Threat (20)
"Hoho, I'm not the madam."
"Ah, my Korean is still a bit clumsy. I'm sorry."
It seemed to have passed smoothly. The Philippine sky was clear today. From what Baccarat Park had said earlier, it was good luck. She mentioned that August in the Philippines was usually the rainy season, so we'd timed our visit well, and we exchanged some small talk. Our Miju's reactions were great. We headed to the hotel in a warm, friendly atmosphere.
After arriving at the hotel, I gave her a thumbs-up and checked us in. It was such a cliché, but I'd won some event and received a room upgrade. It was too obvious. I wondered if Miju had caught on, but from her expression, it didn't seem like it. Thank goodness. She kept jumping around saying how lucky we were—it was adorable.
While we were unpacking in the room and discussing our sightseeing itinerary, I got a call from my brother.
'Come down.'
'Yep.'
When I told Miju that an acquaintance of mine had arrived at the hotel and suggested we head down, she asked me to wait a moment. I glanced over and saw her redoing her makeup. I told her she was pretty enough already and that we should hurry, but she insisted I wait. If I said it again, she'd probably get mad, so I texted my brother instead.
'It might take a little longer.'
'Of course. I can't head down right away either. About thirty minutes.'
I felt a strange sense of kinship and waited. When we came down to the lobby, my brother looked the same as always, but my sister-in-law had lost some weight and looked even more beautiful. No wonder my brother had fallen for her. She was holding our nephew. It was only the second time I'd seen him, but I was still glad to see the little guy.
"Say hello. This is your uncle."
"Nice to meet you. My name is Choi Hyun-seok."
"This is my wife, and this is our son."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Song Miju."
"Nice to meet you."
"Your baby is so cute."
After the introductions, my brother took the lead.
"You must be hungry. I made a reservation at the restaurant here, so let's eat together."
"Yes."
It was the hotel's own restaurant. I was nervous the owner might recognize me and greet me, but thankfully the staff had been trained well and pretended not to know me.
"Being an island, there's plenty of seafood and fish. And because of all the Americans who've moved in, there are a lot of ranches too."
"Eat up."
As usual, my meddlesome brother wouldn't let us eat in peace, constantly striking up conversations and butting in.
"Miju, when are you planning to get married?"
Our Miju was going to develop holiday syndrome at this rate. After finishing the meal that went down like a lump in the throat, my brother gave my sister-in-law a look, and she took Miju away. I caught something about going shopping. Our sightseeing plans were about to get completely derailed. Still, Miju didn't even frown as she left.
My brother and I went into the office to continue our conversation.
"It'll take about four hours."
What would? Ah, shopping.
"Last time I went with her, I thought I was going to die."
"Really? I didn't think it was that bad. The problem was that even when I tried to buy her things, she said there was nothing she wanted."
"I wanted to talk business. Want a drink?"
"Yes, I'll have one."
My brother took ice from the fridge, poured whiskey on the rocks, and handed it to me.
"Hotel revenue is on a downward trend. We're running promotions targeting families, but the average spend per guest isn't matching up."
"That probably makes it more stable, though. Fewer problems too."
"True. And thanks to the sales team pushing the villas, revenue there is growing rapidly."
"The security team has about thirty people now. That side's going to need a lot of work."
Because the public safety situation wasn't great. Still, things seemed to be going well.
"The farm's prototype came out. We're absorbing it locally, and since we're expanding, we should be able to send some your way soon."
"Hyung, you know I only deal in pure stuff, right?"
"Yeah."
"If there's a lot left over each month, I think we can clear around a billion won. I've invested about eighty billion, so that's twelve billion a year—around fifteen percent. Not bad."
"You subtracted labor costs, right?"
"Of course. I've got to pay for my kid's formula too, don't I?"
"Take as much as you need. You've given me so much already."
"You mentioned dollars last time. There's an item I wanted to ask you about, and if possible, I'd like some support too."
"What is it?"
"I'll show you. Let's go downstairs."
We went down to the lobby and headed to the casino on one side. There were security team members at the front desk, and when they saw my brother's face, they let us through.
"The casino's closed right now. Switching to a family-oriented model put us in the red. With only transients coming in, operating costs are higher."
"And the guy who came to handle this got pulled over to the villa side."
"But it's noisy inside?"
Once we entered, the reason for the noise became clear. The roulette wheels and tables were all running. Even with no people around, cards were being dealt. But there was something distinctive—cameras were set up where dealers should have been.
"What are they doing?"
"Online gambling."
"Let's get out. If you get caught on camera and identified, it'll be trouble."
