Gun-Ho was reading a newspaper in his office when he recalled the golf appointment that he made with Attorney Young-Jin Kim the other day. He made a call to GH Mobile’s President Song.
“It’s Gun-Ho Goo.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you have any plan for next Wednesday?”
“No, I have nothing special scheduled that day.”
“Then leave your afternoon schedule clear for this coming Wednesday. I know you’ve been busy lately, and this is your chance to release some stress and tension. Let’s have a round of golf with me.”
“Where should I be?”
“Come to the Asiana Country Club in Yongin City by 2 pm.”
“Okay. Who else is coming?”
“There will be Dyeon Korea’s Mr. Adam Castler and a friend of mine from Kim & Jeong Law Firm, and you and me.”
“Okay, sir. I’m glad that Mr. Adam Castler would join us to play golf. He must be very lonely living in Korea without many friends. I have something to talk about to him anyway.”
“Oh, you do?”
“Your friend from Kim & Jeong Law Firm, is he an attorney?”
“Yes, he is an attorney in the international business team.”
“Oh, that’s very nice. I will see you on Wednesday then. It will be fun.”
Gun-Ho almost made a call to Mr. Adam Castler to invite him for golfing, and then he realized that he had to speak English with him.
“Shoot. I can’t speak English.”
He then called for the secretary— Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh.
“Did you want to see me, sir?’
“Please have a seat here.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh carefully sat on the sofa.
“You know Dyeon Korea’s vice president— Mr. Adam Castler, right?”
“I’ve met him once during the board meeting.”
“I want you to interpret for me. Here is what I want to tell him. please write down what I say.”
Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh took out a pen and a paper.
“I’d like to invite you for a round of golf this Wednesday. Please come to Asiana Country Club on Wednesday by 2 pm. Your chauffeur must know how to get there. This is what I want to tell him.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I need to talk to him first to let him know that I’m the one who is calling him. So, I will make a call to him, and then I will let you talk.”
“Okay, sir.”
Gun-Ho dialed Mr. Adam Castler’s office number.
“Hello?”
“Hello? I am Gun-Ho Goo.”
“Oh, hi, boss!”
“Just a moment.”
“Yes, sir!”
Gun-Ho handed his smartphone over to Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh. Yeon-Soo started speaking English. She was indeed fluent. Once she delivered the message to Mr. Adam Castler, she handed the phone back to Gun-Ho and said, “He said he would be there.”
“He did? That’s good. Thank you.”
Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh then gave a bow to Gun-Ho and left the office. She didn’t forget to retrieve empty cups from his table on the way out of his office.
When Gun-Ho arrived at home, there was a mail in the mailbox waiting for him.
“Is it for me?’
It was a newsletter from KOAF.
Gun-Ho read this newsletter after he lied down on the bed to sleep. There were several photographs of African children who looked sick. There was also a photo of a water pump. The description below the photo said that KOAF used their membership fees to build the water pump in Ghana. There was a short article written by Young-Eun as well with a small photo of her. She was smiling with a hat on in the picture.
[I can’t forget the child’s failing eyes, who was holding my hand. I couldn’t save that child. All I could do for him was to give him a painkiller and to pray for him. That day, I regretted becoming a medical doctor for the first time in my life…]
“She is doing great work for society. The problem is that she doesn’t come home often.”
Wednesday came around
Young-Jin Kim, Gun-Ho Goo, Adam Castler, and President Jang-Hwan Song gathered at the country club in Yongin City. Mr. Adam Castler seemed to be impressed by Young-Jin Kim’s fluent English. So did President Song.
“This guy went to law school in the U.S. He does speak English very well.”
Young-Jin Kim laughed and looked at President Song, and said while indicating Gun-Ho, “This guy went to college in China. He does speak Chinese very well.”
President Song laughed out loud.
They started an 18 hole round of golf in the east course. Asiana Country Club had two courses— east and west. They only played the 18 hole in the east course. It was Team A of Young-Jin and Gun-Ho against Team B of President Song and Adam Castler. They played stroke play.
Gun-Ho was supposed to be the worst player among the four people, but that day Mr. Adam Castler made lots of mistakes in playing it. So, in the end, Young-Jin and Gun-Ho’s team won. Young-Jin Kim was indeed excellent at playing golf. He was good enough to cover Gun-Ho’s poor playing.
“I guess he played golf all day long when he was in the U.S.”
“Team B, please buy us a drink since you lost.”
Gun-Ho said to Mr. Adam Castler, “Let’s pay with Dyeon Korea’s business credit card.”
“What?”
When Adam Castler couldn’t understand Gun-Ho’s English, Young-Jin Kim interpreted it for him. Once he understood what Gun-Ho said, Adam Castler smiled broadly.
“Okay! No problem!”
The four men headed to a Korean restaurant that specialized in Galbi (Korean grilled beef ribs). Young-Jin could drink as he pleased without worrying about driving a car since he came with Gun-Ho in his Bently which Chan-Ho Eum drove for them. Adam Castler also enjoyed drinking since he came with his chauffeur as well. President Song was the only one who had to drive back home, and he had only one small glass of soju.
“The Galbi is really good.”
Adam Castler seemed to like the food there a lot. He constantly said, “good.”
After everyone drank some liquor, President Song looked at Adam Castler, and said, “Mr. Castler, have you thought of having a subsidiary company in India? As far as I know, Dyeon Korea has the exclusive right to sell the products in the entire Asia market.”
“I think it’s a bit early to expand our market further. Maybe we need to stabilize our current market first.”
“I beg to differ. I think it’s a bit late even if you start developing a new market even now. Hyundai is already selling 500,000 cars to the Indian market. They have their factories in Delhi and Chennai. Additionally, more than 100 of their vendor companies are there as well. The market is growing quietly, getting bigger and bigger every day. I think you want to get into the market before it becomes too late.”
“Hyundai is selling that much in India?”
“The second largest market after China is India. That’s why GH Mobile is currently considering expanding our market to India.”
“Hmm. Really?”
President Jang-Hwan Song sat closer to Mr. Adam Castler and continued to talk, “You don’t have to build a factory from scratch like you did when you built Dyeon Korea. As a start, you can just open a company there just like Dingding’s sales company in China. You can lease a premises to use as a factory if you need one, and then you can later build one once the market is well developed and need your own factory.”
