SWNOVELXO 105
“Over here.”
Three days later, as Dokyung entered the first-floor lounge of a hotel in Teheran Valley, he walked towards someone raising their hand to him.
“Representative, hello.”
“Manager Yoon, have you been well?”
The man waiting for Dokyung was Kang Sung-ho, CEO of KFSG.
They had arranged to meet today after Kang Sung-ho’s call two days ago, and despite Dokyung arriving earlier than the appointed time, Kang Sung-ho had arrived even earlier and was waiting for him.
“I should have been here first. I apologize.”
“Hahaha, since I asked to meet, shouldn’t I be the one to arrive first?”
Kang Sung-ho said this while gesturing with his hand for Dokyung to sit across from him. Dokyung bowed slightly in greeting and sat down.
“You must have been surprised by my sudden request to meet.”
“Not at all. I can always make time to meet with you, Representative.”
Dokyung genuinely liked Kang Sung-ho. No, Kang Sung-ho was like a mentor to Dokyung.
If Peter Brown had sparked Dokyung’s interest in the stock market, Kang Sung-ho was the one who had shown Dokyung how to survive in this market.
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I’m a ‘Kang Sung-ho kid’ who grew up reading your books.”
There was a term floating around the securities industry: ‘Kang Sung-ho kids.’
It referred to people who followed his investment style after reading his books, and as these ‘Kang Sung-ho kids’ started entering the securities industry as new employees, they were becoming a wave.
At Dokyung’s words, Kang Sung-ho smiled, seemingly not displeased, and opened his mouth.
“This is quite embarrassing. I actually received great help from Yoon Dokyung-ssi.”
“Great help? That’s not…”
“I’m being sincere. To be frank, I don’t want to talk about it because it seems we exposed our incompetence in such an amateurish area, but…”
“I understand.”
Kang Sung-ho nodded at Dokyung’s words.
“But just because of that, I can’t pretend I didn’t receive help, can I? You can think of it as an excuse, but I truly had no idea about those facts.”
Kang Sung-ho’s words were exactly what Dokyung had been thinking. It didn’t make sense that KFSG, an industry leader, wouldn’t have known about financial statements being manipulated in such a way.
“And our staff member tolerated such behavior from Tribe under the name of ‘common practice.'”
As the message had said, the word ‘common practice’ was truly frightening and irresponsible.
And the ‘common practice’ permeating the market was just one thing:
‘Selfishness.’
This selfishness was everyone passing around a bomb with the mindset that it was fine as long as they weren’t the last one to suffer a loss.
Because high risk at the level of passing around a bomb guaranteed high returns.
“And the most important thing is…”
Kang Sung-ho looked at Dokyung, who was listening to him with a serious expression.
“We wouldn’t have found their illegal acts if it weren’t for Yoon Dokyung-ssi.”
If Tribe’s manipulation of financial statements could be overlooked as industry practice, giving them the benefit of the doubt, their act of running bots to inflate the platform’s value was illegal in itself.
“We’re a private equity fund that invests using our clients’ money. We may face moral condemnation for investment failures, but we’re in a business where all material losses are borne by our clients.”
“……”
“The most crucial point is the chilling realization that if this investment had proceeded as planned, would our company have survived?”
This investment could have remained as a colossal failure, enough to erase all the successful investments KFSG had made so far.
If the conclusion of their ambitiously prepared startup investment had ended with KFSG being deceived, their judgment would be continually questioned.
Some might even ask, ‘Weren’t they in cahoots?’
Kang Sung-ho felt cold sweat run down his spine whenever he thought about how such a future could have come to pass.
“So I wanted to say thank you.”
As Kang Sung-ho said this and bowed his head, Dokyung smiled and spoke.
“I admire you.”
When words different from what he expected came out of Dokyung’s mouth, Kang Sung-ho raised his head and looked at Dokyung with a puzzled expression.
“In your book, Representative, there’s a passage that says: ‘Don’t fear failure. What you should fear most is not changing your attitude after failure.'”
Dokyung continued, quoting a passage from Kang Sung-ho’s book.
“It’s easy to say, but who could actually do that? But your current attitude seems to be exactly as you wrote in your book, and that’s admirable.”
“Hahaha, well, this is embarrassing. You even memorize passages from the book?”
“As I said, I’m a Kang Sung-ho kid.”
“You’re the first person to say that to my face.”
Kang Sung-ho laughed heartily, seemingly not displeased.
He had never had someone say “I’m a Kang Sung-ho kid” to his face before, but it didn’t feel bad.
Rather, he felt elated that an outstanding talent claimed to be following him.
“But I don’t dislike it. So if I say this meeting is a reward for your recent actions, would I be too presumptuous?”
“Not at all. It’s an honor just to meet with you like this.”
At Dokyung’s words, Kang Sung-ho shook his head and spoke.
“In the world we work in, it’s natural to receive rewards for our actions.”
“……”
“Yoon Dokyung-ssi, have you received an order to transfer to headquarters?”
Dokyung was surprised by Kang Sung-ho’s question.
No matter how small the industry was, news of an employee’s position change at another company didn’t usually spread.
“There’s no need to be so surprised. I was the one who shook up CEO Sim.”
