A New Investment (2)
The fashion industry investment would be handled by the Korean branch.
I couldn’t keep an eye on everything myself, so I handed the matter to Senior Dongho. If he was the branch manager, then it was time he started taking care of the actual work, too.
He went to meet Min Ah-reum to negotiate the finer points of the investment.
He came back toward the end of the workday.
And I nearly jumped when I saw him.
I wasn’t exactly a fashion plate myself, but Senior Dongho was basically a walking fashion disaster.
Even back in college, he’d thrown on whatever was lying around without much thought, and at the company he was no different—sure, he wore suits, but he never bothered to look put together.
He was always showing up in rumpled shirts, often too lazy to even knot his tie, and the department head had chewed him out for it more than once.
But today his hair had been neatly styled, and his suit, shirt, and shoes were all luxury brands, down to the tie clip and cufflinks.
Clothes really did make the man; he looked like a different person.
The kind of refinement that had never been there before was now shining off him like a halo.
“What on earth happened to you?”
Senior Dongho flopped into a chair and said, “I think I just got scammed.”
“Scammed?”
“Yeah.”
“By who?”
“That woman.”
That woman? Who was he talking about?
“Don’t tell me—Min Ah-reum?”
“That’s right. I went in expecting the youngest daughter of a conglomerate family, but now I see she was nothing but a con artist.”
“What happened?”
Senior Dongho spoke in disbelief. “We were talking about the investment, and I accidentally spilled coffee on my shirt. Then she suggested we go to the department store and buy a new one. It happened to be near the Shinsegae Department Store.”
“Oh! And?”
The story was getting interesting.
“At first I just planned to buy one shirt, change, and head back out. But after she picked out the shirt, she suddenly told me to try on a suit, saying the one I was wearing didn’t fit well and the design was lousy.”
I nodded.
“It did look like a rag.”
“What was wrong with it? I paid three hundred thousand won for that at an outlet store near my place.”
“...If you’ve got money, at least buy something decent.”
Anyone listening would think the company wasn’t paying him at all.
“Anyway, after that she had me try on shoes, then picked out a tie and cufflinks, and later she even urged me to get a watch. Then she sent me to the salon inside the department store to get my hair cut. By the time I came to my senses, I’d spent over fifty million won. I was completely railroaded, I’m telling you.”
“If you didn’t want to buy it, why didn’t you just say no?”
“I’m telling you, the atmosphere didn’t allow for that. She and the staff were carefully consulting with each other while they picked everything out—how was I supposed to refuse? It felt like getting dragged into a multilevel-marketing scam and coming home with enough health supplements to stock the whole family.”
“If she took the time to dress you up, you should be grateful.”
Did he think getting styled by an expert was some easy thing?
“No. She definitely used me to boost her department store’s sales. Does this watch really cost forty-five million won?”
“Let me see. What brand is it?”
“Patek Philippe.”
I took a quick look at the watch and said, “You could probably get a hundred million won for it if you sold it secondhand right now.”
Senior Dongho’s eyes went wide.
“What? Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Isn’t used supposed to mean cheaper?”
Back when I didn’t know much about this market, I’d thought the same thing.
“For popular luxury watches, having money doesn’t mean you can just walk in and buy one. That’s why you get these bizarre cases where used pieces cost more than brand-new ones.”
They don’t even tell you when stock will arrive, and they don’t take waiting lists either. Even with a business model that bold, people still scramble to buy them.
“You only bought it because you went with the department store owner’s daughter. If you’d gone alone, you wouldn’t have even gotten to look at it.”
“R-really?”
I held out my hand. “If you don’t want to wear it, hand it over. I’ll take it and sell it secondhand.”
“N-no. I’m not saying I hate it. I’ve actually been meaning to buy a watch for a while.”
At the mention of a hundred million won, he seemed to change his mind in an instant.
Then, in a small voice, he muttered, “Hmm, so I didn’t spend fifty million won. I made fifty million won?”
He’d taken someone’s kindness and called it a hard sell.
No wonder he still couldn’t get a girlfriend.
Come to think of it, in my first life, this senior had died alone. Maybe in this life he should at least get married.
“So how was she in person? She was pretty, right?”
