Time passed quickly.

Before anyone knew it, autumn had passed and winter had arrived.

“Muhyuk! Hurry out and eat your tteokguk!”

At Grandma’s voice, I closed my laptop and got to my feet.

When I opened the bedroom door and stepped out, Chief Ma was standing there.

“You should eat with us too, Chief Ma.”

“Yes, Boss.”

I headed toward the kitchen with Chief Ma.

Junho was helping Grandma, neatly placing spoons and chopsticks on the table.

Watching him, I turned to Chief Ma.

“How's Junho's training going these days?”

“He received excellent scores on the college entrance exam. I heard he submitted an application to Korea National University.”

“Really? He worked hard. Junho too.”

I had been so busy lately that I hadn't been paying attention to Junho at all.

Yet he'd been doing well on his own.

For some reason, I felt proud.

I lightly patted his shoulder after he finished setting the utensils.

“Uncle, you're up?”

“I heard you did well on the exam. Why didn't you tell me?”

Junho scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“I wasn't satisfied. I heard you got a perfect score, Uncle.”

His North Korean accent was completely gone, replaced by natural standard Korean.

Now that all traces of North Korea had faded from him, he reacted like any other kid his age.

“You and I started from different places. If you'd had more time, your results would've been even better. Sit down first.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

Chief Ma and I sat side by side.

Junho carried over bowls of tteokguk that Grandma had served and placed them on the table one by one before sitting down with her.

I continued the conversation while eating the steaming soup.

“How's learning the business? Manageable?”

“Yes. It's fun.”

When Junho said he wanted to help me with my work, I had assigned people to teach him.

At that moment, Chief Ma added from beside me,

“They say Junho's learning ability is exceptional.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He learns quickly enough that they're saying he could start fieldwork soon.”

Whether it was determination or natural intelligence—

Either way, it was a good thing.

I nodded in satisfaction and asked Junho,

“I heard you applied to Korea National University. What major?”

“Business Administration.”

“Hm... The results come out this month, right?”

“Yes.”

“So you'll be moving to Seoul if you're accepted.”

Junho glanced at Grandma before nodding.

“I suppose so.”

Looking slightly disappointed, he lowered his head and started eating his tteokguk.

His reaction made me smile as I looked at Grandma.

“Looks like Junho doesn't want to be separated from you. What about you, Grandma?”

“I'm fine.”

“You should just move to Seoul too.”

“I said no.”

“Junho will be lonely by himself.”

“He won't. I'll stay here on my own.”

I had tried using Junho as an excuse to bring her to Seoul, but Grandma's attitude was surprisingly firm.

“Alright. If you don't want to, I won't push it anymore.”

We finished the meal while chatting.

After eating all the fruit Grandma peeled for us, I brought Junho into my room.

“Why did you choose Business Administration?”

“I want to be helpful to you, Uncle.”

“You don't need a college degree to do that.”

“They told me I should at least have a diploma.”

“Is that all?”

When I kept pressing, Junho hesitated before speaking.

“...I want to experience college life. My world is still too small.”

Only now was he being honest.

I chuckled softly and ruffled his hair.

“That's right. You need to see more of the world. What about your driver's license?”

“I got it. I'm still not very good at driving, though.”

“You've done everything, huh? You must've been busy studying and learning the business.”

Junho smiled awkwardly.

I decided to give him a gift.

“When you move to Seoul, I'll get you an officetel to live in and a car.”

“That's too much, Uncle.”

“I want to do it. I'm the one who brought you here, and you're studying because you want to help me, right? So just accept it without feeling burdened.”

Junho looked at me with touched eyes.

I patted his shoulder.

“Grandma doesn't say it, but she'll miss you a lot. Spend as much time with her as you can before you leave. That's my favor to you, Junho.”

“Yes, I will. Grandma is precious to me too. I'll come down whenever I have time and spend time with her.”

“Good. That's enough. If anything's troubling you, call Chief Ma anytime. I'll tell him to take care of whatever he can.”

“Thank you, Uncle.”

