If You Invest, the Nation Lives
The power to save companies and the nation comes from you.
Buy Korea.
Ilhyeon Securities stands with you for the recovery of the Korean economy.
On the evening of the day Kim Seong-ho gathered the employees of Ilhyeon Securities and made his announcement, a single advertisement aired simultaneously during the nine o’clock news on all three major networks.
The next morning, full-page ads ran across the bottom of every newspaper’s front page and filled the entire back cover as well.
People were simply bewildered by the sudden flood of advertising.
Then, little by little, they began to pay attention.
“Buy Korea? What’s that supposed to mean? Save the country—are they trying to start another gold-collection drive or something?”
“That’s not it.”
“Then what? How exactly are we supposed to save the country?”
Curious about the ads pouring out from every direction at once, people even carried their newspapers out to the smoking area to talk.
“Look here. It says it’s a fund. Not a gold-collection drive—a fund.”
“A fund? What’s a fund?”
The man holding the paper wore a puzzled look. It was a word he had never heard before, and all he could think was that “fund” might simply be the English word for donation.
“Come on, look. It’s written right here. It’s a product where a securities firm pools people’s money and invests it for them.”
“An investment product? A fund is a product?”
The man with the newspaper looked down at the letters his colleague was pointing to. Only then did he actually read them, and he nodded.
“It really does say investment product. So a fund is an investment product.”
He lifted his head and looked at his colleague.
“But how does an investment product save the Republic of Korea?”
“Have you ever invested in stocks?”
“Don’t even joke about that. Why would anyone touch stocks? That stuff ruins people.”
The man with the newspaper spoke with absolute certainty.
“The dad of a kid who went to the same school as my kid died playing the market. And that’s not all. My wife’s friend’s husband invested in stocks, went completely broke, and the whole family ran off overnight. My wife lent that friend a million won and now she just sighs, saying she’ll never see it again… Anyway, I’ve never met a single person who touched stocks and stayed normal. It’s the shortest road to ruin. The stock market is a scam den—never go near it, people say.”
His colleague looked at him as if he were hopeless.
“If it’s a scam, then what is our company doing listed on that scam market? Don’t tell me you don’t know our company is a listed company? Wait—before that, do you even know what a listed company means?”
At his colleague’s words the man with the newspaper hesitated, glanced down at the paper again, then gave an awkward smile and nodded.
“I know, of course I know… but I’ve never seen anyone do well with stocks, that’s all. It’s always ruin and destruction…”
“That’s why Ilhyeon Securities is doing it for you.”
His colleague tapped the newspaper with a finger.
“That’s what a fund is. ‘I can’t do it myself, so please trade stocks with my money instead’—that’s a fund.”
“They’re doing it for you? Then how does Ilhyeon Securities make money?”
“They take a fee. Less than one percent a year. That’s all they eat, and with the rest they promise to manage the clients’ money safely.”
“They manage it for you for a fee of less than one percent?”
Even the man who had been calling stocks the road to ruin found himself listening closely. If a place as big as Ilhyeon Securities was handling the money, maybe he wouldn’t have to fear going under after all.
“And this fund is a fund that saves the Republic of Korea.”
“What does that even mean? I still don’t get it.”
“What kind of times are we living in right now?”
His colleague pointed at the countless buildings spread out before them.
“Money has completely dried up. Companies are desperate because they can’t raise capital. If the fund we put our money into supplies capital to those companies, and the companies use that breathing room to reorganize and call back the employees they laid off… isn’t that how you revive the economy and save the nation?”
“If we join the fund, companies come back to life and people go back to work?”
“And on top of that, we who invested make money too.”
“We make money… We do something good and we make money?!”
“Exactly. Doing good while our own wallets get thicker—that doubles the good. And there’s something even better.”
“There’s more?”
The man with the newspaper was now completely absorbed in his colleague’s words.
Looking at the man’s sparkling eyes, his colleague smiled and said,
“With a fund, you don’t have to put the money in all at once.”
“You don’t have to put it in all at once? What does that mean?”