Senior Dongho nodded. “Yeah, she was gorgeous. She was basically a celebrity all on her own. She has more followers on Linsta than most entertainers.”
“Then maybe you should give it a shot.”
“A shot at what?”
“With Ah-reum.”
At that, Senior Dongho practically jumped out of his chair. “What are you talking about? She’s from a conglomerate family.”
“So what if she is?”
“Do you even know what happens when you date someone from a chaebol family?”
“What happens?”
“Their parents sneak over in secret and ask, ‘Young man, do you love my daughter?’ and if you say, ‘Yes, I do,’ they’ll yell, ‘How dare some nobody like you!’ and then casually hold out a fat envelope and say, ‘Take this and break up with my daughter right now.’”
Judging by how unnecessarily detailed that was, he must have watched way too many dramas.
“How much money is in the envelope?”
“Since it’s the Shinsegae Group, wouldn’t they probably stuff it with department store gift cards instead of cash?”
“That does make sense.”
“And that would be the lucky version. If you’re unlucky, they might even slap you with the gift cards.”
“Do they still hit people like that these days?”
“Of course. Just the other day I saw kimchi slaps, pasta slaps, and even baguette slaps.”
“That must have hurt. Were their parents bakery moguls?”
“No. That was the setup—they were supposed to be a French conglomerate family.”
“...”
Then shouldn’t they have been hit with designer handbags? Why a baguette? Was the production budget tight?
“What’s so special about being a chaebol? Even if you add up the entire market cap of the Shinsegae Group, it still wouldn’t come to ten trillion won.”
“Now that you mention it, you’re right... no, wait. Ten trillion won isn’t exactly a child’s name.”
“That’s the kind of money we can make with one good investment, right?”
“I-is that so?”
He looked like he was actually starting to believe me.
“You don’t need to feel small just because someone’s a chaebol. Walk with your shoulders back.”
Senior Dongho nodded. “You’re right. We’re not beneath anyone.”
“Exactly.”
If you were the Korean branch manager of Continue Capital, you were hardly in a position to lose to most conglomerate chairmen. Just think about the scale of the capital we handled.
If we went to pay our respects to a chaebol family, they’d probably welcome us with open arms instead of slapping us around.
Continue Capital paid Alex Preston the final eighty billion dollars owed for Cooloud—now Snow Crash.
With that, the contract we’d signed in Silicon Valley was finally closed out for good.
I called David.
“When we first signed the contract, I thought there was no way we’d be able to pay within the deadline.”
“That would have been the normal assumption back then.”
“I’m glad I was wrong.”
Eighty billion dollars was still only a third of what we’d earned from this investment.
In the space of a year, Continue Capital had grown to the point where deals like that were easy to handle. And that was all thanks to the suffering I’d gone through.
Plenty of other things had happened in the meantime, too.
O'Connor Burger had opened its first franchise location in Silicon Valley. Since opening day, it had been so popular that the surrounding traffic had practically collapsed.
As expected, private equity firms and Silicon Valley millionaires had rushed in, sniffing money in the air and offering to invest, but of course I turned them all down.
And Block Valley, created by Purple Games Studio, had launched through Legend Games Headquarters. Just as I’d expected, it was a monster hit, with one million copies downloaded on the very first day.
That was partly because Legend Games Headquarters had run a massive marketing campaign and partly because the base game was free.
But with Block Valley, where users could create their own content, once word of mouth started spreading, that was only the beginning.
The important thing was to bring in as many people as possible at first.
Prisoner had moved into production on Zombienado 3 at lightning speed. Thanks to Zombienado 2 succeeding in theaters, there was no longer any need to worry about the production budget.
I already knew it would all work out, but hearing that the companies I’d invested in were doing well still put me at ease.
“I’ll see you in the U.S. before long.”
“Understood.”
I headed to my family home after a long while.
When I opened the front door and stepped inside, I found my younger sister sprawled on the sofa in the most comfortable position imaginable, eating snacks while watching TV.
“Oh! Oppa’s here!”
“Aren’t you supposed to be studying?”
“Mind your own business.”
Right. For siblings, that was basically the same thing.
Se-na suddenly sprang to her feet.
“Where’s my present?”
