I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Chaebol Family-Chapter 23: Daehwa Securities (1)

The political world was in the midst of upheaval due to the June Democracy Movement, but I merely observed the swirl of history from a safe distance.

It was something I couldn’t intervene in—and shouldn’t.

‘Just wait ten more years...’

Whew, this world is still too early to accept me.

At best, I could exchange a few words with Kim Hae-ik, the Economic Chief Secretary, with whom I had some personal ties—but even that had its limits.

‘There’s really not much to say.’

If it were an economic matter, I’d have something to contribute. But in politics? There was nothing for me to say. If he managed to stay in the next administration, that’d give me a channel for information at least...

...but that was unlikely.

He was someone who chose to work under the Jeon Doo-gwang administration because he looked toward democratization. Sure, he was currently serving as the Economic Secretary, but once direct presidential elections were introduced, he’d definitely throw his support behind the two Kims.

Even with his sharp political instincts, I doubted he could predict the opposition failing to unite, or that a military regime figure would become president.

And even if he could predict it, I was certain he’d still bet on the two Kims. That’s how belief works.

‘It’s complicated. I should focus on what I do best.’

On one of those chaotic days during the height of the June Struggle, I was heading to Daehwa Securities.

After all... the thing I’d invested the most in—more than anything else—was Daehwa Securities.

Other affairs could be blocked by Yoo Jin-seok or Yoo Jin-ha, but Daehwa Securities was different.

It was the one place ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) where I could display my talents and future knowledge without restraint. I couldn’t directly manage my personal fortune yet or officially intervene in company decisions... but that was due to legal restrictions, not family interference.

Daehwa Securities was a company personally handed to me by Chairman Yoo Seong-pil. It hadn’t been formally acknowledged in a family meeting yet, but barring disaster, it was essentially promised to me.

My own company... that phrase carried a powerful weight for me.

‘Yeah, I’m just not cut out to work under someone else.’

That’s also why the Daehwa family didn’t try to interfere with what I did in this company.

Or rather—more accurately—they couldn’t.

Yoo Seong-pil was still in good health, aside from some reduced stamina. A man in his early sixties, sharp as ever.

By 21st-century standards, early sixties doesn’t even count as elderly. People worried about Chairman Yoo’s health, but I—having lived in a time when people hit 100 regularly and knowing the year he would die—had zero concern.

He’d live until at least eighty.

With that in mind, I entered Daehwa Securities.

—Creak.

My secretary, Lee Si-hyun, opened the door for me, and those who saw my face widened their eyes.

“Young miss, welcome.”

“Ah! Miss Ha-yeon, it’s been a while!”

Lee Si-hyun stood protectively at my side like a bodyguard on duty. As soon as the employees of Daehwa Securities recognized me, they cleared the way and bowed as if the tide were receding.

An older employee I was somewhat familiar with guided me to the president’s office.

And inside, someone very familiar was waiting.

“Hahaha! Miss Ha-yeon, welcome. I’m Ha Joo-seong, president of Daehwa Securities.”

A middle-aged man with a kindly face exaggeratedly bowed to me. He couldn’t hide the joy radiating from his face.

He was Ha Joo-seong, recently promoted to company president.

The Plaza Accord had sent the value of the dollar plummeting. Even after I earned 10 billion won, I accurately predicted its future value, and Ha Joo-seong—eager to demonstrate his loyalty—went all-in with leveraged forex trading.

Naturally, he hit the jackpot. And thanks to that success, he was promoted from managing director to company president.

It was a dramatic promotion, but no one dared question it.

I communicated with Ha Joo-seong more than almost any other board member of Daehwa Securities. Anyone with eyes and ears would know—

—that Ha Joo-seong had become my right hand.

“You must be pleased too, huh? Hah! I bet the other directors’ noses are completely bent out of shape now.”

“Haha, it’s all thanks to you, Miss.”

He nodded with a smile.

He was the first to align himself with the future head of Daehwa Securities—even when no one believed in my abilities.

That alone was a political triumph. There’s a reason companies value the early loyalists by the chairman’s side—those people not only swear absolute loyalty, but their worth lies in that very loyalty, which can’t be replaced.

Ha Joo-seong, of course, was far more competent than most of those sycophants—but still, to others, it would look the same.

And because he understood that, he believed—or at least pretended to believe—everything I said.

“Oh, as I’ve said before, I don’t follow your words blindly. I follow because I believe you’re the excellent future chairwoman of Daehwa Securities.”

“Well... it’s basically a given I’ll become chairwoman.”

Everyone in the company already knew I’d be the future head of Daehwa Securities. And since I’d proven my capability before I even turned ten, no one could call me a mere parachute.

That’s why no one dared criticize me for openly backing Ha Joo-seong. At this point, trying to pressure either of us through company politics would just be suicide.

Besides, the current chairman of Daehwa Securities was only a nominal figure—a legal rep and a close aide to Chairman Yoo Seong-pil. He pledged loyalty only to the chairman, not to any of the other family members.

