I Will Short the Republic of Korea
Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon of the Ilhyeon Group summoned the presidents of the group's major affiliates.
The agenda for the emergency presidents' meeting was the Dubo Steel investment that Lee Sang-jong, President of Ilhyeon Construction, had brought to the table.
Lee Gyeong-eun attended as well. Now that Ilhyeon Hotel had taken its rightful place among the group's major affiliates, she sat in the meeting as its head.
When she came home that evening, she told Kim Seong-ho everything that had been discussed.
"My brothers must have lost their minds. They decided to raise the Dubo Steel investment to three hundred billion won."
"Not two hundred billion—three hundred billion?"
"Yes. That's why Father called the presidents' meeting in the first place. He said the scale was too large for Ilhyeon Construction to handle alone, so every affiliate would have to pitch in."
Lee Gyeong-eun shook her head and sank into the chair on the far side of the room. She looked across at Kim Seong-ho as he took the seat opposite her.
"I opposed it, just like you told me to… but my objection didn't make any difference."
"So the eldest brother switched to yes."
Even though he had not been in the room, he seemed to know exactly what had happened. Lee Gyeong-eun looked at him with a flicker of wonder and nodded.
"Yes. Raising it to three hundred billion wasn't even Second Brother's idea—it was Eldest Brother's proposal."
She shook her head again, still unable to make sense of it.
"Why would Eldest Brother suddenly do that? Until just a little while ago he was clearly against it."
Kim Seong-ho only smiled without answering. He already knew the reason Lee Mun-jong had changed his stance: it was because of him.
In the succession race, Lee Mun-jong was still ahead. But the gap was the kind that could be closed at any moment. Lee Sang-jong's footsteps were always right behind him, and that forced Lee Mun-jong to live with a constant knot of anxiety. That was why he had taken Kim Seong-ho's suggestion, added his own calculation on top of it, and pushed the figure up to three hundred billion before casting his vote in favor.
If a little more time had passed and Lee Mun-jong were solidly out in front in the succession race, he never would have accepted my proposal. But this is different. With Lee Sang-jong's breathing audible right at his back, he can't help but feel desperate.
Drawing on the experience of his previous life, Kim Seong-ho had pressed exactly on Lee Mun-jong's weakness, and Lee Mun-jong was moving precisely as he had intended.
Still smiling quietly, Kim Seong-ho steered Lee Gyeong-eun's curiosity elsewhere by asking a few more questions about the meeting.
"How did the Chairman react?"
"Father… he wasn't actively pushing for the investment, but he wasn't telling them to stop it either. Once both Eldest Brother and Second Brother were in favor, he just seemed to say, well, let's give it a try."
"So you were the only one who opposed it."
"That's right. Everyone was a little uneasy about the three-hundred-billion scale, but no one actually opposed investing in Dubo Steel."
Kim Seong-ho smiled faintly as the situation unfolded exactly as it had in his previous life.
Lee Gyeong-eun watched that smile and continued recounting what had been said in the meeting.
"They can't execute the full three hundred billion at once, so they'll put up one hundred billion first, then gather the rest of the funds from the affiliates and execute the remaining two hundred billion later."
"And when is that?"
"They agreed to have everything executed within a month at the earliest, two months at the latest."
She answered, then leaned back against the chair for a moment.
"Our Ilhyeon Hotel was assigned twenty billion won. I have to scrape together twenty billion within a month and hand it over…"
The pressure of having to produce that much cash so quickly made her stare up at the ceiling.
"We already used every spare won paying off debt—making twenty billion is going to be so hard… Ah, really. Why did Second Brother suddenly get so obsessed with Dubo Steel! No—with Second Brother it's almost expected after the Jisan Cement mess and everything else. But why on earth has Eldest Brother buried himself in Dubo Steel too? I just don't get it."
"Gyeong-eun."
She lowered her gaze from the ceiling and looked at him.
"Even if those twenty billion vanish completely, Ilhyeon Hotel will still be fine, right?"
"What? What do you mean, vanish completely?"
She sat up straight, startled, and stared at him.
Kim Seong-ho met her eyes with a completely serious expression and asked again.
