Boy By The Sea • taekook

Nineteen

The street seems so distant from his office window, people rushing by below them, clamoring and going about their lives. It's cold again in Manhattan, always cold and overcast, it seems.

Jeongguk eyes the corner by the back alley and watches as vapor rises from the underground metro. Exposed bricks on the wall, black garbage bags piled up high, and the icy ground glistens with condensation from the moisture.

On his mind, there's a shivering figure wrapped in a stained denim jacket seated against the wall, head lowered ominously.

He turns to see Yoong walking towards him with pursed lips.

"They are gone. That took longer than I expected. Frigging people pouring supposedly their life savings into high risk investments."

"They were referred by a friend, right?" Jeongguk comments flatly, his mind still lingering on the grey cityscape outside.

"Of course. Been with us for couple years now. I tell you the quiet ones always freak out the most when things get tough."

Jeongguk doesn't respond. He remembers the look on the man who sat in front of him a moment ago, a silent contrast to his wife who was loud and hysterical next to him. His dark eyes were filled with desperation and dread, not for himself, but for his family, the ones he's suppose to take care.

He recalls the same look vividly, throughout his childhood, which turned hollow eventually as time passed. Jeongguk was always a quiet kid, observing and listening, as the world crumbled around him and parents too preoccupied with their own anxiety to notice him.

Funny how life has a way of repeating itself, no matter how hard you try for a different outcome each time.

"Guk! God, you've been so out of it lately." Yoongi's voice is impatient, as Jeongguk meets his eyes. "I thought LA would be a nice change for you, and Tae. But sometimes I swear I feel like your mind is off somewhere else-"

"Hyung." Jeongguk interrupts him, "it's fine, we'll deal with it. The market is what it is."

Yoongi twitches his mouth around and paces by the window, "we gotta do better than the market, everything is frigging tanking here. We got to regain confidence before more clients drop out."

He strides towards the desk, grabs a black folder and shoves it into Jeongguk's hands, "I know what you're gonna say, but we got no other choice."

The folder is thin but feels heavy in his hands, the leather surface smooth and substantial. Jeongguk doesn't open it, he's already read through it a few weeks ago.

There are lists of smaller cap firms that are extremely unstable but yield high returns and look good for boosting the portfolio temporarily. If they mix them into the investments subtly, nobody would complain. Cheap tricks, like bandages that cover up the ghastly wound.

There are also detailed reports from the two lobbyists Yoongi has recruited in Washington. Dinners, golf trips, a few evenings of partying in Vegas - conversations flow in the quiet hours of the night, when inhibition is low and people are worn out by life, eager to spill their secrets to a willing listener. Jeongguk had to pause a few times before finishing the list of intel presented: inside trade details, rumors of mega projects being approved, and insidious scandals that would make for great extortion materials.

A group of individuals has also been working on a bill that's moving through the senate, which offers smaller financial firms more discretion in terms of how they conduct their businesses - relaxed requirements for publicly disclosed information, the abilities to keep transactions private, out of sight stuff that offers immense flexibility to private investment. Yoongi has been a big supporter since the start, marking this bill as first priority for the lobbyists.