Chapter 5

At first, I thought the team leader was simply going to scold me.

Perhaps she was going to ask why I still couldn’t even operate a printer.

“So this was all just a coincidence?”

“Ah, yes. I suppose I was just lucky.”

“Twice in a row?”

“……”

I didn’t know what had happened either.

I only found out that leisure-sector stocks had plunged after hearing it from the team leader.

“You don’t happen to have some separate information network in China, do you? One that told you the lifting of the ban on Korean culture was actually just a rumor.”

“M-Me?”

“You don’t have to pretend with me. I know that Kang Suho isn’t an ordinary intern.”

As expected, the team leader knew how I had gotten into the company as an intern.

“By any chance, what is your relationship with Director Geum?”

“That…”

How was I supposed to explain this?

I had met the director after somehow joining a hiking club, and when I was about to leave the club to focus on preparing for employment, I had been given the opportunity to become an intern here.

The director had told me not to say anything unnecessary, though…

“Ah. I’m sorry.”

Just as I was desperately trying to figure out what to say,

the team leader apologized to me.

“I asked something I shouldn’t have. Even if I knew, I should have pretended not to.”

“I’m sorry. It’s difficult for me to explain the details as well.”

There was no way I could tell her that I had become an intern because the chairman of my hiking club had taken a liking to me.

“Anyway, Suho, you’re saying all of this was just coincidence, right? You don’t have some information network, nor is it because of some incredible analytical ability?”

“Yes.”

To be precise, it was because of my sense of smell.

I couldn’t exactly tell her that I had chosen the reports because they smelled good, and that they had somehow turned out to be the right ones.

“……”

The team leader stared at me for a while before letting out a short sigh.

“All right. I understand. Go back to work.”

As I left the team leader’s office, I couldn’t shake the question from my mind either.

How on earth had all of this happened?

Was it really just an absurd coincidence?

That thought lasted only a moment.

“Suho! What on earth happened!?”

Assistant Manager Kim suddenly appeared and smacked me hard on the shoulder.

I was the one who wanted to ask.

How could such a tiny palm produce such a powerful smack?

“Just like you picked, the leisure-sector stocks are really crashing!”

Perhaps she belatedly realized that her voice had been too loud, because Assistant Manager Kim gave an embarrassed smile.

“Oops. Sorry, everyone. I was too loud, wasn’t I?”

We quietly moved back to our desks.

But the strange looks from the team members didn’t leave me.

“Suho, I’m sorry.”

“Why all of a sudden?”

“I thought you really just picked some random report without thinking. I mean, the reports.”

She wasn’t wrong.

I hadn’t picked the reports because I had some other idea in mind.

“The truth is, you analyzed them using your own method and chose those reports, right?”

“I was just lucky.”

“Wow. You’re even being humble.”

“……”

Our Assistant Manager Kim.

She seemed to be under some enormous misunderstanding.

“It’s not because I’m being humble. I really was just lucky.”

“They say predicting the market does require excellent analytical ability, but more than anything, the most important thing is instinct, right? Some people humbly dress that up as ‘luck,’ but in the end, that’s skill in this business, too.”

Instinct.

Could what I had sensed back then—the foul smells—have been some kind of ‘instinct’ possessed by my sense of smell?

The reports that smelled bad were the ones I shouldn’t choose, while the only one with a pleasant fragrance was somehow the correct choice?

No way. Surely not.

No matter how sensitive my sense of smell was, it wasn’t some kind of superpower.

I let out a quiet chuckle to myself.

“What does that laugh mean? So you were just pretending to be humble, but you were actually confident that your predictions would be right, weren’t you? That’s why you deliberately acted like a beginner.”

“……”

It seemed it would take some time before Assistant Manager Kim’s misunderstanding was cleared up.

After the Chinese government revealed that the rumor about the lifting of the ban on Korean culture was false—and furthermore announced that it would strengthen the ban even more—leisure-sector stocks were completely wiped out.

“But no one predicted this.”

Securities firms had been aware that the rumor might not be true.

However, no one had expected the Chinese government to move this quickly, much less issue an official statement itself.

“Except for one person.”

Kang Suho, the intern.

How on earth had he known and chosen that report?

In this business, whether you’re a trader or an analyst, everyone has their own algorithm.

And no one ever shares it with others.

It was like a famous chef’s secret recipe.

That’s why if someone made the correct prediction, that alone was enough.

“The process doesn’t matter.”

Only the result mat