Which meant I didn’t even need to fight him. As soon as Chairman Yoo said, “Return to headquarters,” it’d all be over.

And since Chairman Yoo himself had designated me, even as a minor I now wielded near-absolute power within Daehwa Securities.

More so, even, than the current chairman.

I responded to his flattery with a light smile. It felt good, sure—but getting too addicted to this kind of praise was dangerous.

“I came to talk business today, Mr. Ha.”

At that, the look in President Ha Joo-seong’s eyes changed.

“Business... you say?”

When I said things like that, it usually meant something big was coming. Knowing this well, Ha Joo-seong rubbed his chin and looked at me intently.

By now, I’d grown tall enough that his seated posture matched my standing height. I met his gaze and smiled.

“Don’t you think Daehwa Securities is... too small?”

He seemed to sense something but furrowed his brow and asked back.

“Are you suggesting...?”

“It’s time we start expanding.”

Daehwa Securities’ current scope of work was incredibly limited. Due to complex regulations, there were many activities we couldn’t engage in, and we couldn’t even actively manage our own assets.

As a result, there was only one president, and within the group, the firm wasn’t considered particularly important.

That’s probably why it was given to me. It wasn’t a core subsidiary—yet.

But that was about to change.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

***

Daehwa Securities was a peculiar company.

Chairman Yoo kept an eye on it, sure—but in reality, it wasn’t a large-scale firm.

And there wasn’t any special reason for that.

It’s just that... South Korea’s financial industry, at this point in time, was still underdeveloped.

That’s all there was to it.

“The company only handles three main operations right now, right?”

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Ha Joo-seong nodded and spoke up.

“Brokerage services, corporate IPOs, and... though it’s limited, some proprietary trading. The stock market’s been growing lately, so securities firms are expanding too.”

Brokerage services are retail finance—mediating the buying and selling of stocks and bonds for clients. Derivatives get traded too, but... well, derivatives are hard to deal with at this stage anyway.

Corporate public offerings involve underwriting and gathering investors when a company goes public, but right now, securities firms are still too weak to serve as lead underwriters. Mostly, they just assist from the sidelines.

Lastly, proprietary trading is when the company invests its own capital. But due to the government’s strict regulations, that’s barely possible.

Seems like they don’t do much?

That’s correct.

At this point—no, even up until before the 1997 financial crisis—the heart of Korea’s financial sector was the banks. People borrowed money from banks and used it to buy real estate or fund businesses, rather than investing in stocks or bonds.

It made sense. Finance, fundamentally, is the act of moving money around—allocating it to where it’s needed. Business, on the other hand, is about creating value itself.

So the financial sector could only develop after the country had reached a certain level of wealth.

“Besides, the government got really worked up last time over that speculative proprietary trade... If the Chairman hadn’t protected me, it could’ve gotten ugly.”

“Right? I mean, it was illegal, wasn’t it? What you did.”

The Foreign Exchange Management Act, established in 1962, strictly regulated overseas investment by securities firms. Until the financial crisis, firms could basically only use their own capital for domestic stocks and bonds.

They needed prior government approval, and the conditions were so restrictive that speculative trading was outright forbidden.

So when Ha Joo-seong used Daehwa Securities’ money for proprietary foreign exchange trading... strictly speaking, it was illegal.

But he’d just ignored all that and used his personal network to push the trade through.

Simple reason:

It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

He made a lot of money during the brief investment window after the Plaza Accord, but I’d heard he took some political hits for it too. That’s why I hadn’t done any option trading since.

“...But didn’t you agree to it back then, Miss? I mean, everything worked out in the end.”

“That was fine because I wasn’t the one paying the price.”

Now that Daehwa Securities was essentially my company, I’d be the one taking the political heat if something went wrong.

Besides... I had another angle in mind.

“And thanks to that, we were able to buy Daehwa Electronics stock, right? So it worked out.”

Because of the illegal foreign currency transaction, Daehwa Securities ended up under government surveillance for a while. Stuff that would’ve been overlooked before was no longer tolerated.

That meant we had to reallocate idle capital back into domestic assets...

Naturally, we bought Daehwa Electronics stock—one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Three Lows Boom. Since it was part of the same group, it was effectively a kind of circular shareholding structure.

At my words, Ha Joo-seong raised his eyebrows.

“Don’t tell me... Miss, did you plan all of that from the beginning?”

Well... yeah.

I needed a way to acquire Daehwa Electronics stock naturally, without drawing suspicion from anyone. If I fully controlled Daehwa Securities, then any stock it held would effectively be mine.

That stock would become a major weapon when the time came to seize control of Daehwa Group.

But I simply smiled, completely unfazed.

“I mean, I thought about it, but I wasn’t aiming for it specifically.”

“Hoo... let’s just say I believe you. So... in which direction do you plan to expand the business?”

How could I best leverage the upcoming financial crisis to increase my influence over the financial markets...?

I’d thought long and hard about it, and in the end, the answer was obvious.

“Investment banking.”

In the end, I had to do what I did best.