Daddy’s Girl
We headed for a pub tucked deep inside an alley.
When I pushed the door open and stepped inside, the place was empty. Had they gone out of business that fast?
"Excuse me!"
From the kitchen, a burly middle-aged man came walking out. He looked more like a bandit come to rob the place than a restaurant owner, but he was, in fact, the proprietor of the pub.
With an annoyed wave of his hand, he said, "We're not open yet. Come back in three hours."
"Ah, I see. Understood."
No wonder there hadn't been a soul in here.
"Let's come back later."
Just as David and I turned to leave, a hand like a wok lid clamped hard onto my shoulder from behind.
"Hey, hold on a second."
"What is it?"
Had I done something wrong?
The man widened his eyes and said, "Weren't you the one who came here with my daughter the other day?"
"That's right, but..."
"Oh! It really is you!"
Mr. O'Connor grabbed both of my hands and shook them vigorously. "I heard you invested one hundred thousand dollars in my son's business. That alone was more than enough, and then you went and gave my daughter a scoop too. You're a benefactor to the O'Connor family!"
"It was nothing."
Both things had been done for my own benefit, so I was a little embarrassed by all the gratitude.
He lowered his voice and asked, "My daughter said you were an incredible investor. Did you back my son because you really think he'll make it?"
"Of course. Don't worry about it."
What did it matter if he couldn't build apps? As long as he could make a good burger, that was enough. From the beginning, he had been born to make hamburgers.
"Haha! That's a relief. So what brings you here?"
"We came to buy hamburgers."
"Oh! Is that so? Wait here a moment. I'll make them right away."
He hurried back into the kitchen.
David and I sat down to wait, and soon a red-haired woman with a laptop bag slung over her shoulder and a camera in her hand walked into the shop.
"Dad! I'm here!"
"Ah!"
"Oh!"
We all startled at once.
Trish looked at David and me, then brightened immediately. "When did you get to New York?"
"Just now."
"Hold on. Let me take a picture."
Before I could say another word, she had already lifted her camera and snapped a shot of us.
Click.
"So suddenly?"
"You both just looked so nice sitting there. I'll send it to you, so be sure to include it when you write your memoir someday."
"Will I even have a memoir to write?"
"You said Continue Capital is going to become the biggest company in the world, didn't you? If you don't write a memoir, won't somebody end up writing your biography instead?"
"Come to think of it, that's true."
I nodded.
"If I need it later, I'll ask you for it, so keep it for me."
"Okay."
Trish beamed. "Thanks to you, I got two exclusives. Do you know how much our subscriber count has gone up, and how many ads we've landed? I even flattened Vanessa Cohn!"
"I don't know who Vanessa is, but congratulations."
In truth, WST and her name had become fairly well known on Wall Street.
This was the first time Trish and David had ever met in person.
The two of them exchanged friendly introductions.
"I'm David Lockhart of Continue Capital."
"I'm Trish O'Connor, a reporter for the Wall Street Times. I've wanted to meet you for a long time."
"I read the piece you wrote. It was excellent."
"That was all thanks to the report your team put together. And thank you again for agreeing to the interview."
Once the introductions were over, she turned to me. "Since you're back in New York, I take it everything wrapped up well with the Silicon Valley investments?"
"Yes. They did."
"So what brought you to our place?"
"We came to buy hamburgers."
While we were talking, Mr. O'Connor brought the burgers out.
"These are on the house. I'll have the takeout ready, so eat one here before you go."
From the look on David's face, he didn't seem to expect much from the burger. He was probably thinking a place like this couldn't possibly make anything all that good.
It wouldn't take him long to change his mind.
David bit into the burger, and his expression changed almost at once.
"Told you, didn't I?"
He admitted it honestly. "I feel like I've lost half my life. I lived in Manhattan and never even knew this place existed."
"Still, you can come here anytime now."
Though I wouldn't be able to eat here again for a while—not until the franchise came to Korea.
We finished our burgers where we sat and got to our feet.
I said to Trish, "Then I'll see you again next time."
She smiled. "Be sure to let me know if you get another exclusive."
"Sure."
We had the burgers packed up and headed for the hospital.
Snow-white skin, curly blond hair, blue eyes.
The doll-like child in her hospital gown pointed at me and asked, "Who is this uncle?"
I was so startled I nearly jumped.
Uncle? She called me uncle?
Maybe I would have been one before my regression, but I wasn't old enough to be called that now. Still, to a child, anyone big enough might as well be an uncle.
David explained, "He's Dad's boss. We're working together now."
I introduced myself. "Hi. My name's Han Miru. I'm from Korea."
The girl greeted me with a bright smile. "Hello. I'm Maggie Lockhart."
…
She was adorable.
Too adorable.
Now I understood why David had become such a doting father. If I had a daughter like this, I'd probably become one too.
I lifted the bag in my hand. "Maggie likes hamburgers, so I brought some for you."
"Wow! Thank you."
