Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Morning came, and Gun-Ho found himself lying down on his bed wearing the same clothes he had worn yesterday.

“I didn’t brush my teeth last night. I didn’t even take my socks off and fell asleep.”

Several empty soju bottles were scattered here and there on his tiny room floor.

“It looks like an alcoholic’s room.”

Gun-Ho looked at the clock. It was half-past five.

“Oh, I don’t have a car. I’d better take a shower now and leave for work early.”

Gun-Ho cleaned his room roughly and took a shower. He went out to take a taxi without having breakfast.

“Dunpo, Shinbong Town!”

Gun-Ho arrived at work at 7 AM. No one was at work that early yet; the office was quiet. Gun-Ho turned on his computer as soon as he sat at his desk while clenching his jaw. He then opened the stock website, PaxNet.

“If I remember correctly, the name of the company Chairman Lee mentioned was InsunENT.”

Sparks appeared in his eyes.

“Hmmm… their gross sales are over 100,000,000,000 won. Their financial statements look good. The founder is a high school graduate? Wow, he is indeed a successful man. Well, why not me!”

When Gun-Ho invested in stocks with the sunshine loan several years ago, he didn’t consult financial statements. His investment in stocks was an investment without knowledge or information. But now, he knew how to read and analyze financial statements; thanks to his work experience in accounting.

“Their stocks are undervalued. Stock market manipulators haven’t touched their stocks yet. Since the number of trades is increasing, the manipulators started buying their stocks lately.”

When Gun-Ho bit his lip, it bled out again; he must have bitten the same area of his lip that he had bitten yesterday.

Gun-Ho drafted the report of deposits and withdrawals. It was a report prepared by the accounting team to be handed out to the president every morning. The report usually included the current status of deposits and withdrawals on the previous day, the balance of each bank, and the status of promissory notes the company had.

“On Friday, we received the B2B payment of 520,000,000 won from our major client, Mulpasaneop Corp. through the Industrial Bank of Korea. We also received the B2B payment of 24,000,000 won from Bochang Industry through the Shinhan Bank.”

Gun-Ho entered all data into Excel proficiently.

B2B (Business to Business) is an electronic commerce transaction between companies. Once a company issues a promissory note, a bank, as a middle man, takes the promissory note and pays the payee company after applying the early payment discount. Many companies often use this B2B system for transactions—dealing with a large amount of money.

The workers in the factory usually came to work at 8 AM. When the clock hits 8, workers started coming to work. The president usually came to work at 7:30 AM and walked around the work site in the factory, and then he walked up to the second floor where all offices were located. Many presidents of mid-size companies were morning persons.

“Good morning!”

When the president came to the office, the office workers stood up and gave a 90-degree bow to the president.

“Hmm, hmm. Uh? Mr. Gun-Ho Goo, you came to work early today.”

Gun-Ho followed the president to his office carrying the report of deposits and withdrawals.

“Here is the report of deposits and withdrawals.”

“You are so fast.”

The president looked at the report thoroughly.

“The total balance from four banks is 6,400,000 won, and we received the B2B from Mulpasaneop of 520,000,000 won, and 24,000,000 won from Bochang Industry…”

“That’s correct. I will get the discounted amount for the Bochang Industry payment and pay for the part of the credit purchase of raw materials with it. And for the Mulpasaneop payment, I will get the discounted payment on the 24th to pay the wages.”

“Okay, we don’t have to get all of the discounted payments right now since we have to pay for the fee accordingly.”

“That’s right. I will proceed then.”

The president signed on the approval section of the report without a problem.

“Gun-Ho Goo! You did a good job!”

“Okay, I will do it.”

Gun-Ho gave a 90-degree bow to the president before he could leave his office. Before Gun-Ho left the office, the president called Gun-Ho again.

“This is a wedding invitation. Please mail 200,000 won to the address shown on that invitation; I mean with my name.”

“Okay.”

Gun-Ho bowed respectfully to the president again and left his office while carrying the wedding invitation.

Gun-Ho went outside for a moment. He then let out a deep sigh while looking up the sky. He then fastened his belt. He looked resolute and determined just like a general before going to war when he came back to his desk. He opened the Industrial Bank of Korea website.

“I am borrowing the money for a few weeks. I will pay all back to the company!”

His eyes appeared bloodshot. Gun-Ho entered to view the account receivables and applied the early payment discount on Mulpasaneop’s 520,000,000 won. It didn’t take even a second for the 515,000,000 won cash to be transferred to the company bank account; the amount reflected the fee charged by the bank.

“Just for a few weeks.”

Gun-Ho transferred all of 515,000,000 won into his personal bank account. An error message appeared immediately: ‘transfer failure.’

“Oh, that’s right. The outgoing transfer limit for the YS Tech bank account is 500,000,000 won.”

Gun-Ho adjusted the amount to 500,000,000 won and tried the transfer again. This time a success message appeared.

“I will use the money until payday.”

After the transfer, Gun-Ho continued concentrating on working with his computer. He looked around for a second. He then took out Hyundai Securities card from the back of his diary. He had made this card when he invested in stocks with sunshine loan a few years back.

“My bank account has 100,000,000 won outgoing transfer limit. Let’s move 100,000,000 to my stock account in Hyundai Securities.”

Gun-Ho looked around with bloodshot eyes.

“No one is looking. Let’s download the speed online trading.”

Gun-Ho logged in to the Hyundai Securities online stocks trading with the login ID and password he had written down in his diary.

“100,000,000 won just came in!”

Gun-Ho bought the InsunENT stocks with all of 100,000,000 won. In the afternoon that day, he went to the Dunpo post office; the general affairs manager took him to the post office with his car as a favor. Gun-Ho mailed the wedding gift money for the president there and stopped by his bank. He raised the outgoing transfer limit from 100,000,000 to 300,000,000 won.

“I will send 200,000,000 more to my Hyundai Securities stock account.”

Gun-Ho purchased more of InsunENT stocks that day with 200,000,000 won.

“Well, I will see!”

When it was 3:30 in the afternoon, Gun-Ho checked the stock closing price; 1.5% down.

“B2B discount price is 5,000,000 won; stock loss is 4,500,000 won. F*ck! If I add the stock trading fee, I lost 10,000,000 won already. I lost half of my yearly salary in the blink of an eye today!”

It was weird though. Gun-Ho used to get irritated and upset when he had to spend even 100,000 won for his car repairing, but he felt calm now. Half of his yearly salary was gone, but he was calm.

Tuesday came around.

Gun-Ho transferred the remaining 200,000,000 to his stock account and bought more of InsunENT stocks even though its stock price went down, in order to reduce the average cost of stocks he invested. The total cost he invested in this stock was 500,000,000 won. After he purchased later at a lesser price, the estimated loss reduced from -1.5% to -0.65%.

“I have 20 days left until the payday. It is now up to God.”

Gun-Ho would face his fate after 20 days—he could make money or he could go to prison. Gun-Ho quietly closed his eyes. He felt like he could hear something.