Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

After President Song left his office, Gun-Ho leaned back on the sofa and thought about Director Jong-Suk Park.

‘Jong-Suk… He was born into a family that was running a Seolleongtang (an ox bone soup) restaurant, and I had never seen him studying when we were in school. He was so into comic books at that time, and he loved to have fun. But now I come to think of it, he loved to make things with his hands too. He made a slingshot and a spinning top himself, which looked exactly the same as the ones that were being sold at a store.

A group of kids in the neighborhood once took the spinning top from him, that he made, and I took it back from those kids for him. He was very good at making things with his hands even when he was a child. And he seemed to have developed that skill as he worked at several different factories. Now, people call him MacGyver Park. He earned that nickname.

When he was in junior high, he made a toy gun. He actually modified a toy gun that was being sold at a store, using a broken umbrella’s ribs, and he used candles to make bullets. That toy gun worked great. He could break a bottle with it. Suk-Ho Lee asked Jong-Suk persistently to sell that toy gun to him, and Jong-Suk eventually sold it to him for 10,000 won. Suk-Ho carried that toy gun around and aimed at the girls mostly who were passing by on the street until he was caught by the police. The toy gun was obviously confiscated, and Suk-Ho was severely reprimanded by the police. The policeman slapped him in the face. I still remember that.’

Gun-Ho then thought about GH Mobile.

‘All of GH Mobile’s major clients are large companies such as A Electronics, S Group, Mandong Company, Egnopak, and Chrysler. They are all big companies worth more than a trillion won. By the end of this year, GH Mobile will reach its annual sales revenue of 100 billion won without any difficulty. Next year, I believe we will make more than 200 billion won. We can then register the company with KOSDAQ. Once the company goes public, the value of my shares will increase by more than five times.

Once the price of the stock goes up dramatically, I can sell them partially to a third party organization such as a financial institution, national pension, the Military Mutual Aid Association, a private school pension, etc. I can make a tremendous amount of cash then.’

Gun-Ho felt excited even by thinking about the possibility of making huge money.

Gun-Ho looked down at the company yard from his office window on the second floor. He expected to see several forklift trucks busily moving around, but he instead saw the workers pouring into the yard.

“Huh? Oh, it’s lunchtime already?”

Gun-Ho made a call to Chan-Ho Eum.

“Chan-Ho? Pick me up at the building entrance at 12:15. We will have lunch outside today.”

“Yes, sir.”

Around 12:15 pm when most workers were at the company cafeteria having their lunch, Gun-Ho got out of the company quietly with Chan-Ho. In the car, Chan-Ho said while looking at Gun-Ho’s face through the rearview mirror, “Sir, where are we heading to?”

“Let’s have Korean grilled beef ribs.”

“Beef ribs? With pleasure, sir.”

Chan-Ho looked truly happy. Chan-Ho was a real meat lover. He didn’t like Japanese food though.

Gun-Ho and Chan-Ho went to a popular Korean restaurant in Asan City that specialized in Korean grilled beef ribs.

“Eat as much as you want, Chan-Ho.”

“Yes, sir!”

“How’s Tae-Young doing these days?”

“He summoned us last Saturday.”

“For what?”

“There is a VIP guest from Japan, and we will escort him. He is coming on Friday, but I told Tae-Young bro that I might not be able to be there since I have a job already here with you, sir.”

“You are free on Saturday and Sunday.”

“Tae-Young bro asked me to let him know my schedule by Friday evening since I will be informed by then if I will be needed to drive the car during the weekend.”

“Hmm, I see. By the way, who is that VIP? Is it a politician?”

“No, I was told that it would be a famous actor.”

“An actor?”

“Yes. We will escort him and protect him against some stupid crazy fake fans, or rude and aggressive magazine journalists. It only takes five or six of us to handle a work like that.”

“Is that so?”

“When a reckless journalist jumps to our VIP, we snatch that journalist’s neck or snap his arm. It happens so quickly. Tae-Young bro is very good at it.”

“You could injure the guy, and you could end up in jail.”

“That’s where Tae-Young bro’s skills come in. He is very good at blocking those crazy people without hurting them.”

“I see. Well, just be careful, okay? Look at you. You already finished the beef ribs we ordered. Let me order more for you.”

“Haha. Thank you, sir.”

Gun-Ho had a glass of beer while eating grilled beef ribs while Chan-Ho chose to have a coke though since he had to drive.

“You know what? I want to take a sauna before going back to work. Let’s stop by the hot spring in Asan City. Why don’t you join me?”

“I… um…”

“There won’t be many people at the hot spring, especially at this hour. It’s a weekday. Let’s do it together.”

“Yes, sir.”

Gun-Ho and Chan-Ho Eum took a sauna before heading back to work at Dyeon Korea.

Chan-Ho Eum was dropping Gun-Ho off at the building entrance, when Gun-Ho saw Director Kim’s car passing the gate.

Gun-Ho asked him, “Are you coming from a client site?”

“Yes, sir. I visited two vendor companies of A Electronics.”

“Any good news?”

“When I told them that A Electronics is using our products for their exporting products, they seemed to be interested and asked me to send them our product test result.”

“Hmm, is that right?”

“I also reminded them of what happened to A Electronics’ previous vendor company in Gumi City, that is now under the court receivership, and also that they had used recycled materials. They then said that they wanted to use Dyeon Korea’s materials, but…”

“But what?”

“They said, our unit price is too high. Our price— 4.8 million won per ton— seems to be too high for them.”

“Hmm, we can’t just lower our unit price for them.”

“Of course not, sir. Once we lower our unit price, it would be really hard to increase it later. Moreover, we can’t give lower prices to these two companies only; we will have to lower the price for everyone that’s buying our raw materials. It’s better that we lose those two potential clients rather than lowering our unit price.”

“The unit price for China and India is lower than that, right? 4.6 or 4.5 million won per ton, I believe.”

“We export our materials at a lower price which is normal, but we shouldn’t lower the price for the domestic market.”

“We will have to give up some potential buyers then? I don’t think A Electronics will pay more to those vendor companies just because they use Dyeon Korea’s materials.”

“We will see, but I’m pretty sure that those vendor companies will want our raw materials. After filing the product claim against the vendor company in Gumi City, A Electronics adapted a more strict testing process on the products that they were supplied by their vendor companies. If they find even 1 % of recycled materials in a product from a vendor company, they reject the product.”

“The companies selling recycled materials would get hit as well.”

“There are plastics and synthetic rubbers that could be recycled, and there are those that couldn’t. It is very tempting for a vendor company to use some recycled materials partially in order to lower their unit price. Knowing the fact, A Electronics’ inspection division is frequently visiting their vendor companies now.”

“Mr. Director Kim, why don’t you come over to my office and have a cup of tea with me?”

“Yes, sir. I will come to your office after I stop by the bathroom to wash my hands.”

Gun-Ho was taking a rest in his office when Director Kim came to the office. He was with Mr. Adam Castler. The interpreter— Mr. Myeong-Joon Chae— was following Adam Castler to the office as well. Mr. Adam Castler was smiling broadly when he walked into Gun-Ho’s office.

“Mr. Vice President Adam Castler seems to be in a good mood today. Please have a seat.”

The three men sat on the sofa as Gun-Ho suggested.