Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

He woke up around 4 PM.

Gun-Ho ran to the bathroom and washed his face. He looked at his eyes in the mirror.

“I still have red eyes, but the pain is almost gone.”

After sleeping for long hours, he didn’t feel any pain in his eyes anymore. Once he started feeling relaxed, he felt hungry.

“I haven’t had anything since yesterday.”

Gun-Ho went to a Japanese restaurant near the Yeongdeungpo traditional market and ordered sushi. He ordered a bottle of liquor as well. It had been a while since he had liquor.

“19.8 billion won! My 19.8 billion won.” He chuckled.

“You never know what would happen in your life. I always felt small because of money and now I have 19.8 billion won. Who would expect this kind of thing would happen to me.”

Gun-Ho poured liquor in his glass.

“How much is 19.8 billion won? Say, I spend 10 million won every month for my living expenses, then I need 120 million won per year. That means I can go on like that for the next 165 years.”

Gun-Ho decided to buy liquor to people he felt grateful to. And he wanted to buy a condo for his parents.

“My dearest friend, Jong-Suk. He hung out with me when I had no friends at all. I will buy him liquor big time. Suk-Ho from Gyeongridan Street. I didn’t like that guy, but I was able to open a Vietnamese noodle soup restaurant in Noryangjin and made money from China because of him. I will buy him liquor too. Let’s see… who else… Sh*t! I do have such a small social network.”

Gun-Ho ordered one more bottle of Cheongha*. A chef in a white chef uniform handed Cheongha to Gun-Ho; he looked concerned when he saw Gun-Ho’s eyes and asked him,

“Are you okay, sir? Your left eye is swollen.”

“Would you like to join me?”

Gun-Ho poured the clear-liquid Cheongha in a glass and handed it to the chef.

“Thank you.”

The chef served a piece of tuna sushi to Gun-Ho in return after drinking the glass of Cheongha Gun-Ho handed to him.

Gun-Ho tried to think of anyone else who he felt grateful to while having his second bottle of Cheongha.

“That’s right. Chairman Lee from Cheongdam Town. I guess he is the one I should feel grateful the most. I don’t think I should buy him liquor though considering his age. What about Master Park from Gangnam? Should I meet with him so I can thank him? He said I would become rich at the age of 35. I guess I should say he was right. I am 35 years old now and will stay 35 until December 31 which is around the corner. Yeah, I think I want to thank him for it.”

Gun-Ho drank one more glass of Cheongha. He felt like he could drink more than the usual.

“It’s not a good time to buy a condo for my parents since it’s winter. I will tell them to get ready by the Lunar New Year’s Day. The moving season starts right after it.”

Gun-Ho decided to take enough time to think about what he wanted to do with his life.

“Since I am rich now, I should run a big company. I have work experience with factories; should I run a factory?”

Gun-Ho walked around the street in Yeongdeungpo District after leaving the Japanese restaurant. The neon lights were shining on the street and Gun-Ho felt like they were blessing him.

The year changed.

The Small and Big Winter went by and the weather was getting warmer. Gun-Ho went to his parents’ home. His eyes were fully recovered already by then.

“Huh? I thought you were coming for the Lunar New Year’s Day.”

Gun-Ho’s mother welcomed his son. Her left eye was swollen and red like a strawberry. The condition of her eye looked more serious than Gun-Ho’s when he had his blood vessels burst in his eyes. She seemed to have a hard time keeping her eye open.

“What’s wrong with your eye, mom?”

“Oh, this? It’s nothing.”

Gun-Ho’s father was in the bedroom, and he opened the door slightly to see Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho’s niece was there having a meal.

“Gun-Ho? I can’t get up to see you, son, because of the pain I have in my waist. Someone hit your mom’s eye.”

“Somebody hit her?”

“Yeah, while she was working at the nursing home, an old man with dementia hit her.”

“Don’t go there anymore, mom!”

“You can’t blame an old man with dementia. He didn’t know what he was doing.”

“What about sister? Why is Jeong-Ah here without her mom?”

“Your sister is working these days, so she left Jeong-Ah here.”

“Where is she working?”

“It’s a factory producing paper cups. She’s often late in coming home. Whew. Your sister and Jeong-Ah are having a hard time these days because of your brother-in-law.”

