Chapter 28: The Bomb Goes Off
"Here, have a seat for a moment."
Song Jiwoon sat Kang Suho down right as he was getting up to say his goodbyes for the evening.
It wasn't to give him grief about leaving work early.
"These are the files that came up to me. You know about the rare earth investment, right? The one you recommended, Associate Kang."
"Ah, yes."
"I'd like you to take a look and pick one."
"R...right now?"
"Yes. Right now, if you would. Go through them."
Song Jiwoon had already skimmed through the reports his team members had submitted.
Since they were all rare earth-related products, most of them had put forward safe options.
Except for one.
There was a single investment strategy carrying tremendous risk.
The kind that that conniving Managing Director Park had been hoping for.
It wasn't that Song Jiwoon was hoping Kang Suho would pick it—rather, he wondered if this might reveal what Kang Suho's intentions actually were.
"......"
Kang Suho sat down and paged through the stack of reports.
This will take quite a while.
I'll just get some other work done in the meantime—
"I'll go with this one."
"......You're done already?"
"Yes. I think this one is best."
Team Leader Song let out a hollow laugh, utterly dumbfounded.
Because the proposal Kang Suho had picked was precisely that one.
High risk, high return.
It was a proposal that could vaporize hundreds of billions—trillions, even—of won if things went wrong.
Of course, there was a reason proposals like this existed in the first place: whenever an investment strategy was being drafted, a high-risk, high-return plan was always supposed to be prepared alongside the safe options.
The odds of it ever being selected were slim to none, but Delta One's principle was to have contingencies in place for every possible scenario.
"......"
Even with only a cursory read, anyone could see how absurd and reckless this proposal was.
And yet he'd chosen it anyway?
"Let me ask you again. You're absolutely certain you want this one?"
Kang Suho answered with an expression of pure conviction.
"Yes, Team Leader."
Looking at that face, Song Jiwoon could tell that, at the very least, Suho knew exactly what kind of madness he was about to unleash.
"Alright."
"Then, may I head out?"
"Go ahead. Have a good night."
"Yes, sir. See you tomorrow."
Team Leader Song caught Kang Suho one more time just as he was turning to leave.
"By the way, Associate Kang. You do realize you're walking a very dangerous tightrope right now?"
"I'm sorry?"
A genuinely puzzled expression.
Or... is he just pretending to be?
"...Never mind. I shouldn't have said anything. It's none of my business. Get going."
"Yes, sir."
With that, Kang Suho vanished like the wind, as if something urgent were calling him away.
"......"
Song Jiwoon examined the proposal Kang Suho had chosen in meticulous detail.
The more he studied it, the less sense it made.
"Why on earth did he pick this one?"
Unlike ELS products that invested in rare earth companies, DLS focused on the physical commodities themselves.
And right now, expecting rare earth prices to fall further, many securities firms were holding short positions.
But this product would deliver enormous profits to Daesung as the issuer if rare earth prices were to skyrocket abnormally.
The moment this product hit the market, it would sell like wildfire.
Everyone would say Daesung had lost its mind—totally, completely lost it.
From their perspective, it would be like picking up free money.
Even if rare earth prices rose somewhat, the investors wouldn't lose.
The structure was such that Daesung would be the one eating nearly all the losses.
"Is he trying to burn money on purpose?"
He didn't know.
He couldn't fathom what Suho was thinking at all.
"......"
After one final round of agonizing, Song Jiwoon submitted the proposal to Managing Director Park for approval.
Filthy suits.
To think they'd casually torch company money for the sake of their power games.
But there was nothing a rank-and-file employee like Team Leader Song could do about it.
He could only hope the shrimp's back wouldn't be the one to rupture when the whales fought.
"Suho! Over here!"
"Ah, I'm sorry. Am I late? Team Leader suddenly dumped a bunch of work on me right before I left, so..."
"I totally get it. Things always blow up at quitting time for us Yeouido people, right? Heehee."
