Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho decided to take a short trip to Tokyo, Japan for three nights and four days.

“I’ve never been in Japan. Let’s visit Tokyo and see how Japanese people make their life and also get some idea about my next business item.”

Gun-Ho stopped by a travel agency. The agency recommended him a trip package that included a Tokyo city tour and a visit to a small city, Nikko which was famous for hot springs.

“Okay, I will take it.”

Gun-Ho wanted to forget about things going on in his head and reserved a flight ticket to Japan right away.

Gun-Ho was still anxious while he was in Japan.

He couldn’t pay attention to the tour guide, but all he could think of was his stock price.

He followed his tour group to Meiji Jingu Gaien in Shibuya, where his hotel was located. He still couldn’t enjoy the tour; he was still thinking about his stocks.

“I invested 1.1 billion won. Am I going to succeed or fail in this investment?”

While he was lost in thought, Gun-Ho realized that an old couple kept glancing at him.

“If I had 10 billion won, I wouldn’t be this nervous about the 1.1 billion won investment. However, 1.1 billion won is all I have right now. Of course, I am anxious. I invested all I have.”

Gun-Ho felt anxious and he looked around. The old man of the old couple came to Gun-Ho with a smile and asked,

“Young man, how come are you traveling by yourself? Don’t you have a girlfriend?

“Haha, no, I don’t.”

“What have you done so far then without getting a girlfriend? In the old times, you could have your own children already at your age.”

A nosy old man, Gun-Ho thought. The old man’s wife seemed to feel sorry for Gun-Ho because she seemed to know how nosy her husband could be. She kept dragging the old man’s arm toward her. There were many old couples in the tour group. Some women’s group was there as well. Gun-Ho was the only young man in the tour group.

“I see several young ladies here. Why don’t you ask one of them out?”

“Haha, I will pass, sir.”

The old man talked to Gun-Ho again when the group went to a shopping mall, Shibuya109.

“You should buy something and distribute it among your female friends. That’s one of the ways to get a girlfriend.”

Gun-Ho thought that while he couldn’t think of anything else but his stocks, this old man’s head is filled with girlfriend thing.

The following day, the group continued to Nikko. Gun-Ho was looking outside the window enjoying the view in the tour bus heading to Nikko when the old man came and sat next to him; he was holding some food.

Gun-Ho thought this old man could be very tiresome.

“Try this. It’s mochi; we bought them on the street in Shibuya. It’s tasty.”

“Thank you. I will try one. Sir, which presidential candidate do you think will be elected?”

“Myung-Bak of course. Dong-Young Jeong is too weak.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Our current president Moo-Hyun Roh hasn’t done anything good for our economy. On the other hand, Myung-Bak Lee used to work as a CEO of a big company. I believe he will make our economy much better. Don’t you think so, young man?”

“I agree with you, sir. Thank you for the mochi.”

Gun-Ho continued to look outside the window; otherwise, he thought the old man would keep talking to him.

The tour group arrived at Nikko Tosho-gu. The tourists were busy taking pictures.

“Oh! Look at that monkey sculpture.”

There was a three-lady group; they seemed to be colleagues in an office. One of them came to Gun-Ho and asked him to take a picture of them.

“Did you come by yourself?”

They asked Gun-Ho and laughed.

Gun-Ho didn’t say anything while feeling embarrassed.

“Is this your rebound trip?”

One of them said, and the three ladies started laughing again.

“Sh*t, I feel so embarrassed that I can’t enjoy my trip anymore.”

Gun-Ho talked to himself.

“Sir, what do you do for a living?”

“Sir?”

Gun-Ho was baffled when those young ladies called him sir. Well, Gun-Ho was already 35 years old, maybe he was old enough to be called sir in those young ladies’ eyes.

“I am a survey researcher. Who do you think will be elected in the presidential election this year?”

“Kyung-Young Huh.”

Those ladies started laughing again.