“You can deposit every month, just like a savings account. If you have extra, you put in more. If you’re short, you can skip. You don’t need a lump sum—you can do it freely.”
“Really?”
The light in the man’s eyes grew even brighter. Against every rumor that stocks meant ruin, what he was hearing now actually sounded reasonable. On top of that, the pride of being able to help save the country—nothing could seem better.
Watching the man’s shining eyes, his colleague casually added,
“I’m planning to go at lunch… want to come with me?”
“Go at lunch?”
“Yeah. There’s an Ilhyeon Securities branch right up the street. I figured I’d open an account first, put some money in, and if it feels right, go all in. What do you think?”
The man holding the newspaper glanced down at the paper in his hand.
BUY KOREA.
He stared silently at the huge letters, then nodded firmly.
“Yeah. Let’s go together.”
“All right. I’ll call you when I’m ready, and we’ll go then.”
“You have to call me. Got it?”
“Got it.”
The man who, only moments earlier, had been recoiling from stocks as the road to ruin was now fretting that he might be left behind. His colleague clapped him on the shoulder, told him not to worry, and pointed toward the rooftop door.
“We’d better head down. We’ve been gone too long—people will be looking for us.”
With that he led the man toward the door to return to the office.
“You have to call me. Got it?”
“I said I got it. Stop worrying.”
Reassuring him, his colleague draped an arm over the man’s shoulder, opened the rooftop door, and started down toward the office. And as he walked, he smiled and ran the numbers in his head.
That makes three… They said they’d put ten thousand won into the account for every person I bring, right? Ten people is a hundred thousand. Let’s round up seven more before the day is over.
He pictured Assistant Manager Kim as his next suitable target and smiled to himself.
Kim Seong-ho and Jo Chung-sep stood at a distance, star-shaped iced coffees in hand, watching the long line that stretched far down the street.
Sipping through a straw, Jo Chung-sep spoke.
“President, you really are a genius.”
Kim Seong-ho, drinking his own coffee, turned to look at him and smiled.
“You think I’m a genius?”
“If you’re not a genius, how else do you explain that?”
Jo Chung-sep pointed at the line of people.
“It’s a complete sensation. A full-blown syndrome.”
He shook his head.
“People lining up like that just to join a fund—if that isn’t a syndrome, what is? And this coffee too.”
He lifted his iced coffee to eye level.
“This is your work as well, isn’t it? Everything you touch turns to gold. ‘Genius’ isn’t even enough.”
“Hahaha.”
Kim Seong-ho laughed as if he found it amusing and took another sip.
Watching the line that only grew longer instead of shrinking, Jo Chung-sep said,
“We’re planning to open accounts starting tomorrow as well.”
“Good. On our side, anyone who finds the wait too hard, we’ll steer them toward Shilla Future Asset.”
“But are you really all right with that?”
“With what?”
When Kim Seong-ho looked at him, Jo Chung-sep answered with an awkward expression.
“Aren’t we splitting the customers? If you just sit still, every single one of them would become an Ilhyeon Securities client…”
“To me, Ilhyeon Securities and Shilla Future Asset are the same. Other people may not know, but you do, don’t you, CEO?”
Jo Chung-sep understood exactly what Kim Seong-ho meant. Through B&A, Seong-ho held shares in Shilla Future Asset; from his position, its success mattered just as much as Ilhyeon Securities’. But only Jo Chung-sep knew that fact, and he worried others might resent the choice. Yet the man himself wore an expression free of any worry at all.
Seeing that look, Jo Chung-sep said nothing more. He simply drank his coffee and watched the lengthening line.
While the two of them stood in the shade with their coffees, an employee from the Chairman’s secretarial office approached.
The secretary bowed to Kim Seong-ho and stated his reason for coming.
“The Chairman is looking for you.”
At those words Jo Chung-sep turned to Seong-ho with a startled face. He wondered whether Lee Tak-hyeon might be summoning him over the very matter they had just discussed. His eyes asked whether it was still all right to open accounts tomorrow.
Kim Seong-ho held out his half-finished coffee to Jo Chung-sep and said,
“Proceed as planned.”
“…Understood.”