That day, I talked with Junho for quite a long time.

Seeing him smile brightly like any ordinary kid his age made me happy.

After spending about a week in Busan, I returned to Seoul.

Quite a lot had happened during that time.

The first hearing of the Jungwon Development Gate case had begun, and the National Pension reform bill had passed the National Assembly.

No matter how good a reform bill was, people still had to pay more money.

Yoon Changho's approval ratings had no choice but to fall.

His approval rating dropped below fifty percent, and the ruling party's support fell below fifty percent as well.

I visited the Blue House to offer New Year's greetings.

“Mr. President, Happy New Year.”

“Haha, Happy New Year to you too, President Kim.”

Yoon Changho didn't look unhappy at all as he accepted my greeting.

“You finally did it.”

Naturally, the opposition had resisted fiercely.

But he used things like the Jungwon Development Gate scandal to suppress the backlash.

In the end, both ruling and opposition parties reached an agreement, and the National Pension reform bill passed smoothly.

“This is something I accomplished with my own hands. How could I not feel good about it?”

“Your approval ratings dropped quite a bit.”

“That couldn't be helped. If I'd cared about approval ratings, I never could've done it.”

He was right.

Nobody liked being told they had to pay more money.

For a politician who lived on votes, it was never an easy decision.

“But it was something that had to be done.”

“Yes. I agree.”

“This is only the beginning. Starting with the National Pension, I intend to overhaul the civil service pension, military pension, and private school pension systems as well.”

I couldn't help laughing.

For someone announcing a massive undertaking, his voice sounded remarkably cheerful.

“Mr. President, you're really choosing to suffer in your later years.”

“Isn't that exactly why I can do it now?”

His presidential term had about a year left.

Once this year's presidential election ended, power would effectively transfer to the presidential transition committee.

“Mr. President, do you ever regret becoming President?”

“Regret? Of course not. Who would've thought I'd become President? Being assigned to the Busan District Prosecutors' Office was the greatest stroke of luck in my life. Meeting you, President Kim, was nothing short of heaven's blessing.”

He was right.

The first time I met Yoon Changho had been pure chance.

At the time, he had been relegated to Busan after losing an internal power struggle within the prosecution and was close to being forced out entirely.

Then the Hong Jinpyo incident happened.

At my grandfather's request, he resolved the case.

After that, he joined hands with me.

He gradually took control of the prosecution, became Prosecutor General, and ultimately rose all the way to the presidency.

Every step of that path had been part of my design.

Without me, Yoon Changho would've eventually left the prosecution and ended up as little more than a figurehead at some law firm.

That was why he called me his greatest blessing.

“I was lucky to meet you too, Mr. President.”

“I'm glad you think so.”

Perhaps age had finally caught up with him.

Yoon Changho continued reminiscing about old times.

I nodded and talked along with him.

“My apologies. I ended up taking up your time.”

Realizing it himself, Yoon Changho cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Not at all. I've come to understand how valuable it is to have someone with whom I can share old memories.”

Yoon Changho nodded with a satisfied expression.

“Would you like to take a walk together?”

“I'm sorry. Too many people are watching. That would be difficult.”

“What a shame. Once I leave office, let's take that walk then.”

“Of course. Anytime. It's gotten late, so I'll be going now.”

After saying goodbye to Yoon Changho, I left the Blue House.

The year 2007 had begun.

For some reason, I had a feeling it was going to be an extremely busy year.

* * *

“Boss! Bear Stearns just injected $3.2 billion in bailout funds into one of its mortgage funds!”

The door to Han Kyungyeong's office flew open.

A large black man strode in, shouting excitedly.

Han Kyungyeong frowned slightly and set down the document he had been reading.

“Hey, John! No matter what it is, you should knock before coming in.”

“Sorry, Boss. No, wait. That's not important. Bear Stearns provided bailout funds!”

John ignored the reprimand and kept talking.

“On top of that, another fund has suffered losses, and they're negotiating loan restructuring with other banks.”

Han Kyungyeong's expression immediately turned serious.

