Three in a Row
Add the gains from Jain Tech, and his total assets crossed the hundred-billion-won mark.
The value of his Bitcoin fluctuated by the hour, but adding everything together, his net worth came out to roughly 12 billion KRW.
The office door swung open, and Choi Tae-wook appeared, dusty from organizing the warehouse. As a Jain Tech shareholder himself, he was another beneficiary of today's limit-up.
"Team Leader. Did you see it? The moment the market opened, Jain Tech went straight to a dot circuit."
"I saw it. Looks like you're making some decent pocket money this time."
"Yes, sir. I put in 500,000 won and I'm already up 500,000."
"Once you sell, what are you going to do with it?"
"I don't plan on selling anytime soon. There'll be pullbacks along the way, but I believe Jain Tech's share value is worth at least 200,000 won."
Tae-wook's investment style was different from Siyoon's. A disciple of value investing, he planned to hold his shares and let them mature for a long while.
Watching him, Siyoon found himself wondering how on earth to spend a ten-figure fortune.
What he wanted most was a house, but in Seoul, even a moderately decent apartment ran into the billions. Owning a whole building would make the rest of his life comfortable, yet 10 billion KRW wouldn't come close to buying one. For now, he supposed he'd keep living in his officetel and grow the pile further.
Siyoon's gaze drifted back to the monitor.
Buy orders from investors still hungry for Jain Tech kept stacking up.
"Another limit-up tomorrow, I bet."
Murmuring this to no one in particular, he closed the trading window.
He took a half day off in the afternoon, and when he stepped out of the building, a battered old sedan was waiting at the curb.
The window cranked open with a creak, and Bang Yo-han's grinning face appeared.
"Kang Siyoon!"
Confirming it was indeed Yo-han, Siyoon climbed into the passenger seat.
"I told you I could get there on my own."
"Yeah, right. How are you gonna get all the way to Yangpyeong with no car? You'd have to transfer to a village bus — the sun would set before you got there."
Today was his parents' memorial day.
Every year on this date, Siyoon visited the columbarium where his parents rested.
Since their university days, Yo-han had appointed himself Siyoon's personal chauffeur and never once missed the trip.
When they arrived and entered the memorial hall, two urn compartments sat side by side behind a pane of glass. Beside them hung a photo of Siyoon as a child.
Siyoon and Yo-han bowed together in silence.
Then Yo-han broke the quiet in his easy, good-natured way.
"Ma'am, Sir. Hope you've been doing well. That good-for-nothing son of yours next to me — he's actually making money these days, so he moved into an officetel in Yeouido. Eats expensive beef, drinks expensive liquor. Living the easy life, really comfortable. So don't you worry about him."
Every year, Yo-han relayed Siyoon's greetings on his behalf. For whatever reason, Siyoon's mouth simply sealed itself shut whenever he came here.
He had so much he wanted to say, but the words caught in his throat and refused to come out. At times like these, he was almost grateful to have a friend like Yo-han.
He'd first met Yo-han in freshman year, in a financial economics lecture they shared.
The subject on the lecture-hall screen that day was The Efficient Market Hypothesis. A white-haired professor behind magnifying-thick glasses looked away from the slide and began.
"The market reflects all known information in prices instantly. Which means consistent excess returns are, in fact, impossible. So, today's key takeaway is..."
He pointed at Yo-han.
"You there. The student sleeping. What did I just say?"
"I wasn't sleeping, sir. I was just getting my book out..."
The professor didn't buy it.
"Not sleeping? Then answer me. What have I been explaining?"
"That no individual can beat the market. Except, Professor, I think you've forgotten Warren Buffett."
At Yo-han's mutiny, the professor's eyes narrowed.
"Warren Buffett, is it... A textbook case of survivorship bias. For every success, there are countless failures — people just choose to remember the winners."
"Then what about Jim Simons? Was the Medallion Fund just luck?"
The corner of the professor's mouth twitched.
But he waved it off lightly.
"Generalizing from a handful of exceptional cases... Disappointing."
Then his eyes found the student in the front row.
Looking at Siyoon's face, the professor asked, "And you? Anything to add?"
"No, sir."
"Then why do you look so dissatisfied?"
It happened often enough that Siyoon didn't flinch.
"I'm not dissatisfied. I agree that all information is disclosed simultaneously — in theory. But the speed at which information spreads differs. Before official filings, between institutions and retail investors, in thinly traded stocks — price distortions repeat over and over. Nothing says an individual investor can't exploit those gaps."
Perhaps put off by Siyoon's flat, dry delivery, the professor's expression cooled to indifference.
"You seem to know so much. Is there anything left for you to learn from me?"
"Until a moment ago, I wanted to learn more from you, Professor. And by the way — what I just described, I read it in a book you wrote, The Aesthetics of Investing. Have you forgotten it? It has been quite a long time. In that case... I'm disappointed too."
The lecture hall erupted in murmurs.
By then, the professor's face had flushed crimson.
"W-well. That's it for today's lecture."
He scrambled out of the room as if searching for a mouse hole to crawl into. Moments later, Yo-han sidled up to Siyoon.
"Haha. That was beautiful. By the way... do you like robots?"
On the drive back from Yangpyeong to Seoul.
