Empire of the Ring

Youngho picked up the phone.

“Mr. Eriksson, this is Lee Youngho.”

“Mr. Lee, the Chechen rebels attempted the terror attack on the oil pipeline.”

“Ah…!”

“Although it was only half a success, the oil prices of the world will fluctuate temporarily. Russia couldn’t stop them completely because they spontaneously attacked three different points.”

“They really did it… The media from all over the world will go crazy about it.”

“I think that was what they were up to, we already confirmed their attacks and the damaged pipelines through our satellite.”

Youngho could not believe that their agency is a group that even had the power to move satellite. Although the US CIA also had two satellites, the information agency was a private organization, it did not make sense.

“Okay, thank you for informing me. I’m glad that we did not take risks in vain in Chechnya.”

“Absolutely. You will soon receive the money in your account, I look forward to working with you again.”

“Wait, Mr…”

Eriksson had already hung up without giving a moment for Youngho to respond. He was still puzzled since he did not want to get additional payment but Eriksson would not take a second opinion on that matter.

The Black Widows’ terror attack on the oil pipeline did not have a high impact on the oil prices but the attack was treated as a great issue because Russia declared war with extreme terrorists. It would have been natural for Russia to punish the attackers, but the country was trying to root all of the terrorists and the government of the republics which allowed rebels. Russia had been laying low because of the winter Olympics but now that Sochi Olympics was over, the government had nothing to be scared of.

As if they had been waiting for this, the Russian government began to dispatch the Russian Army troops to the republics where terrorist groups belonged to. Putin had been waiting to find a reason to root them out and finally, there was an opportunity. Now the Western world’s had no say in this although Russia was on its violent mission since Russia had a rational cause.

After he was done talking with Eriksson, Yaniv, who was sitting in front of him, also received a call. It was President Putin, saying his appreciation for Yaniv. After Youngho had told Yaniv about the potential terror attack, he called Putin to deliver the news even before the US CIA contacted Putin. The CIA’s call was a couple days later since they investigated the validity of the information.

Yaniv was satisfied by the call. It seemed that he even planned another hunting trip with Putin. He put his arms around Youngho in joy.

“Lee, you are the major person who helped me to get rid of my mafia title.”

“Well, I was just lucky. Please don’t think like I’m special.”

“Hahaha…”

Hearing that gas deposits were found at District seven and receiving compliments from President Putin in a day, it surely was Yaniv’s celebration day. Yaniv’s underlings could also relax since their boss was having a great day. Whenever Youngho came to see Yaniv at his mansion Yaniv was in a great mood and his underlings try to stop by at the mansion. It was because when he was in a good mood, he tended to grant anything if his underlings asked for a favor.

Sergey told Youngho that some high rankers of the group even wait until Youngho comes to get Yaniv to sign on some business proposals and contracts. In fact, Youngho had seen multiple times Yaniv signing documents brought by his men while he was drinking. Indeed the company was not a regular one. After finishing signing, Yaniv laughed heartily as if he was showing off his generous characteristic.

***

Youngho and Ilkwon returned to Baku from Volgograd. He rushed back to go to District seven since technicians would be discouraged if the company’s representation did not show up even though they had found the energy source deposits, which was a big accomplishment. Youngho would be treating dinner and drinks for all of the workers and technicians, and also giving them bonus payments to reward them, so they would be encouraged to work harder.

Although finding gas deposits was a joyful news, the company should now be even more careful at this point. When the pressure of gas emission was not subdued like now, safety accidents were more likely to happen. Now, the workers have a lot of technical work to do such as burying pipes and installing facilities to control the amount of high-pressure gas and burn the gas exposed in the air. Of course, the owners of the business would be having a party but for the technicians, their work would be even more challenging and risky from now on.

At this time, Youngho thought giving bonus payments would be the best way to encourage the workers. Since it was not ideal to just transfer the money into their accounts, he went around the field and shook every worker’s hand, which was done a lot of times in the Korean business world.

