Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho made a call to Jae-Sik Moon.“Huh? President Goo! I was actually going to call you.”

“Really? Is something going on?”

“I learned that all of the GH companies prepared their year-end profit and loss report along with their new year’s plans, and sent them to you. I haven’t prepared anything since we haven’t done much yet.”

“You can skip it this year. It has been only two months since we started the intercity bus service business.”

“We are recording our daily income though. Even if I don’t verify it, the Chinese partners are doing it on their own. They are very thorough in doing it. The accounting department and also the operations department take care of it.”

“Really?”

“There is a big chart hanging on the wall behind Vice President Chun Chang’s desk. It’s a daily income chart showing different categories by bus, route, and also the driver. They update it daily.”

“Haha, really?”

“We are making 1.5 million won per day by running five intercity buses. When I asked them to increase our number of buses to twenty by next year, Chun Chang said that we would probably be able to increase it to ten. They raise the number of buses based on demand forecasting.”

“Hmm, I see. How’s your family, Jae-Sik? Your wife and the baby are doing well, right?”

“Yeah, they both are healthy. The baby cries too often at night. Other than that, we are fine.”

“That’s good.”

“Oh, I was told that your wife speaks Chinese very well.”

“Well, how good she could be, because she moved to China not long ago.”

“I heard about your wife’s fluent Chinese from here and there. People told me that she is very talented in languages.”

“I don’t know about her talent, but I know that she studies a lot for sure. The only time when I study the Chinese language is the time when I get a private lesson from Eun-Hwa Jo, but my wife is different. She mumbles what she learned that day all day long by herself while doing house chores. If her Chinese improved exceptionally rapidly, that’s probably because she studies and practices it a lot, rather than she has some sort of inborn talent for it. She mumbles in Chinese while doing laundry and cooking at home.”

“See? She is working so hard to learn the Chinese language, huh? That probably differentiates her from others. Do you take a walk with her during the weekend? I guess you can’t because it is probably too early for the baby to go out, right?”

“I can’t, but my wife does go out leaving me alone with our baby. She goes everywhere on a bicycle on Saturday and Sunday while I stay at home.”

“Really?”

“She seems to want to practice what she learned, in real life. She goes to a traditional market and talks with Chinese merchants there in Chinese. She also often goes to a park and enjoys small talks with students there. Sometimes she buys some pancakes on the street and brings them home. She tries to meet the real people on the street and exposes herself to the real life Chinese language.”

“Haha, really? No wonder why her Chinese is improving so quickly.”

After getting off the phone with Jae-Sik Moon, Gun-Ho thought about the interpreter— Eun-Hwa Jo. She had her own drawbacks such as always being late to an appointment, and she had shown some bad manners in the past as well. However, one thing for sure about her was that she was a good teacher. Min-Hyeok Kim, Jae-Sik’s couple, and Gun-Ho himself learned their Chinese from her.

“If I have a chance to see her again, I think I’m going to give her some gift. Whether she intended or not, she did contribute to GH companies by teaching its essential workers the Chinese language.”

Gun-Ho wanted to send a gift to Jae-Sik’s couple to congratulate them on having a new addition to his family. He opened his desk drawer and took out 1 million won. He then called for Manager Hong.

“This is 1 million won. I want you to send it to China. Here is the bank account number and the address where I want you to send it to.”

Gun-Ho handed the cash and a piece of paper to Manager Hong.

It was Friday evening.

Young-Eun came home in TowerPalace in Dogok Town, and told Gun-Ho that she notified the hospital where she was working, that she would take her maternity leave. She was nine months pregnant.

“That’s good. I want you to stay here and relax listening to music and reading books.”

“I have some stuff that I want to bring from my condo in Myeongryoon Town.”

“I will take you to the condo tomorrow. We can pick up things that you need.”

“What if I feel sick when you are at work. I will be here by myself.”

“Right. We need to prepare for an emergency since we are expecting a baby soon. Maybe we should hire a housekeeper who will stay with you during the day.”

“A housekeeper… Can we ask my aunt to stay with us until I deliver the baby, instead?”

“I don’t mind. If you feel more comfortable with her, then ask her.”

“I have one more month to go, so, I think I will ask her to come and stay with us when I have two weeks left until my due.”

“Sounds good. We have plenty of rooms to spare anyway. I hope she is available to stay with us.”

The following day, Gun-Ho and Young-Eun went to Young-Eun’s condo in Myeongryoon Town. Young-Eun looked exhausted even by simple walking. Her bulged belly looked heavy. It had been a while since the last time when Gun-Ho visited her condo.

“Huh? There used to be postcards on the wall. Where did they go?”

“I removed them. They were too distracting. I have them stored in a box.”

“Let’s move everything here to our condo in TowerPalace.

“I still want my own place…”

“After our baby is born, are you going to go to work in the hospital?”

“I need time to think about it.”

Young-Eun selected things that she wanted to move to TowerPalace today, and Gun-Ho put them in a bag. They were books and clothes mostly. Young-Eun was sitting on the floor while picking her clothes. She looked beautiful, Gun-Ho thought. Gun-Ho went close to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“What was that for? Stay away, Mister!”

Gun-Ho didn’t back off. He gave a kiss to Young-Eun’s bulged belly this time.

“What? Stop it!”

“It was not for you. It was for our baby.”

Young-Eun laughed out loud.

“Oppa, let’s go to the pork cutlet restaurant since it’s close from here. That’s the place where we had our lunch for the first time.”

“Sounds good. It was on the second floor of a building around Arko Arts Theater in Daehakro.”

“That’s correct.”

Gun-Ho and Young-Eun headed to Arko Arts Theater in Gun-Ho’s Land Rover.

“I feel refreshing being here with you again.”

“I was shy when I met you for the first time.”

“Me, I was like… wondering what is this middle-aged man doing here?”

“A middle-aged man? Haha. Did I look that old?”

“At that time, you talked about arts and paintings. You looked very intelligent and sophisticated. Now I know that all the knowledge that you showed off that day were things that you heard from President Shin.”

“Well, I still have that knowledge somewhere in my head.”

“You were good.”

“Let’s order the same dish that we had back then.”

“Sure.”

Young-Eun looked happy that day. She often smiled while having the pork cutlet.

“Eat as much as you feel like you want. You are sharing it with our baby.”

Gun-Ho cut the pork cutlet into small pieces in a bite-size for Young-Eun.

“Oppa, when we go back home, let’s take the road in the direction to Sungshin Women’s University. I want to look at the view while driving around Gilsangsa Temple after passing the Starbucks there.”

“I can go all the way to Samcheonggak if you want.”

They continued to have their pork cutlet with a glass of sprite. They looked happy together.