The next morning.
January’s knife-edged wind raked fiercely through the Yeouido towers.
As Taeseong arrived in front of a shabby blood-sausage soup restaurant, a call came in.
“Yes, boss, it’s Jaehae.”
“Right, the thing I asked you to look into yesterday?”
“Checked it right away. Trainer Kang Pilgeun — his situation is pretty bad. It looks like he got hit by a lease scam.”
“A lease scam?”
According to what Cheon Jaehae had dug up, Trainer Kang Pilgeun was currently carrying hundreds of millions of won in debt because of a lease fraud.
Lease fraud is a vicious scam that has been rampant recently.
Typically the property is listed below market rate to gather tenants, they are made to sign a contract with a fake owner, and then the money is swallowed whole and the perpetrators vanish.
“So that’s why he ended up going to loan sharks.”
“Yes. As for the rest, since he’s reported the fraud to the court he can at least delay the immediate repayment demands. But the money he borrowed in the process looks like it’s going to be the problem.”
“Did you find out how much he borrowed?”
“Not the amount, but I found out where. There’s an outfit commonly called ‘Pig Mother’ — famously vicious. More than a couple of people I know went to hell after borrowing from them.”
What Cheon Jaehae had learned about ‘Pig Mother’ was, to Taeseong the finance professional, wildly unreasonable.
With Pig Mother’s lending, say you borrow 10,000,000 won: they first take 2,000,000 off the top as advance interest and fees, then demand a monthly rate of at least 10%, meaning 1,000,000 won a month.
At that rate, running the loan for six months means coughing up 6,000,000 won in interest alone, and with the principal you owe 16,000,000.
That is roughly double the 8,000,000 you actually received — and given that the legal interest cap is 20%, they were gouging at ten times that level.
‘And that’s assuming something like 10 million won.’
What Kang Pilgeun’s situation must be, having presumably borrowed far more, needed no imagining.
“All right, good work. Eat properly.”
“Yes, you take your meals too, boss.”
Ending the call, Taeseong stepped into the soup restaurant.
A curious tension hung around the corner table.
Two earthenware bowls sat steaming on it.
The two men seated in front of them were built large enough that the cramped restaurant chairs looked overmatched.
One was Kim Taeseong in a sleek dark navy suit; the other was Trainer Kang Pilgeun in an old tracksuit with a cap pulled low.
“Eat, Trainer. It looks like you haven’t been eating at all lately.”
Taeseong said it as he picked up his spoon.
“Ah...... blood sausage soup can be a good meal plan too. Thank you, sir. I’ll enjoy it......”
Trainer Kang answered in a weak voice and lifted his spoon. Ordinarily he would have shouted ‘Protein!’ and fished out the meat first, but now even swallowing the spring onion floating in the broth looked like an effort.
Neither of them touched the bowls of rice.
Partly because restricting carbohydrates was what made it a meal plan, but also because right now neither was in any mood to chew rice.
They made do with the head meat and blood sausage submerged in the clear broth — a meal plan and a lunch at once.
“Trainer.”
Taeseong picked up a piece of radish kimchi and broke the silence.
“The truth is, yesterday I unintentionally overheard your call.”
Trainer Kang’s spoon stopped dead. He hung his head and said nothing. Deep shadow fell beneath the brim of his cap.
“I thought bringing it up right away might be a burden. So I couldn’t ask you then.”
“......You heard.”
“Yes. By chance. What’s happened? Has the gym run into trouble?”
Trainer Kang let out a deep sigh.
The weight in that sigh was so heavy that even Taeseong, sitting across from him, felt his chest tighten.
“Haa, causing worry even for you...... I can only apologize.”
“Apologize, between us? If it isn’t an imposition, at least tell me. I might be able to help.”
Trainer Kang opened his mouth in a trembling voice.
“The truth is...... I was going to expand and relocate the gym. New members have kept increasing steadily since last year, and I wanted to give people a better environment to train in. So when a property came up nearby at a cheap price I signed a contract and even commissioned the interior work, and......”
He scrubbed his face and went on.
“It was fraud. The building owner I signed with was a fake. He took the entire deposit and vanished with all of it. Four hundred million...... four hundred million won.”
“Four hundred million?”
Taeseong’s brow furrowed. Four hundred million.
To Taeseong now it was not a large sum, but to an ordinary small-business owner it was a staggering fortune you might spend a lifetime of labor and still not accumulate.
No — for a man like Trainer Kang, who earned honestly with his body, it was money he could save his whole life and still never touch.
Even though he charged the cheapest PT rates of any gym around, he was forever bringing in top-grade equipment whenever he had the chance — clearly not the type obsessed with profit.
“I was stupid. Signing on the spot because I heard it was cheap was the root of it.”
“Where was the building?”