“Pardon? You shook up the CEO…”
“It seemed Yuseong wanted you to gain more experience. I’m the one who shook that up.”
Dokyung couldn’t understand what Kang Sung-ho was saying.
“Well, there’s no need to understand. What you need to understand in this situation is that you’ve been given two choices, Dokyung-ssi.”
Saying this, Kang Sung-ho took out an envelope from his jacket’s inner pocket and placed it in front of Dokyung.
“Won’t you join KFSG?”
⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱
“Ugh, I can’t concentrate at all.”
Two days later, Dokyung had come straight to the hideout provided by the message after work and was sitting there, lost in thought.
On the table in front of Dokyung were two documents.
“Life is really eventful.”
It was clearly something to be happy about, and some might say Dokyung was having a ‘rich man’s worry,’ but for the past few days, Dokyung couldn’t focus on work because of this issue.
“An opportunity to work beside CEO Kang Sung-ho…”
If Peter Brown was an idol to Dokyung, Kang Sung-ho was a mentor incarnate.
If Peter Brown had shaped Dokyung’s values, Kang Sung-ho was the figure who had shown how to use those values in the market.
At first, Dokyung couldn’t believe that such a Kang Sung-ho had proposed to work together.
“……”
Dokyung stared intently at the two documents on the table.
One was the contract with the salary and benefits offered by KFSG that Kang Sung-ho had presented, while the other was the transfer order from Yuseong Investment Securities where Dokyung was currently employed.
“Wrap account…”
A wrap account was a type of discretionary investment contract product.
In other words, when a client entrusted investment funds to Yuseong Investment Securities, Yuseong would use those funds to invest and report the investment performance to the client.
In a way, it was similar to a fund, but while funds reported once every three to six months, wrap accounts involved ongoing dialogue with clients during the investment process.
It was a job that sat between that of a fund manager and a PB.
“It matches my ideal.”
Kang Sung-ho had said he had shaken up CEO Sim Ju-won.
It was an assignment that made Dokyung understand what kind of deliberation CEO Sim Ju-won must have gone through.
As a CEO who knew that Dokyung’s dream was to become a world-class fund manager, he had given Dokyung an opportunity to gain more experience.
“It’s something I couldn’t do if I went to KFSG.”
While KFSG was the industry’s top private equity fund, in the end, funds bearing Kang Sung-ho’s name were their only product.
Going there would bring him closer to his dream as a fund manager, but it would inevitably reduce Dokyung’s contact points with clients, which gave him a sense of fulfillment.
That was why Dokyung was now agonizing over these two documents.
“Argh!”
Dokyung messed up his hair as if he couldn’t find an answer no matter how much he thought about it.
Bzzt-
As he was massaging his throbbing temples, Dokyung’s mobile phone vibrated, and after checking the screen, he pressed the answer button.
“Assistant Manager Yeon-ji.”
-Dokyung-ssi, have you been well?
The caller was Lee Yeon-ji, who worked as an analyst at the Research Center in headquarters.
Her network had been very helpful to Dokyung recently.
“Assistant Manager Yeon-ji, I was actually going to contact you. Thank you for helping me with that difficult request last time.”
-Oh, it was nothing. I was curious about the rumors surrounding Tribe too. Anyway, I’m glad things worked out well.
Dokyung couldn’t help but smile at Yeon-ji’s ever-positive voice.
-Oh, that’s not why I called. Dokyung-ssi, can you invite me to the group chat?
“The group chat?”
-Yes. I heard an interesting rumor.
At Lee Yeon-ji’s words over the phone, Dokyung spoke with a puzzled tone.
“A rumor?”
-Yes. Many people are trying to get their hands on the market reports distributed by a certain PB from Yuseong Investment Securities’ Leaders Center.
“That…”
-That’s right. It’s you, isn’t it? I heard they’re high-quality market reports?
Dokyung scratched his head. The thought ‘Are they really such high-quality reports?’ flashed through his mind.
-So I took a look at what’s been circulating? My goodness! Who writes market reports including Bloomberg indicators?
Dokyung felt embarrassed at Yeon-ji’s words. Market reports were essentially daily briefings to clients about the previous day’s market conditions.
It wasn’t mandatory, and it was up to individual PBs to choose whether to provide reports.
But Dokyung’s reports were highly regarded for their quality, providing briefings on market conditions while supporting claims with Bloomberg indicators.
If such quality was consistently provided daily, it was something anyone in the market would want to receive at least once.
Moreover, if it was a type of report distributed only to certain individuals, who wouldn’t want to receive it?
-I’d like to receive those market reports too.
“Well… inviting you isn’t a difficult task.”
-Then do it.
“Yes, I’ll invite you after we end the call.”
-Awesome! Thanks. You’re the best, Dokyung-ssi. But there’s one thing I want to ask. Why do you do such hard labor?
When Yeon-ji asked with genuine curiosity over the phone, Dokyung tilted his head in confusion.
“Why, you ask? Of course, we for our clients…”
As Dokyung was answering as if it were obvious, something flashed through his mind, and he smiled.
“Assistant Manager Yeon-ji, thank you. I’ll invite you right away.”
Dokyung ended the call with a smile.
Then, with an unburdened expression as if he had escaped from the worries that had dominated him for the past few days, he picked up one of the two documents in front of him.