Saturday afternoon.
Doyoon sat by the café window, staring at the menu.
An Americano.
His usual.
But today, he wanted to order something different.
Why am I nervous?
Doyoon laughed to himself.
A man who knew the future was nervous over a cup of coffee.
His heart was beating faster than it did when stock prices fell.
The door opened.
Yoon Seoyeon walked in.
She was wearing a white knit sweater and jeans.
She looked different from how she did at work.
When Seoyeon spotted Doyoon, she waved.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No. I just got here.”
It was a lie.
He had arrived twenty minutes ago.
Seoyeon sat across from him and picked up the menu.
“What are you going to have?”
“An Americano.”
“Again? You drink Americanos all the time at work, too.”
“It’s a habit.”
“Try something different today. Want me to pick something for you?”
Doyoon looked at Seoyeon for a moment.
In his first life, Seoyeon had never picked out coffee for him.
They had never had a moment like this back then.
“Sure.”
Seoyeon ordered two vanilla lattes.
“I used to drink only Americanos, too.”
“But?”
“One day, a junior coworker told me to try this. I did, and I switched after that.”
“Just from trying it once?”
“Yeah. Sometimes things taste better when someone else picks them for you.”
Doyoon quietly turned her words over in his mind.
Sometimes things taste better when someone else picks them for you.
For someone who knew the future, it was strangely painful to hear.
The lattes arrived.
Seoyeon took a sip and asked, “So?”
“Hm?”
“You said you’d tell me the story behind the numbers.”
Doyoon set down his cup.
How much could he tell her?
What could someone who knew the future say to someone living in the present?
“You know the quarterly performance report you put together?”
“Yes.”
“Revenue trends by client, changes in costs, profit margins.”
“Yeah, that one.”
“Do those numbers look like just numbers to you?”
Seoyeon tilted her head.
“What do you mean?”
“If one of your clients’ revenue drops, don’t you wonder why?”
“Of course I do. That’s why I ask the person in charge.”
“But is the reason they give you the real reason?”
Seoyeon’s eyes shifted.
Doyoon continued.
“There are usually three reasons a client’s revenue drops.”
“The market shrank.”
“A competitor moved in.”
“Or something changed on our end.”
“The person in charge usually won’t say the third one.”
Seoyeon thought for a moment before answering.
“That’s true. They usually blame the market.”
“That’s why when you look at numbers, you have to look at what they’re hiding, not just what they’re telling you.”
Seoyeon looked at Doyoon.
“Doyoon, where did you learn that?”
It took Doyoon a while to choose his answer.
It wasn’t something he had learned somewhere.
He had learned it from the failures ten years in the future.
From the experience of losing everything after investing based on numbers alone.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes,” Doyoon said.
“Mistakes?”
“There were plenty of times when I trusted the numbers and made the wrong call.”
Seoyeon nodded.
“Is that why you changed?”
“What do you mean?”
“Because you made so many mistakes. That’s why you’re trying to see things differently now.”
Doyoon couldn’t say anything.
Her words were too accurate.
They left the café.
The sun was sinking.
As they walked, Seoyeon said, “Doyoon.”
“Yes?”
“Could you take a look at something I put together sometime?”
“Something?”
“Not the quarterly performance report. Something I’ve been organizing on my own.”
Doyoon looked at her.
“What are you organizing?”
“Revenue trends by industry. Using data from our clients.”
Seoyeon gave a slightly embarrassed smile.
“It might be pointless, but looking at the numbers made me curious.”
Doyoon stopped walking.
Revenue trends by industry.
Based on client data.
That was something Seoyeon had done in the future he remembered.
Later, Seoyeon would become the person who verified Doyoon’s investment decisions.
This was where it began.
But in his memories, it happened much later.
The fact that Seoyeon had already started the work now meant—
Another variable.
Doyoon thought about it.
But this variable didn’t make him uneasy.
If anything, his heart began to race.
“I’ll take a look.”
Doyoon spoke.
Seoyeon’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
“Yes. But I have one condition.”
“What is it?”
“We’ll look for what the numbers are hiding, too.”
Seoyeon smiled.
“That sounds pretty impressive, but what you’re really saying is that you want to work on it together, right?”
Doyoon smiled, too.
“You got me.”
Sunday night.
Doyoon sat at the desk in his studio apartment and opened his laptop.
Taeseong Electronics.
Current price: 3,480 won.
Unchanged from Friday’s closing price.
But Doyoon was looking at something else.
He opened the disclosure page.
There had been no follow-up filing regarding the rights offering.
Instead, a new disclosure had been posted.
[Taeseong Electronics Signs Contract to Supply Next-Generation Semiconductor Process Equipment]
Contract value: 120 billion won.
Doyoon’s hand stopped.
A supply contract.
He remembered this.
Taeseong Electronics received a major contract at exactly this time.
And starting the week after the contract was announced, its stock price began to move in earnest.
Doyoon opened his notebook.
