It Wasn’t Just Empty Talk
The staff of DE Investment Company waited patiently.
I didn’t know what sort of evidence the owner of the firm that had set our investment direction was so certain of, but I had never expected to understand it in the first place.
That was why he had made DE Investment Company what it was now—because his frame of reference was different from ours.
All we could do was trust him and follow his lead.
And he had already shown enough results to justify that trust.
And yet.
“This is really okay, right..?”
“The losses are getting bigger little by little..”
“If we don’t get one solid hit, this investment could end in failure..”
“It’s already been two weeks..”
As time passed, the anxiety only grew.
We had put all of DE Investment Company’s funds into this at once.
One mistake was going to hurt like hell.
Besides, these were the kinds of stocks that exploded in trading volume the moment attention locked onto them.
But that also meant that when no one cared, the volume dried up completely.
To admit the loss and sell everything now would mean swallowing a pretty damn painful failure.
So instead of worrying, we chose hope.
There was nothing else we could do anyway. All we could do was wait for the next order.
If there was nothing to do, then all we could do was wait with a better mindset.
So we changed our attitude.
“If this works out..”
“DE Investment Company is really going to take off.”
“It might even establish a proper foothold in Yeouido.”
“Wouldn’t be surprising. It’s already getting pretty famous.”
Instead of failure, we pictured success.
And honestly, that outcome was sweet enough to make the pain of this temporary loss feel worth it.
Not only would we rise in Yeouido—we’d be fully established there.
At the very least, we’d become a name people actually recognized.
And if you looked at what had happened so far...
Most investment firms in Yeouido would probably be shocked stiff.
In just a few months, we’d gone from under 300 billion won to nearly 1 trillion won.
All we had to do was keep watching.
Then, at some point—
“W-what the hell..!”
A cry from one person spread through the entire staff of DE Investment Company.
The liquidity we’d been waiting for had finally come pouring in.
Not just one stock, but all of them.
One might have been a coincidence, but when every inter-Korean listed stock moved at once...
That meant news big enough to justify it was on the way.
And sure enough, articles about it began spilling out one after another.
The rebound gave the stocks momentum, and before long the losses had been erased and profits were piling up beyond that.
The peak came on the day we crossed into mid-April.
It was the historic image of the two nations’ presidents shaking hands at Panmunjom.
That day, as all sorts of things were being said and written about the moment, the inter-Korean stocks hit the upper limit immediately.
The Panmunjom Declaration had become the starting gun.
The next day, too.
And the day after that.
Most of the stocks I’d invested in kept rallying.
“At this point..”
There was so much liquidity flooding in that taking profits wasn’t a problem at all.
That was the nature of the Korean stock market: when it was ignored, it was ignored without mercy; when it got attention, the interest could go on with no end in sight.
Now the problem was...
Taking profits.
“When should I sell..?”
I was in the black, sure.
But if I took profits at the wrong time, even that would feel like a loss.
Sell at the knees, and you lose.
Sell at the waist, and you’ll regret it.
Sell at the shoulders, and you’re satisfied.
Sell at the head, and it’s a total victory.
The problem was that no one knew whether we were at the knee, the waist, the shoulder, or the head.
Just when everyone was hesitating, the order came down: take profits.
We followed it.
“..”
“..”
Only later did we realize it.
We’d sold at the head.
***
This time, the Panmunjom Declaration became a huge sensation.
Thanks to that, every stock I’d directed them into climbed more than twofold.
The phrase that my fortune had evolved actually fit.
I’d even used leverage in the middle of it all.
In the end, once we finished taking profits across the board, I’d made nearly 400 billion won.
I’d have to pay corporate tax later, of course, but for now, combined with my personal assets, I had well over 1 trillion won.
At this point, I really did seem worthy of being called a chaebol.
Of course, I knew I still couldn’t compare to the real thing.
Someone at the level of a chaebol head moved tens or hundreds of trillions of won.
Even if none of that money was technically theirs...
Korean chaebols could move it around as if it were.
“I’m still far from there. No point getting carried away.”
Profits in the hundreds of billions were nice, but I didn’t feel like I’d swallowed the world whole the way I had at the start.
Maybe that was because my perspective had risen that much, too.
Hundreds of billions already felt normal now.
There was no need to rush.
What gave me more confidence than any other investment was the fact that Bitcoin would surpass 100 million won within ten years.