"Yes."
But what exactly did he want to ask me about? He was already doing it. We went back up to the second floor and continued our talk.
"What's the item? You're already running it?"
"It's for an event. If you exchange dollars domestically and top up, you get ten percent, and if you exchange back to won, you get another ten percent on top."
"Hyung, that means just exchanging dollars would give you twenty percent."
"That's about how much the exchange fee is, isn't it?"
"I guess so. Hmm. Sounds good. But why are you telling me about it?"
"There's no trust."
When I asked for more details, he explained slowly. These days, illegal gambling sites popped up and disappeared by the dozens every day. What happened when they vanished? Simple—they ran off with the money. Since both the operators and the users were breaking the law, there was no legal protection.
"What's the method you have in mind?"
"Coins."
He meant something like Bitcoin?
"A coin with no market price."
Listening to him, it seemed plausible. A coin where one won exchanged for one GBC. GBC? I asked if it was named after me, and he nodded. How embarrassing.
"But isn't that no different from regular cash?"
"If we list it domestically, regular people can trade it, and the exchange will guarantee it. The bank will guarantee it too."
"I'm already using it. Only about a billion won so far."
He showed me his phone. It displayed the coin being traded on a domestic exchange. So they were issuing coins backed by won as the underlying asset, with both the exchange and the bank providing guarantees. In other words, if you took the coins to a bank, they'd exchange them. Okay.
"How do you exchange the dollars?"
"The exchange and the bank handle that."
"If a domestic user sends dollars, they get GBC at the market rate. When an exchange or our site requests a withdrawal, we send it to the account registered with the exchange, and the exchange deducts the issued coins."
So you could exchange at market rates.
"Your temperature's gone up a lot, so wire transfers have lower fees, right?"
I hadn't tried it. I never needed to withdraw.
"How do you get the dollars out?"
"Well, for physical cash you'd have to go to the bank, but you can just tell them to wire it to an account. Or receive it through SkyBank."
It felt like some kind of advanced money laundering method. But if it was this easy, why wasn't everyone doing it? There had to be a catch.
"Hyung, are there no downsides?"
"Plenty. Setting up the basics cost a billion won. Technician fees, servers, listing costs, all of it."
"Even when I showed them deposit certificates, they wouldn't believe it. They had to verify everything, and it got complicated."
He sounded like he had some pent-up frustration.
"And you can't do the kind of money laundering where you move funds in and out repeatedly. Domestic banks have to hand over all information if the supervisory authorities request it. Hyung, then it wouldn't mean anything, would it?"
"We'll liquidate once before we get caught and start over."
The basic setup was already configured that way. The listing conditions on the exchange included a clause that if the issuer requested it, the same amount would be paid to the account designated by the owner. That account would be our SkyBank account, and we'd handle the defense from there. My brother said he'd launch it together with the event in a month, so I should prepare the funds.
"How much are you putting in?"
"Hmm... How much can you handle?"
"The more the better."
Where had I heard that before?
"I'll put in around a hundred billion, combining the organization's funds and my own money."
He looked genuinely surprised. His reaction was funny. I recalled the organization's financial status from last time and mentioned it. Minus the estimated biosimilar figures, that amount seemed about right.
"You're rich? This hyung's going to have to squeeze some out of you."
"Squeeze away~"
The two of us were chuckling and chatting about work and old times when the phone rang. The shopping was done. My brother and I went down to collect Miju. How many bags did she have?
"You hit the jackpot today?"
When I teased her, Miju's face turned red.
"Young master, you worked hard."
My sister-in-law was taking credit.
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
Miju and I expressed our gratitude, said our goodbyes, and went back to the room to drop off the bags.
"Oppa, let's rest for a bit. Our sister-in-law's energy is no joke."
They'd gotten close already. I told her to rest and helped organize the luggage. Chanel, Dior—all famous brands. There was even something from Tiffany. It was a small necklace, but there was no price tag.
"It must be expensive?"
While I was organizing, Miju, who had been lying on the bed, asked.
"You didn't see the price tag?"
"I was just the bag carrier. When she picked something and said 'this one,' I'd take the bag and follow. I did some fitting modeling too, but my mind was completely blank."
"Our Miju is model material, after all."
Looking at everything, I thought the total might easily reach a hundred million won.
"Let's take a nap. We'll go out for dinner in three hours."
"Okay~"
I put Miju to sleep and contacted Korea to discuss the matter and request an investigation. There were so many scams in the coin scene.
'Deputy General Manager Seong is the expert. I'll investigate and report back.'