He checked the verification points.
1. New investment announcement → Confirmed. Direction matches. 2. Contract status → 120 billion won supply contract signed. Matches his memory. 3. Competitor activity → No movement in the same industry. 4. Rights offering → Halted during the review stage. No follow-up.
Three of the four points matched his memories.
The rights offering was the only variable he didn’t remember, but it had already disappeared.
Doyoon picked up his pen.
He wrote a line in his notebook.
The broad direction of my memories remains intact. There are variables, but the core flow hasn’t changed. Final confirmation will come from next week’s stock-price movement.
He set down the pen and looked at the ceiling.
For the first time, his memories and his verification were pointing in the same direction.
His unease hadn’t disappeared completely.
But the evidence was piling up.
It felt as if he had placed a compass of verification on top of a map made from his memories.
Monday morning.
As soon as he got to work, Doyoon opened his stock-trading app.
Taeseong Electronics.
Current price: 3,680 won.
Up 200 won from the previous day.
+5.7%.
It was the effect of the contract announcement.
Trading volume was three times higher than usual.
Buying pressure was pouring in.
Doyoon stared at the screen and exhaled.
It’s starting.
In the future he remembered, Taeseong Electronics began its real ascent with this contract.
Starting in the 3,000-won range, it would pass 10,000 won within a year.
And three years later, it would reach 67,000 won.
Doyoon took out his notebook.
He calculated his return.
Average purchase price: 3,200 won.
Current price: 3,680 won.
Return: +15%.
The amount wasn’t large.
But it meant something different.
He hadn’t made this money on memory alone.
It was the result of verifying his memories, enduring his fear, and sticking to his judgment.
“Doyoon.”
Minseok approached him.
“Did you see Taeseong Electronics?”
“Yeah.”
“A 120 billion won supply contract. That’s pretty big.”
Minseok dragged a chair over from his desk.
“I’m holding it, too.”
Doyoon nodded.
“I know.”
“How’s your return?”
Minseok’s question sounded casual.
But his eyes weren’t casual at all.
“Not bad.”
Doyoon answered evenly.
“Same.”
Minseok smiled.
“But it’s kind of strange.”
“What is?”
“That you and I bought the same stock around the same time and are watching the same contract news.”
Doyoon didn’t answer.
Minseok continued.
“Isn’t that a little too much overlap for a coincidence?”
Doyoon looked into Minseok’s eyes.
He wasn’t testing him.
He was genuinely curious.
“It’s a coincidence,” Doyoon said.
“Really?”
Minseok tilted his head.
“Then let’s see if our next stock pick coincidentally overlaps, too.”
With that, Minseok returned to his desk.
Doyoon watched his back.
The next stock.
Minseok was already looking ahead.
He had been like that in his first life, too.
Minseok wasn’t someone who stayed with one stock.
He was always looking for the next one.
And that instinct was what made Minseok a successful investor.
After work.
Doyoon called Han Taesik.
“Did you see the supply contract?”
“Of course.”
“My judgment was right.”
A brief silence followed.
Han Taesik spoke.
“Do you think you were right?”
“Yes.”
“You’re wrong.”
Doyoon froze.
“It wasn’t your judgment that was right.”
Han Taesik’s voice was calm.
“The market moved in the same direction as your judgment.”
“Is that different?”
“Completely.”
Han Taesik continued.
“If you think your judgment was right, you’ll trust your judgment again next time.”
“Then one time, you’ll be badly wrong and lose everything.”
“If you think the market moved in the same direction, you’ll check the market again next time.”
“That’s the habit of someone who survives the market.”
Doyoon couldn’t say anything.
Han Taesik’s words cut straight to who Doyoon had been in his first life.
Back then, he thought his judgment was right.
So he kept putting in more and more money.
Then, when he was badly wrong once, he lost everything.
“Thank you,” Doyoon said.
“For what?”
“For pulling me back whenever I mistake assumption for knowledge.”
Han Taesik chuckled.
“You’re the one who notices the mistake. I just ask questions.”
After hanging up, Doyoon opened his notebook.
Next to his +15% return, he wrote another line.
My judgment wasn’t right. The market moved in the same direction. I’ll check the market again next time.
At the same time.
Choi Minseok was staring at Taeseong Electronics’ chart in his room.
3,680 won.
Return: +5.6%.
Not bad.
But Minseok wasn’t looking at the chart. His eyes were on his notepad.
Taeseong Electronics. 120 billion won supply contract → Real ascent begins. Return: +5.6%.
Note: Kang Doyoon. Asked about his return today. Said, “Not bad.” “Not bad” means it was within his expected range. He was expecting this rise.
Question: Where on earth is Kang Doyoon getting his information?
Minseok closed the notepad.
Then he opened a new tab.
He typed into the search bar:
“Next-generation process semiconductor stocks”
Minseok was already looking for the next stock.
And he planned to test whether he would overlap with Kang Doyoon again on that stock, too.