The car was filled with robots of every size, arranged like ornaments.
Yo-han, a robot otaku through and through, had skipped the foreign luxury cars and designer watches other men coveted and collected robots instead.
Jeombak-i, the companion Siyoon kept at home, was another of Yo-han's gifts. When Yo-han had moved to Japan, he'd worried about his friend living all alone and mailed him an AI robotic dog.
"Don't you ever get sick of robots?" Siyoon asked.
Yo-han laughed cheerfully.
"How could I? Look how cute these babies are. Think about it — people betray you, robots never do. When I'm with these guys, my heart's just at peace, y'know?"
"With that money, you could've upgraded your car instead."
"Mr. Bus Rider calling my car a clunker? The audacity."
"I'm not judging. But Hye-young will."
At the name Hye-young, Yo-han's mouth snapped shut. Their college classmate Koo Hye-young was the girl he'd been pining over for seven years.
"Wh-why are we talking about Hye-young..."
"You've got a solid job and you're a decent catch, but if you keep driving around in that thing, wouldn't women be turned off?"
"Well, I mean... Hey! And what makes you such an expert on women all of a sudden?"
This time it was Siyoon's mouth that closed.
The truth was, he didn't know. The animal called woman remained a mystery to him.
Still, a decent car might open up a few possibilities, couldn't it?
Yo-han's car pulled into a parking spot in front of a restaurant in Gangnam.
Inside the pub-style restaurant, about a dozen college classmates were already gathered in a private room.
Siyoon wasn't close with them.
But Yo-han, surprisingly well-connected, had dragged him along, and there was nothing for it.
A pretty classmate spotted Yo-han and called out brightly. It was Koo Hye-young.
"Oh, Yo-han! Over here. And who's that next to...?"
"You don't know Siyoon? Business school classmate. The guy who always sat front row in lectures."
"Oh, right. Kim Siyoon, was it?"
"No. Kang Siyoon."
"Ah, ah..."
And so Siyoon took an awkward seat and quietly drained glass after glass.
He had no intention of jumping into the conversation.
The moment he opened his mouth, the mood would only curdle.
One of the classmates asked Yo-han, "Yo-han, you're at Samyu Electronics, right? Wasn't it the Japan branch?"
"They reassigned me back to Korea. I start next week."
"Whew~ Big-company guys really do look different. Your face is just gleaming."
"Gleaming my ass."
Even while chatting, Yo-han kept glancing at Koo Hye-young. The seven-year one-sided love was still ongoing. Then someone started showing off a new car.
"I just got a new ride. Who wants to go for a drive? Hands up!"
"Me! Me!"
Yo-han went silent the moment cars came up.
He still drove a fifteen-year-old compact domestic.
"Oh, right — Yo-han, you're at a big corporation now. Bet you're driving something nice, huh?"
Of all the questions, that one had to land.
Yo-han's lips faltered.
With Hye-young sitting right there, he couldn't bring himself to answer.
"Isn't that Yo-han's car over there? The black Avante?"
"Ah... so you saw. Yeah, that car is... sob!"
Siyoon hastily shoved a fried shrimp into Yo-han's open mouth. Then he said, "You're buying a Tesla, aren't you? You said electric cars are the future these days."
"Mmph... what?"
"You told me you'd already put in a reservation. Delivery in a few days."
"What are you—what?!"
At the word Tesla, every eye in the room went wide. A Tesla was far too expensive for fresh graduates just starting out.
Siyoon pressed on.
"You said once the Tesla comes, you want to take Hye-young for a drive. Well, since she's right here, might as well set a date now."
"Y-you... Kang Siyoon, you...!"
Across the table, Koo Hye-young's cheeks had flushed pink. Siyoon drove the wedge home, asking her directly, "What do you say? You're okay with that, right, Hye-young?"
The ever-bubbly Koo Hye-young gave a shy nod.
The next day.
Siyoon arrived early at the warehouse office and started browsing used cars online.
"Brand-new is too pricey... This one'll do."
A Model Y listed in the 40-million-won range.
The red car looked sleek and well-kept.
Used, technically — but barely two years old, practically showroom-fresh.
"Okay."
The moment he reached for the phone to call the dealership, an incoming call beat him to it — Bang Yo-han.
"Hey, Yo-han."
"What's to prepare? You just go for it."
"And why did you have to spout that nonsense? A Tesla? You?"
"Ah, right — I've already got a car lined up. It ships as soon as I pay, so don't worry about it."
"Where exactly is that money coming from?"
"From me. I'm busy, so I'm hanging up. They deliver it to the door, so I'll take it for a test drive and buy it if it's good."
Click.
And he ended the call, just like that.
Forty million won was no small sum. But weighed against everything Yo-han had given him over the years, it was nothing.
If this was a way to pay some of it back, then so much the better.
He picked up his phone to dial the used-car dealer — and then his eyes drifted to one of the monitors.
Before the market opened, Jain Tech's outstanding buy orders were piled up at the limit-up price. And the volume showed no sign of thinning as time passed.
Another dot circuit today?
If it hit limit-up again, that would make it three in a row.
As he stared at the monitor, the call connected.
"Yes, I'm calling about the Tesla Model Y listing."