How Amusing the Ways of the World Are
Kim Seong-ho threw on his clothes in a hurry and went downstairs, where he found Lee Gyeong-eun stomping her feet in the parking lot.
"Gyeong-eun, what's going on?"
"They won't move the car that's blocking me."
She pointed at the double-parked vehicle with a miserable pout.
Seong-ho walked around to the front of the car and checked beneath the right-side window, where contact numbers were usually written. After confirming the phone number, he pulled his phone from his pocket and asked her,
"Have you tried calling?"
"Yes, I did, but…"
Gyeong-eun's voice trailed off into an awkward mumble, unable to give a clear answer. From the look on her face, Seong-ho could roughly guess what kind of exchange had taken place.
"Hello?"
"I'm sorry to bother you, sir. Your car is double-parked and ours can't get out. Would you mind moving it for us?"
Seong-ho kept his tone as polite as possible. The voice on the other end, however, contained not a shred of courtesy.
"Why the hell are people calling me first thing in the morning? First that damn wife of yours phones me and ruins my mood, and now the husband is at it too?"
Irritation dripped from every word. The man made no effort to hide how foul his temper was as he barked into the phone.
"There was nowhere to park last night so I double-parked. Is that somehow my fault?"
"Sir, I never said it was your fault. I only called to ask if you would kindly move the car."
"Why should I move it? Just shove my car out of the way and take yours out."
Seong-ho forced himself to stay calm and peered through the window at the driver's seat.
"Sir, the parking brake is engaged."
"What do you mean the parking brake is engaged? I clearly released it and left it in neutral!"
"Sir, the parking brake is up. Come down and check for yourself."
"You little bastard. If that parking brake is off, you're not walking away from this."
"Whether you leave me alone or not is entirely up to you. Just come down and look first."
"You stay right there. I'm going to—"
Seong-ho hung up before the man could finish. He turned to Gyeong-eun, who was watching him with open worry, and smiled.
"Take my car to work for now. Once I get this one moved, I'll drive yours in."
He handed her his car key. Gyeong-eun accepted it but still looked at him with anxious eyes.
"Will you be all right? That man sounded extremely angry…"
Seong-ho let out a short laugh.
"What can he do just because he's angry? Don't worry about it—just get to the office. You said you needed to be early today."
Even so, the concern never quite left her face. Work, however, was work, so she finally turned away with one last admonition.
"No matter what happens, you are not allowed to use violence. Understood?"
"Of course. If something like that got out it would become gossip, and if we were unlucky it might even make the society pages. We have to be careful."
"That's not what I meant…"
"Haha, just kidding. Go on."
Seong-ho gave her a gentle push toward the car and waved as she drove off. Just as her taillights disappeared, a furious shout echoed from the far side of the lot.
"Hey, you little bastard!"
A man in his late forties, still in his pajamas with a coat thrown roughly over them, came storming toward Seong-ho, face twisted with rage. A security guard trailed after him, trying to calm him down.
"Prosecutor, please settle down."
"Do I look like I'm in a mood to settle down?"
The man spoke casually—almost contemptuously—to a guard who looked more than ten years his senior, then jabbed a finger at Seong-ho.
"Who the hell do you think you are?"
"Does it really matter who I am? Just move the car, please."
"When an elder asks you a question, you answer it, you little punk."
Without warning the man seized Seong-ho by the collar. Park, the security guard who had been on night duty, threw himself between them with desperate effort.
"Prosecutor, please calm yourself!"
Seong-ho pried the man's hand off his collar with quiet strength and looked him up and down with open scorn.
"So you're a prosecutor? A civil servant living off public money, yet you drive a car like that and live in a place like this?"
"What business is that of yours?"
The man bellowed and jabbed his finger over the guard's shoulder.
"Some young punk calling me first thing in the morning, ordering me to move my car? Where do you get the nerve?"
"If you double-park, releasing the parking brake and leaving it in neutral is basic common sense. Even if you forget, the decent thing is to come down, apologize, and move it. How did someone who doesn't even know that become a prosecutor?"
