with slumped shoulders.
"This son of a bitch."
Back in his own office, he cursed alone.
This filthy, disgusting company.
Throwing away the Wire Credit project—for office politics, of all things.
What more hollow reason could there possibly be?
"I should just quit. This piece of garbage company——"
Knock, knock.
Just then, someone rapped on the Team Leader's office door.
"Team Leader. Let's call it a day and head home."
And there stood Kang Suho, beaming as if something wonderful had happened.