The Famous Millionaire

Hyunwoo felt he could find it.

Since then he began to find ways to use the wires only. Though he could not analyze the components of wires like Duyoung did, he could test the physical characteristics.

After some testing on his own, Hyunwoo brought the wires back to Duyoung.

“Dad, I think we can commercialize them. They are too good to be dumped in the garbage.”

Hyunwoo briefed him about his findings.

In fact, Duyoung didn’t pay any attention to wires or wire debris. He only focused on gasoline.

Hearing Hyunwoo’s explanation, however, he felt the debris could also be used well.

“I didn’t know the wires had such characteristics.”

“Yea, if you use gasoline alone, the production cost is high, but if you produce the wires, too, don’t you think the cost can go down?”

Duyoung agreed. He could produce two products at the same production cost.

“Anyway it will take lots of time to test gasoline, so let me work on the wire debris when I have free time.”

Duyoung resumed the research.

***

Very late at night, there was a myriad of twinkling stars in the night sky.

There was a remote villa in the mountain in the outskirts of Kyonggi Province.

Sometimes, the light was turned on inside, but it was dark today. There were some street lights on the way leading to the villa, but there were no lights.

Without the starlight, it would have been impossible to see one inch ahead as it was so dark.

Then there was a shadow moving furtively in that darkness. Even though there was nobody around, the guy silently went into the villa, hiding his body. Then he noticed a security camera was working and let out a sigh of relief.

Good. Nobody is inside the house.

He incapacitated the existing camera instantly then he slipped out of the villa ten minutes after reworking the camera with a new system.

The villa, where the security camera began to operate again, was shrouded in silence again.

Several days later, a luxury sedan arrived at the villa.

The sedan pulled over and a middle-aged man and a woman, who seemed younger than his daughter, got out.

Leaving them alone, the sedan left the scene.

“Shall we go in?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged man put his arm around her waist. While walking to the villa, he groped her body up and down. Sometimes, he clenched her bosom and sometimes her buttocks.

But the woman looked blank. Hiding her lonely eyes with effort, she reluctantly had sex with him.

Several days passed after that.

Assemblyman Chulmo Kim got a call from a stranger. It was a threatening call.

“I’ve obtained a sex video of you. Wire 100 million into the account I give you. Then I will get rid of the original video.”

Kim didn’t bat an eye. As he had more power and status, he sometimes received such threatening calls. On such occasions, he totally rejected them.

But this time he felt something strange. The other party reminded him of the exact date, time and location where he had an affair with a woman.

“How did you know all this?”

“I don’t want to talk with you about this long. By midnight tonight, send the money.”

The phone was hung up.

Though Kim called the number, it was a fake.

“Damn it. What should I do?”

He had no time. And he had to particular way to handle this threat.

He had no other choice but to wire the money. The other party received the money but didn’t keep his promise.

A little later his advisor called him urgently.

“You’re in big trouble, congressman. A sex video with your face in it is circulating the internet now.”

“What? Sex video?”

The situation escalated quickly. Chulmo and Yonji Choi were ranked the top search words on the internet, and the sex scandal involving had been downloaded by lots of people across the country.

Though Kim denied it shamelessly, the picture of the video was so sharp that nobody believed him.

Nonetheless, Kim resisted and denied, “It’s not me. Never, ever!”

And he bent over backwards to press on the politicians, prosecutor’s office and the press to ignore the scandal.

But things got worse and worse. Several days later his advisor, brought him more shocking news.

“Another terrible thing happened.”

“What is it this time? Is there anything that is more shocking than this?”

Kim threw a tantrum all of a sudden.

His advisor flinched for a moment, but he could not sleep on the shocking news.

“Yonji committed suicide.”

Kim just squat down on the floor feebly.

“Damned wretch!”

***

Hyunwoo had dinner with the staff of Ani & Funny on that day.

Then he noticed a TV news item about the Yonji Choi list, a hot topic these days.

Yonji was a new female star who appeared on TV ads recently, but when her sex video was revealed, she committed suiside as she could not overcome it.

The police started an investigation and found her diary in her house. The diary had a shocking list of people that she was forced to have sex with.

Among them was National Assemblyman Chulmo Kim.

What was more shocking was that Yonjin had to do it at the coercion of Taesu Ahn. She was dreadful of the contract under which she had to pay a huge cancellation fee if she didn’t follow Taesu’s direction.

Her diary contained lots of names of celebrities including politicians, powerful businessmen and presidents of some media companies.

The prosecutors’ office started the investigation and arrested Taesu on charges of coercing her to have involuntary sex with people.

All the figures listed in her diary including Chulmo Kim were investigated, but all were freed without any charges. The prosecutors’ office concluded that her diary had no specific evidence.

After all, the Yonji Choi case was closed with the arrest of Taesu Ahn in three months.

“Son of a bitch!”

Kyungsu cursed at them in an angry voice.

Other staff reacted likewise.

“How can this country be called just when such dirty skanks have top positions in society?”

“This time we have to replace all the politicians.”

“So sorry for the female star.”

Hyunwoo felt the same way, but that was the sorry state of the country that he could do nothing about.

The news was still coming out from the TV.

This time there was a report on Bando Oil.

Bando Oil had been on the verge of bankruptcy for several months. As a result, its stock plummeted. It was had once been valued at 50,000 won per share, but it was down to 10,000 won now.

In the meantime, the news broke that OneStar became its biggest shareholder.

Hyunwoo frowned at the news.

OneStar was of the same family as DonStar, the evil US private equity company.

“Damn it. OneStar! I wonder if they manipulated the stock prices of Bando Oil.”

There was a real possibility. In fact, OneStar artificially dropped the stock price of Bando Oily by spreading malicious rumors about the company to buy it at a cheap price. It was the same method that DonStar employed when it took over Korea Exchange Bank.

Hyunwoo was really enraged.

Ani & Funny staff including Kyungsu burst into anger at the malicious business practices of OneStar.

“Dirty skanks! I wish our president took over Bando.”

“Yea, you’re right.”

Hearing their complaints, Hyunwoo agreed.

Actually, his father was on the verge of developing new green oil.

Whenever Hyunwoo asked him about the progress, Duyoung kept repeating ‘Not yet.’ But Hyunwoo knew his father did the research so well that his father could start a business immediately. If his father made the final decision, Hyunwoo would start an oil refinery business.

But it was too late. OneStar already took over Bando Oil and emerged as its largest shareholder.

After dinner, most of the staff went back to the office for late work, but Hyunwoo headed home.

When he arrived at home, his father led him into his room as if he was waiting for his son urgently.

He was in an excited mood today.

Hyunwoo became as much excited, looking at his father.

“Any good news?”

As soon as he sat, Duyoung said in a low voice,

“Done. I’ve discovered the best environment for microorganisms to work. I can reduce the time by half. I also checked the debris around the wires. It is not an ordinary substance. I think the tensile force is much stronger than a spider web. And it’s very strong against heat. I think I can find ways to use them as a product.”

“Do you think you can commercialize the wires?”

“Yeah, that’s true. I think you can hit the jackpot with the proper application of the wires.”

Hyunwoo felt as if his heart was breaking with joy. It was the sweet fruits of Duyoung’s intense research on the wires ten months after he discovered microorganisms.