Late November 1997.
Several days had passed since I claimed Branch Manager Joo Yun-ha's soul in W Securities' VIP dealing room.
Mornings in the Strategic Planning Office at Taeseong Group headquarters were steeped in the stench of cigarettes and the convulsive ringing of telephones.
Since the national default, every day in the office had been a life-or-death battle.
But in the Team 1 area, or more precisely, around Department Head Park's desk, there was a peculiar air of energy and relief.
"Baek, come here a moment. I finally have all the signatures."
His face flushed with excitement, Department Head Park waved a heavy leather approval folder.
Inside were bold corporate seal impressions representing Taeseong Construction (eldest son), Taeseong Electronics (second son), and Taeseong Department Store (eldest daughter), stamped side by side.
The proposal to establish a special-purpose company (SPC) under Taeseong Group, provisionally named ‘Taeseong Asset Management,’ had received final approval.
"Of course, the managing director and the directors had all but agreed back in the conference room."
Department Head Park laughed heartily and clapped me roughly on the shoulder.
"But after reading the report you put together this time, they stamped it without a single objection. It is all thanks to your flawless proposal."
He was thoroughly elated, as though the report were a magic wand that would put out the immediate fires at every troubled affiliate.
"It is all thanks to the solid groundwork you laid with the people upstairs, sir. What have I done, really?"
Maintaining a deeply deferential posture, I gave him an amiable smile.
But my gaze was fixed on the supplementary agreement cleverly concealed among the countless clauses behind the approval sheet.
[Agreement on Mutual Liquidity Support and Unlimited Joint and Several Guarantees Between Affiliates]
It was a hideous slave contract that put each sibling's leash in the others' hands.
I had deliberately omitted the ‘board meeting minutes’ essential to such enormous joint and several guarantees from the proposal template.
When those grotesque guarantees blew up one day, the three siblings would not merely lose their companies. They would be scrambling to deal with criminal breach of trust arising from procedural defects as well.
"Now we just use this company to absorb land from subcontractors like Jinsan Construction, correct?"
"Yes, sir. It will be the most efficient defensive wall for gathering sound assets at a pittance."
Looking satisfied with my answer, Department Head Park slammed his final seal onto the document on his desk.
The first phantom company established in Taeseong's name had officially launched.
A few days later, shortly before lunch, I was in the ground-floor lobby of Taeseong Group headquarters.
A shabby man was being dragged across the marble floor, both arms restrained by security guards.
President Choi of Jinsan Construction had come again.
"Mr. Baek! Mr. Baek!! Please, just this once! Save us just this once!"
Spotting me as I stepped out of the elevator, he struggled desperately, crawled across the floor, and seized my trouser leg.
His once neatly slicked hair was a bird's nest, and his eyes were blood-red with burst capillaries.
A final declaration of default.
This was the miserable end of a man whose life's work had disintegrated overnight.
"At this rate, all our employees will be thrown onto the streets! If you would just release half the frozen progress payments…!"
I looked down expressionlessly at the trembling hands clutching my trouser leg.
"President Choi. The merchant bank's deadline has already passed, and your default has been made final, has it not?"
I tore his hands away without mercy and spoke.
"Hooking a corpse up to a ventilator does not bring it back to life. All you get is the reek of decay."
"W-what are you saying…? How could Taeseong—no, how could someone like you do this to us?! We worked ourselves to the bone for Taeseong!"
I let out a faint, incredulous laugh at his anguished cries.
A naive old man of 1997.
He still seemed unable to accept what happened to disposable tools once capitalism had no further use for them.
"Then take those bones quietly to your grave. Why are you causing a scene in someone else's lobby?"
I bent toward his ear as he froze in shock and whispered coldly.
"Before you disgrace yourself any further, prepare to polish the creditor group's shoes. The first-priority mortgage liens on your company's prime sites and equipment will soon be bundled into non-performing loans (NPL) and dumped onto the market by your creditors."
I gestured to the security guards with my chin, and they lifted him like a piece of luggage and flung him onto the cold asphalt beyond the revolving doors.
Am I supposed to turn over a new leaf just because I came back from the dead?
To hell with that nonsense.
For the sake of my second life and perfect revenge, I have to keep moving forward, willingly treading through blood.
Time sped onward again, and before long it was December 1997.
The exchange rate tore through even 1,500 won like a sheet of paper and soared madly toward the 2,000-won summit.
[Current Price of KOSPI 200 Index December-Expiry Put Options]
[Current Return: Above 14,500%]
The farther the index plunged through the basement beneath the floor, the higher my return, flashing red, climbed into numbers bordering on madness.
I had started with a stake of just 126 million won.
That meager seed money had swollen monstrously through leverage and was now approaching tens of billions of won.
Other people's tears of blood had become the perfect fuel for my money machine.
Suppressing the delight welling up inside me, I took a sip of cold coffee.
Only a few days remained until the put options expired.
The final countdown to cashing out the capital for my great hunt had begun.
After work, in a deserted Yeouido alley swept by cutting winds,
I turned up my coat collar and stepped into a secluded public telephone booth.
