Everyday Life (5)
I asked Hong Gyeong-seok, “You’re raising a blind fund at Continue Capital?”
Maybe he wanted to look good in front of Jin Se-yeon.
He lifted his chin with all the arrogance in the world. “Why? You thinking of investing too?”
I nodded. “If it’s a fund launched by Continue Capital, it’s worth looking at.”
“Good call. It’s not every day you get a chance to invest in our company.” His face was practically glowing with the pride of a Continue Capital employee.
He wasn’t even our employee, and yet he had company loyalty coming out of his ears. Watching him made me feel absurdly proud on Continue Capital’s behalf.
“From what I heard, you’re planning something with Hwaan Energy and hydrogen, right? What exactly are you doing?”
“I can’t tell you any more than that.”
He shut his mouth with the exact expression of someone saying, That’s where I stop explaining. Of course, the reason was probably simple—he had no idea what was actually going on.
“Have you met Vice President Heo Min-woong, by any chance?”
“Of course. You know our company’s had ties with him since the Thomas Motors mess.”
“Oh? Really?”
“You probably guessed as much, but Continue Capital and Hwaan Energy worked together to bring down Thomas Motors.”
“Ah! So Hwaan Group also backed you during the Hanjeong Group control battle?”
“Exactly. That’s why Vice President Heo Min-woong pretended to move with the Daejun Construction takeover bid.”
“Then you must be pretty close with Vice President Heo Min-woong?”
Hong Gyeong-seok smiled. “Not that close, but we talk now and then, have a drink now and then.”
Every time he opened his mouth, another lie seemed to tumble out automatically. He must have memorized that WST article down to the last word.
If you wanted to scam Korea University students and professors, that kind of effort was the bare minimum. I really hoped every fraudster who lived off other people’s money would take a long, hard look at themselves.
Come to think of it, he barely showed up for school events and wasn’t even close with Ha Kyung-tae or Choi Han-byeol, yet somehow he’d still come to the wedding. He must have had a very specific reason.
By now, there were already several people who had invested with him.
The minimum investment was 30 million won, so all together it had to be several hundred million won at least, maybe more.
Once they realized it was a scam, he’d cut off contact and disappear, no question.
So I needed to crush him here and now.
“So how much are you investing? We don’t usually take anything under 30 million won. Too much hassle to manage.”
“Where do I send the money?”
“Send it to me first. I’ll total everything up and add it to the existing account.”
I snorted. “Are you serious? What kind of private fund collects money into a personal account instead of a company account?”
Hong Gyeong-seok frowned slightly.
“I already told you. The minimum per subscription is $1 million.”
“Oh, really? Then I’ll put in $1 million. Give me the fund account.”
“What?”
“Why? So shocked?”
He raised his voice, probably trying to hide his panic. “Don’t be ridiculous. Where the hell would you even get a million dollars?”
“I’ve got it, so give me the account number. You’re not going to tell me you don’t know it, are you? Or was there never a fund account to begin with?”
As the commotion grew, people started turning toward us.
“What’s going on?”
“Why are they fighting?”
I stared straight at Hong Gyeong-seok and said, “You’re not a Continue Capital employee, are you?”
He snapped back, “Are you picking a fight with me right now?”
“This business card is fake too, isn’t it?”
“What are you babbling about now? You got fired from DA Securities, didn’t you? What, jealous because I said I work at Continue Capital?”
I said it almost gently, “You’re pathetic, Gyeong-seok. If you got caught bluffing, just admit it.”
“What did you say, you little shit?”
He reached out as if to grab my collar, and I caught his hand in mine.
That was when a startled Jin Se-yeon stepped in to stop us.
“Both of you, stop it.”
For some reason, this felt strangely familiar, like something similar had happened back when we were doing a group project.
Come to think of it, I’d told him to go do the research, and he’d copied and pasted from a wiki called TreeWiki and then insisted he’d written it himself. We’d fought over that, if I remembered right.
