Chapter 9
I was bored with my middle school life. The joy I felt in seeing my friends, whom I barely remembered, ended after one day. My bigger physique grabbed people’s attention in the school, and thanks to that, time went by with no incident. No one at school, including my classmates and seniors, dared to pick on me. By my first year of middle school, I was already around six feet tall. The adult lives of teachers were more interesting to me than those of young students.
It was recess time, and the teachers’ office window was filled with people as I looked at it on my way to and from the washroom. Male teachers were talking about stocks as they smoked, and they seemed happier than yesterday. Even though major firms like Hando, Samil, and Chamro were going bankrupt, their ruin had not affected the teaching profession yet. Moreover, the currency war that started in Thailand wouldn’t affect them at all. The only thing that mattered to them was the rise in stocks they bought the day before.
The bell that signaled the end of recess turned on, and the students began running back to classes. The hallway was so empty in such an instant, and, at first, I felt awkward seeing it. Things had not changed after two months, and the vacant hallway, where only silence remained with no vitality, reminded me of memories I didn’t want to recall, like the sight of the city where all its citizens lay dead.
***
I headed to Gimpo Airport after school. Jonathan’s estimated arrival time was at seven o’clock in the evening. I was holding a small sign with his name on it at the arrivals hall. Since I had seen his young photo on the website and exchanged emails several times, I thought I would not be surprised by how young he looked.
However, that was not the case. Jonathan came in wearing a black suit and was holding a 007 bag. This was in direct contrast to my memories of him wearing the protective gear he got from the platinum box and carrying an iron club inwrought with mana stones. His eyes looked as if they could prove he lived in a peaceful world. His eyes flickered back and forth between my sign and me.
Jonathan’s face had no scars like the picture, and it was even glowing. It seemed the long flight didn’t bother him at all. He must have had pleasant dreams while crossing the Pacific Ocean to meet me.
“Hi, I’m Jonathan,” he approached me and said. It was the first time I saw his eyes filled with hope and heard his lively voice.
“Let’s go somewhere else. Follow me.” I was fluent in speaking English. He looked a little surprised at that.
I had spotted an unpopular restaurant in the airport. Jonathan’s confident footsteps followed after me as I led the way. He probably thought he could meet the person that sent him the email there, and I didn’t blame him. There was no way he would think a young student with a backpack would be the person who sent the email.
He must have been thinking of a stereotypical nerdy Asian guy with a round face and slick hair. He was probably picturing that the man would wear an oversized suit, wipe his glasses, then ask Jonathan for a handshake after seeing him.
I led Jonathan to a place where no one else was around us. The person sitting across the table from him was me, who led him from the arrival hall. Jonathan blinked and shrugged as if to ask what was happening.
“I sent you the email, Jonathan. Thanks for coming all the way here to meet me.”
Jonathan stared at me for a long time, then covered his face with his gigantic hands. A sigh of despair came out of his mouth. He didn’t take off his hands but stared at me through his fingers.
“I came to Korea after betting my entire life on this! Everything on your little prank! Do you know what you have done?”
Jonathan didn’t raise his voice, but I could see how furious he was from his eyes between his fingers. Those were the eyes I was familiar with. He had those eyes when he glared at monsters and murmured that he would survive.
Jonathan stood up without saying a word, then he looked down at me. I felt the rage in his eyes as if he would kick me, knock me down and never stop punching me until I died.
“Does Wall Street judge people by their age?”
When I answered, the server went back after coming to get our orders because we were too tense.
“How old are you? Nineteen? Twenty?” Jonathan taunted.
“If you continue to stare at me like that, someone is going to call the police,” I pointed at the counter with my chin as the manager and server were whispering about us there.
“You can go back and leave things like this. But since you are a guest who came across the ocean, it’s courtesy to give you a gift.”