“Don’t you think the candidate, Dong-Young Jeong would win for the presidential election?”

“Nah… Myung-Bak Lee will win. Girls, let’s go. The tour guide is calling us. Hurry up.”

Gun-Ho felt a sense of relief after hearing people say MB would be elected.

“Okay. I’m betting on the winning side.”

Gun-Ho came back to Korea, and the first thing he did was checking his stock price.

They increased by 5%.

“Little people seemed to constantly buy the stocks, but it’s slow.”

Gun-Ho felt too nervous and bored to wait for the stock price hike. He decided to rent a car and travel around Korea.

“I haven’t been in a lot of places in Korea.”

Gun-Ho came back home after visiting Jeolla Province, Gyeongsang Province, Chungcheong Province, and Gangwon Province. And he checked the stock price. Not much changed.

Gun-Ho thought that maybe he should start working. It was hard to get a decent office job in Korea, but he could easily find a manual labor job. He started working in a distribution center in Deucksan Town. His job was a night job loading and unloading trucks with heavy packages. Time would fly and he would feel too busy to think of his stocks.

The work was hard. He didn’t even have time to go to the bathroom. The workers there looked poor and hungry. Gun-Ho could see himself a few years ago.

“You don’t look like you belong here. Why don’t you learn some skills and get a better job?”

A man in his 50s who was working the same job with Gun-Ho talked to him.

“Every job is equally valuable. This is fine as long as I get paid.”

“If you do this kind of manual work for a long time, it would cause a physical pain here and there in your body.”

The work was indeed hard. Gun-Ho already felt pain in his waist. His arms felt tender.

“You shouldn’t lift a heavy box with your waist like that. You should straighten your waist and use your knee to lift the box.”

Gun-Ho was being paid about 1,500,000 won per month for the manual labor work at night. He sweated heavily every night and he had to apply pain relief patches on his shoulders and waist to make 1.5 million won per month; it was too little for the pain he had to suffer.

“You can’t be rich by doing a manual labor work job. You have to either get a profession after studying a lot, or you have to be born to rich parents so your life starting point is different from most people.”

Since it was a night job, Gun-Ho didn’t have to worry about encountering someone he knew while he was working. Gun-Ho was working there to kill time while waiting for a desirable outcome of his 1.1 billion won stock investment. Gun-Ho thought that the others who were working there to support their family would never get out of their poverty.

“Maybe that’s why many young people these days decided not to have children. They barely make a living for themselves.”

Another good thing about working there was that he could have a good sleep during the day since the work at night exhausted him enough to make him pass out during the day. He continued this life for two months and he didn’t think of stocks during the two months.

Autumn was almost gone and Cosmos flowers were falling down.

One day, Gun-Ho got up around lunchtime after working late at night and he was reading an economic newspaper when he was stunned.

[Warning! EE-HWA Construction stock hike]

It was about EE-Hwa Construction stock. It said that the Korea Exchange (KRX) observed an unusual stock price hike on EE-Hwa Construction and warned investors about the specific stock.

If a stock price goes up by 60% during the past five days, Korea Exchange warns investors and temporarily halts trading for one day in order to prevent damage on investors.

“I made it!”

Gun-Ho immediately opened his stock account.

“If I sell it now, my net account value will be 1.76 billion won!”

By investing 1.1 billion won, Gun-Ho made 660 million won.

“Nicely done. It’s enough. Let’s sell it.”

Gun-Ho decided to sell it the next day once the Korea Exchange’s temporary trading halts on the stock would be lifted.

Gun-Ho, let the distribution center know that he would quit the job.

“We like working with you. Why are you quitting? I was talking with the team leader to raise your pay. We will raise it to 1,700,000 won.”

“Haha, thank you, but I already found another job.”

Gun-Ho wanted to scream to the distribution center staff that ‘Hey, I am a man with 1.76 billion won.’ Actually, Gun-Ho wanted to scream it to the world.