This bastard had been rotten from the start.
“You are absolutely not a Continue Capital employee.”
“What the fuck do you know that makes you say that?”
I raised my voice so everyone could hear me. “Because I work at Continue Capital. I’ve never once heard of someone like you joining our company.”
Hong Gyeong-seok had graduated from Korea University’s business administration department and, by some stroke of luck, landed a job at a British hedge fund called Sigma Fund.
Back then, he really thought his life had finally turned a corner.
But once he actually lived the hedge fund life, it turned out to be nothing like he’d imagined.
Without talent or effort, you couldn’t even survive, let alone thrive. Just keeping up with the daily work meant putting in twenty-hour days, and even that wasn’t enough.
In the end, he couldn’t take it anymore and left the hedge fund.
Using that experience and the money he’d saved, he started investing full-time on his own.
At first, with his aggressive style, things seemed to go well. He made big profits for a while, but at some point the losses began snowballing out of control.
He lost everything he’d invested and ended up borrowing money to stay afloat.
One day, when Hong Gyeong-seok was meeting some friends, they asked him what he’d been up to.
He didn’t want to feel small in front of his successful friends, so on impulse he lied and said he worked at Continue Capital.
Continue Capital had been making headlines because of all sorts of incidents.
And then something interesting happened.
People started asking him if there was any way they could invest.
A lot of private funds struggle to attract investors. Sometimes they can’t raise enough capital, and the deal falls through.
But just saying the name Continue Capital was enough to make people eager to invest.
That was when Hong Gyeong-seok started printing business cards and acting like a Continue Capital employee for real.
Yeah. As long as I make as much as Continue Capital, that’s what matters.
Continue Capital didn’t have many employees for the size of its assets, and almost nothing was publicly known about its corporate structure.
Besides, its headquarters were in the United States.
So he figured there was no way he’d ever get caught running around pretending to be one of them.
…Or so he thought. Today, he’d been caught red-handed.
What the hell? Han Miru works at Continue Capital?
Hong Gyeong-seok tried to deny reality first.
“N-no way.”
“What’s no way?”
But he forced himself to regain his composure.
Whether he’s telling the truth or not, I have to keep denying it now.
“That’s ridiculous. You work at Continue Capital?”
“Yeah.”
“You got a business card?”
“Didn’t bring it.”
Hong Gyeong-seok burst out laughing as if to show me up. “Ha! What is this? Are you trying to scam me now?”
Han Miru gave a cold smile. “The scammer here is you, you fraud.”
That look in his eyes, as if he saw straight through him, made Hong Gyeong-seok’s expression twist on its own.
Wasn’t it said that people got angry when they had nothing left to say?
“Hey! Han Miru! You’ve said enough!”
But Han Miru ignored him and kept going. “Where did you spend the investment money you collected?”
“W-what do you mean, spent it? I put it into the fund.”
“If that fund really exists, then tell me the account number. Why can’t you say it?”
“……”
Because there wasn’t one.
If this kept up, the lie was in serious danger of coming apart.
“What a psycho. Even if you came in carrying a bag of money, I wouldn’t take your investment.”
Hong Gyeong-seok turned on his heel, irritated.
“What, you planning to run away like that?”
“Why would I run?”
As the uproar spread, people gathered around us.
Kim Hyeok-su asked Hong Gyeong-seok, “Are you really a Continue Capital employee?”
“I am, I’m telling you. That guy’s the one lying.”
Hong Gyeong-seok kept insisting.
“You got any proof you work at Continue Capital?”
“I don’t have proof, but I do have a witness.”
That was when Lee Dong-ho stepped up on Han Miru’s side.
“I can vouch for it. Miru really does work at Continue Capital.”
“How are we supposed to believe that? What if even you got fooled, senior?”
At Hong Gyeong-seok’s shameless tone, Lee Dong-ho looked genuinely shocked.
“A junior talking back to me?”