"Even if those twenty billion disappear, Ilhyeon Hotel has to be all right. How about it? Will it be okay?"
Faced with that seriousness, she nodded and answered.
"There'll be a hit, of course… but not enough to cause real problems. You told me to focus on strengthening the foundation instead of expanding, so we still have some room to breathe."
"That's a relief."
Hearing that Ilhyeon Hotel would be fine, Kim Seong-ho smiled and said,
"Keep protecting the company no matter what happens, Gyeong-eun. Leave the rest to me."
She simply nodded without a word. She was curious what he meant by the twenty billion vanishing, but she chose to trust his promise that he would handle everything and set the question aside.
Kim Seong-ho glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall and murmured to himself.
"A month at the earliest, two months at the latest…"
He looked away from the calendar and opened a leather-bound diary. Lee Gyeong-eun's eyes followed the movement.
What she saw was a completely blank page.
What Kim Seong-ho saw, however, were words invisible to her.
[Dubo Steel — Final Bankruptcy Filing on Month X, Day XX]
Exactly two months from now…
Kim Seong-ho silently stared down at the date of Dubo Steel's bankruptcy that was already fixed two months ahead.
While waiting for Kim Seong-ho, Jo Chung-sep was reading the newspaper. When he saw the headline printed in large type, he clicked his tongue.
"Three hundred billion? Wow—so that's why Dubo Steel's stock has been climbing like that."
He thought back to the stock price that had been rising steadily for the past month.
"Has Dubo Steel's stock gone up that much?"
"Oh—Director!"
So absorbed in the paper that he had not noticed Kim Seong-ho's arrival, Jo Chung-sep hurriedly folded it and started to stand. Kim Seong-ho waved him back down and took a seat, then looked at the newspaper with him.
"How much has it risen?"
Jo Chung-sep opened the paper again and answered.
"Just a month ago Dubo Steel was stuck in the four-thousand-won range. It used to trade above twenty thousand, but once rumors started circulating that the company was in trouble it kept falling. After it hit four thousand it climbed almost to fifteen thousand over the past month. I was wondering what was going on… turns out the Ilhyeon Group decided to invest."
He sent Kim Seong-ho a look that asked whether he had already known. Seong-ho's account had already finished cleaning out Sokyung Machinery and was in the process of being closed. If he had known in advance, they could have ridden the nearly fourfold rise in Dubo Steel as well. The glance carried that faint regret.
Kim Seong-ho looked down at the article and skimmed it.
"From four thousand to fifteen thousand—that's a solid jump."
"Yes. Considering it happened in only a month, the rise is substantial. Did you already know about this, Director?"
"I did."
Kim Seong-ho stopped looking at the paper and lifted his eyes to Jo Chung-sep. Jo Chung-sep frowned in puzzlement.
"You knew, and you never told me?"
Because Kim Seong-ho sat at the absolute core of the Ilhyeon Group, Jo Chung-sep had assumed he would know. When Seong-ho had said nothing, Jo Chung-sep had simply concluded that Seong-ho had stepped back from the front lines and might not have heard. Yet now Seong-ho was stating, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that he had known all along.
Jo Chung-sep looked at him with open incomprehension.
"If you'd just mentioned it, we could have taken the money left after closing out Sokyung Machinery and made at least one or two billion off it… it's a shame."
"Is it really a shame? There are more than enough other things left to eat."
"That's true, but nothing this certain…"
The stock-market proverb that there are always more opportunities had made Jo Chung-sep take the remark lightly—just words meant to soothe regret. But when Kim Seong-ho said there was still plenty to eat, he meant it literally.
"Is there any way we can short Dubo Steel?"
"Pardon? You want to do what?"
"Short-sell it and bet on the decline… Ah, that might be a bit dangerous, though. If word later got out that I made money shorting Dubo Steel, it could get a little messy."
"Director. What are you saying? Short-selling? You want to short Dubo Steel?"
Jo Chung-sep stared at him with wide eyes, then looked back down at the newspaper. Because Kim Seong-ho had been studying the paper for a while before suddenly bringing up short-selling, Jo Chung-sep wondered whether he himself had missed something in the article. But there was nothing he had overlooked.
