Teenagers were teenagers, and it was the era when school-based action genres were popular in both comics and films. When I went training at the gyms downtown and came home sore every day, my parents supported me. However, my schoolmates made lots of noise. Rumors about me were so childish that they made me cringe. People were claiming that I fought against a gang alone and that I was a hidden candidate for a leader of a clan. 

However, the young kids’ silly antics ended after summer vacation. Today was one of my vacation days, an ordinary day where I went to summer cram classes and played basketball with my imaginary friend Seong-Ho. At least, that’s what my mom thought.

“Hey Seon-Hu, invite Seong-Ho to our place one day. I’ve never seen the face of my son’s best friend,” my mother told me.

“Okay,” I replied.

She asked, “Also, are you going to continue boxing?”

“I will quit if you want me to,” I answered.

“You always go too far. I like that you started working out again,” she smiled.

“Oh yeah,” I responded.

My mom took out a tube of ointment from her apron pocket. For the past few days, she had been applying the anti-scarring ointment on my scars after stopping me from going out.

“I’m okay if you get a bit rebellious,” she said.

I smiled silently instead of giving a verbal response. 

“My son is so handsome. Come home early. Oh yes, do you have your pocket money?” she questioned.

I already used my money, but there will be no reason for me to live on an ordinary middle schooler’s pocket money from today onwards. Soon, there was money that should have come into my pocket.

***

「Il-shin Financial Holdings held a board meeting on the twenty-first and announced that they decided to establish ‘Jeon-il Investments’, a joint investment firm with a foreign company specializing in international investments, called Golden Wish. The decision made under the benefits by the government was…」

Although it was just a short article, it was not yet at the level that would be announced in a newspaper. A VIP in a high position would have ordered this press release to give the public something hopeful during a foreign exchange crisis. 

The attached black and white picture was small. There was no specific information regarding how much foreign currency this deal would bring in, and the picture just showed an unnamed foreign CEO shaking hands with the CEO of a small holdings company. The article exaggerated that the foreign company specialized in international investments, but Gold Wish was a bogus paper company. However, the government was already promising multiple benefits. 

Foreign capital was flowing out like a low tide, and even domestic investors were stepping out since the fear was spreading out in the market. I understood that they would like to grasp anything at this point, but...I felt so bad. 

A shadow leaned over the newspaper I was reading. When I looked up, a foreign guy from the picture in the article was staring at me. He was wearing a hat, but his jaw exactly matched the picture. 

We exchanged a signal. His facial expression wasn’t good. He seemed to have lots of complaints about why he had to deal with this dirty work, but he quickly handed me the briefcase and hurriedly left. 

I moved to a quiet place. The briefcase was filled with bundles of hundred-dollar bills, and they were a million dollars in total. It was around a billion won in today’s currency, and it was a part of secret funds that came out during the division of our company!

***

An identification card was mandatory to exchange currencies of a million dollars or above in the financial field. However, the back alley in Myeong-dong still used the transaction methods that were in place before the real-name financial system was introduced in 1993. 

The old owner who dealt with dollar trades welcomed me with open arms. A million dollars would be nothing for her as she was also known as “Myeong-dong’s Big Mama”, but no one was exchanging dollars into won these days. Therefore, the black market had become frozen, and I became a precious client for them in these hard times.

“Do you think you can take all these by yourself? Do you want me to put them in your car?” 

Big Mama said while pointing at the stacked money boxes. Her actions were gentle, unlike her firm face.

“I called a delivery truck. Please load these in it, and let me use your phone once,” I said.

Big Mama picked up her phone on the desk and brought it to me. I pressed the buttons, then heard the call connection.

<Speed Real Estate: Hello, this is Speed Real Estate.>

<Seon-Hu: Hello, it’s me. Kim Jeong-Ho.>

<Speed Real Estate: Oh, Mr. Kim! I’ve been waiting for you.>

<Seon-Hu: I’ll leave now. Could we meet up at the Gangnam station in thirty minutes?>

There was a delivery truck outside that I hired on my way to Myeong-dong. I climbed into the passenger seat after loading all the boxes. It was best to have one billion won in cash because it would be tied up if I put in a fake bank account, and some of the account brokers were swindlers. 

“Mr. Kim!”

The realtor was waiting for me in front of the station. He helped me move the money boxes from the truck, and his sedan trunk and backseats were filled with money boxes.

The realtor said with a sincere expression, “You look so young, but you must be running a huge business. I envy you.”

It didn’t look like he would care even if the money in the boxes was from the black market. 

