Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

“I’m not suggesting you to actually move in, but just change your resident registration to the company address.”

“What would that do?”

“And buy the land next to the company. It’s a 1,500 pyung large farmland.

“Why do you want to buy farmland? Are you planning to do farming?”

“In order to be able to buy farmland, we need a permit. To get a permit, we will have you change your home address here. Then, we will change the use of the land.”

“Change the use of the land?”

“Yes, we will change it to non-farming land, so we can include that land as part of GH Logistics. We need more space to grow for sure.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Why don’t you handle the process from purchasing the land to changing the land use? You will need to know that anyway. It will be a very useful experience in life for you.”

“Hmm.”

“The land price will go up once its use is changed to non-farming. GH Logistics will buy the land from you then. You will make some money in the process.”

“Hmm.”

“The target land is right there next to GH Logistics. Good luck!”

“Hmm. Okay.”

Jae-Sik Moon nodded his head.

“Jae-Sik, I should take off now. I will bring my certificate of a registered seal and my property tax return so we can take out a loan. You prepare the documents related to the company.”

“Don’t worry about it. I will get them ready. Aren’t you going to interview the person who would come here with his resume at 2 pm?”

“I won’t get involved in that sort of matter, Jae-Sik. You are the one who will work with him, not me. You choose the other person who would do bookkeeping as well. I don’t take part in hiring workers for other companies either, except the executive officers of GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea.”

“Really?”

“Okay. Keep up the good work.”

The weather was getting cold. Gun-Ho wore a vest inside his jacket when he went to work.

He looked down the street from the window in his 18th-floor office. People on the street looked busy.

His phone started ringing. It was GH Media’s President Jeong-Sook Shin.

President Shin was feeling happy these days because her business was doing great. She already paid 300 million won back to Gun-Ho that he lent to GH Media in publishing the cartoon series which were purchased from Amazon. Also, GH Gallery and the book café that she was running were generating profits.

President Jeong-Sook Shin didn’t get along with the owner of the publishing company which she had worked for before she joined GH Media. She believed that she wasn’t fairly compensated for the work she did for the company, especially when the owner rejected her request to give her a stock option; however, she didn’t have any problem with Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho totally trusted her in running the business and treated her fairly. She could operate the business the way that she believed right.

In Gun-Ho’s eyes, President Shin was a positive and pleasant person.

“President Goo? It’s Jeong-Sook Shin.”

“Oh, hi, President Shin.”

“The artist—Jeong-Soon Choi came back from Yokohama City in Japan after finishing her art exhibition there.”

“It was a successful art exhibition, wasn’t it?”

“Half of her paintings that were displayed during the exhibition were sold. So, yes, you can say it was successful.”

“Haha. That’s good to hear.”

“Jeong-Soon Choi seems happy these days. She wants to host a small social gathering this Sunday at her home. You can join us, right?”

“I felt chilly this morning. The weather is getting cold. You could catch a cold by having cold soybean noodles in this weather.”

“It’s not only cold noodles in soybean soup that she can cook well, but she can cook warm noodles too. It’s really delicious as well. As she lives by herself, she cooks a lot at home and develops her own recipes. She usually uses the vegetables and other ingredients that she harvests from her farm.”

“Does she have a farm?”

“Haha. It’s not a huge farm but she farms a 300 pyung large land. She rented it. She grows various vegetables and other plants.”

“Is that so?”

“Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda will join us too.”

“Oh, that Mr. Art Dealer?”

“I will text you with the direction to her house. The gathering starts at noon on Sunday. You will have to come, okay? Artist Choi really wanted to have you taste her warm noodle dish.”

“Okay, I will be there.”

After getting off the phone with President Shin, Gun-Ho tried to think of the lady medical doctor’s face, but he couldn’t remember her face. The image of her face in his head was blurry. Gun-Ho then tried to recall the face of Mori Aikko and Seol-Bing. Their faces were clear in his head.

‘Will the lady doctor be there too? I wonder if her niece is the lady doctor who took care of my mom. Say, there are fifty female doctors in Seoul National University Hospital. The odds that they are the same person would be 50 to 1.’

Gun-Ho actually planned to visit the painter—Jeong-Soon Choi’s art exhibition in Yokohama City. He wanted to go there with Mori Aikko. But, he then changed his mind thinking that her niece who she wanted to introduce to Gun-Ho could be the same lady doctor who he met at the hospital. He didn’t want her to know that he was dating Mori Aikko.

‘I wonder how Mori Aikko is doing these days. She is probably still busy doing dance performance here and there. Seol-Bing never contacts me unless I contact her first. I wonder why she does that. Well, she is so popular these days that she might not want to see a businessman who is not well known. As a top star, she might want to meet someone who is wealthier and also popular.’

Gun-Ho had a lot of thoughts going on in his head.

Gun-ho went to GH Logistics in Seonghwan Town. Jong-Suk Park expressed his excitement when Jae-Sik decided to move to Seonghwan Town, but Gun-Ho was actually more excited than him about Jae-Sik’s moving. Gun-Ho didn’t have many friends. He had been bullied during his high school years and he didn’t really have a campus life in college. Min-Hyeok Kim was the closest friend and he was now living far in China. So, Jae-Sik Moon was the only friend who was close to Gun-Ho emotionally and also geographically.

Gun-Ho considered Jae-Sik as one of his best friends and he wanted to help him in any way he could. However, Jae-Sik thought differently. To Jae-Sik, Gun-Ho was not a comfortable person, maybe because of the social gap between them. Jae-Sik was a poor man living in an old townhouse by paying a monthly rent while Gun-Ho was a big player in Gangnam who owned several big companies.

Jae-Sik acted carefully when he was with Gun-Ho and with the executive officers of GH Mobile or Dyeon Korea who were in their 50s. For some reason, he didn’t feel right talking to Gun-Ho in an informal way as friends. Jong-Suk Park felt the same way. Jong-Suk couldn’t even call Gun-Ho brother when they were with the company’s executive officers, especially after President Song reprimanded him for it once.

But Gun-Ho always treated Jong-Suk and Jae-Sik as a brother and a close friend.

When Gun-Ho arrived at GH Logistics, there was a young man and woman in the office.

“Hey, President Goo. Please come in.”

Jae-Sik then called for the two new workers.

“This is President Gun-Ho Goo. He is the major shareholder of our GH Logistics.”

The two workers gave a bow to Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho extended his hand to them for a handshake.

“I hope you enjoy the work here.”

“President Moon, I brought all the necessary documents. Let’s go to the bank.”

“Oh, you did? My documents are ready too.”

“I will drive.”

“Sure.”

The two workers gazed blankly at Gun-Ho and Jae-Sik driving off the company’s yard, and then the male worker suddenly shouted, “Whoa! It’s a Bentley!”

The female worker asked, “That vehicle is an expensive one, right? It must be over 50 million won, huh?”

“Are you kidding me? It’s over 300 million won. 300!”

“300 million won?!”

The woman looked at the male worker in astonishment.

Gun-Ho placed all the documents prepared for a loan on the table. The bank manager was startled when he looked at Gun-Ho’s property tax document. He looked at Gun-Ho’s face. He then mumbled while swallowing his saliva, “He is a very rich man!”