“The first and second basement floors in the prime commercial area near Parc1, just up ahead. Normally the deposit alone runs over 300 million for one floor, but they offered two floors for 400 million, with monthly rent a million cheaper than Dye-Gym’s current rate.”
“At that level, anyone would have been tempted.”
“I reported it to the police, but the man posing as the owner was a homeless man, and the broker who ran the scam had already fled abroad. There’s no way to catch them.”
Trainer Kang’s eyes reddened.
“The problem is...... none of that money was mine. I took a loan against the gym deposit, and in my panic I used loan sharks for the shortfall. I thought that once the construction finished and we opened, I could repay it out of revenue......”
And high-interest loan-shark money at that, with the interest snowballing. He said the debt-collection calls came every day, and that big men were one step away from turning up at the gym and wrecking the place.
“Hoo. So how much is the loan-shark principal?”
“I borrowed 50 million and they’re telling me to repay 100 million. The interest is already four months behind, so if I can’t pay 100 million including interest and principal by the end of this week, they say they’ll seize everything in the gym. Slap notices on the equipment and send it to auction......”
“That interest rate is illegal. Have you reported it to the court?”
“Even if I do, collection on the 50 million is still secured against the gym and its fittings. Same result.”
Trainer Kang finally hung his head and wept.
“My life is completely finished now, sir.”
Kang Pilgeun, of all people, was crying. The strong man who casually handled 500kg across the big three and never once backed down before a heavy barbell had crumbled utterly before the weight of a reality called money.
It hurt to watch.
Kang Pilgeun was the man who had rescued a 160kg fat man from other people’s sneers and contempt.
Taeseong’s hand kept moving toward the inside pocket of his jacket. The check he had prepared yesterday was in there.
He just had to take it out. Say “here you are, pay your debt with this,” and Trainer Kang would weep and thank him.
And even if full repayment was out of reach, the collection would stop for now.
But was this really the best way?
Ding.
Just then.
From the phone he had tucked into that same inside pocket alongside the check, a familiar alert sounded.
An unexpected notification from Wopora.
[Hidden mission activated: A Gym Rat’s Tears]
[Situation: Kang Pilgeun, your diet mentor, is in a desperate financial crisis. He has become prey in the jungle of capitalism.]
[Mission objective: Rescue Kang Pilgeun from his financial crisis.]
[Constraint: Simple cash support prohibited. Do not catch the fish for him — teach him to fish.]
[Reward: 100,000,000 won in cash.]
[Failure penalty: Kang Pilgeun’s bankruptcy and the gym’s closure. Loss of mentor.]
‘Simple cash support prohibited?’
Taeseong hesitated.
The system did not want Taeseong to solve this easily with money.
Thinking it over, he believed he understood why.
In fact, Wopora’s prescribed solution looked like the best one to Taeseong as well.
Kang Pilgeun was a proud man.
If Taeseong paid off his debt, he would be grateful in the moment, but he would live the rest of his life carrying a debt of the heart to Taeseong.
The equal relationship of member and trainer would collapse into debtor and creditor, or benefactor and beneficiary.
And the way of catching fish that Kim Taeseong, ace senior trader of Woojin Securities, knew was obvious.
‘He means make him repay it through investing?’
Taeseong put his hand back into his pocket and returned the phone.
He did not take out the envelope with the check.
“Trainer.”
There was strength in Taeseong’s voice. Trainer Kang, still choked up, raised his head.
“Do you trust me?”
“Sorry? Ah, what — where has that come from?”
“Me, as a person. Do you trust the human being Kim Taeseong?”
“If you’re asking trust or not, then of course I do. Since the day you first came in saying you wanted to lose weight, you haven’t missed a single scheduled day at the gym.”
“Then promise me one thing. That from now on you will do exactly as I say, without question. Do that, and I’ll help you with the problem in front of you.”
Trainer Kang looked as if he had no idea what this was about, but Taeseong’s eyes were so serious that he found himself nodding.
“Understood. I’ll do anything. Even if I have to sell an organ......”
“No. Nothing like that. How much money do you have on hand right now?”
“Sorry?”
“Down to the last coin — I’m asking how much cash you can raise right this moment.”
Trainer Kang rummaged in his pockets, checked a crumpled account statement and his mobile banking app.
“Because of the interest I have to pay the lender immediately, I borrowed 30 million won from someone who’s like a younger sibling to me. They said if I don’t send it today they’ll come storming into the gym......”
“A good sibling. To lend you a full 30 million.”
Against a 200 million debt it was hopelessly short. But as seed money it was enough. No — he had to make it enough.
“Don’t give that to the lender.”
“What? What do you mean? If I don’t, I’m dead.”
“You won’t die. I won’t let you. Open an Upbit account right now and deposit that money.”
“Uh...... Upbit? Do you mean...... coins?”
Trainer Kang’s eyes went round.
Even to a man who only worked iron in a gym, Bitcoin was not an unfamiliar word.