"You… you little bastard… Who the hell are you? Is that how your parents raised you?"
"We don't look that far apart in age, so why drag parents into it? Does being a prosecutor give you the right to treat people like this? Exactly where do you work, and what is your name?"
"You son of a bitch. Looking to eat prison rice that badly? Fine—then who the hell are you?"
As the man continued to rant, the guard struggled to restrain him.
"Prosecutor, please. Give me the key and I'll move the car and park it properly in front of your unit."
The guard wrapped his arms around the man and tried to soothe him. The man looked down at him and turned his fury on the guard as well.
"If you'd done your job properly that bitch wouldn't have called me at the crack of dawn! And now her husband or whoever this young punk is has the gall to raise his voice at me—"
"Yes, it's all my fault. Please calm down, Prosecutor."
The commotion drew residents on their way to work. Sensing the growing audience, the man finally thrust his car key into the guard's hand, straightened his coat, and looked Seong-ho up and down with open disdain.
"I don't know how a little punk like you even got into this apartment complex, but if people like you are moving in, the place must really be going downhill. Damn unlucky…"
He turned on his heel before Seong-ho could reply and barked at the guard, who was carefully holding the key with both hands.
"Park it properly and bring the key up to my unit. You know which one."
"Yes, sir. I know, Prosecutor. Please go up carefully."
The guard bowed so deeply his back nearly folded in half. Once the man disappeared, the onlookers scattered to continue their morning commute. Seong-ho glanced between the departing figure and the guard and let out a long sigh.
The guard straightened and spoke to him.
"I'll move the car right away. Just wait a moment."
"Mister, is that guy really a prosecutor?"
Seong-ho jerked his chin toward the entrance. After confirming the man had gone inside, the guard stepped closer and lowered his voice.
"You live on the eleventh floor, right?"
"Yes."
"He lives on the eighth floor of the same line… He used to be a senior prosecutor, but these days he runs his own practice."
"So he's a lawyer, not a prosecutor. Why do you still call him Prosecutor?"
"He likes being called that."
The guard gave an awkward smile and held up the key.
"Anyway, I'll get the car out for you right away."
"Thank you."
Seong-ho gave a brief bow of thanks, then tipped his head back and gazed up at the eighth floor.
"A lawyer who still wants to be called Prosecutor… Things must not be going well for him. Still clinging to the glory days of being a senior prosecutor."
The thought of the man who had been screaming minutes earlier only made Seong-ho find the whole scene more ridiculous. He climbed into the car.
"It's pure chaos right now."
The moment Seong-ho arrived at the office, Jo Byeong-jin hurried over and thrust a sheaf of papers at him—the morning's flood of breaking news.
"Southeast Asia looks like it's already thrown in the towel. Thailand especially—they say there's no other option left and they've formally requested an IMF bailout."
"Thailand applied for IMF relief?"
Seong-ho took the papers and looked at his friend. Byeong-jin walked alongside him toward the office, nodding.
"Yeah. And the bigger problem is…"
He glanced around and dropped his voice.
"There's a rumor that Taiwan is about to abandon defending its currency."
After delivering the bombshell, Byeong-jin scanned their surroundings again. The information was top-secret; even among colleagues in the Restructuring Headquarters it had to be handled with extreme care. Once he was sure no one else was within earshot, he continued.
"Word is spreading fast that if this keeps up the entire Asian region could go under together."
"That would make sense."
Seong-ho nodded as though the situation were only natural and stepped into his office. Byeong-jin followed him in, curiosity written all over his face.
"You're not even surprised by this?"
"No, I am surprised."
Seong-ho's voice remained perfectly calm as he closed the door. Byeong-jin stared at him as if he had grown a second head.
"You don't look surprised at all."
"I am surprised. It's just that I already expected it, so I'm not as shocked as you are."
"You expected this?"
Byeong-jin's expression now matched the one he had worn when he first heard about Asia's possible collapse. Seong-ho gave a light smile, sank onto the sofa, and said,
"If I hadn't expected it, would our Restructuring Headquarters even be moving the way it is right now?"
