The pure white fuselage, accentuated by golden lines, gleamed under the sunlight, revealing sleek curves and exuding an air of luxury.
Chairman Park Tae-hong stared blankly at the business jet for a moment before composing himself and turning to Secretary-General Gil Sung-ho.
"Explain properly—what is going on here?"
With a deep, settled gaze, Park's voice was firm. Gil Sung-ho quickly began explaining the situation.
"Actually, this was arranged by the young mas...
Chirp, chirp, chirp!
Early in the morning, three or four sparrows perched noisily on the parasol table in the garden.
A mackerel-tabby cat, now fully grown and nearly the size of its mother, crouched low in the grass, eyes locked on the unsuspecting birds.
With intense focus, the cat wiggled its hindquarters, calculating the perfect moment to strike.
Should I go now? Or wait just a second more?
Finally, it made up its mind. Claws extended, the tabby...
We returned to OTK Company.
Having been contacted, Ellie arrived from the building right next door. Kim Jae-hak picked up the coffee cup that the secretary had brought.
His hand holding the cup trembled, as if his excitement hadn’t yet subsided.
He forced a smile.
“Oh, what’s wrong with me? Just a moment.”
I was surprised seeing him like this, but I pretended to be calm and said, “It’s okay, drink slowly.”
The Kim Jae-hak I knew in the m...
Amidst all the unfolding drama, there was one person who was extremely tense.
That person was Rachel.
This is too dangerous…
Her heart sank at Ha Si-heon’s bold moves, but at the same time, she felt pity, knowing why he was so desperate.
Ha Si-heon had promised David $4 million by April.
Meanwhile, the “Russian Roulette” funds he needed to raise as quickly as possible amounted to a staggering $60 million.
To make matters worse, his...
“What kind of nonsense is that? Even Buffett says…”
“Did Buffett ever say to sell at the peak?”
“……”
Jim falls silent.
Buffett’s most famous advice is actually something else.
“Buffett said, ‘Only invest in stocks you’re willing to hold for a lifetime.’”
“… …”
The most important thing in investing is the exit strategy. But calculating this is incredibly tricky.
So, Buffett offered a simple so...
The conversation is flowing smoothly, just as I had steered it.
“Unicorn?”
“This guy’s teasers hit an 80% accuracy rate every time! That’s why he earned the nickname. Not just once, but twice!”
Dobby emphasized the key points in an excited tone.
80% accuracy rate.
To anyone, that figure sounds absurd and seems easy to debunk.
At this point, Gerard should step in…
“80%? That’s hard to believe.”
As expected, he ...
“Are you saying that friendship sways with money?”
“In other words, it means our friendship won’t sway for anything less than 50 billion.”
Fifty billion dollars is roughly 69 trillion won.
How many friendships in the world wouldn’t falter under that amount of money?
“……”
Gerard was momentarily flustered but soon recovered his sharp gaze and declared firmly:
“You don’t think I’ll just sit back and watch, knowing your intention...
An empty, desolate hallway.
I am walking behind Gerard.
“But, why did you…”
“Just because.”
When I asked what seemed like an obvious question, his overly concise answer came back.
It was a response designed to shut down any further conversation.
No words followed.
Since I didn’t ask anything else either, silence hung heavily around us.
Step, step.
Only the sound of our footsteps echoed in the ...
“Just friends?”
I asked back with the most innocent eyes I could muster.
Gerard loosened his grip on my hand and smiled faintly.
“Ah, Rachel mentioned she doesn’t have any particularly close friends. She said everyone is just… friends.”
Gerard offered his explanation and then turned his head abruptly toward Gonzalez. His sharp gaze was reading Gonzalez’s expression.
“Shall we head inside then?”
Finishing his observation, Gerard...
“How about coming to my house?”
An invitation from Rachel arrived three days later. I soon realized why it had taken so long.
“I wanted to invite you, but I had to check with my family first…”
Apparently, permission was required. The important part? That this process had taken three whole days.
‘Could they have done a background check on me?’
If Rachel truly came from a prestigious family, that wasn’t entirely impossible.
