Chapter 30: The Wolf of Wall Street (5)

"Why? Did you think I’d work you to death 14 hours a day without even giving you a break?" "No... uh, I figured it was fine since I'm getting paid well enough." "You’ll probably think differently once you get your hands on some real money." Sure, it looks easy from the top, just giving orders all day, but even people in charge have their own kind of stress. Especially when someone lower down doesn’t seem to care about their own situation—that’s when it gets risky. If you don’t help them manage that stress, they might stab you in the back later. Doesn’t matter if they never even said they were tired. Honestly, I'd rather they just come out and say something, but that’s not how people work. At first, they think they can handle it, but give it time and they’ll start to feel it. Note to self: people aren’t dating sim characters whose affection level stays maxed out forever once you hit 100. I wiped my lips with a napkin and smiled sweetly. "You don’t even have time to spend your money now, do you? You’re already busy taking care of yourself, handling everything I throw at you, running after me all day. You hardly even see your siblings anymore." And on top of that, Lee Si-hyun’s never getting married. Which means she’ll never have a family of her own. Because I’m not going to let that happen. Yeah, it’s a shitty thought, but I wasn’t planning to ever let her go. "...That’s..." "Si-hyun, why are you still working for me? If it’s just about the job, there are better places you could be. Maybe not before, but definitely now." "...Because everything I have now is thanks to you, Miss. I owe you." Yeah, I spoiled her a bit when she first started. But that’s temporary. Give it time and she’ll start to think differently. "I’m still going to work you even after you’ve paid me back. And after your siblings are standing on their own? You’ll probably get tired of being stuck taking care of me." She’s going to stay by my side, forever. My first real person. I was never going to let Lee Si-hyun go. This is a time where once a woman gets married, it’s just normal for her to retire. If she ever got married, she’d quit being my secretary and stay home, raising kids. She’s not from some high-profile family that can ignore that kind of social expectation, either. So it’s basically guaranteed. ‘I really am a piece of shit, huh.’ Even what’s left of my tiny, dying conscience was screaming at me for how awful I was. Yeah, Si-hyun technically agreed to this when she came under me, but let’s be real—she didn’t have much of a choice. She didn’t seem to have any complaints right now, at least... Still, just in case, I planned to give her more than enough material compensation. "Anyway, what I’m saying is I’m going to let you take it easy for a bit. You don’t really have much to do right now anyway. Think about it for a while." "...Okay." She still didn’t get it, just nodded vaguely. And that was the end of our short lunch. "Alright, just keep that in mind for now... Let’s get back to work." This was just a light appetizer for me, but for some people, it’d be enough to leave them stuffed. That’s how big the Japanese stock exchange is. *** The Japanese market closes at 3 p.m., so there’s about two and a half hours left after the lunch break ends at 12:30. Korea’s standard time is the same as Japan’s, so it’s easy to calculate. "Daylight saving time was such a pain with all the time zone math, but it’s nice now that it’s back to normal. Sun’s still high, but they’d give you the stink-eye for leaving work early..." One of the staff joked after lunch. Because of the '88 Olympics, daylight saving time was in effect this year and next. It meant waking up early all summer and being exhausted. Last week was the end of it, and during that time, Japan and Korea had a one-hour time difference. "They say they’re doing it again next year... so annoying." Tsk. All that hassle just to squeeze a bit more out of TV fees. I didn’t care much about the Olympics—past life or this one. I sighed and focused on the chart. The Nikkei index hadn’t moved much yet, but semiconductor stocks were already down 10%. "Toshiba opened at 1,500 yen?" "Yeah, 1,521 yen. It’s around 1,400 now." Not bad, but... Compared to all the short selling we stirred up across Japan’s financial sector, the results weren’t that great. "...This isn’t hitting as hard as we expected. Is this okay?" Someone mumbled anxiously. The market wasn’t reacting as much as we hoped. "The real deal’s next week. The big crash starts in New York... But still, it should’ve dropped more by now." I stared at the screen, eyes bloodshot. My small hand clenched tight. seaʀᴄh thё NôᴠelFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The most important variable in this plan was the time difference. Right now, it’s October 16th in Japan and Korea, but it’s still the 15th in the US. Historically, the Nikkei dropped 15% not on Black Monday (the 19th), but the next day, the 20th. Normally, the pattern goes: US stock crash -> Japan stock crash. This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight. But I was trying to shake Japan’s market first, and use that to hit the US. If I couldn’t overcome the time difference, the original timeline wouldn’t change much. It was my job to control those variables. "Keep an eye on things, but take Saturday off. From Sunday to Tuesday, no one’s leaving early, got it?" Everyone nodded grimly. I wasn’t planning on going to school either. Not this time. Luckily, there was a flu outbreak at school, so that worked in my favor. I’d cleared my schedule from Monday to Tuesday—no way I’d miss the main event. "What’s Ha Joo-seong saying in Japan? We’ve been leaking info to individuals and small securities firms, but now the big players should be moving too." They’re all networked together, so the info I leaked would’ve turned into “high-level intel” by the time it got upstairs. "He’s been reaching out to Nomura and Daiwa. He says since the info checks out, he can push the negotiations further... wait a sec." Just then, one of the staff checked our comms and turned to me, face lit up. "They’re biting!" "Who?" "Nomura! Looks like they think this is the spark for a full-on market crash!" Nomura Securities, Ha Joo-seong’s old firm... The biggest name in Japan’s financial world—the same one that later bought out Lehman after the subprime crisis. They’ve got an eye for this. "Good. Stay on standby until the market closes... now get in touch with Hong Kong and start spreading the rumors. Tell Ha Yeong-il it’s time to start." "Yes, ma’am!" The room exploded with activity—phones ringing, people moving fast. And then, after who knows how long— Thud. The screen flickered, and new numbers popped up. Toshiba had broken below 1,400 yen, showing 1,300. 1,340 yen. 1,320 yen. 1,310 yen. The stock price started falling like crazy. Once Japan’s top securities firm made a move, the ripple effect was huge. Sell orders piled up like crazy. No one was buying. The sellers started to overwhelm. A full-on panic sell. "Jesus... how much short selling did they dump?" Even though this was good news for us, some of the staff looked pale, watching the numbers. "Isn’t this going to hit the lower limit?" In Japan, lower limits aren’t percentage-based—they set fixed ranges. For Toshiba, starting at 1,521 yen... the limit down is 300 yen. So 1,221 yen is the bottom. "It might. No... it has to." The clock read 2:30. The market closes at 3, then reopens next Monday. Which means... no one knows what might happen over the weekend. Normally, the market wouldn’t crash too hard, since people expect a rebound after the weekend... but with all this short selling, things had changed. It wasn’t just Toshiba—NEC and Hitachi were also crashing hard. "30 minutes to close! Toshiba’s broken 1,300!" "...NEC’s below 1,500 too." Riiing! Riiing! The phones were going crazy. I could almost see the chaos on the floor of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. I felt a chill of pure thrill race down my spine as I stared at the screen. Toshiba 1,290 yen. NEC 1,474 yen. Hitachi 1,430 yen. The top three names in Japan’s semiconductor world were teetering on the edge. And then, 2:48. 1,221 yen. 1,420 yen. 1,360 yen. The numbers froze. Even though the market hadn’t technically «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» closed yet, nothing moved. Which meant... limit down. All three stocks. Back-to-back-to-back.