“Muhyuk was right. He said Bear Stearns would be the beginning.”

As Han Kyungyeong muttered in Korean, John frowned.

“What was that, Boss? Speak English! Maybe I should start learning Korean.”

“John. Call a meeting. We need to discuss our response. Right now.”

“Okay, Boss.”

A short while later, Dreamhigh's core personnel had gathered in the conference room.

When Han Kyungyeong entered last, everyone stood.

“That's enough. Sit down. You've all heard the news, right? Let's talk about it.”

Under Han Kyungyeong's direction, opinions began pouring in.

“Boss, no matter how we look at it, Bear Stearns' insolvency appears severe. The losses have already grown beyond control.”

“Reliable information?”

“Yes. I spoke with a friend inside Bear Stearns. Apparently there are already internal discussions about requesting government assistance.”

Han Kyungyeong narrowed his eyes.

Things were progressing much faster than even Kim Muhyuk had predicted.

“Bear Stearns' derivatives trading volume last year is estimated at $14.4 trillion.”

“What? Is that even possible?”

Han Kyungyeong was visibly shocked.

Bear Stearns' total capital was $66.7 billion, and its total assets were $350 billion.

“They kept borrowing against underlying assets and using those loans to obtain even more loans.”

Borrow against an asset.

Use that debt to secure more debt.

Repeat the process.

Doing so allowed them to control assets far exceeding the value of the original collateral.

On Wall Street, this was called leverage.

Most investment banks loved the strategy.

“What was the leverage ratio?”

“We estimate around thirty-five to one.”

“Can they recover?”

“We don't know yet. It seems they're trying to put out the immediate fire and negotiate with the government.”

“Dig deeper into their internal situation. There has to be something we're still missing. And John, have we sold all our CDS positions?”

“Only about half of them, Boss.”

Without a moment's hesitation, Han Kyungyeong answered firmly.

“Sell everything immediately. I don't care if we take additional losses. If we drag this out any longer, the losses could become much worse.”

“Boss! If we dump everything we have, it'll shock the market. That could accelerate the crisis even further. Maybe we should reconsider—”

“John. We're an investment company, not a charity. Do as you're told.”

After cutting him off coldly, Han Kyungyeong fell into thought.

He had never seriously imagined that Bear Stearns could collapse.

Even with Kim Muhyuk's warning, it wasn't the sort of company that should've fallen so easily.

“What in the world were they thinking? Michael, tell me what you think.”

“Bear Stearns has always been an investment bank that borrowed money to invest. That's how it grew to its current size. They've been using that model for nearly a century, so they probably never imagined things could spiral this far.”

Whether for individuals or corporations, borrowing money to invest accelerated asset growth.

But it also dramatically increased risk.

Even obtaining debt skillfully was a kind of talent.

You had to convince people.

Sometimes you had to deceive them.

To support those deceptions, financial institutions created derivative products.

Bear Stearns had been one of the masters of that strategy.

It had even been named one of the most respected securities firms by Fortune magazine.

“Run simulations on what happens if Bear Stearns goes bankrupt and report everything to me.”

“Bear Stearns goes bankrupt?”

None of the managers present had seriously considered that possibility.

“That's right. Bankruptcy. If they go under, run every possible scenario that follows from it. Add them all together and simulate the outcomes. Then bring me the results.”

“The government won't allow Bear Stearns to fail.”

Looking exhausted, Han Kyungyeong let out a long sigh and waved his hand.

“I know that. That's exactly why I'm asking for the simulations. I want to know what happens if the government doesn't save them. John stays. Everyone else, focus on this.”

“Understood, Boss.”

“Everyone except John, leave.”

The managers filed out until only John remained.

“John. Go meet Michael Burry.”

Only John knew about the agreement with Michael Burry.

“Okay, Boss!” 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

“Tell him about Bear Stearns' situation and warn him to prepare for everything that could follow. Go now. And finish liquidating those CDS positions.”

After John left, Han Kyungyeong remained alone in the conference room for a long time.