A Trap Dug From the Other Side
"Suho."
"Mm?"
"Are you seeing someone these days?"
"……Excuse me?"
I shook my head, flustered.
"You've been grinning at your phone all morning."
"Oh my. Mom. Look at Suho's face going red."
"N-no, it's not like that."
"Not like what? It's written all over your face."
It was true that I'd been texting the Senior Manager back and forth, but we weren't anything like that yet.
"Hmmm. And who might this person be? Someone from work?"
"I'm telling you, it's not like that."
"Oho. So you're in the talking stage, huh? Heh heh. That's the most deliciously ticklish part of it all."
"……"
"So what are they like? Kind? Pretty?"
My mother finally stepped in to arbitrate my sister's relentless interrogation.
"That's enough. He's a grown man — he'll handle the business of dating just fine on his own. Now hurry up and eat. I need to get ready and head to the diner too."
"This early?"
"I have to shop for groceries and prep the ingredients before opening."
"Take it easy, Mom. What if you wear yourself out?"
"Hoho. I'm fine. Mommy is the happiest woman in the whole world right now."
These days, just seeing Mom's face put me in a good mood too.
Where her mornings used to be clouded with exhaustion, now she looked — how should I put it — brimming with a vitality that couldn't be contained.
"And it's all thanks to our Suho. Thanks to having such a good son, I finally get to run the diner I've only ever dreamed of."
"I'd rather you didn't work at all and just rested."
"A woman like me gets sicker if I don't work. Besides, this is the diner our son built for me. Just sitting there in it makes me happy."
"Hmph. My little brother gets all the love from our mother, and suddenly my jealousy is about to explode."
"Our daughter is precious too, of course. You come straight here after your exhausting workday just to help out — I can't tell you how grateful I am."
These days Mom was throwing herself into running the diner with everything she had.
The place hadn't been open long and the customers were still few, but with Mom's cooking, it wouldn't take long for word to spread that this was a spot worth seeking out.
After all, wasn't she pouring herself into it with that radiant joy on her face?
She made the very sight of her a pleasure to anyone standing nearby.
"Oh, right. Suho — you know that hiking club president of yours?"
"Ah, yes. What about him?"
"He came by again yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
"Mm-hm. Seems like he's been coming regularly since the day you brought the whole hiking club here for that dinner. Yesterday he even brought expensive bread for me and the staff, told us to eat well and keep our strength up."
"Really?"
Our club president did?
Back at the hiking club dinner, the president had declared he had to champion Mom's diner, and dragged every last member of the club along with him. He'd loved the food dearly that night, and apparently he'd been dining at Mom's place ever since.
"If you'd told me in advance, I could've at least called Mom."
"Well, your mom does keep giving him free extras and all. She says he's someone truly precious to our Suho."
"Yeah. He's actually the reason I got my job at this company in the first place."
"What?! Hold on. How could you keep something that important to yourself until now!"
Oops. The president had told me not to mention it for no good reason.
"Next time he comes, I'll have to treat him even better. Mom will have to prepare a full-course spread. If you get the chance, ask him when he might drop by again."
"Understood."
I wondered if I was giving him an unnecessary burden, but like Mom said, he was someone genuinely worth gratitude to our family.
Still…… was he really visiting Mom's diner that often simply because the food had won him over?
"Senior."
"Ah, there you are. Sit."
Team Leader Song watched as Cheon Doa set her tray down across from him.
"Hard to believe we can work at the same company and still go this long without seeing each other's faces."
"Tell me about it."
"You said you had something to discuss in private, so why on earth is our rendezvous the company cafeteria?"
"People like us can't afford to waste even mealtimes. Besides…… as you can see, no one ever comes near your seat anyway."
"……"
Team Leader Song glanced left and right.
Just as she said, no one had taken any of the seats around him.
"……Did I fail at building human relationships?"
"It's fine. Sometimes when I eat here too, no one will sit with me. It must be our position. We're not the lowly junior employees of the old days anymore — we're team leaders."
A memory of the past drifted up unbidden.