I'd been getting ready early for my dinner appointment with Assistant Manager Kim Sujin when Team Leader—who for some reason had looked absolutely furious—ambushed me.
Thank goodness for my nose.
I'd been too impatient to examine the reports in careful detail.
But all of them except one reeked so foully that picking the right proposal hadn't been difficult.
Should I have looked more closely?
From what I could tell at a glance, it seemed to be a DLS-related product.
But that one proposal had exploded with such an intense, sweetly descending fragrance that even with more time, I would have picked it anyway.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Sorry?"
"A man daydreaming right in front of me... Hmmm. This is a first."
"Oh! Sorry. I was just thinking about a report for a second."
"I'm joking. I like people who throw themselves into their work. It looks kind of cool, you know? That's why I like you, Suho."
"......?"
The moment I startled and froze mid-step, Assistant Manager Kim's eyes finally went wide and she started slapping my shoulder again and again.
"Th-th-that is, as a—coworker! As a coworker, I mean!"
"That's how I understood it too."
"Hoho. R-right? We shouldn't be standing around like this—let's hurry! If we dawdle, the place might fill up and we won't get to eat at all!"
Her face flushed red, Assistant Manager Kim darted ahead, tip-tap-tapping away.
I watched her adorable retreating figure with a fond smile.
"Mmm."
That fresh, crisp scent.
It was spring.
"Yes, Director. Please don't worry yourself. This securities firm is held firmly in the palm of my hand, isn't it? Hahaha."
Managing Director Park was on the phone, bellowing with laughter.
"I'm well aware headquarters is concerned about Director Geum's return. He seems intent on pulling some trick, starting with the securities firm where his old right hand still sits—but as long as I'm here, he won't be pulling any stunts on my watch."
Making Managing Director of a securities firm was already a fairly successful life by any measure.
One could say he'd achieved everything a salaried man could hope for.
But wasn't it human nature that climbing one rung only made you hunger for the next?
Above securities firm executive.
That meant headquarters.
"I'm currently orchestrating a scheme to tarnish Director Geum's reputation. It's a shame the costs may burn through quite a bit of money, but his name will never come up again after this."
Becoming an executive at the heart of Daesung Group.
That was Managing Director Park's ambition.
"Yes. It will succeed, without fail. I'm confident of it. Even if the losses are large, the return is guaranteed, isn't it? So just leave it all to me."
And as if to grant him that dream, heaven had delivered Director Geum and one strange intern straight to the securities firm.
He would climb over their sacrificed bodies.
"Yes, thank you for your trust. Then I'll proceed exactly as discussed. And please tell the Chairman not to worry. If possible... maybe drop my name, just a little... Haha!"
Park shot to his feet and bowed deeply at the waist.
"Thank you so much, Director! Yes, yes. I'll see it through to the end without fail. Don't give it another thought. Yes, yes. Goodbye, Director!"
Click— The moment the call ended, Managing Director Park settled back into his chair, smacking his lips.
"Heh heh."
Usually, after a call with a superior, the first thing out of a man's mouth was cursing—but today, a pleased chuckle flowed out instead.
"If this goes well..."
Advancing to headquarters was no longer just a dream.
If he rose to an executive position there, he could even become the president of an affiliate.
Which meant he could shove aside that eyesore CEO Kwon and take the seat for himself.
"And it looks like this idiot is helping me along, too."
When the investment proposal first came up through Team Leader Song, he'd wondered if the man was plotting something particularly vicious.
He'd asked for the scale to be expanded, sure, but he hadn't expected it to balloon to this size.
But the moment he heard it was that associate who had selected the proposal, he'd nearly shouted eureka.
"...Surely there isn't something more to him?"
Truthfully, an inexplicable chill did run through him at times.
Not that he could pull the proposal now.
Where in the world would you find a man who refused to bet on a projected 99% win rate?
Besides, headquarters had just given final approval.
Even at the cost of hundreds of billions or trillions in losses, the group wanted to block Geum Gaho's return.
