Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

“It was used as an auto repair shop in Seonghwan Town. The land is 980 pyung large. The area including the first and the second floor is 260 pyung large. We will have to paint the building. They used to repair cars in a fabric building, and the tent is worn out. I’m thinking of replacing it with a PVC canopy.”

“But you aren’t going to repair cars there. Do you still need a canopy?”

“I don’t know.”

“I will go visit the place. It is really nice that Jae-Sik bro is moving to a place close to my work. It only takes about twenty minutes to get there.”

“We have workers in our maintenance or production team, who used to do demolishing work, don’t we?”

“We do, but we will still need to hire professionals to do the demolishing job.”

“I know, but someone has to oversee their work.”

“We have Team Lead Shin in the maintenance team. He said he used to work in a demolition company before. Maybe I should take him with me when I visit the place.”

“They have a padlock at the entrance. The code is 4786.”

“Got it. I will go with Team Lead Shin.”

In the afternoon, Jong-Suk came to Gun-Ho’s office after visiting the auto repair shop.

“I like it. It’s not too big, and it’s cozy. We just need to completely empty the space and paint the building and change some bulbs; that’s it.”

“Really?”

“We can just get rid of the workshop tent and install a PVC canopy to shield the place from rain or something. Also, I think we need to build a pit. Team Lead Shin, who went there with me, said the same thing.”

“A pit?”

“Yeah, it’s a hole in the floor, so we can easily go under a car. We can lift a small car, but for a truck or heavy equipment, we will need a pit. One pit should be enough.”

“Oh, you mean the hole where you can get under for car repair, but we are not repairing a car there. Do we still need it?”

“Even though it’s not an auto repair shop, you will still have to do the basic car maintenance such as oil change and tire pressure adjustment.”

“I see. Well, let’s build one then, so we are adding the pit work to our to-do list.”

“There are some wall repairs to do as well, and the toilet doesn’t flush.”

“I will ask Jae-Sik to give you GH Logistics’ business credit card, so you can start the work next week.”

“Sounds good.”

“We will hire professionals to do the job. Let Team Lead Shin assist you. You will be in charge of the work and overseeing their work.”

“Haha. Sounds great.”

GH Logistics would buy the property, not Gun-Ho personally, so Gun-Ho withdrew 2 billion won and deposited it to GH Logistics’ bank account. He then made a call to Jae-Sik Moon right away.

“President Moon? It’s me. I just deposited 2 billion won into GH Logistics’ bank account.”

“Oh, really?”

“When we make the second payment for the land next week, we will use that fund.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Jae-Sik Moon checked the bank account. An amount of 2 billion won was deposited.

“It is really 2 billion won. I became a person with a bad credit score because I didn’t have 30 million won. I lost contact with my father just because my father’s credit score got bad because of a few tens of million won. If my family had a tenth of that money, our family wouldn’t have had to be scattered all over the country without contacting each other. Why me? Why it had to be me who had to suffer from all these?!”

Jae-Sik had mixed feelings while he was looking at the company’s bank account with 2 billion won, through his computer.

President Jeong-Sook Shin came back from Japan.

She came to Gun-Ho’s office in GH Building in Sinsa Town to give a report to Gun-Ho about her trip to Japan.

“How was your trip?”

“Twelve Japanese cartoonists will participate in the cartoon exhibition that we are hosting at GH Gallery with their original cartoon paintings. Each cartoonist will send ten paintings. I couldn’t meet all of the twelve cartoonists, but I met seven of them in person.”

President Shin pulled out an A4 size original cartoon painting from her bag and showed it to Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho was impressed.

“Wow. So this is not a copy, but it is an original painting.”

“That’s right. It was drawn and painted by a cartoonist. It can smear your finger if you touch it.”

“Wow. It is really very well painted. I wonder how much time they had invested in practicing in order to be able to paint this well.”

“I’ve made a contract with two of the seven cartoonists who I met in person during the trip to publish their cartoon books in Korea.”

President Shin showed a CD to Gun-Ho and smiled broadly.

“What is that?”

“All of their cartoon books are stored on this CD. We just need to print them out and translate their speech balloon parts into Korean. That’s it.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Some of the cartoonists who are highly popular had signed a contract with large publishing companies in Korea already, so I couldn’t get their work.”

“How is it going with your artist friend who is doing her art exhibition in Yokohama City?”

“She has been introduced to Japan as the master of watercolor paintings in Korea, and her art exhibition seems successful. I think you will have your chance to taste her cold noodles in soybean soup.”

Gun-Ho’s heart started beating fast when he heard of cold noodles in soybean soup which reminded him of a house in Yangpyeong County and also the lady medical doctor.

“That’s good to know.”

“Fifteen out of thirty books of the world history cartoon series have been released and all of the Chinese books are being sold right now. The Japanese book, ‘the person who wakes up in the morning’ is being sold very well. The sale exceeded 200,000 books last week. Accordingly, I can pay you back your investment money of 300 million won that was used to purchase the publication right of the world history cartoon series from Amazon. I will transfer the fund by the end of today.”

“Are you sure?”

“Haha. Even after I transfer the amount to your account, I will still have 900 million won in the company bank account. I guess GH Media is now self-sufficient. We won’t need your financial support any longer, sir. I want to move our office to GH Building in Sinsa Town. Director Kang will notify me once he sees an office available for us.”

After President Shin left the office, Gun-Ho thought that a publication company could be a lucrative business as long as it found a best-selling book.

“It can make a fortune in no time. It is a very attractive business. I guess President Shin will demand to raise her salary significantly during the salary negotiation at the end of this year.”

Gun-Ho checked his bank account. Gun-Ho had 170 billion won in his stock account and 4 billion won in a bank account. He sent 2 billion out of 4 to Jae-Sik Moon to acquire the land for GH Logistics, and today, GH Media sent 300 million won to Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho now had 2.3 billion won in his bank account.