If th...
“Chairman Chen, it’s been a while.”
We met again at the same restaurant, with the same members on both sides.
Chen Fei, puzzled by my cheerful demeanor despite the unpleasant circumstances, said,
“He’s asking if something good happened.”
I laughed heartily at Manager Han’s translation.
“Being able to drink with such fine people is a good thing in itself, isn’t it?”
Chen Fei chuckled and said,
“He says he’s glad to see yo...
Dressed in a perfectly tailored navy suit and horsebit loafers, Seok-won arrived at his office, carrying a leather briefcase in one hand.
From head to toe, everything he wore was Gucci, making him look as though he had just stepped out of a fashion editorial.
While his preference for Gucci had increased after fully acquiring the brand, he also wore it frequently because Tom Ford had gifted him a custom-made wardrobe after Seok-won had modeled for the brand’s menswear campaign....
A few days later,
Jongno, Seoul
A black sedan slowly made its way from Insadong toward Nakwon Arcade before coming to a stop in front of a large traditional Korean hanok, enclosed by a high wall.
As the car came to a halt, a secretary stepped out from the front passenger seat and opened the rear door. A man, appearing to be in his fifties, emerged.
It was none other than Woo Chun-il, a senior member of the Donggyo-dong faction and...
The next morning.
When Seok-won opened his eyes, he was met with the sight of Kinsley sleeping soundly in his arms, her bare shoulders peeking out from beneath the sheets. A quiet smile tugged at his lips.
As he lay there, memories from the previous night replayed in his mind.
At first, the shoot had felt slightly awkward, but once he got the hang of it, he managed to pose with surprising ease. In the end, the session wrapped up smoothly.
Afterward, as promised, he...
Meanwhile.
Devon, of course, was rooting for the first-years.
That was a given.
But still, a teacher couldn’t openly take sides…
‘Wait, why not?’
It wasn’t like he was a referee or anything.
The first-years had reached out for help, so what was wrong with showing a little favoritism?
‘If they don’t like it, they can fire me.’
With that bold thought, Devon strode confidently into the teachers’ o...
We started off with a scrum to loosen up.
It was me, Tennessee, and Jack on our team.
The opposition was the same as last time, Bob and two other big guys over 190 cm tall.
We ended up losing five times in a row.
But during what we thought was the last, the sixth match.
Right there.
Ugagaga!
We unleashed a fiery fighting spirit!
Thud.
Boom.
We finally managed to break them down.
Looking back, I’m not sur...
The next day, at dawn, Faber had spent the night awake, unable to sleep due to exploding dopamine levels, yet his mind was clear.
A week ago, an advertisement had appeared in the Queensman.
It promised the release of an ultimate item today that everyone could afford.
Though curious, both Faber and his boss were too busy to inquire further.
Surprisingly, the ultimate item turned out to be… a newspaper.
“I thought it was just a figure of speech,” Fa...
After Queensman was published, the Duke of Grosvenor.
A magazine with his son’s face plastered boldly on the cover, no less.
The Duke, upon seeing Queensman, wore a slightly puzzled expression.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“It seems that business and personal matters have become intertwined.”
“Intertwined, you say?”
The Duke’s eyes glimmered at the tutor’s words.
“To begin with the business aspect: since Carl Bernst...
Same Time, Northamptonshire.
Today was the day of the F1 England Grand Prix.
On this day, where the world’s top drivers gathered, Tennessee was able to enter the venue as a VIP—despite it being a time when everyone was busy preparing for the competition.
Hurried footsteps.
The team principal of the British McClaren team rushed to greet him.
“Young master, you’ve arrived?”
The once-glorious McClaren team had long faded and was now consi...
South Korea is the Republic of Chicken.
Few would dispute this. In this small country, there are more chicken restaurants than McDonald’s stores worldwide. Seeing five or six chicken restaurants lined up on a single street is not an unusual sight.
In this fiercely competitive chicken market, the company that has risen to the top is none other than Master Chicken.
Master Chicken has approximately 2,300 directly managed and franchised locations combined. They are so wides...
