Chapter 3

3

Fishing Spot Connection (2)

After eating chicken legs and wings, Go Geon-ho asked Park Jong-seok,

“Are you still job hunting?”

“It’s hard to find a good job, even though there are many places that want to hire me.”

“Why? Afraid of joining a company that’s going to go bankrupt?”

“It’s not just the failing companies; I can’t stand the bullying by incompetent managers.”

“Well, you have to put up with it. What choice do we have as engineering students?”

“You remember, I used to work at a furniture company, but I got into a fight with a manager and quit.”

“Yeah, I remember. But it was a loss for you, wasn’t it? You need special skills. I’m just a guy who went to a mediocre university.”

“Bro, I’m going to the employment center tomorrow to get a learning card. I want to learn some skills.”

“I already got one a while ago. But when you have a job, you don’t have time to learn. And if you quit to learn, you can’t afford to live.”

“The CAD school principal said that if you have the will to learn, you can learn anything. He said that lack of time is just an excuse.”

“Damn! Put yourself in my shoes!”

“You should have passed the 9th-grade civil servant exam.”

“Now that you mention it, I met you at a cram school in Noryangjin. It feels like it’s been over five years.”

“I was also surprised to see you in Noryangjin. I didn’t know you were studying there.”

“I was also surprised. I didn’t expect the guy eating cup noodles next to me to be you.”

“Weren’t you one of the good students?”

“In Korean society, if you’re not in a large corporation or a civil servant, you can’t make it. It’s hard to get married, too. I failed the exam for three years and ran out of money.”

“Three years is the norm, right?”

“I couldn’t afford to keep studying due to my family’s financial situation.”

“You know, I’m not a good student. But my father pushed me so hard to take the 9th-grade civil servant exam that I ended up in Noryangjin. I even went to an English school, but my brain just isn’t good enough.”

“Is your father’s restaurant in Incheon doing well?”

“No, it’s not doing well. A chain restaurant opened nearby and it’s affecting business.”

“I see… If someone had supported me for a year, I would have wanted to take the exam again… But I ran out of money and had to worry about a place to sleep and food, so I gave up. My family’s situation was also bad.”

“I don’t understand why adults are so obsessed with the 9th-grade civil servant exam.”

“The 9th-grade civil servant job is good. You wear a suit and work in a good environment. You don’t have to worry about your salary being delayed, and you get a pension. So even if we don’t think it’s good, it’s still a good job. We just can’t do it.”

“Do you have any savings?”

“No. After leaving Noryangjin, I worked at a plastic recycling factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province for about two years. I managed to save about 10 million won. When I saw a flyer for a Sunshin Loan at the factory, they said I could get it if I was employed, so I applied right away. They gave it to me after I provided a certificate of employment and a tax payment confirmation.”

“So you have about 20 million won. Why are you living in a dorm and acting so pitiful?”

“It’s not a dorm, it’s a dormitory hotel.”

“A dorm or a dormitory hotel, it’s all the same.”

“I bought a used car on installment, but it was noisy and old, so I wanted to replace it when I had some money. But I got into stocks.”

“Stocks? I haven’t heard of anyone who didn’t lose money in stocks.”

“Listen to my story. They say that with the right information, you can make money in stocks, so I jumped in.”

“Ha, what kind of high-quality information could an engineering student like you have?”

“One of the companies we supply to is a KOSDAQ company. They said they were going to file a patent and the stock would go up, so I bought it.”

“So you lost it all.”

“No, at first it went up. The value of the money I put in the securities account went up to 24 million won, and I was happy even without eating. I put in 20 million won and it went up to 24 million won in a month, so I made 4 million won. I even regretted wasting my youth on the 9th-grade civil servant exam.”

“So what happened?”

“But as the stock kept going up, I decided to hold it for a few days and then sell it. When I opened my securities account five days later, the value had dropped to 18 million won. I thought it would go up again, but a week later it dropped to 12 million won.”

“You lost 8 million won.”

“Not just that. I got a text from a place called Win-Win Fund Investment Club. They said that with their expert investment, I could recover my principal and make several times the profit.”

“How could you believe that?”

“They sent me a screenshot of an account where they had turned 20 million won into 60 million won in two months. They said if I sent them 2 million won as a fee, they would tell me the best stocks to buy.”

“My glass is empty. Let’s drink and talk.”

“I sent them 2 million won and used the remaining 10 million won to buy the stocks they recommended. It was a rollercoaster ride, going up and down.”

“You got scammed again.”

“Don’t say that. The 10 million won I invested was down to 4 million won in a week.”

“Did you complain to the investment advisory company?”

“I did. They told me to cut my losses.”

“What kind of irresponsible advice is that?”

“When I argued, they said that cutting losses is common in the stock market and laughed at me, saying I wasn’t cut out for stocks.”

“Bastards!”

“The 4 million won I had left was slowly used up when I changed jobs and didn’t get my salary. Now I only have the debt from the Sunshin Loan.”

“Ha, what a great experience.”

“Great experience? I’m busy paying the interest on the loan. The two years I spent in Hwaseong are all for nothing, and I’m left with debt.”

“Sigh. Even listening to your story makes me feel suffocated. It’s like blood money.”

“Do you remember Won-cheol, the son of the pharmacy owner in our neighborhood?”

“Yeah, he went to a university in Seoul, right?”

“I heard that after graduating, he got a job at a large corporation and made 100 million won from a 20 million won investment in stocks. Damn.”

“Wow, Won-cheol was the best in the neighborhood. It seems luck is on his side. The sky is always on the side of those who have. It’s never on our side. Damn, let’s just drink!”

“Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

The two of them drank soju under the moonlight, as if they were drinking their sorrows away.