A sharp metallic scrape sounded as the coin dropped, and a familiar voice came through the receiver.
"C-CEO Baek! I have been waiting for your call!"
It was Joo Yun-ha's breathless voice: the manager of W Securities' Yeouido branch, or rather, the man who had now become my perfect figurehead CEO.
"Have you finished setting up the overseas company as instructed?"
"Yes! Just now, through a local agent, I completed the incorporation of the SPC in the Cayman Islands to serve as a foreign private equity fund in disguise! Neither its legal owner nor the source of its funds can be traced. On the surface, it is perfectly convincing 'foreign speculative capital.'"
"Good work. The timing is excellent."
"B-but, CEO Baek. As expiry approaches, the atmosphere in our trading hall is becoming desperate. The index is already at rock bottom. We should start closing the position bit by bit and converting it to cash, even now……."
"Branch Manager Joo."
I stared at my cold eyes reflected in the narrow booth window and silenced him.
"I decide when to exit with my capital. You need only follow my instructions."
"Ah… Yes, sir! I will remember that!"
"And start preparing to leave your branch manager's position."
"Yes, CEO Baek!"
CLICK.
Without hesitation, I put down the receiver and stepped out of the booth.
Above Yeouido's skyscrapers, shrouded in darkness, the scent of the enormous blood-red capital about to burst forth hung thick in the air.
Several days later,
December's futures and options expiry day finally arrived.
The market closed in a total rout, allowing not the slightest rebound.
That meant my deep out-of-the-money put options had locked in astonishing proceeds worth tens of billions of won.
"Tomorrow morning, before the market opens, act as soon as the cash settlement proceeds arrive."
On the telephone with Joo Yun-ha again, I gave the order without the slightest excitement.
"Route the funds through W Securities' foreign headquarters account using a swap (Swap) transaction. Deposit them into the Cayman Islands SPC's account as perfectly legitimate dollar investment capital."
Tens of billions in capital would slip out as though mocking the country's lax controls on dollar outflows, and enter the belly of a vulture fund (Vulture Fund) seemingly flown in from Wall Street.
"Have you thought of a name for the company?"
At his question, I fell silent briefly and rolled the name around in my mouth.
"The official name will be 'Rubicon Partners (Rubicon Partners).'"
"Rubicon Partners… Does it have some special meaning?"
"It is a declaration of war. The die has been cast, and once we cross the river, there is no turning back."
I continued as though delivering a cold warning through the receiver.
"I will use this vast capital to tear into an enormous empire. It means a merciless hunt has begun, one that will never stop until their breathing does."
"R-Rubicon Partners! Understood. I will make every arrangement perfectly, even if I have to stay up all weekend! But, CEO Baek, where will we make our first investment with this enormous sum…?"
At the greedy tremor in his voice, I curled my lips into a cold smile.
It was a declaration that once we crossed the river, we could never return.
Now it was time to use that overwhelming financial power to snatch Taeseong's intended prey before it could swallow it.
"Branch Manager Joo."
I adjusted my grip on the public telephone's cold receiver and continued.
"Discreetly contact Jinsan Construction's creditor group. Those 'first-priority mortgage liens' they hold on Jinsan's prime Gangnam land and top-tier equipment. We will have them bundled into non-performing loans (NPL) and take them through a privately negotiated contract."
"You mean purchasing non-performing loans? The usual procedure is to wait until the assets reach a court auction……."
"It is a waste of time. Court auctions move far too slowly. Offer to buy the debt with 'cash dollars' from the merchant banks and banks whose dollar reserves have dried up. A single dollar in front of them right now will matter more to them than the eventual winning bid at a court auction."
"……! Understood. As instructed, I will begin negotiations immediately with Rubicon's capital behind us."
For a moment, I heard his harsh breathing through the receiver.
As a W Securities branch manager in his late forties, Joo Yun-ha had weathered every kind of hardship.
Yet now he answered the orders of a young man who looked barely past twenty, with even his soul held as collateral.
"CEO Baek. I am handing in my resignation to W Securities tomorrow. From now on, I am staking everything on you."
Looking at my expressionless face reflected in the narrow pane, I spoke quietly.
"Good. Then let us settle the titles first. To the outside world, you are the CEO of 'Rubicon Partners.' So I will address you as 'CEO Joo.'"
"Pardon? But you are the real CEO. How could I dare……?"
"I told you. You are my public face. I will remain a 'new employee' in Taeseong Group's Strategic Planning Office and direct you from behind the scenes."
"……!! A-a new employee? You mean a new employee in Taeseong Group's Strategic Planning Office?"
His astonished cry burst through the receiver.
He seemed unable to believe that the monster who wagered tens of billions without blinking was the most junior employee of a major corporation.
"There is no need to be surprised. Your job is to carry out my orders perfectly, not question who I am."
I added coldly, as though soothing him where he had frozen.
"We are now more than a superior and subordinate. We are accomplices and cooperative partners who will dismantle the vast empire called Taeseong. CEO Joo, put cash dollars in front of them in the name of Rubicon Partners. The moment we buy up all that debt through a privately negotiated contract, Jinsan Construction's lifeline and ownership will be entirely ours."