NOVEL NEXT 8
“Who did you say is here?”
In the vice president’s office of the WM Division at Yuseong Investment Securities headquarters, Vice President Sim Ju-won asked his secretary with a surprised expression.
“It’s Assistant Manager Choi Woojin from the Seongnam branch.”
“Is this someone I know?”
At Sim Ju-won’s words, the secretary remained silent.
He knew it wasn’t a question that required an answer.
“Or did I have a separate appointment?”
“There’s no Assistant Manager Choi Woojin among your appointments for today.”
“Then why would a mere branch assistant manager have reason to seek me out?”
Sim Ju-won asked his secretary with an amused smile.
“He says he needs to speak with you personally.”
“Well, well.”
Sim Ju-won chuckled incredulously at the secretary’s words.
He knew that young employees these days were categorized as Generation MZ and that they were different from when he was young.
He understood that they had strong self-assertions and preferred horizontal communication over vertical communication.
However, never once had a branch employee come to see him directly.
“Do I have any appointments this afternoon?”
“You need to leave for dinner with the chairman of Hanseong Cooperative in 15 minutes.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Sim Ju-won recalled that he had a dinner appointment with a VIP client today.
“So that means I have 15 minutes left, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“Tell him to come in. If he’s come to see me, he must have something to say.”
At Sim Ju-won’s instruction, the secretary bowed and left the vice president’s office, and the vice president waited with an amused smile.
Knock knock-
“Come in.”
A moment later, a knock was heard, and at Sim Ju-won’s invitation, the door opened and a young-looking employee entered the room and bowed.
“Vice President, thank you for making time despite my sudden request. I’m Assistant Manager Choi Woojin from the Seongnam branch.”
At the polite greeting, Sim Ju-won stood up and approached Choi Woojin.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Sim Ju-won.”
As Sim Ju-won approached and extended his hand, Choi Woojin grasped it with both hands. The vice president nodded and gestured towards the sofa at one side of the room.
“Shall we sit?”
At Sim Ju-won’s words, the two took their seats on the sofa, and as Choi Woojin sat down with a very tense expression, the vice president opened his mouth.
“I’m surprised. I’ve been an executive in this company for over 5 years, but this is the first time a mere assistant manager has come to ask for my time.”
“…I’m sorry. I kept wondering if this was the right thing to do on my way here to headquarters.”
“I’m not blaming you. As I said, I found it interesting and that’s why I granted this meeting.”
Yuseong Investment Securities was a subsidiary of the large conglomerate Yuseong Group.
Unlike Taesan Securities or Seonjin Securities, Yuseong Investment Securities, as a subsidiary of a chaebol group ranked 5th in the business world, was different.
While those two were purely securities firms, Yuseong Securities was barely hanging on by managing retirement pensions for other subsidiaries within the Yuseong Group.
However, for the past few years, as the group’s financial business direction shifted towards nurturing the securities company, they had been expanding enormously into corporate and personal finance.
“I hope this time will be beneficial for both me and our Assistant Manager Choi Woojin.”
And at the center of it all, Sim Ju-won, the head of the WM Division, was playing a big role.
At Sim Ju-won’s words, which seemed to carry a warning, Choi Woojin hesitated for a moment before taking out some documents from his bag and placing them on the table.
“Our branch is currently managing a block deal.”
At Choi Woojin’s words, Sim Ju-won furrowed his brow.
While branches did sometimes handle block deals, they were generally managed by headquarters.
“At the Seongnam branch? This is the first I’m hearing of it. Is it for a corporation or an individual major shareholder?”
“It’s J-On System. While they are a corporate client trading with our branch, to be precise, we’re working on a block deal to sell shares owned by J-On System’s president and executives.”
“So in the end, it’s a personal transaction…”
As he listened to Choi Woojin’s words, Sim Ju-won became increasingly perplexed.
He didn’t like the fact that something he didn’t know about was being carried out at a branch.
“May I take a look?”
“Yes, I brought it for you to review.”
Yuseong Investment Securities had a president and CEO under the board of directors.
The headquarters was composed of five divisions, and it was the vice presidents’ job to lead each division.
In other words, five vice presidents were leading their respective divisions.
And since one of them had been promoted to CEO, the divisions were engaged in fierce competition.
That’s why Choi Woojin had come to see Vice President Sim Ju-won, the strongest competitor of Vice President Hwang In-yong, who was conducting the illegal transaction.
“This is…”
Sim Ju-won’s expression gradually hardened.
“This…”
Sim Ju-won continued to struggle, seemingly trying to find the right words.
“May I speak first?”
When Choi Woojin asked, Sim Ju-won sighed and nodded.
“It’s exactly as written in the documents. As I was handling the practical work, too many suspicions piled up, so I organized them.”
“Are you in charge of this transaction?”
He had already dropped the honorifics when addressing Choi Woojin. His tone seemed to be suppressing anger.
“That’s correct.”
“A PB?”
Sim Ju-won himself was a former PB.
PBs generally didn’t handle brokerage for block deals. Not unless it was a special situation.
This block deal had been mishandled from the very beginning.
The WM Division that Sim Ju-won was in charge of managed the branches, so it made no sense for a branch to be conducting a block deal without the knowledge of the vice president leading the WM Division.
And PBs were not specialists in block deal transactions either.
“When I first received the instruction, I was blinded by the commission, but a smart friend at the branch brought me these documents.”
“So you didn’t discover this yourself?”
“No, an operations team employee uncovered it.”
Sim Ju-won furrowed his brow.
He couldn’t understand how a branch could be run in such a way that a PB was handling a block deal and an operations team employee knew about this transaction.
“To be precise, he was helping me with my work.”
“So that’s how the Seongnam branch has been operating.”