At the instruction not to hesitate and to go ahead, Jo Chung-sep answered that he understood. Kim Seong-ho gave him a light smile and followed the secretarial-office employee toward the place where Lee Tak-hyeon was waiting.
Riding in the car, Kim Seong-ho watched the scenery outside the window, then turned to the secretary with a puzzled look.
“We’re not going to the company?”
“No, sir.”
Confirming they were not headed for the office, Seong-ho studied the surroundings more carefully.
“Where are we going, then?”
“The Chairman instructed us to bring you straight to the Blue House.”
“The Blue House?”
Kim Seong-ho’s face showed genuine surprise at the unexpected answer.
“You clearly said the Chairman was looking for me, didn’t you?”
“Yes. The Chairman is looking for you—that is correct.”
“And yet we’re going to the Blue House?”
“The Chairman said he would enter the Blue House together with you, President.”
“Enter the Blue House together?”
Just then the car, which had been running alongside the walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace, arrived at the main gate of the Blue House. The security unit guarding the gate had clearly been notified in advance; the moment the car carrying Kim Seong-ho arrived, they opened the gate without a single question.
The car slipped smoothly inside the Blue House grounds.
“You’re here.”
“You were waiting outside, sir?”
Climbing out of the car, Kim Seong-ho found Lee Tak-hyeon waiting for him and hurriedly offered his greetings. Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, Lee Tak-hyeon gave a slight nod in return.
“I only just arrived myself.”
Coming quickly to the Chairman’s side, Seong-ho asked in a low voice,
“Chairman, what business brings us to the Blue House…?”
“I am not the one who called us.”
“Then…”
When Seong-ho cast a sidelong glance, Lee Tak-hyeon turned, still holding his hands behind his back.
“We’ll find out why when we go inside.”
With his hands still clasped behind him, Lee Tak-hyeon started toward the main building of the Blue House. Kim Seong-ho followed him in, and Blue House staff guided the two men.
Arriving at the presidential office on the second floor of the main building, Lee Tak-hyeon and Kim Seong-ho entered under the guidance of a secretary.
“Ah, you’ve come.”
President Kim Dae-sang rose from his seat himself to greet Lee Tak-hyeon.
“Please remain seated. I’ll come to you.”
“How can I stay seated when Chairman Lee has come?”
President Kim Dae-sang walked toward Lee Tak-hyeon, favoring his bad leg. Lee Tak-hyeon moved quickly to support him; the two men clasped hands warmly and exchanged greetings.
After speaking with Lee Tak-hyeon for some time, Kim Dae-sang noticed Kim Seong-ho standing behind him and smiled with open pleasure.
“President Kim, it’s been a while as well.”
“I’m relieved to see your face looking better than the last time we met, Your Excellency.”
“Haha. That’s all thanks to you, President Kim.”
“Thanks to me?”
Seong-ho asked, puzzled that the improvement in the President’s appearance was being credited to him.
Kim Dae-sang took Lee Tak-hyeon’s hand and walked toward a conference table set to one side of the office as he spoke.
“Between the Big Deal and everything else, President Kim has helped our government in so many ways—how could my face not look better? Isn’t that right, Chairman?”
“I’m glad to hear President Kim has been of help.”
“Chairman Lee, you have truly found yourself an excellent son-in-law.”
At those words Lee Tak-hyeon allowed a faint, unreadable smile to touch his lips. Kim Dae-sang patted his hand and sat first. Lee Tak-hyeon and Kim Seong-ho took their seats side by side after him.
President Kim Dae-sang regarded the two of them quietly for a moment before speaking.
“I know it must have surprised you that I asked to see you.”
Lee Tak-hyeon nodded frankly and asked the reason.
“What matter made you call us in, Your Excellency? And together with President Kim, no less…”
He looked at Kim Dae-sang with clear curiosity; he had not expected the summons to include Kim Seong-ho as well.
Watching the two of them, Kim Seong-ho recalled a single entry written in the leather diary.
Was it around this time?
Remembering what had been written in that diary, Kim Seong-ho waited for President Kim Dae-sang to raise the subject.