Gun-Ho went to the restaurant where he was supposed to meet with President Jeong-Sook Shin that day. The restaurant was located right behind the Starbucks across Gun-Ho’s building. It was a Japanese food restaurant named Gimsusa and they were serving sushi. When Gun-Ho arrived at the restaurant, there were President Shin and another lady and also the Japanese man— Yoshitake Matsuda waiting for him.
President Shin introduced the lady to Gun-Ho.
“This is Jeong-Soon Choi—an artist of the western-style painting.”
“It’s a pleasure meeting you. I’m Gun-Ho Goo.”
The painter glanced at Gun-Ho’s face for a while and said,
“Are you the gentleman who bought a painting on the first day of my art exhibition?”
“Yes. I reserved one painting for me because I liked your paintings.”
President Shin’s eyes widened.
“Oh my, I didn’t know that you buy paintings, President Goo. You haven’t shown much of your interest in paintings, so I have tried not to talk much about artworks when I’m with you. You are an art lover.”
Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda laughed and said, “It’s very nice to love paintings.”
It was the lunch rush and the restaurant was crowded with people. But the restaurant provided a comfortable environment to converse without being disturbed.
“Where in Japan are you planning to have your art exhibition?”
“It will be in Yokohama City.”
Talking about Japan always reminded Gun-Ho of Mori Aikko.
“I often travel to Japan. I will stop by your art exhibition in Japan if I’m in the area.”
“Thank you, President Goo.”
Gun-Ho ordered a bottle of beer and filled up a glass with it and handed it to Ms. Jeong-Soon Choi.
“Please take one glass of beer to celebrate our meeting.”
Jeong-Soon Choi lifted her glass and clinked it to Gun-Ho’s glass, and then she said, “I do appreciate the opportunity to have an art exhibition at GH Gallery. I know you provided your gallery for me at a very reasonable price and I really liked the pamphlet as well. I wanted to thank you, President Goo.”
“I haven’t done much. President Jeong-Sook Shin here did all those work for you. I don’t really get involved in the gallery business.”
“I’m still grateful for your help, President Goo. If you didn’t allow it, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity. By the way, I was actually expecting to see a tough and wild man when I made this lunch appointment with you since you are running several businesses. You are actually a young man with tenderhearted eyes.”
Gun-Ho felt embarrassed when Jeong-Soon Choi praised his appearance, so he tried to quickly change the subject. Gun-Ho said while clinking his glass of beer to Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda’s.
“Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda, I thank you for recommending me to host an art exhibition with Japanese original cartoon paintings.”
“Haha. I do appreciate the opportunity for doing it.”
President Shin said to Gun-Ho, “Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda used to work as a journalist and he has connections in the field. He promised that he would send the art exhibition news to Japanese media for Jeong-Soon Choi’s art exhibition in Japan.”
This time, Jeong-Soon Choi thanked Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda for helping her and she clinked her glass to Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda’s.
At that moment, President Shin received a call and she went outside the restaurant to take the call after excusing herself. When she came back to the restaurant, she said, “I’m so sorry. I had to take that call. It was from President Jae-Sik Moon. He asked where they need to deliver Jeong-Soon Choi’s paintings to.”
Jeong-Soon Choi asked President Shin, “Did you tell him to bring them to Yangpyeong County?”
“Yeah. I told him to bring it to Yangpyeong.”
Gun-Ho said while dipping a piece of sushi into the soy sauce with wasabi,
“So you are living in Yangpyeong.”
President Shin answered it on behalf of Jeong-Soon Choi.
“She is living in Yangpyeong, in a nice single house with a garden. She is living there by herself doing her artworks. I really think she should get married.”
“Haha. I’ve heard that many artists live in a single house with a garden distant from a busy city.”
“Her house is not very big though. She chose a small house because she thinks she might feel scared of living in a large house alone. Her garden is full of plants and trees like a jujube tree and a Cornus. She is actually living with a dog.”
“Haha, really? It sounds like a fun place.”
“Why don’t you visit her house when you have time? She is a very good cook. Her specialty is cold noodles in soybean soup. I’m sure she will offer you a nice soybean soup noodle.”
“Haha. That sounds really delicious.”
“Oh, and her niece sometimes comes to visit her there. She is the one…”
When President Shin didn’t finish her sentence, Gun-Ho asked her with a smile, “Why did you stop there?”
“I was not sure if it’s okay to say it. Actually, she is the niece who I wanted to introduce to you.”
“Haha, really? What is she doing for a living?”
“She is a medical doctor. She works for Seoul National University Hospital.”
Gun-Ho’s face suddenly hardened.
After lunch, Gun-Ho came back to his office.
The secretary—Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh brought a cup of coffee to Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho thought about the niece who President Shin talked about while having his afternoon coffee.
‘There must be tons of female doctors in Seoul National University Hospital. I don’t think she is that niece.’
Gun-Ho was sitting on his sofa and he was deep in thought when he received a call from Jae-Sik Moon.
“President Goo? I just wanted to let you know how things are going with GH Logistics. The business that I went to Eumseong Town yesterday went well. I signed the work contract with them. Three freight trucks will be fully used for this work.”
“Good job.”
“The thing is that one of the three trucks will be used for the transportation work to Incheon International Airport, not Pyeongtaek Port. When I got there, I distributed my business cards to everyone.”
“Nice. When are you planning to get those trucks?”
“I decided not to buy new trucks. I will have to customize the top part on my own if I buy new trucks. Instead, I bought used trucks in installments. They all came with already-customized top parts. It’s more convenient that way. They are all less than 50,000 kilometers on them.”
“Oh, really?”
“Since I saved some money by getting used trucks, I was able to get another truck for the artworks delivery work. That truck is a used one too. All the necessary stuffs are already built inside the truck like hangers and metal-framed shelves. Many people applied for the truck driver position in responding to the job posting I placed the other day. I guess they liked the fact that they would be provided with a truck and they didn’t have to bring their own trucks. There was one applicant who used to transport artworks, so I hired that driver right away.”
“Hmm, really?”
“I’ve already done one artwork transportation work today. It was from Gwangju City to Seoul. I have another artwork delivery waiting for me next week. It’s for the artist who is currently doing her art exhibition at GH Gallery. The work is busy but it doesn’t seem to generate much income.”
“For now, you will need to show people that GH Logistics handles various transportation work.”
“I know. On the company website, it is stated that GH Logistics provides a total transportation service. And I listed all sorts of items we handle such as products from manufacturing companies and artworks, including sculptures. Also, I stated there that we cover the transport not only ground transport but also air and sea transport. I didn’t forget to mention that we also lease heavy equipment.”
“Man, I think the company will grow big soon.”
“Oh, and I found that it is possible to purchase a brand new car in installments. Even though the company’s president has a bad credit score, as long as the company has another person who could provide his personal guarantee, then it is possible.”
“I’m so happy to see you work hard, friend.”
“I have no other choice. This is the only work I have.”