“What about him?”

“He doesn’t get enough work with his business, so he is doing some manual labor job lately. He shouldn’t have started his own business. If he continued working at the factory he had used to work, he wouldn’t have had to get a loan either. Whew.”

Gun-Ho’s mother cooked Doenjang-jjigae for Gun-Ho with her one eye open.

Gun-Ho had his meal with his mother’s delicious Doenjang-jjigae, and then he asked his parents to sit with him.

“I have something I want to discuss with you.”

“What is it? Why do you look so serious? Did you get a loan too? My chest feels like it’s about to sink every time someone talked about debt.”

“How far are we until the Lunar New Year’s Day?”

“Twenty days left.”

“After the Lunar New Year’s Day, I will buy a condo for you. You need to put this apartment on the market for the next tenant.”

“What are you talking about?”

Gun-Ho’s parents looked at Gun-Ho; they had a skeptical look on their faces.

“Umm, do you remember I went to China earlier, right? I actually made some money from there. I will buy you a condo, so you don’t have to pay the rent every month.”

“We are happy with this place.”

“I want to buy a condo in Seoul. Why don’t you move to Seoul?”

“I don’t like Seoul. We don’t have friends there, and the people there are cold.”

“What about Guweol Town then? Mom, you always said those people living in a condo in Guweol Town are lucky, and that they had probably lived a good life in their previous life. I can get a condo there close to the city hall. I can give you money to cover for your living expenses as well, so stop working in the nursing home.”

“Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea how much it cost to buy a condo there? It’s 300 million won. Your aunt used to live there in a condo 30 pyung large. She now downsized it and moved to Jugong condo in Mansu Town.”

“What about the new condo—Hillstate next to the city hall?”

“Stop being silly. Why don’t you sleep here today and go home tomorrow?”

Gun-Ho’s parents thought he was joking.

Gun-Ho raised his voice.

“I’m not kidding here. I do have money.”

Gun-Ho’s parents looked at Gun-Ho again with still a suspicious look in their eyes. When Gun-Ho looked at his mother’s half-opened swollen eye again, his eyes welled up with tears.

“You have had a difficult life. Let me buy a condo for you.”

His parents still looked at Gun-Ho without saying a word.

“I will let you know as soon as I’ve bought a condo for you. You can then place this apartment on the market. Since Jeong-Ah is here with you, I will get a 45 pyung large condo.”

“Huh?”

Gun-Ho’s father looked at Gun-Ho with his mouth open, and his mother came back to her senses and said,

“I can’t believe any of this until you show us the title to the condo. Only rich people are living in a 45 pyung condo in Incheon. It will cost well over 400 million won. Moreover, even if you have money to buy a condo like that, we can’t live there. You should cut your coat according to your cloth. The maintenance fee of that large condo will cost you a lot.”

“Haha, okay, mom. Just know that I will buy you a condo. I gotta go now. Thanks for the Doenjang-jjigae, mom.”

As Gun-Ho stood up to leave, his mother and father stood up along with him. His father barely stood up though with his painful waist.

“Oh, mom, did you pay off the loan you had from the credit union?”

“Why are you asking? I am still paying the principal and interest. I guess I have about 6 million won left.”

Gun-Ho pulled out an envelope from the inner pocket of his jacket.

“Before you move to a new place, pay off that loan with this. It’s 10 million won. Use 6 million won to pay off the debt and use the remaining 4 million won to buy some restorative herbal medicine for you.”

“10 million won?”

Gun-Ho’s parents’ eyes widened.

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<From the author>

Right before MB got elected in the year 2007, the price of stocks related to the Four Major Rivers Project increased dramatically. The price of EE-HWA Construction went up 30 times more, and the price of Sammok-Jeong Company went up over 15 times more. The stock market was overheated, and they became issues at that time.

If you are doing stocks, you can easily search the records of the history of those stocks on the Internet: EE-HWA Construction and Sammok-Jeong Company (it is now Sammok S-Form).

The stock’s price hike at that time is a fact, but Gun-Ho’s investment in those stocks is a fiction.

Note*

Cheongha – one of Korean brand of a clear, refined rice wine.