Chapter 4

Hiss~.

The morning starts with a refreshing Americano.

“Coffee’s here!”

“Oh. I was just about to do that. Suho, then just leave that here, and the files too…”

“I’ve prepared the files as well!”

When I showed her the files loaded onto the office cart, Assistant Manager Kim broke into a bright smile and clapped her hands.

“Wow. You did all of this by yourself?”

“I should at least be able to do this much.”

“Wow~ Suho. I can see the potential for you to become the ace of our Research Operations Team! You haven’t even been here that long, and you’re already doing all this by yourself?”

“Hehe. It’s all thanks to having such an excellent mentor.”

“Right? Hehe.”

I hadn’t been working in the Operations Team for very long.

Still, after doing it a few times, I had gotten used to waking up early, coming to work, and setting up the materials for the morning meeting.

“Suho, have you been keeping up with your studies?”

“Yes. These days, I’ve been reading economic articles as much as I can. I’m reading our own research reports, as well as reports from other securities firms.”

“Good. You never know when the team leader might suddenly call us in and test us again, so you need to be well prepared.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Since that day, the team leader hadn’t asked me anything separately like she had before.

To be more precise, it seemed like she had completely lost interest in me.

I suppose the report I had chosen back then had given her quite a shock.

It was frustrating because I had my reasons, but what could I do?

Just like my angelic mentor had said, I could do better next time.

“Ah! Team Leader, good morning!”

“Good morning!”

“Good morning.”

As always, the team leader was the first person to enter the conference room.

Last time, when I greeted her, she had merely given me a perfunctory response. But today, there was something strange about her gaze.

Perhaps something good had happened to her.

“Good morning, everyone.”

“Ugh. I came as quickly as I could, but I’m late again.”

“Everyone, hurry up and sit down. We have a lot to get through.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Soon, all the team members came in, and the busiest morning meeting in the world began.

“How much further do we expect the leisure sector to rise this time?”

“Our side is projecting another 15% upside.”

“What about the other securities firms?”

“They’re similar. Most of them are projecting around 10 to 15%.”

“So it could hit the upper price limit several days in a row.”

“Yes. The momentum is serious. Even though it’s still an unconfirmed rumor, news keeps coming out from here and there.”

It seemed everyone was in an uproar over the leisure sector.

As rumors spread that the Chinese ban on Korean cultural content would be lifted, prices were rising on the expectation of its removal.

I was taking notes nonstop, afraid that I might miss even the smallest detail.

I never knew when the team leader might suddenly question me again.

But wasn’t the report I picked last time also about the leisure sector?

I suppose this was what they called accidentally getting something right.

Though that happened because the smell was so awful that I had no other choice.

In any case, I hadn’t encountered such a terrible smell again since then.

That was the biggest relief.

The reason I liked this company was that I didn’t have to wear a mask.

Sometimes it was even easier to breathe here than at home, and the place was filled with a scent that somehow made me feel as though I had become rich.

So I hoped I could stay at this company for a long, long time—

“Intern Kang.”

“…Ah, yes!”

Oops.

I had gotten distracted for a moment.

“What do you think, Intern Kang?”

“Pardon?”

“About the leisure sector this time. Do you remember? It was the report you picked last time, wasn’t it? Of course, that report itself wasn’t about the lifting of the ban on Korean culture. But in the end, the leisure sector is rising. You know that the reports coming out of the Research Center value results more than causes, right?”

In other words, even if the stock price didn’t rise because of the reason given in the report, as long as the prediction that the price would rise turned out to be correct, they considered that prediction valuable.

“What does that mean? Intern Kang picked the leisure sector?”

“I asked him to choose a report last time.”

“And he picked the one saying the leisure sector would skyrocket?”

Everyone in the conference room turned their eyes toward me.

The team leader folded her arms and urged me on.

“Intern Kang, give us your opinion. Which report looks better to you this time?”

“Th-that…”

I could feel my heartbeat rising and my pulse quickening.

And then—

Ugh.

The reports that had been perfectly fine until just moments ago suddenly began emitting a musty stench.

It’s happening again.

Just like last time.