“Are there any changes in the contract terms?” I asked.

“He said he’ll meet your conditions. This is President Choi, the owner of multiple buildings in Gangnam we’re talking about. Everyone in my field knows about him, so you can trust him.” 

The realtor said it indirectly, but he clearly meant that President Choi was a billionaire so he wouldn’t care about his tiny under-the-table contract. 

There was one condition I put out as I rented the office. It was that I would pay a two-year rental fee at once with cash but would not use my legal name and identification for the transaction. Of course, it was illegal, but the realtor and the leaseholder agreed to my condition. 

The only reason why I rented an office in Gangnam at a high rent cost was that the buildings around here met my security conditions. Only people with ID cards could enter the office building, and guards were available 24/7 in the luxurious lobby. Even the realtor had to accompany a security guard and a deputy of the leaseholder as our escorts in order to guide me to the office. 

“You don’t have to bring any furniture, and the cleaning is complete,” the realtor said.

As soon as the office door opened, I saw the deciding factor that made me rent this place. There was a terminal, a phone cable and an office phone that was on the empty floor. Finally! Those were more valuable than the money boxes the building employees were bringing in. At the time when asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) was only beginning to be available, the internet network equipped in this building was a rarity in ordinary households. 

I said instantly, “I’ll pay you the rent right now. These two boxes of money should be the right amount for it.”

Suspicious looks crossed my way, but cash transactions like this were common between the rich. The deputy smiled lightly as he welcomed this deal since it would become a secret fund for President Choi. 

“If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me here,” the deputy left his name card and my building ID card, then left with the two money boxes in his hands. 

I paid the realtor with cash as well. Although it was a deal with money flowing out of paper boxes, it was a natural occasion in this high-class building. Realtors and the deputies met many people with lots of cash, and my name would be on their list of clients from today. Me.

***

That evening, I completed setting up a safe and a computer. In other words, I finished my ‘secret base’ in one day. Instead of supplies and every kind of item, there was only a single computer plugged into ADSL. I looked at the cable connected to the computer with a pleased expression and pressed the power button. 

I had been waiting for this moment when I could finally connect the internet with this cable at decent speed instead of with a slow phone wire. I picked up the phone while waiting for the computer to boot. There was no need to be concerned about the international call fees since I had now received the secret funds, and Jonathan would be in his office. It was 7 PM in Seoul, and 6 AM in New York.

<Jonathan: Sun?>

<Seon-Hu: I received the money, and thanks to that, I could rent my office. Do you have a pen beside you?>

I gave him my office phone number, then dove into the reason I called him.

<Seon-Hu: You’re making such fast progress. It seems like you’ll be able to wrap up things very soon, right?>

<Jonathan: Yeah, that’s possible. We should talk about the details in person. I’ll fly over to Korea as soon as I can.>

Jonathan had been having long flights quite often, but I couldn’t set up a middleman for these visits.

Two days later, I brought Jonathan to my office. Various exercise equipment had been installed, and they actually occupied half of my office. Jonathan was filled with astonishment, and he tapped the sandbag. Since I remembered the way the awakened Jonathan acted in my past life, his clumsy movements kept bothering me. 

“I kind of guessed it, but you must be addicted to working out. Wait, isn’t that a sword?” 

Jonathan even found a sword that I had placed in the corner of the room. There was a sparkle in his eyes as if he forgot about his restlessness. He was ready to enjoy the unique vibe of my office. While he was heading to the sword, he changed his direction after he discovered something else. 

“You’re not the one who drew this, right?” Jonathan asked as he stood in front of the picture I hung on the wall.

I didn’t reply, but Jonathan seemed certain that he was right. The drawing was not framed, and there were lingering traces of the mechanical pencils used in the piece. Jonathan began talking about how realistic the monster looked in the picture to explain how talented I was at drawing. He seemed relaxed rather than enjoying himself. He sat at the table while asking me about my hobbies, my parents, whether I had siblings, and in what environment I had grown up. Then, I changed the conversation to the suitcase he brought along.

“Could I check the documents you brought?” I asked.

The list of paper companies filled a book. The classification numbers exceeded a thousand, and it also described the procedure of how the funds had been transferred through them. Jonathan’s face was rigid after taking out all the documents, and I knew why. The files in front of us were our fatal weakness that could imprison us for life in America. 

“If we hire competent judges and lawyers, it will end at the charge of offshore tax evasion or embezzlement. Either way, the amount is massive to be considered a financial crime, but everyone does this. The only difference is the scale of impact,” I said.