It wasn't for nothing that Geum Gaho had been called a living legend of the industry during his active years.
If the groundwork were laid for a man like that to come back... even the current executives would have no choice but to tremble.
"I'll make Team Leader Song and that associate the final responsible parties..."
It was such a massive investment that if things went south, it wouldn't end with just that one associate getting cut loose.
"Team Leader Song, I feel a bit sorry for you, but."
To rise, one had to climb over someone crushed beneath.
That was the natural order of the corporate jungle.
"......"
Team Leader Song arrived at the office clutching his throbbing, headache-wracked head.
He was the man with a pathological obsession with neatness, yet lately he'd been doing nothing but drinking, his clothes and hair both a shadow of their former polish.
"Team Leader, we're getting a lot of inquiries asking whether we plan to sell more of the rare earth DLS product."
The rare earth DLS investment proposal.
He'd naturally assumed someone above Managing Director Park would cut it off.
But then—of all things.
Hq had apparently made up its mind, because approval came down directly and the product went on sale, selling out in an instant just as predicted.
Now even the slightest fluctuation meant Daesung would keep bleeding money.
Because this DLS product was structured so that it could never turn a profit unless rare earth prices rose abnormally.
Worse, prices kept falling, so the only ones making money were the customers who had bought the product.
If things continued this way, the losses would be beyond even guessing.
"Sell more of this madness? Are they out of their minds?"
"That's... true, but—Team Leader, no matter how many times I think about it, I can't understand it. Why on earth would headquarters push approval through directly and let us sell something this insane?"
The group's official position was that they trusted the judgment of Associate Kang Suho, who had delivered one stellar result after another.
But that was just an excuse.
No matter how capable an employee was, what headquarters would green-light a proposal this deranged?
The intent to pin responsibility squarely on someone was written all over it.
"We've been structured to lose from the moment sales began. If this blows up and the entire Delta One team has to answer for it..."
The team members could only tremble in fear.
"There's no need for that. If things go wrong, I'll take full responsibility. So tell everyone not to worry and just focus on their own work."
"Team Leader..."
Team Leader Song had his own suspicions by now, too.
Namely, that he wouldn't be escaping this responsibility either.
Managing Director Park, that son of a bitch, kept spouting empty promises about shielding them from the fallout—but there was no way that sly snake would keep his word.
That was why he'd been drowning himself in liquor lately.
The ending was already visible.
"T-Team Leader!"
Just then, a team member who had left earlier came bursting back in.
And without so much as a knock—flinging the door wide open.
Seeing his deathly pale face, there was no room for reproach.
"What is it?"
"Team Leader, a-articles just exploded simultaneously across Europe, starting with Germany."
"What articles?"
"A-about Wire Credit! They're saying accounting fraud has been exposed. A-and the scale—3.6 billion euros!"
"!?"
Team Leader Song shot up from his chair in shock.
3.6 billion euros.
Came to a staggering 5 trillion won.
"Is that amount even possible? This isn't some tabloid rag, is it?"
"No, sir. The German government has issued an official statement, and—apparently they knew it was coming, because the Wire Credit CEO already fled to Russia and has a Red Notice from Interpol out on him."
He checked, and it was all true.
The balance sheets, the capital, the valuation—everything.
The company had looked rock-solid on paper, but in truth, all of it had been fabricated.
And to the tune of 5 trillion won, no less!
No wonder they'd been pulling capital from everywhere lately.
There was a reason Wire Credit had been so eagerly peddling its bonds.
They'd planned to cash out big and bolt before the bomb went off.
"Team Leader. If the Wire Credit project hadn't been scrapped..."
5 trillion won in accounting fraud, with even the executives fleeing—this essentially meant Wire Credit was finished.
In other words, they would have been left standing there, staring blankly as 300 billion won evaporated into dust right before their eyes.
"......"
Together with the team member beside him, Team Leader Song swallowed hard.