The foul odors surged up simultaneously, piercing my nose and digging into my brain.

It was such a horrible smell that I felt like I might pass out if I lost focus for even a moment.

I-I have to find it.

I instinctively dug through the reports.

I figured that if I found one of them like last time, everything would be okay.

Sure enough.

Like a ray of hope, a fragrant scent emerged from the pile, cutting through the foul odors.

I quickly snatched up the corresponding report.

“…I’ll go with this one.”

These people probably had no idea.

Cold sweat was running down my back.

That was how desperate the situation was.

“Hmm?”

“Wait. You actually picked that one?”

From the team leader to the other team members, everyone tilted their heads and stared at me.

Only then did I look at the title of the report.

[Scenario for a Major Collapse in Leisure Sector Stocks]

“Pfft.”

“W-what’s so funny?”

“It’s just so funny. Suho, are you some kind of hipster or something? I mean, whenever everyone says YES, you say NO, and whenever everyone says NO, you say YES.”

“…”

I had nothing to say.

Even I looked like some guy suffering from the so-called Hongdae syndrome—someone who deliberately went against the mainstream just to be different.

“Did you see how awkward the atmosphere got earlier? My hands were shaking and my heart was pounding like crazy. Everyone was saying the leisure sector was going to skyrocket, and you actually picked a report predicting a massive collapse? I didn’t even know we had a report like that mixed in there.”

There had been a reason for it.

Everything else smelled so terrible that I couldn’t even touch it.

If I had taken any longer, I might have passed out from those horrible smells.

Though perhaps it would have been better if I had simply fainted.

“Did I completely get on their bad side?”

“Yes. Completely.”

“Ugh.”

“Cheer up. You’ve been showing up and working diligently every day, after all.”

Assistant Manager Kim was gently patting my shoulder, trying to comfort me.

But I didn’t feel encouraged at all.

What on earth is wrong with me?

Why did the reports smell so terrible whenever I was asked to choose one?

Right now, everything was perfectly fine.

Was it because I got nervous?

If that hadn’t happened, I might have picked a normal report and gone straight from intern to full-time employee!

The first time, I was lucky.

But there was no way I could get lucky twice.

“Our hipster intern, could you go print out some materials for me?”

“Ah, yes.”

“This time, you can do it by yourself, right?”

I had struggled for a few days when I first started using the large office printer.

“Heh. I could do it with my eyes closed now.”

But something like this was easy now.

Stock investment is all about strategy.

Making probability work in your favor.

That could be considered the essence of an investment strategy.

That was why Research Centers existed.

What investment strategy should you establish?

Which sectors should you pay attention to?

And so on.

The reports produced by Research Centers served as a lighthouse for investors.

“…”

And right now, all those lighthouses were shining their beams on one particular place.

The leisure sector.

In particular, tourism and hotels were showing tremendous gains due to rumors that the Chinese ban on Korean culture would be lifted.

Every securities firm was shouting the same thing.

Join the rise of the leisure sector before it was too late.

But this time, he picked the exact opposite.

Kang Suho had previously chosen a report predicting that the leisure sector would rise when everyone else had ignored it.

And his prediction had come true.

But there was a very high possibility that it had simply been a coincidence.

The problem was that now, while every securities firm—including Daesung Securities—was predicting a rise in the leisure sector, Kang Suho had once again chosen the exact opposite.

[Scenario for a Major Collapse in Leisure Sector Stocks]

Analysts usually wrote reports based on two scenarios.

A rise or a fall.

Even when a rise seemed certain, they prepared a report considering the possibility of the opposite happening.

Of course, since the Operations Team would filter them out anyway, most analysts wrote such reports halfheartedly.

This one was essentially just there to fill the required word count.

Yet Kang Suho had deliberately pulled this one out from the bottom of the pile.

It says that the sector is too inflated and that if the lifting of the ban on Korean culture is revealed to be nothing more than a rumor, a massive crash will follow…

The important point here was the lifting of the ban.

The Chinese government had never officially announced that it would lift the ban on Korean cultural content.

But, conversely, it had never officially announced that it would maintain the ban either.

That was important.