University sunbae and hoobae, and then both of them had joined Daeseong Securities, both had their results acknowledged, and both had climbed the ladder fast.
The funny thing was, back then or now, they'd hardly ever sat down for a single meal together.
"So. What did you need to see me about?"
"Associate Kang Suho. What do you think? From your vantage point over there?"
So this was what the out-of-the-blue message had been about.
It was Kang Suho all along.
"Associate Kang is…… doing well. No — he's doing so well it's practically an ailment. Frankly, I can't keep up with him."
Team Leader Song let out a short sigh.
"Remember? You and me — we were treated as the outright aces of this company. So we each went off to different departments and got promoted quickly."
"We did."
"And I think I let myself get complacent because of it. I honestly believed there wouldn't be many people at this company who could ever reach my level."
"……"
"But meeting Associate Kang changed my mind. He's…… different. Definitely different. From his level to the very breadth of what he can see. To put it in one word……"
"You felt a wall?"
At those words, Team Leader Song stared at Cheon Doa with wide eyes.
"I know exactly what you mean. That feeling."
Call it finding comfort in a shared experience.
At the very least, it was a mercy that someone else could empathize with this dizzying, disorienting sensation.
"Our Center Director said something like this: until you've met the real thing, you're just a frog in a well."
"And that 'real thing' is Kang Suho?"
"Yes. He's the first person like that I've ever seen. It makes me wonder if this is what Wall Street means by a true genius……. And now I finally understand what people mean when they talk about an insurmountable gap."
To hear even this Cheon Doa speak that way.
Then again, where Kang Suho was concerned, he'd earned that verdict and more.
"Our Center Director says some strange things from time to time, but he's never wrong."
"By the way, Senior. There's a strange rumor making the rounds these days."
"A rumor?"
"Director Geum Gaho is the one who brought Associate Kang in, right? Well, from what I hear, the higher-ups are preparing to push out Director Geum and Associate Kang at the same time?"
"A rumor among the rank-and-file?"
"No, but once you make team leader, a few things start drifting down to your ears."
The ordinary employees below, most likely, had no idea what was unfolding right now inside headquarters and the securities firm.
"They say enormous money flooded into the Rare Earth DLS. And word is, the structure right now still forces us to keep bleeding losses — and if things get worse, the damages could swell into the hundreds of billions of won. Is it true they're planning to pin all of that responsibility on Director Geum and Associate Kang?"
"It's true. And if this goes badly, my neck goes on the chopping block too."
"!?"
She'd watched Team Leader Song for a long time, but she'd never seen an expression like that on his face.
"Shouldn't someone stop it before it gets worse? Even now?"
"I already told you."
"Yes?"
"Associate Kang operates on a different level from me. The way he thinks, the way he sees, the sheer audacity of the bets he places — we're worlds apart, every which way."
"……?"
"Just sit back and watch how it plays out. Something interesting is coming, and soon."
Team Leader Song grinned and spooned up a mouthful of soup.
Then a thought struck him, and he set his spoon back down.
"By the way, Team Leader Cheon. Have you always been the type to worry about someone like this?"
"He's just…… a former teammate of mine."
"You buy a former teammate a watch that expensive?"
"……!"
"I told him a while back that his watch suited him beautifully, and he said you were the one who gave it to him."
Cheon Doa looked thoroughly flustered at that.
Then she tried to deflect, ever so casually.
"You…… wear it every day?"
"Yeah. Apparently it's the only watch he owns. Same watch, every single day."
Team Leader Song caught it — brief as a flash, but unmistakable — the smile that crossed Cheon Doa's face and vanished.
"So the same Cheon Doa who wouldn't spare a single glance at a man even back in school goes to all this fuss for Associate Kang Suho, hmm……"
"Don't get any strange ideas. It's not like that. The watch was just a thank-you for the performance numbers, that's all."
"Did anyone say anything?"
Watching Team Leader Song smirk with theatrical glee, Cheon Doa let out a sigh of her own.
"Now I remember."
"Remember what?"
"Why I never ate a single meal with you all these years."
