The Overly Competent Junior Employee

“J-On… J-On…”

That evening, after returning home from work, Dokyung quickly ate dinner and sat down at his computer.

“I understand it’s a good opportunity, but…”

A great opportunity had come for both Dokyung and Choi Woojin. Such large-scale transactions brought substantial incentives and promotion opportunities for Choi Woojin as the person in charge, while for Dokyung himself, it was a chance to gain experience through Choi Woojin that he could leverage during the next position change.

“But they said it was a stock to watch out for.”

Dokyung alternated between looking at the message and the chart of J-On System displayed on his monitor.

Given the message’s warning, there would surely be a decline in J-On System’s stock price somehow.

“If the decline happens without much reason, that would be fine, but…”

If J-On System’s stock price fell due to poor market conditions, the message wouldn’t have specifically warned about it as a stock to watch.

This meant there must be an internal problem with J-On System that would lead to the stock price decline.

“I need to identify the problem in advance.”

If the issue affecting the stock price wasn’t criminal, it wouldn’t matter.

However, if it was something legally problematic, it would cause issues for the company participating in the block deal and for Choi Woojin, who was leading the practical work.

If it were just a matter of the company being implicated, Dokyung wouldn’t step in.

But the most important thing was that Choi Woojin was the person in charge of this transaction.

‘I need someone to guide me…’

After finalizing the contract with the strange message only visible to him, Dokyung had many thoughts.

He even considered quitting the company and working independently.

However, to become a fund manager, he needed trust from clients.

Clients wouldn’t want to entrust their money to someone who was just a former branch counter employee with no real achievements.

Even Dokyung himself wouldn’t want to entrust money to someone like himself, no matter how capable they might be.

‘I need to meet clients who will trust me here.’

After much deliberation, Dokyung’s conclusion was to continue working at the company as he was.

And when opportunities came, he needed to seize them and change positions, with the top priority being to build a base of clients who would trust him and entrust their assets to him.

He needed to build a career at Yuseong Investment Securities that would make clients confident in entrusting their money to him, and then think about what comes after.

And during that time, Choi Woojin was the person who could guide him.

“And Assistant Manager Choi Woojin is also the only person who has recognized me.”

Having organized his thoughts like this, Dokyung started gathering information about J-On System by searching the internet.

He thought that if he kept doing what he could do now, he might find something.

“Let’s see, what could have directly grown…”

J-On System was a new IT venture that had listed on KOSDAQ just six years after its founding.

It was a company that had achieved results in a short period by supplying electronic document software to large corporations and public institutions.

“The performance looks fine, but…”

Looking at the disclosed performance and news articles, there didn’t seem to be any particular problems.

There’s a saying that KOSPI companies live on performance, while KOSDAQ-listed companies live on growth potential.

However, J-On System, a KOSDAQ-listed company, was recognized for its performance, contrary to this saying.

“The problem with these kinds of companies is that they need to constantly find new supply channels.”

Dokyung continued investigating J-On System. The only technology J-On System had was software related to electronic documents.

Rather than developing new technologies, they had been chosen by large corporations and public institutions for their stable supply.

Ultimately, maintaining contracts with supply channels was crucial for such companies.

Dokyung began examining the supply contracts disclosed by J-On System.

“The contract period is the most… Huh?”

As Dokyung was examining the contract details directly disclosed by J-On System, his gaze stopped at one point.

“55% of J-On’s sales come from Yujin Communications.”

Half of J-On’s annual sales were coming from a single large corporation.

“And the contract is about to expire…”

According to the contract documents disclosed three years ago, the software supply contract would expire in three months.

If the software supply to the large corporation were to continue, a new contract disclosure should have come out by now.

“The contract has 3 months left… and the subject of the block deal is…”

Dokyung examined the block deal brokerage documents he had received from Choi Woojin.

The lead manager was, of course, Yuseong Investment Securities. If the block deal transaction amount or commission had been a bit larger, the head office would have handled the practical work, but since it was small for a block deal, the Seongnam branch was in charge.

And the target stocks for the block deal were shares held by J-On System’s president and executives.

“This smells fishy…”

Dokyung began organizing the information as if he couldn’t just ignore the stench wafting from it.

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“Oh, Dokyung-ssi. Good morning.”

After the weekend passed and Monday came, Choi Woojin, who was coming to work in his room, greeted Dokyung with a surprised expression.

“I didn’t expect you to be here already.”

Choi Woojin chuckled and headed to his seat.

“Why did you come to work so early?”

“It seemed like the PB team sunbaes always come in at this time.”

Dokyung said this while looking at the clock, which showed 7 AM.

Since the stock market opens at 9 AM, they needed to talk with their managed clients about today’s market strategy before that. As a result, PBs’ arrival time was always around this time.

“Haha, that’s true. But is there a reason for you to come in this early too, Dokyung-ssi?”

As an operations team employee, Dokyung’s work hours started at 8 AM. Dokyung responded to Choi Woojin’s words with a smile.

“Well, this is embarrassing. I asked for your help, and now I feel sorry.”

“Please don’t hesitate to give me tasks. I want to experience more practical work.”

At Dokyung’s words, Choi Woojin placed some documents in front of Dokyung with a pleased expression.

“For now, I need to contact my managed clients about today’s market strategy. Dokyung-ssi, could you organize the block deal documents?”

“How should I organize them?”

“These are documents I organized at home over the weekend. Now, extract and organize the parts that could look attractive to buyers. Of course, you should write down the disadvantages too.”

Yuseong Investment Securities was the lead manager for this block deal.