There were rumors circulating that the ban might be lifted, but no one knew when.

It could be tomorrow, a month from now, or a year from now.

Only the Chinese government knew.

And unless the Chinese government came forward and officially clarified the situation, people would continue pushing up leisure-sector stock prices based on their expectations.

“What do you all think?”

After the meeting, Team Leader Cheon Do-ah called the people in charge of the leisure sector together for a separate discussion.

“Other securities firms know very well that the possibility of the ban being lifted is nothing more than a rumor, just as we do, right?”

The securities firms all knew that the rumor might be false.

Then why were they still expecting the leisure sector to rise?

“Ultimately, stock prices are rising because of investor expectations. And the Chinese government isn’t going to kindly come out and tell everyone that the rumor is false, either.”

That was what made expectations so frightening.

No one could know for certain whether the good news was real or fake, so everyone was essentially gambling.

If the ban really were lifted, it would be an exhilarating victory.

But what if it were false?

Then, just as this report predicted, the sector would begin to crash.

“But shouldn’t it continue rising for at least a few more weeks? In the long term, it may not be attractive, but in the short term, you’d be foolish not to put money into it now.”

“If the rumor has spread this widely, there’s a possibility that the ban really will be lifted. If that’s the case, then even from a long-term perspective, investing in the leisure sector could be the better choice.”

Cheon Do-ah nodded.

According to the experts here, the leisure sector would continue rising for the time being.

And if an official announcement came out confirming that the ban was actually being lifted, it would rise even further.

“Even the media is taking a positive view of the lifting of the ban. That means there’s a very high possibility that this isn’t simply a baseless rumor.”

“I understand. Then for the time being, we’ll maintain a bullish stance on the leisure sector. Keep the reports we upload focused in that direction as well.”

“Yes, ma’am. We’ll go back to researching the data, then.”

“Please do.”

Her mind felt much more at ease.

Perhaps the reason he had chosen the leisure-sector bullish report the first time, and then suddenly picked the major-collapse report this time, was the same.

Rather than actually predicting anything, perhaps he was simply silently telling everyone to leave him alone because he found everything bothersome.

The first one probably just happened to be right.

There was no evidence that he had chosen this report based on any precise data.

He had obviously just grabbed something at random from the pile and put it forward.

“Why do I keep getting my hopes up about him?”

It was probably because of the way that parachute hire normally behaved.

If he was a parachute hire, he should act like one.

If he was a member of the royal family, he should behave like one—arrogant, shameless, and completely unconcerned with everyone else.

Instead, he was working so hard in the office that he looked like an intern who genuinely wanted to become a full-time employee.

That behavior kept confusing her.

“Let’s just ignore him.”

She made the decision once again.

Whether he did well or badly, he was going to spend only a short time at the securities firm before being sent straight to headquarters anyway.

“There’s no time to think about this nonsense.”

Reports were pouring in in real time even now.

She began checking them one by one.

Then—

“…Hmm?”

The movements of the stocks displayed on the monitor beside her looked strange.

Normally, she kept the sectors they were watching closely displayed on the screen.

But now, the stocks in the leisure sector were all flashing blue as their prices plunged.

“W-what’s happening all of a sudden?”

The decline was so rapid that she wondered whether the system had malfunctioned.

A VI—Volatility Interruption—was triggered in a panic, but temporarily halting trading could not stop a crash of this magnitude.

“So that’s what this was.”

Cheon Do-ah soon learned the full story.

The Chinese government had just announced that, rather than lifting the ban on Korean cultural content, it would actually strengthen it further.

And at the same time, something else caught her eye.

[Scenario for a Major Collapse in Leisure Sector Stocks]

“!?”

The report that parachute hire had chosen.

The leisure-sector stocks were now crashing exactly as the title of that report had predicted.

How on earth had he known?

If it had happened once, she could dismiss it as coincidence.

But twice in a row?

Cheon Do-ah shot up from her seat.

“Where is Intern Kang Suho right now?”

“Ah. Suho? He’s over there…”

Cheon Do-ah turned her gaze toward the place the employee was pointing.

There, in front of the printer, was a man struggling with it.