“Huh? What present?”
“It’s my birthday today. Weren’t you the one who said we were eating together because of that?”
“...”
What? Today was her birthday?
As I was still processing that, Se-na narrowed her eyes and glared at me.
“See? See? You didn’t buy me a present, did you?”
Looking at her like that, as if she’d already seen through me, somehow made me too stubborn to lose. The lie came out before I could stop it.
“Hah. Of course I bought one.”
“What is it? Show me.”
“Wait here.”
I probably should have just gone and withdrawn some cash.
As I pretended to search around, my hand brushed against something in my pocket.
Ah. Right. I had this.
I pulled it out and handed it to her casually.
“What’s this?”
“A Shinsegae Department Store gift card. I figured I didn’t know what my little sister would like, so I prepared something she could pick out herself.”
Se-na brightened at that.
“Really? How much is it?”
“Let’s see... maybe one million won?”
“Wow! Amazing!”
Se-na was practically beside herself with happiness.
“I ran all this way, and now I’m thirsty.”
“Should I bring you some juice?”
Watching her hurry into the kitchen and pour me a glass of orange juice, I couldn’t help thinking, once again, that money really was everything.
After one sip, I started missing the orange juice they served at O'Connor Burger. Oranges really did belong to California.
A little later, Father came home.
At first I thought he’d been working, but his outfit was golf wear, and he had a golf bag slung over his back.
“You play golf now?”
Father laughed awkwardly. “Ah, well, Vice President Park said it’d be good to learn a bit if I wanted to do business. I’ve been taking lessons lately.”
Well, how could anyone live on work alone? You had to get some exercise, too.
“Where did you get the clubs? They look expensive.”
“Ahem. Minwoong gave them to me as a gift. He said we should go out on the course together sometime.”
“...”
It wasn’t even “Mr. Minwoong” but just “Minwoong,” so they must have gotten close without me noticing.
“How’s your game coming along?”
“I’m just at the point where I don’t completely whiff anymore. I still need a lot more practice before I can go out on the course.”
He seemed to be getting into it in his own way.
“You should get Mother to learn, too. It’d be nice if you could go to golf gatherings as a couple later on.”
“I’ve already been trying to win your mom over.”
He was learning golf, too. He was starting to feel like a real boss now.
“Go change quickly. Let’s head out for dinner.”
For dinner, I took my family to the restaurant at the JR Blackwood Hotel in Songdo.
“This place is a famous steak spot in the United States. I tried it once in New York and liked it so much I looked it up—fortunately, it has two branches here in Korea.”
Mother looked around in surprise. “Isn’t it expensive here?”
“There’s a discount, so don’t worry about it. Order whatever you want.”
That was because I was a JR Blackwood VVIP.
Se-na’s eyes sparkled.
“Wow! Then I can order everything?”
“Didn’t you say you were dieting?”
“I’ll eat today and start again tomorrow.”
“...”
Before long, the T-bone and E-bone steaks arrived one after the other.
Just the sight of them was overwhelming. Se-na kept taking photos, probably planning to brag to her friends later.
We were in the middle of a cheerful meal when a middle-aged white man in a suit approached our table.
He spoke to us in English.
“Are you Han Miru?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I’m Mark Driskel, the manager of this hotel. Thank you so much for visiting us.”
An employee standing behind him placed a cake and a bottle of champagne on our table.
“We heard it’s a family member’s birthday, and we’d like to offer our sincere congratulations. This is on the house.”
“Thank you.”
I never turned down free things.
I had called ahead to ask them to prepare something, but I hadn’t expected the manager to come personally.
He even opened the champagne himself and poured it into our glasses.
“I hope you all enjoy the rest of your evening.”
Se-na stared at me with wide eyes, looking genuinely stunned. “Who was that? What did he say?”
“...”
Honestly, she should have been able to understand that much English.
I brushed it off. “Seems like I know someone at the hotel, so they took extra care of us.”
More accurately, I was a little friendly with the owner of the hotel.
“Wow, really?”
“Yep.”
My little sister’s eyes shone as she looked at me with admiration, and for some reason, my shoulders straightened on their own.
I raised my champagne glass and said, “To Se-na’s birthday. Let’s have a toast.”