Completely caught off guard by the unexpected conversation, Seok-won revealed his slight bewilderment as he asked again.
"Did you just say they want me to be their model?"
"That's correct."
Receiving Seok-won’s gaze, Landon also responded with a troubled expression.
"The condition for renewing the contract is that the boss takes on the role of the male model for the upcoming F/W collection."
"Wait, what…?"
Seok-won, seemingly dumbfounded, straight...
Faced with such a direct question, Seok-won showed no sign of surprise. Instead, he calmly lifted his wine glass, took a sip, and set it down again.
Then, meeting Ford’s serious gaze, he spoke in an even tone.
"The purpose of acquiring Gucci… Well, naturally, it’s because it’s a profitable investment."
"……."
Hearing this, Ford couldn’t hide his disappointment.
He had already assumed that Seok-won was no different from Investcorp, the Bahraini i...
A few days later,
Florence, Italy
A tall East Asian man sat wearing sunglasses at an outdoor café table in a corner of Piazza della Repubblica, famous for the carousel featured in the movie Between Calm and Passion.
It was Seok-won, who had just finished his business in the U.S. and flown to Italy on a private jet to meet Tom Ford.
Dressed in a white shirt under a linen jacket, Seok-won looked just as stylish as the famously well-dressed...
July 1st, 1997, the monumental day of Hong Kong's return to China, also marked a turning point in my business.
Despite operating the IC chip restoration factory conservatively for the past three weeks, worried about attracting unwanted attention, it consistently generated billions of won in net profit every week.
I deposited all the profits into the collateral account, and Chairman Zhao Yang, seeing the increasing balance, started increasing his investment.
After three we...
Florence, Italy (Firenze).
This ancient city, once ruled by the renowned Medici family, had been a center of trade and finance in the Mediterranean since the Renaissance era.
As a place where wealth flowed like gold, Florence became equally famous for its architecture and art, and even today, magnificent historic buildings from that golden age remain scattered throughout the city.
Thanks to this rich heritage, the entire city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, a...
Two days later.
Penthouse, Plaza Hotel, New York.
Seok-won sat at the outdoor table on the balcony, sipping a refreshing iced Americano with one hand while holding and reading The Wall Street Journal with the other.
[U.S. Secretary of State Milburn Makes Historic Visit to Hanoi]
During his Southeast Asia tour, Secretary of State Milburn has officially visited Vietnam, following his stop in Cambodia. This marks ...
Mountain View, California
Under the blazing morning sun, a massive Cadillac Escalade came to a stop in front of a five-story building, slightly removed from the city center.
A moment later, the front passenger door opened, and a large-built Black man wearing sunglasses stepped out—it was Baucus, Seok-won’s personal bodyguard.
As Baucus adjusted his black suit, the partially unbuttoned jacket briefly revealed the handgun concealed underneath.
Sc...
"Buy connections with money?"
CEO Wu said with a dumbfounded expression,
"CEO Park, I understand how you feel, but connections aren't something you can just buy with money. Who would accept a bribe from a foreigner they don't even know?"
I smiled.
"We've bought ourselves a month. And that's enough time to buy connections."
CEO Wu shook his head.
"I don't understand what you're talking about. I think it's best to just accept Chen Fei's offer, even if i...
CH403
As a second-level wizard, Irina could easily sense the presence of the dimensional rift.
When a rift forms, it causes noticeable spatial fluctuations in the surrounding area.
With her sharp senses, Irina had detected the spatial disturbance from afar.
Carrying Helag, she approached the rift, a streak of fiery light trailing behind her as they flew.
Helag, though somewhat distracted by the situation, kept his focus on observing Irin...
After his honorable discharge from the military, Kim Jae-hak underwent rehabilitation and worried about how he would make a living.
He eventually decided to pursue his longtime dream of starting his own business. He had experience working in restaurants, so he was confident in his ability to run one.
Given his leg condition, it would be difficult to do something like a Korean BBQ restaurant that required long hours of standing or serving. After much consideration, he chose a fra...