Han Miru shook his head. “No, not Dong-ho senior. It should be about time he got here. Ah, there he is.”
A broad-shouldered man in his thirties opened the door to the pub and came inside.
Han Miru raised a hand. “Over here.”
“Hey, bro.”
Han Miru pointed at him and asked Hong Gyeong-seok, “You know who that is, don’t you?”
“How the hell would I know?”
“That’s strange. If what you just said is true, there’s no way you wouldn’t know him.”
At that, Hong Gyeong-seok took a closer look at the man. The face seemed vaguely familiar.
No, wait…
Before long, the people who recognized him first began to murmur.
“Holy crap! That’s the Hwaan Energy vice president?”
“Isn’t that Heo Min-woong from Hwaan Group?”
“What? It really is him.”
Heo Min-woong’s face was familiar to the public as well. He’d been in the news constantly because of one incident after another, and he’d drawn major media attention during the Thomas Motors disaster.
Besides, about half the people here worked in finance. Of course they’d know him.
Hong Gyeong-seok couldn’t believe what was happening.
What the hell? Why is Heo Min-woong here?
He’d just been bragging about knowing the man, and he never imagined he’d actually show up.
How the hell is this happening…
Heo Min-woong smiled warmly, as if he and Han Miru were old friends.
“You said it was urgent, so I rushed over as fast as I could. What’s going on?”
“Do you happen to know a guy named Hong Gyeong-seok?”
“Nope. First I’ve heard of him. Who is he?”
Han Miru pointed at Hong Gyeong-seok. “This is Hong Gyeong-seok. He’s been collecting money while pretending to be a Continue Capital employee. He also said he was doing something with Hwaan Energy this time, and that he was close with you, too, Vice President Heo.”
Just from that alone, Heo Min-woong understood the situation.
He looked at Hong Gyeong-seok and said, “You said you were close with me? That’s odd. I’ve never even seen you before.”
“Uh…”
Shit. What do I do?
Hong Gyeong-seok couldn’t say a word and just rolled his eyes around frantically.
No excuse he came up with now would matter.
The people who had looked at him with admiration just moments ago were now giving him cold, flat stares.
Staying here any longer was dangerous.
He had to get out first.
“I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding… I’ll step out for a second and call Mr. Lockhart.”
But Han Miru grabbed his shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going, punk? You’re leaving after paying back every cent you scammed out of people.”
“Let go of me!”
Hong Gyeong-seok shook off the hand and tried to bolt.
But by then, people had already surrounded him.
A little later, Hong Gyeong-seok was sitting on the floor with his head bowed, kneeling before me.
I dragged a chair over and sat down in front of him.
“Let me ask you something. Why did you go around impersonating a Continue Capital employee?”
“W-well…”
“I know. You thought you could raise money easily just by dropping the Continue Capital name. Where did all that money go?”
At my question, he clamped his mouth shut.
I could already guess the reason.
“You blew it all on crypto, didn’t you?”
“N-no! I didn’t blow it! If this ICO just succeeds…!”
For some reason, scammers never seemed to realize that they were scammers. Did they really think all they had to do was make enough money later and pay it back?
Once the truth came out, the people who’d invested based on his word were stunned.
One guy dropped to the floor, and another burst into tears.
“You really scammed us?”
“Where’s my money?”
“What do you mean, where’s your money?”
“Give me my money back right now!”
“Ghk—wait, hold on…!”
This wasn’t something I could solve by grabbing him here and shaking answers out of him.
In the end, we called the police, and the victims dragged Hong Gyeong-seok along with them to the station.
And just like that, the scam career of the worst con artist Korea University had ever produced came to an end the moment it had begun.
By the time Ha Kyung-tae and Choi Han-byeol arrived late to the afterparty, they stared at the bar in confusion. It was a complete wreck.
“What happened here?”
“What on earth went down while we were gone?”
I looked at the two of them and said, “Nothing much. Oh—congratulations on the wedding.”