Gun-Ho felt drowsy in the afternoon.
“Why am I feeling tired and sleepy? All I did today was that I visited the bank at Sejong Road. How come do I feel so sleepy? Is it because it’s Monday?”
Gun-Ho put his arms upward and stretched himself.
“This drama business will be my last investment. There is just too much work to do. I should let others do all the work from now on, and I will just collect the profits. I’m not going to make a fortune by working myself anyway.”
After drinking a glass of water, Gun-Ho went up to the rooftop to get some fresh air.
“It’s quite busy up here.”
On the rooftop, there were many people gathering together having a chat, and some were smoking. Several people were sitting in the book café as well. Instead of Jae-Sik’s wife, there was a new lady who was making coffee. She looked a bit older than Jae-Sik’s wife, but she looked sophisticated.
“She must be the one who President Shin talked to me about.”
Gun-Ho entered the book café.
“Would you like to have a cup of coffee, sir?”
The lady didn’t seem to know who Gun-Ho was, and Gun-Ho felt more comfortable that way.
“I will have an Americano, please.”
Gun-Ho took his coffee in a to-go cup and walked out of the book café. He then walked toward the guardrail. Sinsa Town and Apgujeong Town came into his view. Gun-Ho enjoyed his coffee while looking at the city view unfolded in front of him.
‘Jae-Sik Moon is going to be a dad in two months, and I will be a father soon too. I have four months left. I thought I would become a 3-GivingUp* or 5-Giving-Up* without being able to marry anyone. It turned out that I’m married and soon to be a father.
I wonder if my friends from high school are doing fine. Won-Chul Jo, Suk-Ho Lee, and Byeong-Chul Hwang… They got married earlier than me and Jae-Sik Moon. Since their parents supported them financially, they could start their adult life earlier than us, like meeting a significant other, marrying that person, and having a child. Won-Chul Jo’s child must be at least five years now.
By the way, how come we don’t get together anymore? If I remember correctly, Won-Chul Jo and others organized a club or something with high school friends, so we could meet more often. Are they all too busy to have some gatherings?’
It was Wednesday.
Gun-Ho was on the way out of the bathroom after washing his hands when he received a call from Director Sim.
“Sir, I safely arrived in Shanghai. Today is my first day of work. They assigned me a desk along with my business card with the position title of vice president.”
“Did they get you a separate office?”
“Their entire office place is not spacious enough to give me a separate office. They just placed a partition around my desk. I’ve already met everyone in the office. My interpreter also has her desk in the corner.”
“Oh, I see.”
“I’m going to the studio this afternoon where their current drama is being shot.”
“Really?”
“And, I have the new drama’s complete scenario with me. I was going to ask my interpreter to translate it for me, but on second thought, maybe it’s better that someone in Korea do the translation. I mailed it to Ms. President Shin this morning via EMS.”
“Where are you staying? Are you comfortable there?”
“President Min-Hyeok Kim reserved a small hotel room for me close to the workplace. It costs 200 Yuan per day. They provide breakfast as well.”
“Since I verified your safe arrival in Shanghai, I will have 50,000 dollars sent to Huanle Shiji by the end of today. Once the funds arrive, the Chinese people there will treat you better.”
“Haha, thank you, sir.”
After getting off the phone with Director Sim, Gun-Ho made a call to President Jeong-Sook Shin.
“Please send 50,000 dollars to Huanle Shiji Production Company’s bank account in China today.”
“Okay, sir.”
“You will have to file a report with the foreign exchange authority about the fund transfer. You can ask the bank how to do it. If you need help, you can ask Manager Hong here. He has a tax accountant license; he will be able to answer any question that you have regarding tax.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Also, after you send 50,000 dollars, please take a picture of the receipt and send it to Director Sim.”
“Okay, I will do that.”
On Thursday, Gun-Ho went to work in GH Mobile in Jiksan Town.
There were several large freight trucks parked bumper to bumper.
“Hey, Chan-Ho, what are these trucks?”
“It looks like they were sent by the vendor companies. There are more trucks than last time.”
There seemed to be a lot of visitors at GH Mobile as well; many people were gathered in front of the security office. When Gun-Ho’s Bentley stopped at the entrance, the security officer, who recognized Gun-Ho’s car, opened the gate right away and gave a military salute.
When Gun-Ho walked up to the second floor where his office was located, he heard people arguing loudly. Gun-Ho asked for his secretary—Ms. Hee-Jeong Park.
“What is going on?”
“They are residents around this area. They first talked with the general affairs director, and then they moved to President Song’s office and started raising their voices.”
“What do they want?”
“I don’t know, sir. I can go there to find out.”
“No, it’s not necessary. Please bring me a cup of tea.”
Gun-Ho was curious and thought of walking out of his office to see what was going on, and then he decided not to. He didn’t want to appear skittish. He just sat on the sofa and read a newspaper quietly while having his tea. About 30 minutes later, President Song entered Gun-Ho’s office.
“What was it all about?”
“The local people filed a complaint with us.”
“Did they all leave?”
“Yes, they are all gone now.”
“What’s their problem?”
“We are receiving an increasing number of freight trucks these days, and they all line up in front of the gate before entering our company. The line is now very long and takes up the road that the local people often use. They are complaining that those trucks often block the road, and their cars and cultivators can’t get out because of them. They are asking us to resolve this problem. According to them, they already raised the issue with our general affairs director, but the issue stayed unresolved. That’s why they came to my office today.”
“The increase in sales caused a problem like that. Do we have a plan to resolve the problem?”
“We are going to make another entrance to reduce the current traffic congestion at the front gate. The vendors will use the new entrance while we use the front gate to transport our products.”
“Hmm.”
“It will cost to build an additional gate. And, we will probably have to hire two more security guards, and it will cost us too.”
“If the local people can’t live with the current increased traffic, we will have to do that.”
“Several residents also claimed that some vendor companies’ trucks damaged their storage where they store their agricultural equipment. They want us to pay for the damage. We can’t figure out which vendor company did that though.”
“Hmm.”
“I will have the construction started right away to open another gate. We will have to remove several trees in our yard though to make enough space.”
“Okay.”
“If we reach the sales revenue of 200 billion won next year, we will have to seriously consider building a second factory.”
“Hmm, I see.”
President Song left the office after giving a bow to Gun-Ho.
The general affairs director came into Gun-Ho’s office.
“I’m sorry, sir, for the disturbance earlier.”
“It’s okay. It happens.”
“Several residents are very old men, and they just don’t even try to understand the situation. They talk one-way without listening to others.”
“I understand that, but we have to get along with the residents in this area for our business. I heard about the situation from Mr. President Song. So, we are building a second gate?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Having an additional gate sounds good. Let the local people know that we are doing everything we could to resolve the issue as soon as possible, and tell them that we are opening another gate. Also, prepare some gifts and distribute it to them during the upcoming Korean Thanksgiving.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do we currently have 450 workers in total?”
“Yes. We are in the process of hiring more workers right now. We anticipate having more than 500 workers by the end of next month.”
“As we have more workers here, the role of the management became critical. Keep up the good work.”
“Yes, sir.”
The general affairs director gave a bow to Gun-Ho and left the office.
Note*
3-GivingUp – a person who gave up three things in life: (1) meeting a significant other; (2) marrying someone; (3) having a child.
5-GivingUp – on top of the three things above, this person gave up two more: (4) possessing his or her own house and (5) social relationship.