I took out an investment draft I wrote last night from the bag and handed it to Jonathan. He snatched it from my hands not to check its contents but to rip it in front of me. He grabbed the paper with both hands and prepared to tear it up, but then he suddenly stopped. His fiercely glaring eyes were staring at the chart on the report.
“Please sit down,” I said.
***
“The current Asian economic crisis was inevitable since the U.S. government lent an infinite amount of American Dollars to Asian countries. This has happened since the time they began saying how the twenty-first century will be Asia’s and hyped up the Four Asian Tigers. The hedge funds merely piggybacked on that,” I said.
“Piggyback?” Jonathan halted.
I dusted off my shoulder with my fingers. Jonathan nodded to show me that he understood and started reading the draft from the beginning.
“How is Wall Street?” I asked.
“What do you think?” Jonathan replied in a distracted manner. However, the most important point was missing from that report no matter how many times he read over it. I was only showing him the large forest, and the roots and branches were hidden beneath the leaves. The dates were missing.
“This is how the trend will go,” I pointed at the part where the chart dipped again.
“You won’t tell me the approximate date until I sign it? You think the attackers will collapse Thailand baht in one day?” Jonathan questioned.
“Jonathan, you were part of Wall Street. How was your perspective on it before reading my report?” I questioned. Jonathan couldn’t reply easily, and he wouldn’t be the only one.
This was the day after the Thailand government kicked the hedge funds’ butts. The battle that was considered one-sided had now become unpredictable. That was the current atmosphere in Wall Street, and it would continue until the Thailand government declared surrender on July second.
Jonathan became quiet and kept flipping through the report. If you knew what to expect, it wouldn’t be difficult to piece together the process. I organized the traces of fierce battle between Thailand and New York’s foreign currency markets, using numerous charts and graphs to point in a single direction.
It took less time for Jonathan to come to a conclusion than I expected.
“In the end, the attackers will win if there’s one more condition…” Jonathan stared at me, and it was obvious that he was testing me.
“I’m not the one who should be answering. Jonathan, you have to do it, so I can decide if you are qualified to work with me,” I said. Jonathan started to chuckle. Then, he seemed to be more refreshed now.
“Is my money, career experience and time not enough for you?” Jonathan was caught off guard.
“It’s enough if you are willing to step down from management. Are you?” I asked. He smiled as if it wasn’t worth answering.
“I’m risking everything. What are you risking?” Jonathan asked.
“Opportunity cost. How much do you think I could’ve earned from March if I chose someone else instead of you? Even as we talk, I’m losing money that I could’ve earned,” I replied.
Jonathan stopped himself from responding right back because he knew he didn’t have many nerves especially as he understood the situation. Since everyone at Wall Street was betting on the drop in baht, he was aware that I could have earned an astronomical amount of money by betting on the opposite side.
“Haven’t you decided yet?” I asked.
“I need more time to think. In spite of everything, you….you are just…this is all unexpected …” Jonathan hesitated.
“Okay, I will wait until June 3rd,” I replied and stood up.
“Wait. Why June 3rd?” Jonathan also hurriedly stood up and even blocked me as if I would disappear like a ghost. His eyes followed my gaze to the report he was holding.
“Oh!” He flipped through the pages of the report and stopped to show me my estimated short-term baht exchange rate chart. He pointed where the chart dipped, the point where the short-term baht uptrend stopped. No one could predict how long the uptrend of the baht would continue in this situation, so me telling him the exact date shocked him.
“This happens on June second, right?” Jonathan asked in an excited tone.
“All you have to do is figure out how much we’ll lose in the remaining days,” I replied.
“You can predict the trend, but not the date. Unless you are a god,” he spoke firmly.
“Maybe, you are meeting with one right now,” I said.
“This is insane! I’ve dealt with all sorts of people, but a guy like you…” he seemed to be dumbfounded.
“You have until June 3rd. If you can’t make a decision until then, I will consider our relationship to be over.” I was determined.
***
It was June 3rd, and an email arrived after a while.
- Jonathan: What should we name our company?
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