Byeong-jin sat across from him, looking both startled and a little dazed.
"Well… you're right. Everything we're doing is based on anticipation. If we hadn't seen it coming we could never have gotten ahead of it like this."
He nodded in agreement, yet the sheer fact that anyone could have predicted such a catastrophe still left him reeling.
A knock sounded at the door. One of the headquarters staff entered.
"The lawyer who will be joining the headquarters has arrived."
"Lawyer?"
Seong-ho tilted his head and looked at Byeong-jin. The latter rose from the sofa and explained.
"We're going to be handling a lot of mergers and acquisitions going forward. I figured we'd need solid legal analysis on staff, so I hired a lawyer."
Seong-ho stood as well, still puzzled.
"We already have an in-house legal team and advisory counsel. Is there really a need to bring someone in from outside? We've always used external firms before."
Byeong-jin gestured for the staffer to show the lawyer in while he answered.
"We'll still use outside firms, but I felt we needed an internal point of contact who can deal with them directly. Just meet him. If you don't like him we can send him packing."
Seong-ho nodded. He agreed that a proper liaison for the external firms was necessary.
"Director, I've brought him."
The staffer opened the door and stepped aside. The lawyer who entered with him bowed deeply in greeting.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Until recently I served as a senior prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office…"
As he raised his head, the lawyer's eyes met Seong-ho's. His entire body froze solid.
"Well, well. Fancy meeting you here… Senior. Prosecutor."
Byeong-jin looked back and forth between the two men.
"You know each other?"
"Oh, I know him very well. We only met for the first time this morning, after all."
"You know him well but you just met him today?"
Byeong-jin turned toward the lawyer with a baffled expression. The man's face had gone deathly pale; cold sweat beaded on his forehead. The morning's confrontation clearly replayed itself in his mind at high speed, and the blood drained from his face only to be replaced by a sickly, dark flush.
Seong-ho watched the transformation with open amusement.
"The ways of the world really are fascinating, aren't they? Who would have thought we'd run into each other again so soon? Don't you agree?"
"Haha… yes, quite."
The lawyer managed an awkward smile.
"Since this is rather uncomfortable, perhaps we should just forget about this contract…"
"Uncomfortable? I'm perfectly fine with it."
"Excuse me? You're fine with it? After what happened this morning, you're still going to hire me?"
Seong-ho stepped closer, placed a hand on the lawyer's shoulder, and smiled brightly.
"You're the one who's not fine with it. I'm more than fine—I'm going to be your boss, after all. And in case you didn't know, the salary you'll be drawing comes straight out of my father-in-law's pocket. The father of that woman you called 'damn unlucky' first thing this morning. You do know who that is, right? The Chairman of our group."
He gave the man's shoulder a couple of friendly pats, then pulled a car key from his own pocket and pressed it into the lawyer's hand.
"Because of you I got to work late and had to park down on basement level three. So while you're working, pop downstairs every now and then, check if there's a free spot on B1, and move the car up if there is. Oh—and since we live in the same apartment complex, how about you drive me home after work? We could even carpool in the mornings. Gas prices are brutal these days. Carpooling's great, right? Hahaha."
With a few more pats on the now beet-red lawyer's shoulder, Seong-ho left the office looking thoroughly entertained. The lawyer stood frozen, car key clutched in his hand, unable to utter a single word.
During his time as a prosecutor his interpersonal skills had been so poor that no prestigious firm would take him; he had been forced to open his own practice and had been barely scraping by ever since. The thin remaining thread of his old network had somehow landed him this opportunity at the Ilhyeon Group. For a man living far beyond his means—driving an expensive car and residing in a luxury apartment—the group had been his last real hope.
The lawyer's face crumpled as though he might cry at the thought of how thoroughly he was trapped. When he imagined the days ahead, a heavy darkness settled over his mind.
Yet an even deeper darkness was already gathering outside the office walls.
The won-dollar exchange rate skyrocketed, and a mere forty minutes after the market opened, trading was halted in an unprecedented emergency suspension.