Their job was to find buyers for the stocks held by J-On System’s president and executives and complete the transaction.

“Yes, I understand.”

Dokyung replied and looked at the documents Choi Woojin handed over.

‘I wonder if there are some answers here.’

Over the past weekend, he had sifted through all the information related to J-On System to figure out why the message had called it a stock to watch out for.

But while there was a strong stench, he couldn’t find anything definitive.

If he couldn’t find something to turn his suspicions into certainty, he wouldn’t be able to tell Choi Woojin about the problems with this transaction.

Hoping that the documents Choi Woojin had given him would contain some clues, he began reviewing them.

“Yes, client. Today’s market…”

The room was filled only with the sound of Choi Woojin calling clients and Dokyung flipping through documents.

“Ugh.”

Dokyung looked up at the sudden sound, and saw Choi Woojin stretching as he approached him.

“Are you finished?”

“Oh, the market’s opened, but today seems so-so.”

At Choi Woojin’s words, Dokyung looked at the clock, surprised to see that quite some time had passed since the market opened.

“How’s it going? Making progress?”

Choi Woojin said this as he sat on the sofa, and Dokyung gathered his materials and sat across from him.

“Sunbae.”

As Dokyung called him that, Choi Woojin looked at him with a surprised expression.

“What’s the matter? Why so serious?”

Dokyung’s expression was extremely solemn, and Choi Woojin felt worried, wondering if there was something wrong with the documents he had handed over.

“I have something to tell you.”

Dokyung said this as he handed the documents to Choi Woojin.

“Actually, I did something other than what you instructed me to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure how to explain this… I think it would be best if you read the documents I’ve given you.”

At Dokyung’s words, Choi Woojin began reading the documents with a stern expression.

As he read, Choi Woojin’s eyebrows changed moment by moment, and soon he looked at Dokyung with deeply furrowed brows.

“I think I need some explanation.”

“J-On System is a stock I’ve been watching for quite some time.”

Dokyung began like this.

He couldn’t tell Choi Woojin that the message had given him a hint.

“What? J-On?”

Choi Woojin looked at Dokyung with a surprised expression.

He knew Dokyung studied a lot about stocks, but he didn’t think he would be so knowledgeable about small caps.

“Yes. As I mainly study small-cap stocks, J-On caught my eye among various cases, so I’ve been keeping an eye on it.”

Choi Woojin nodded at Dokyung’s words.

The documents Dokyung had handed him couldn’t have been written by someone who didn’t know J-On well.

“So you organized this while watching it?”

“Yes. To be honest, it smelled so fishy that I couldn’t just let it go.”

“Sigh…”

Choi Woojin sighed and said.

“So, to summarize, they’re urgently pushing for a block deal because there’s inside information that could cause the stock price to plummet?”

“Yes. If this block deal was about selling treasury stocks held by J-On System, I wouldn’t have gone this far.”

The most important thing was that the target of this sale was stocks held by J-On System’s president and executives.

If it were selling treasury stocks held by the company, one could think they might invest the proceeds in future business, but this transaction was different.

It was purely for the personal benefit of the president and executives.

Choi Woojin looked at Dokyung while massaging his temples, as if he had a headache.

“So, to summarize again, after failing to extend the contract for the software J-On is supplying, the president and executives are hurriedly trying to dispose of their held stocks ahead of a stock price decline.”

“That’s my judgment.”

“But it’s just a suspicion…”

“I was able to find the answer in the documents you gave me this morning.”

The documents Choi Woojin had handed over already contained the weaknesses of J-On System’s stock.

As the lead manager, Yuseong Investment Securities needed to not only sell the stocks but also maintain relationships with the client companies buying them.

Therefore, they had to clearly convey the pros and cons of this stock to the clients.

“If you look at this part, it says they’ve been pushing for the block deal since three months ago, and before we took charge, Taesan Securities and Seonjin Securities refused to lead the block deal.”

It seemed that the top 1 and 2 securities firms in the industry already knew about the risks to some extent.

“Wait a moment… I have a college classmate in Taesan’s corporate sales team.”

Choi Woojin was a graduate of a well-known private university in Seoul, majoring in business. So his classmates were active in the financial sector, including securities firms and banks.

As if he needed to confirm something, Choi Woojin took out his mobile phone and made a call.

“Hey, Jeongho. Do you have a moment to talk? I have something to ask. Yeah, it’s work-related.”

Dokyung quietly watched Choi Woojin’s call.

“Did you guys receive a block deal proposal for J-On System? No, I know you can’t tell me much. I just need some information. I’ll help you with our information next time if I can.”

Choi Woojin pleaded with the person on the other end of the line with a troubled expression.

“Yeah, why did you reject it? Really? No, I just heard some rumors… What?”

As the conversation continued, a look of dismay began to settle on Choi Woojin’s face.

“Where did you hear that rumor? Really? Is it a reliable rumor? 80%… Okay, I got it. Thanks. I’ll definitely return the favor later.”

Choi Woojin finished the call and looked at Dokyung with a hardened expression.

“Dokyung-ssi.”

“Yes, Assistant Manager.”

“Your prediction was right. Taesan said they rejected the block deal lead proposal because they saw it as an insider trading transaction.”

If the transaction size had been larger with a big commission at stake, Taesan’s thoughts might have been different, but Taesan wasn’t foolish enough to take risks for a small commission.

It was befitting of a securities firm that had survived as the industry leader for decades.

“And one more thing.”

Choi Woojin opened his mouth, looking at Dokyung with a cold expression.

“It seems there’s an illegal broker involved in the middle of this.”