"Huh?"
"You eat insanely slowly. We're supposed to be people who can't afford to waste mealtimes — and you think you have the luxury to dally like this?"
When he glanced over, her tray was already wiped clean.
"Eat slower for once. Nobody's chasing you. You'll give yourself indigestion."
"It's just an energy recharge. I have to hurry back and get to work. Anyway, I'll head out first."
Watching Cheon Doa's briskly retreating back, Team Leader Song gave a hollow laugh. So she really did come purely out of curiosity about Kang Suho.
"……"
But do I really eat that slowly?
Rice and side dishes still sat heaped on his tray.
For the first time, he thought he understood a little why people had always been so reluctant to share a meal with him.
"Yes, Director. The setup is complete. We'll route it through the securities firm's internal meeting today and submit the approval draft to headquarters by end of day."
Mid-call, Managing Director Park idly fiddled with the documents laid out on his desk.
Subject: Director Geum Gaho and Associate Kang Suho — formal disciplinary referral for breach of fiduciary duty and dereliction of responsibility regarding the Rare Earth DLS losses.
"Those two have no way out now. I requested that CEO Kwon convene an executive meeting today, and I intend to present the approval draft there and settle this swiftly. Yes. Just leave it all to me. Haha. Then I'll call you again later this evening."
Hanging up, Managing Director Park whistled a tune.
At the evening meeting, this single stroke would wrap everything up neatly.
The insolent Director Geum, daring to peek back in at the company he thought he'd left — and that associate, clinging to his post on the strength of nothing but his parachute connections — one approval draft was all it took to blast them both into oblivion.
Just look at the damage they'd inflicted on the company.
The story practically wrote itself: Geum Gaho had abused his authority to seat a near-total novice in the position and even squeezed out a promotion on top of it.
And CEO Kwon, having joined in, would be held to account for throwing the company's hierarchy into disarray.
Then who would fill the vacancies that remained?
Why, Managing Director Park himself.
"Heh heh heh. My gratitude to these wonderful fellows."
They'd walked right into the trap on their own — what could be better than that?
It was nothing short of blowing your nose without lifting a finger.
"Sir."
"Oh, yes. Manager Kim. All set to head over to Delta One? Someone will be taking the team leader seat soon enough. Haha."
Managing Director Park had already decided who would sit in that chair after Team Leader Song. Just as Song was being pushed out this time, someone new would be installed — another sacrificial lamb to burn through next.
"Sir. I, I think you need to see this."
"Hmm? A report from Delta One? Doing the handover already? Well, can't blame you — smart to start preparing early."
"N-no, that's not it…… Just, please read it first."
He should have been beaming from ear to ear, yet Manager Kim's face was anything but good.
This wasn't a man so oblivious as to miss the mood.
"What on earth could have you looking so……"
Managing Director Park began to read the report — and his eyes went round as saucers.
"W-wait a moment. What is this? Rare earth prices are going to skyrocket?!"
"It's all right there in the report. With the Wire Credit disaster, multiple securities firms have taken heavy losses and creditors are flooding out of the woodwork — and now the short positions on rare earths locked up in that mess are about to be force-liquidated."
"Th-then……"
"The Rare Earth DLS is going to blow clean through the chart, exactly as the name implies. The securities firms that bought the DLS off us will soon be screaming. And we — we're about to reap a colossal profit."
Managing Director Park shot up from his seat.
"S-stop it! Kill it right now! Recover every last won of it, somehow, today!"
"If you do that, you'll be the one shouldering all the responsibility, sir. And besides, there's no way to claw back what's already been sold."
Anyone could see the product had been a loser from the moment it was created.
That was precisely why the securities firms had gleefully snapped it up.
But the probability that should never, ever have materialized had just come true.
"Sir…… I think the trap was being dug over there. Not by us."
"!?"
At those words, Managing Director Park collapsed back into his chair like a puppet with its strings cut.
"H-how on earth could this……!"
The committee convening today was not going to be a place for handing out punishment after all.
It looked as though it would be a stage for handing out rewards.