Maggie took a huge bite with her tiny mouth. As she chewed, her blue eyes grew wider and wider.
"Is it good?"
At my question, Maggie exclaimed, "Good? This isn't just good, it's the best hamburger in the whole world!"
David burst out laughing.
While Maggie went off for treatment, David said to me, "Maggie is my everything. I'd do anything for her."
No matter how much money he had, no matter how much fame others envied, he would gladly give it all up for his daughter.
Was that what a parent's heart was like?
I had never had children, so I didn't know. If I got married someday and had a child of my own, would I understand then?
Last time, I had lived out my days as a lonely old man with only a friend by my side, but this life was different.
This time, I absolutely had to get married.
I told him, "Don't worry. Her illness will be cured, and she'll be running around like any other child."
"Even hearing that is enough. Thank you."
"It's not just something I'm saying."
He looked at me in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Again, David Lockhart would go on to become one of the most famous investors of the early twenty-first century. Because of that, I knew a great deal about him.
I knew what investments he had made, and I also knew that his daughter would be completely cured thanks to a new drug from Lunavax.
"Exactly what I said. Maggie will be cured."
He gave a bitter smile. "Are you saying that seriously?"
"Yes."
The smile vanished from his face. "If what you just said turns out to be false, I may end up resenting my boss."
I nodded. "Then do that. Maggie will definitely make a full recovery."
David stared at my face for a long moment.
"How can you be so certain?"
I was just an investor, not a doctor.
No matter how good I was at investing, I couldn't possibly predict the course of a child's illness. Logically, my words had no basis.
But...
"If you short a stock and just sit around waiting, the price won't fall. The surest way is to expose the weakness yourself."
"So?"
"The same goes here. If we just sit and wait, Maggie's illness won't heal. The surest way is to make the treatment ourselves."
"What are you talking about?"
I said calmly, "I'm going to invest in the development costs for the pediatric lymphoma treatment Lunavax is working on at Yuseong Bio. They're still coordinating the details, so the announcement should be coming soon."
That was the favor I had asked of Chairman Yoo Jae-ho after settling accounts with GTiger PE.
Money made a great many things possible.
If Yuseong Bio invested, the treatment might be developed much faster than it had been in my first life.
For a moment, David sat there blankly, and then he suddenly sank to the floor and burst into tears.
"Oh! Thank you, God! Thank you so much!"
David read fairy tales to Maggie at her bedside until she fell asleep.
She drifted off into a nap almost immediately.
I stood up first, so they could have some time together as a family.
"I'll be going now."
David bowed deeply from the waist. "I won't forget this kindness."
It was a short sentence, but the sincerity in it was unmistakable.
It was easy enough to make someone work for money, but winning their heart was something else entirely. By that standard, I'd earned his trust, and that alone made this a worthwhile bargain.
I waved a hand. "You can thank me later."
"Are you heading back to Korea?"
"Yes. Please take good care of headquarters."
"I'll do my best. Safe travels."
We shook hands in farewell at the hospital.
My return flight was scheduled to leave at 9 p.m.
Since I still had time, I took a look around New York. I hadn't come here to sightsee, but since I was already here, I might as well stop by Central Park.
Even in the cold, people of all races were jogging or walking big dogs.
Sitting in the park, I thought things over.
The trip to America had been a huge success.
I had hired David Lockhart, and I had secured stakes in O'Connor Burger, Prisoner, and Craft Valley. But above all else, the greatest achievement was signing the acquisition agreement for Cooloud.
If I hadn't rushed to America, none of that would have been possible.
"Making money is hard, but spending it is over in an instant."
After making the investments I needed to make, I was flat broke.
I had put money aside for the future, but not only was my wallet empty, I was sitting on a mountain of debt. My debt had reached $16 billion.
…
$16 billion!
When I thought about it, wasn't this insane?
Within six months, I had to raise not 8 billion won, but $8 billion.
Fortunately, the financial markets had excellent—if you could call them that—products like short selling and futures options, and I knew the future.
If I played things right, making dozens of times my money in a short period was entirely possible.
"So the problem is the seed capital?"
Investing was a lot like rolling a snowball down a hill. When the snowball was small, only a little snow stuck to it, but once it got bigger, more and more snow clung to it.
The larger the initial capital, the faster the money grew. Turn ten thousand dollars into ten times that, and you had a hundred thousand. Turn one hundred million into ten times that, and you had one billion.
But I'd already poured in even that seed money.
If I had kept even one billion dollars on hand, I wouldn't have had much to worry about. But I spent it all on the down payment, so what was left was less than one hundred million.
That was nowhere near enough.
Fortunately, there was still one way.
"Should I borrow from Chairman Yoo Jae-ho?"
Thanks to me, he'd made more than four hundred million dollars. If I asked him the right way, he might lend me one or two hundred million of it.
But nothing in this world was free.
As before, I'd have to split the profits with him. And depending on the situation, I'd have to report where I intended to invest and get his approval.
"It really is better to do business with my own money whenever possible."