In the meantime Kim Seong-ho ordered a drink from the waiter who had approached, then spoke again to the still-bewildered Jo Chung-sep.
"I didn't say that because I found some new fact in the newspaper."
Jo Chung-sep raised his head. Kim Seong-ho pulled the ashtray on the table closer, put a cigarette between his lips, lit it, and said,
"How is the asset-management company coming along? Progressing well?"
"Yes. First we'll establish an advisory firm, hire new staff, and then expand it into a full asset-management company."
"Good. Better to take it step by step than jump straight to an asset manager. Keep going that way and you'll eventually reach a securities firm."
"A securities firm?"
That target had never even entered Jo Chung-sep's mind. He had set his highest goal as an asset-management company; hearing Kim Seong-ho casually mention rising all the way to a securities firm left him stunned.
Kim Seong-ho nodded, took a sip of the drink the waiter had set down, and continued.
"It won't be easy right away, but if you keep advancing the way you are now, you'll get there."
"Well… they do say you should dream big."
Jo Chung-sep took the words as the sort of encouraging dream people always talk about. Kim Seong-ho, who knew what Jo Chung-sep would become in the previous timeline, simply smiled and replied,
"Whether you call it a dream or a goal, Assistant Manager Jo, keep your eyes on a securities firm and move forward. I'll back you up from behind."
"Yes. Thank you."
Jo Chung-sep still believed the remark was only meant to give him courage. Kim Seong-ho knew that perfectly well. To a man who had just quit his job and was only now founding an advisory firm, the target Seong-ho had named was no different from an elementary-school child saying he wanted to become president someday.
So Kim Seong-ho decided to show him a concrete way to take one more step toward that dream.
"How far have you gotten with liquidating my account?"
Jo Chung-sep reported the status as of that day.
"Today I closed five thousand shares at one hundred thousand won and eight thousand shares at one hundred ten thousand. So far we've realized forty billion. If we keep liquidating through next week, we should finish."
"Then the target of fifty billion is easily within reach?"
"Yes. At this rate we'll probably end up around fifty-five billion."
"Fifty-five billion…"
Kim Seong-ho considered the satisfying figure for a moment, then looked at Jo Chung-sep.
"The reason I asked you to meet today is that I want to start taking short positions from now on."
"Short positions? What kind of short positions are you talking about?"
Jo Chung-sep tilted his head, glanced down at the newspaper again, and recalled what Seong-ho had said earlier.
"Is this about shorting Dubo Steel, like you mentioned a moment ago?"
"I'd like to, but I can't. As I said, if it becomes known outside that I made a profit shorting Dubo Steel, I could end up under some very inconvenient misunderstandings."
Faced with Kim Seong-ho's absolute certainty that Dubo Steel would collapse, Jo Chung-sep tilted his head again. The newspaper was reporting that Dubo Steel had secured investment from the Ilhyeon Group and weathered a major crisis. The Ilhyeon Group itself was being praised for securing a fifteen-percent stake, strengthening cooperation, and even putting itself in position to consider a full acquisition. That was why the stock had soared.
Yet Kim Seong-ho wanted to short the company and was already thinking about the profit he would take. Jo Chung-sep looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief—until Seong-ho's next words turned that look into pure shock.
What Kim Seong-ho had chosen instead of shorting Dubo Steel was something Jo Chung-sep had never even imagined.
"Dubo Steel is a bit awkward, so…"
Kim Seong-ho handed Jo Chung-sep—who had just left Ilhyeon Securities to start his own advisory firm—his first real assignment.
"I intend to short the entire KOSPI. Taking short positions in futures should produce the same effect as shorting the whole index, correct? And with whatever money is left, I want to convert into dollars."
"You're going to short the entire KOSPI and take futures short positions…? Are you saying you want to short-sell the Republic of Korea itself?"
"Yes. I plan to hold until the KOSPI index sees the three-hundred range."
"Three hundred?"
Jo Chung-sep stared at him with stunned eyes. The KOSPI had once broken one thousand; even after losing momentum and falling, it still sat around eight hundred. The idea that Kim Seong-ho intended to short the entire country left him completely unable to collect his thoughts.