Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

“Hi, brother. It’s me, Gun-Ho Goo.”

“Oh, oh, my little brother, how have you been? What makes you call me this time?”

President Young-Sik Park started speaking a dialect again. He did that when he was caught off guard.

“It has been a while since I saw you. How about we have lunch together today? Do you have any prior engagement for lunch today?”

“Even though I have a prior engagement, you are always my priority.”

“There is a good Bibimbap* restaurant close to Yeongin Mountain. I will see you there at 1 pm. I will send you a text on the way there.”

Before heading to the restaurant for lunch, Gun-Ho took one of the new product samples— AM083 Assembly and put it in his pocket.

There were not many people at the restaurant. The restaurant’s main customers were the people who did mountain climbing to Yeongin Mountain, so the restaurant became really busy during the weekend. President Young-Sik Park was already at the restaurant waiting for Gun-Ho.

“Brother!”

“I just arrived too. Please have a seat over there. It’s a seat for an important person.”

“You should sit there, brother.”

“Don’t say that. You are the president of a big company; you should take that seat.”

President Young-Sik Park pushed Gun-Ho to the seat.

An overweight woman came to the table where Gun-Ho’s party was sitting at. She seemed to be the owner of the restaurant.

“We specialize in Bibimbap here. We have boiled pork too if you like. You will have seasoned pollack with your Bibimbap.”

“Okay. We will have Bibimbap with boiled port meat then.”

Gun-Ho asked President Young-Sik Park after sipping his water.

“How is President Se-Young Oh—the previous president of Mulpasaneop?”

“He is doing way better than the time when he was the Mulpasaneop’s president because of you. His son is doing good with his new job in a big company. Oh, his son is assigned to a new project in China. He will work at a branch office in China.”

“Since he is an experienced worker, he will be the branch manager in China branch office?”

“Well, even if he had previous work experience, I don’t think he could get the branch manager position just yet. I guess he will be maybe an assistant branch manager.”

“That’s nice.”

“I heard GH Mobile is currently developing a new product. How is it going? People said that you invited the world-best engineer in the field for consultation. I am so curious about how it is going.”

“We already made a sample product and sent to the S Group, and we passed their test. They will soon visit our company to see the factory themselves.”

“Oh, really? That’s great. If you are doing well, I feel so happy as if I am doing good.”

“Wow, this boiled pork meat tastes really good. Would you like to have Dongdongju* with the meat?”

“I can’t drink much. I even blush with one glass of liquor. Do you have high alcohol tolerance? Let’s just have one drink then.”

They both drank only one glass of Dongdongju.

“This is so good. Drinking Dongdongju in nature with my favorite brother… I am having one of the best times.”

“Brother, how is your company doing lately? Your YS Tech?”

“YS Tech? Since you helped us last time, it is still going. When Mulpasaneop was about to start the court receivership, I thought our company would go broke with them. It was one of the difficult times in my entire life. You are my savior.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Gun-Ho took the new sample product out of his pocket and showed it to President Young-Sik Park.

“Please take a look at this.”

“What is this?”

“This is the sample product we recently developed with the help of the Japanese engineer.”

“It came out from one extruding machine? Wow. It’s so distinctive. This is highly precise. It has several different parts in one product. Some parts are tender, some are solid and some are transparent. This is magnificent.”

President Young-Sik Park of YS tech checked the sample product thoroughly. He rubbed it and he smelled it.

“It’s not a complete form though. We will insert an aluminum ring for a handle.”

“A ring?”

“According to the Japanese engineer, we can’t just attach the ring to the product. It is more complicated than that. Attaching a ring to the product involves some chemical work as well.”

“Hmmm.”

“So, since we have a lot of work to do already, I am thinking of giving this job to another company.”

“Really?”

President Young-Sik Park sat close to Gun-Ho.

“Are you going to receive a lot of product orders from S Group?”

“Yes, they will order a significant amount of the products.”

“Give that work to our company. We have die casting machines too.”

“The Japanese engineer said the work will be more complicated and difficult than expected. I actually brought the sample product for you, so you can figure out if your company can handle the work. I will send you the product drawing via email as well.”

“Thank you, little brother. If everything goes well with this new work, I think I can repay you 200 million won that I borrowed the other day.”

President Young-Sik Park carefully wrapped the sample product that Gun-Ho handed to him with his handkerchief and slipped it into his pocket.

Gun-Ho received a phone call from Professor Jien Wang from China. It had been a while since Gun-Ho talked to him.

“Hey, Gun-Ho. You don’t give me a call ever if I don’t call you?”

“Hey, Jien Wang. It has been a while. How are you?”

“How’s your company doing? Attorney Young-Jin Kim told me that you acquired a huge company in Asan City, Chungnam Province in Korea. You must be very busy.”

“It’s not that big. You can’t think of a big company in China to compare with a company in Korea. We have a different scale.”

“How much is the sales revenue?”

“It’s 70 billion Korean Won, so it’s about 70 million U.S. Dollars.”

“Wow. That’s substantial. A company with 70 million dollar sales revenue is considered a big company in China too. You can have about 7,000 workers then.”

“We can’t do that in Korea. We have only 250 workers now.”

“Yeah, because the company is in Korea. If the company is located in China, you would have had to hire more workers. In China, we had way too high unemployment rate. Labor workers are having a hard time. Deputy Mayor Seukang Li and I are worried about our country’s current economy.”

“That should be worried about by the government, shouldn’t it?”

“I am involved in the government work. I am a member of the employment promotion committee in a municipal government. Hey, why don’t you invest some money in China?”

“Haha. I don’t have any money. And I already have an auto parts factory in Suzhou City, China.”

“How is the business going with that factory?”

“It’s going okay. We are not losing money at least. Since Deputy Mayor Seukang Li introduced a window manufacturing company to us, our sales revenue has increased.”

“Really? That’s nice. It seems that Seukang Li will come back to Shanghai soon.”

“He is coming back to Shanghai? With what position?”

“He will be assigned with the position of a director of the bureau.”

“So, his position changes from a deputy mayor to a director of some kind of bureau. Is he then being demoted?”

“No, it’s definitely a promotion. You can’t compare a deputy mayor in a small city with a director of the bureau in Shanghai.”

“What is the exact position he will get?”

“I am not so sure, but he said he probably will get a director of the bureau in cultural affairs.”

“What is that position about?”

“That department handles the media like TV, music, fine arts, entertainment, etc.”

“Oh, I see.”

“The position is not yet confirmed though. He will have to go through the committee’s review and ratification first.”

“Well, I hope all goes well with him.”

“Oh, you know what? I published a new book.”

“What kind of book?”

“It has to be an economic book, right? Since I am an economist. The book title is “Economy Trend in China for the 21st Century. I am thinking of writing about the US-China trade war for my next book.”

“Will your book be published in Korea too?”

“Not yet. My book is academic, so no one has suggested me to publish it in Korea yet.”

“Haha, really?”

“I will send you a copy of my book to your office, even though it is written in Chinese. Read it. It’s an assignment from a professor to a student.”

“Haha. Okay.”

Note*

Bibimbap – A Korean rice dish with various ingredients such as vegetables and meat with hot sauce and sesame oil.

Dongdongju – Korean liquor made of rice