Sim Ju-won seemed to be trying to contain his anger by clenching his jaw.
For the past few years, Sim Ju-won had put effort into improving the quality of Yuseong Investment Securities’ branch operations, to the point where they ranked first in customer satisfaction surveys.
But when he learned that work in the actual field was being carried out differently from his instructions, he couldn’t suppress his anger.
“Sigh… Well, that’s not the important thing right now. So, it’s your judgment, as the person handling the practical work, that an illegal broker is involved.”
“To be precise, it’s the judgment of two people.”
“What would an operations team employee know…”
“As I said, he’s the employee who first discovered this problem. In my personal opinion, he’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”
Sim Ju-won was taken aback by Choi Woojin’s boldness in suggesting that his assessment was wrong, but he didn’t have the luxury to dwell on such things right now.
“Let’s leave the unnecessary talk for later. The Seongnam branch manager was Heo Jin-tae, right?”
Sim Ju-won recalled the face of Heo Jin-tae, whom he had met sometime before. He was a man full of greed and ambition.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Is Heo Jin-tae involved in this?”
“In my opinion, he is. Branch Manager Heo Jin-tae was the one who first brought this deal to us. And…”
Choi Woojin took a deep breath and opened his mouth towards Sim Ju-won.
“Branch Manager Heo Jin-tae said that Vice President Hwang In-yong was the one who sent this deal down to the branch.”
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Scratch scratch-
A week later, Yuseong Investment Securities’ Seongnam branch was having a day no different from usual.
Dokyung had been helping Choi Woojin with his work for ten days now, but since the day Choi Woojin had gone out, no changes had occurred.
‘Dokyung-ssi, for now, let’s just do our job.’
Choi Woojin had told Dokyung that when he returned, and Dokyung didn’t ask for the reason.
He could already sense from Choi Woojin’s expression that the arrow had left the bowstring.
As the two were busily working, they heard the sound of the door opening, and their gazes turned towards the door without hesitation.
“Branch Manager.”
The one who opened the door and entered was Branch Manager Heo Jin-tae, who looked at Choi Woojin with a benevolent smile and opened his mouth.
“So, Assistant Manager Choi. Are you handling the block deal well?”
“Yes, we’ve received contact from a party interested in purchasing and are preparing the related documents.”
At those words, Dokyung looked at Choi Woojin, but quickly composed his expression as if trying not to show any reaction.
In reality, nothing was progressing with this matter.
Since the day Choi Woojin had returned from his external appointment, Dokyung himself had been helping with market condition management-related work, having stepped away from the block deal.
“Is that so?”
The branch manager nodded, smiling brightly as if he had heard good news.
“As expected, I made the right choice entrusting this job to you, Assistant Manager Choi. It’s your first time handling a block deal, but you’re doing it perfectly.”
Choi Woojin had been crafting plausible reports indicating that work was progressing and reporting them to the branch manager.
“Once this job is finished…”
The branch manager stopped mid-sentence and glanced at Dokyung, who was watching him from the side. He tried not to pay attention, but that gaze always irked him.
“Branch Manager?”
Choi Woojin called out to the branch manager, seemingly having sensed the uncomfortable atmosphere.
“After working with Dokyung-ssi for a few days, I felt he was someone who could keep his mouth shut.”
“Really?”
The branch manager withdrew his gaze from Dokyung as if deciding to treat him as a non-entity and looked at Choi Woojin.
“Once this job is finished, you’ll be pocketing a hefty incentive, so let’s endure a bit more.”
“Yes, I understand. You can trust me and leave it…”
“B-Branch Manager! You were here?”
Just then, the deputy branch manager rushed in, panting, and spoke to the branch manager.
“What’s the matter? Why are you in such a hurry?”
“W-Well… Huff, puff.”
The deputy branch manager, trying to answer the branch manager’s question, caught his breath and looked at the branch manager with a troubled expression.
“Outside…”
Bang-
Just as the deputy branch manager was about to speak, the door burst open with a bang, and a group of men entered the room.
“Here you are, Branch Manager Heo Jin-tae.”
“Who…”
“We’re from the headquarters audit team. This is the special audit directive from the board of directors.”
As the audit team employee said this and held out a document, Heo Jin-tae snatched the paper.
“What special audit!”
“We’re scheduled to conduct a special audit of the Seongnam branch starting today, and as of this moment, Branch Manager Heo Jin-tae, you are to be removed from your duties. That’s the order.”
At the audit team employee’s words, Heo Jin-tae read through the document with a bewildered expression.
“Th-This…”
“A special audit of Vice President Hwang In-yong is already underway at headquarters. Let’s make this easy, shall we? All the employees are watching.”
When the audit team employee mentioned Hwang In-yong’s name, Heo Jin-tae staggered as if his legs had given out.
“We’ll start the audit now. As stated in the directive, Branch Manager Heo Jin-tae, you’ve been summoned to headquarters tomorrow, so please make sure to show up.”
“S-Something’s wrong!”
As Heo Jin-tae shouted, the audit team employee said,
“It seems you still don’t get it, Heo Jin-tae-ssi. Vice President Hwang In-yong has been relieved of his position as of today. He’s scheduled to be reported to the prosecution soon. Should I say more in front of these people listening?”
As the audit team employee spoke in an angry tone, Heo Jin-tae collapsed onto the floor.
“Gather all the documents from the branch manager’s office and the deputy branch manager’s office, don’t miss anything.”
The audit team employee ordered the staff who had come with him and then looked at the fallen Heo Jin-tae.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow. Make sure to come on time.”
With those final words, the audit team employee left the room, and Dokyung and Choi Woojin looked at Heo Jin-tae with hardened expressions.