Gun-Ho went to see his life mentor—Chairman Lee—from Cheongdam Town.
He didn’t forget to bring a gift for him. He bought a box of ginseng drinks made by Korean Ginseng Corporation.
“Sir, I really thank you for coming to my wedding the other day. I know you are a busy person, and you made your time for me.”
“Of course I had to. It was not just anyone’s wedding, but it was your wedding, President Goo. Congratulations again on your wedding. Your bride seemed to be a very fine person.”
“I also want to thank Master Park who came with you.”
“He happened to be in the area when I talked to him about your wedding. When he learned about your wedding, he insisted that he had to be there.”
“I will visit him in the near future to show my gratitude.”
“A lot of people showed up at your wedding to congratulate you. I guess you are so popular.”
“Haha. I don’t know about that.”
“Did you already done Shinhaeng?”
“Shinhaeng?”
“Yes, you know, a newlywed is supposed to visit the groom’s parents and the bride’s parents after their honeymoon trip.”
Gun-Ho thought, ‘Oops.’ He hadn’t done it yet, but he couldn’t tell him that because he was afraid that Chairman Lee might think of him as a disrespectful person who just ignored the tradition and their parents.
“Ye… Yes, I did.”
“I hope you have a happily-ever-after life with your wife and future children.”
“Thank… Thank you, sir.”
Gun-Ho gave a deep bow to Chairman Lee before walking out of his office.
When Gun-Ho entered the elevator, someone said hi to him.
“Hello, sir.”
Gun-Ho looked at the man. He was the dandy manager from BM Entertainment.
“Oh, hi, Mr. Manager.”
“What brought you to this building today?”
“The owner of this building—Chairman Lee—is someone very close to me. I visit him here sometimes.”
“Oh, I see. I came here to see a friend of mine. He has a business in this building. Did you have a chance to meet Seol-Bing by any chance?”
The name of Seol-Bing pricked Gun-Ho’s conscience.
“As a matter of fact, I did. I once invited her over to the art gallery in the basement in my building in Sinsa Town during its grand opening. That was the last time I saw her.”
“Seol-Bing just came back from Japan after photo shooting. I can find out where she is right now for you.”
“Oh, no, no. That wouldn’t be necessary. Well, I’d better get going.”
When the elevator arrived at the ground level and then when they walked toward the front entrance, they ran across a group of young people who looked like celebrities. When they saw BM Entertainment’s manager, they looked surprised, and then they gave a deep bow to him.
“Sir, how are you?”
Gun-Ho thought, ‘I guess that this dandy guy has some power in the entertainment field. Hmm.’
Gun-Ho got in his Bentley that was parked in the building parking lot. When he was on the way out toward the gate, he saw the BM Entertainment’s manager walking into the parking lot. Gun-Ho rolled down the rear window of his car. He craned out of the window and said, “Why don’t you visit me at my office in GH Building when you have a chance? I have something that I’d like to ask you about.”
“Okay, sir. I will do that.”
The man, who was with BM Entertainment’s manager, asked, “Who is it?”
“He has a 20-floor building in Sinsa Town. He has a connection with a lot of high-ranking government officers in China as well.”
“Wow, did you see his car? It’s Bentley. That car costs 300 million won.”
When Gun-Ho came back to his office, the first thing that he did was send a text message to his wife—Young-Eun Kim. He didn’t want to give her a call because she might be in the middle of giving medical treatment to her patients.
[I just got scolded by a relative for not having visited our parents yet after our honeymoon trip. I think we’d better visit both our parents this Saturday.]
Young-Eun replied to him after quite a while.
[Let’s go to your parents’ during lunchtime on Saturday to Guweol Town in Incheon City, and then we can stop by Sillim Town to see my father in the evening.]
Once he received the confirmation from Young-Eun, Gun-Ho made a call to his mother.
“Mom, we will stop by home around lunchtime this Saturday. I wanted to go see you and father right after the honeymoon trip, but I couldn’t make it because I was held up at work.”
“Sounds good. Why don’t you visit Young-Eun’s father after coming to see us on Saturday? Since her father is living by himself, he must feel lonely and will be happy to see you both.”
“Okay, mom.”
It was Friday. When Gun-Ho went to his home in TowerPalace, Young-Eun was there already. He could smell Doenjang-jjigae*.
“Did you cook?”
“Yeah. I cooked rice with a rice cooker. It will last at least three days. The soup can’t go more than two days, so if you don’t finish it by then, just throw it out.”
“This condo feels homey now.”
“Go and wash yourself first before dinner.”
“I guess I don’t have to eat outside any longer.”
After washing his hands and feet, Gun-Ho sat at the dining table facing Young-Eun.
There were just-cooked white rice, Doenjang-jjigae, kimchi, fried eggs, and other side dishes like seasoned vegetables and beans.
“The rice, Doenjang-jjigae, and kimchi are the only ones that I cooked. Everything else is from a side-dish store.”
“Bon appetit.”
It was the very first time for Gun-Ho to eat food that was cooked by his wife. The rice was good, but the Doenjang-jjigae was below average. Gun-Ho missed his mother’s Doenjang-jjigae.
‘I shouldn’t let her know that her Doenjang-jjigae is not good. I should appreciate her time and effort for this. I read some articles from the Internet about how to maintain a happy marriage. It said I should pretend that I really enjoy my wife’s food even though I actually don’t. Well, this Doenjang-jjigae is really awkward.’
“How is it? Is it good?”
“Yeah, it’s good.”
“You like it?”
“Sure.”
“Then how come you don’t eat much?”
“I’m eating right now.”
Gun-Ho ate fried eggs, dried seaweed, and kimchi mostly. Again, the rice was good since it was just cooked by a rice cooker.
“Thank you for dinner. I will clean the dishes. Just leave them in the sink.”
“I will do the dishes. Can you move things from my car for me, instead?”
“What things?”
“I have some books and gifts for our parents in my car.”
“Oh, okay.”
Gun-Ho followed Young-Eun to the garage.
When Young-Eun opened her SM5’s trunk, there were tons of books there.
“You have so many books here.”
“These books are old books that I don’t often read anymore. My condo is currently cranked with my books and the bookshelf there is overflowing, so I just wanted to move some of them here.”
“I think I need to bring a cart. I have it in my car. Give me one second.”
Gun-Ho moved all of the books to the condo. It took him two travels.
“How did you get these from your condo to your car? These are heavy.”
“The security guard there helped me. I had to travel four times between my condo and my car.”
“It’s good to have a husband, huh?”
Note*
Doenjang-jjigae – a Korean soybean paste stew