It was one of the words he had heard countless times on the news and in the chatter of gym members.
Gambling, fraud, ruin.
And Bitcoin.
“Sir, isn’t that gambling? If someone like me touches it, won’t I really go into the pit?”
Trainer Kang waved his hands.
“It isn’t gambling. Not right now.”
Taeseong said it firmly.
There was a conviction close to madness in Taeseong’s eyes.
“This is the record of the managed funds I’ve earned this year at Woojin Securities, where I work.”
A staggering figure, approaching 9.2 billion won.
“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million, hundred million...... hurk?! Th-this is really money you earned working as a stock trader?”
“Yes. It’s company managed funds, of course, so strictly speaking it isn’t my money. But it’s what I produced through investing this year — over the past three months or so, in fact.”
“Ha, haha...... I had no idea who I was dealing with.”
From the moment he learned Taeseong had made 9.2 billion with company funds alone, everything about Taeseong — his eyes, his manner of speech — became trustworthy to Kang Pilgeun.
“Shut your eyes and follow me. I’ll get your debt cleared with that 30 million and keep your gym.”
“B-but......”
“Trainer!”
Taeseong slapped the table.
“If I lose this money, you can crack my skull with a 50kg dumbbell from your gym. If you invest as I say and lose money, I will compensate you.”
At that, Trainer Kang swallowed. It was all or nothing anyway. There was nowhere left to retreat.
“A-all right. I’ll do it. To hell with it — I’m a dead man anyway, so I’ll trust you and go.”
***
The next day.
Meeting at the gym, the two of them took out their phones before doing any training.
Trainer Kang pulled out his phone with trembling hands.
Installing the app, opening an account, depositing 30 million won — the process went faster than expected.
But to Trainer Kang that time felt like an eternity.
“Right, now search Bitcoin. BTC.”
“Th-there’s not much movement, is there? Just the light going blue, then red......”
“This is the bottom. Press market buy for the full amount.”
“The f-full amount? All 30 million in one shot?”
Trainer Kang’s thick fingers shook over the buy button.
Forearms that did not tremble under a 140kg bench press were shaking like aspen leaves over a smartphone screen.
“Um...... sir, I asked that sibling I mentioned yesterday, and I heard that with Bitcoin the volatility is bigger than stocks, so putting everything in like this is basically gambling?”
“I guarantee you I know more about investing than that sibling does. Press it.”
“Sir...... my hand is shaking, I can’t press the buy button...... once I press this there’s really no taking it back.”
“A man who squats 200kg, trembling like this? Take a breath. In, and out.”
Taeseong guided Trainer Kang’s breathing exactly as if they were training.
“In, in, out, out...... hah, hoo......”
“Now, press it! Now!”
“Gwaaaah!”
Trainer Kang squeezed his eyes shut as if bracing for a lift and touched the screen.
[Buy order filled.]
30 million won turned into roughly 0.7 Bitcoin in an instant. Trainer Kang went white and set the phone down on the table.
“I d-did it...... what now?”
“Now you wait. Don’t answer the lender’s calls. Just leave one text saying you’ll repay everything, principal and interest, in three days.”
“Will those people sit still for that?”
“If you contact them first and even specify a date, it’ll be hard for them to come immediately. Legally, coming to collect from a debtor who hasn’t gone unreachable is illegal.”
Taeseong stood up.
“On your feet. We have to go train. When your nerves are shaken, there’s nothing like working iron, is there?”
“R-right...... we should train.”
Ding-a-ling—
At the sound of the gym’s automatic door opening, Kang Pilgeun rose reflexively and headed for the entrance.
“Welcome to Dye-G— huh? What? Why are you here?”
“......?”
Standing there, face flushed red and breathing hard, was Kang Hyeona.
She was in such a hurry that she did not even notice Taeseong was there and made straight for Kang Pilgeun.
“Oppa, why were you asking me about Bitcoin yesterday? And why aren’t you answering my messages or calls!”
“Huh? Sorry, Hyeona. I was in the middle of something important.”
Kang Hyeona’s sharp gaze went to the phone in Kang Pilgeun’s hand.
She instinctively snatched it away.
“Hey, hey! You can’t just grab someone else’s phone!”
“Are we someone else?”
Finding the Bitcoin exchange app on Kang Pilgeun’s screen, and inside it the vivid record of a 30-million-won purchase carved into it, Kang Hyeona’s face hardened.
“I’ll explain everything. So here’s what happened, Hyeona.”
“Oppa, don’t tell me you bought Bitcoin with the money I gave you?”
As Pilgeun stammered, unable to produce a proper answer, Taeseong quietly moved to his side.
“Ha, haha. I didn’t expect to see you here. Associate Kang, may I explain on his behalf?”
“...... Assistant Manager Kim?”
Under Kang Hyeona’s furious glare, Taeseong somehow found his lips going dry.