I kept checking the chart, and that certainty didn’t diminish one bit.
It was sitting around 6 million won right now, so...
Even with the most basic calculation, that was more than a tenfold increase.
It meant I had absolute conviction that 1 trillion would become 10 trillion.
And yet, even with that conviction, I wasn’t buying Bitcoin right away because I was confident I could make far bigger profits through other investments until then.
Of course, when liquidity started pouring in again, I’d turn my attention back to crypto.
But at the very least, there was no need to hurry.
“Hmm..”
Whether I was standing atop the mountain of foolishness, as people liked to say, or whether I really did have a talent for investing—I couldn’t tell.
But the world ahead looked like it was about to go through massive upheaval.
Just as computers and smartphones had emerged and changed everything, some new technology seemed ready to trigger another wave of change.
And change always brought both crises and opportunities.
If I rode that current well...
I might become the richest man in South Korea.
If I slipped, all that would be left were the buildings.
I didn’t know how things would turn out, but...
“This is exciting.”
More than frightening, the change filled me with anticipation. I wanted it to come quickly.
Opportunity or crisis—either way, if I couldn’t handle it then, I’d end up falling someday anyway.
But if I won when the time came, I’d live like a king for the rest of my life.
“I should catch my breath for a bit.”
Even if I didn’t feel like I’d swallowed the world whole, this investment success deserved a little celebration.
Not just for me, but for the staff of DE Investment Company too.
First, I’d give the chief secretary his performance bonus.
This time, maybe 3 billion won would be about right.
He’d executed my orders not only correctly, but better than expected—buying at lower prices and selling at higher ones.
The difference alone was well over 3 billion won.
So a total of 10 billion...
That, plus the chief secretary’s bonus, should be enough to hand out as performance pay to the staff of DE Investment Company.
There still weren’t many employees, so no one would feel shortchanged.
And next...
“Why is this getting my heart racing more?”
It wasn’t even about investing anymore—it was about Aunt.
Somehow, worrying about how to help Aunt look like she was thriving when she went to a social gathering excited me more than the thought of making hundreds of billions on my next investment.
I really am strange. Strange as hell.
Just thinking about it made me smile.
Hmm...
For the car, maybe a Rolls-Royce would be good.
If she was going to a gathering and needed to project presence, there was nothing quite like a Rolls-Royce.
As for a bag...
After spending more than I expected at the department store last time, the staff member in charge had asked me to visit the Hermès boutique again sometime.
Apparently I’d spent so much there that the manager wanted to show me more bags.
That should take care of the bag...
What I really wanted was to give Aunt a proper title.
“Should I make a company?”
A pretty good title came to mind.
Two buildings. And soon a third would be added, making it three in total.
A company that managed everything across those buildings.
Cleaning, maintenance, security, fire safety, and all the rest.
How about making her the president of that company?
That sounded good.
I could naturally give her a generous salary, too.
The more I thought about it, the more I smiled.
It was fun.
***
After deciding to follow Lee Doyun’s lead, Han Seoha felt the gloomy life she’d once been trapped in slowly disappear, replaced by something much happier.
It was only natural.
Lee Doyun was trying to take responsibility not only for her convenience, but for the livelihood of her and her daughters as well.
Separate from the pressure of it all...
It was a situation she couldn’t help but feel happy about.
But then—
‘What do I do..’
At last, something had come to disrupt the happiness she’d found.
It was a friend she hadn’t seen in a long time.
Or rather, someone who had once been her friend.
She’d heard from her real close friends what that woman had been saying behind her back after the divorce.
Stupid bitch.
If she’d known that, she should’ve shut her down hard from the start...
Anyway, age hadn’t fixed that personality of hers at all.
At least the one good thing was this:
“Ha... I already said I’d go, so I can’t exactly say I won’t now..”
-I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. Who would dare lay a hand on our Seoha? Don’t worry.
“Just having you there gives me some strength.”
-Of course. Let’s take my car when we go.
It wasn’t as if that gathering was full of only terrible people.
And on top of that...
Doyun had said he would help her, whether or not he meant it lightly.
That alone gave her a lot of strength.
She didn’t know whether it would be true in practice.
But then—
“.. Huh?”
“We should stop by the department store first. Before the gathering. I said I’d help you, didn’t I?”
“..”
It didn’t seem like empty talk after all.
He was telling her to go to the department store with him.
‘Get a grip..’
At her age, she was acting ridiculous.