The Azerbaijani government responded to the good news of District seven’s successful exploration with reward. Youngho was invited to the presidential palace and spent several days meeting related officials.

When he went to the palace, he brought ten boxes of Zeynep wine as a silent protest. Since the president smiled looking at the wines, Youngho was positive that his wines will be chosen for the official presidential banquet. Zeynep Farm’s wine, in fact, should be the official wine for the government’s official event not only because it tasted great but also the farm was the biggest and great farm with the largest amount of produce in Azerbaijan, there was a symbolic meaning to the farm.

And now that Youngho was a permanent resident of Azerbaijan, the farm was not a foreign business anymore. It was Azerbaijani’s business.

When Youngho went to receive his resident card, he applied cards for the siblings and Sangchun’s parents as well. They would need it anyway since they would also be living in here. Also, if needed, Youngho would be applying for dual citizenship for business purposes.

The new 600 acres of the Southern part of the farm had its first cultivation of grapes. Although the grapes were not too bad, their sugar content was low to make wine. Since their sizes were great to eat alone, Youngho held an event for the kids and parents of the international school, Koreans living in Baku, and Korean businessmen. He gave away the grapes to them, they could come and pick the grapes to take home.

The event went on many days and attendees now asked Youngho to make it an annual event. It seemed like a good idea. Since many people were Koreans, Youngho picked the Hangul Proclamation Day* for the annual event and around the day, there will be different events on the farm.

In Youngho’s farm, there were about 50 Koreans including thirty security service company crew and the North Korean defector family. He also called the Korean embassy staffs that he had not been in touch with for a while. From henceforward, Zeynep Farm would be the hub for Koreans in Azerbaijan. He also told them to come any time since there was a guesthouse on the farm, it would not be weird since there were thirty Korean security crews training on the farm.

There would be a pool in the summer and skate rink in the winter for guests. For Koreans who were homesick for Korean culture and foods, Zeynep farm would be a place of comfort. For someone like Youngho, who loved his own people, it was satisfying that he could offer his farm for Korean people.

***

Youngho received his Azerbaijani permanent resident card. He could not freely work and live in Azerbaijan as a resident, not a foreign investor. Except for the fact that he did not have the right to vote or social security card, he could now be treated like other Azerbaijanis. To Youngho, nothing changed except that he did not have to renew his visa. Now that he did not have to go back to Korea for his visa, he felt a little empty inside since he did not have any obligations to go back to Korea unless he wanted to visit.

He imagined getting married to Fatima and wondered how many citizenships she would have if she married him. He smirked to himself. Jongil who was passing by spotted him smiling alone.

“You do a lot of random things, are you going insane now?”

“I got the resident card, that’s why.”

“Why were you smirking? You must have been daydreaming about weird things.”

Jongil was truly becoming a mind reader.

“Man, you need to go and set up a fortune teller business. You’re becoming like a ghost.”

After observing Youngho’s face, Jongil gave a look that seemed to say ‘I know what you’re thinking.’

“Man, you’re disgusting. What’s that face?”

“Youngho, everyone around you knows Fatima is your girl. Why don’t you get married already?”

“Dude, she’s still a student…”

“What does being a student have to do with getting married? Also, it’s not a good thing for an unmarried woman to be called as the madam of the farm.”

“…”

“You have no reason to be hesitant. I don’t know how far you went but just get married before it’s too late. The elders on the farm also seemed to feel sorry for Fatima.”

Jongil’s opinion had a point. Fatima was often being called as the madam of the farm by the Korean security service crew and the wives of Youngho’s friends. Whenever she was teased that way, she did not know what to do in embarrassment. Youngho also felt lonely being alone at nights. Looking at him not trying to fight back to his suggestion, Jongil pushed him even harder.

“Fatima will be twenty four after next month’s birthday. In Caucasus’ culture, she would have two babies by now. People think it’s weird that she’s still not married, just get married before the year passes.”

“Do other people really think that way?”

“Man, I’m in a weird position too. You don’t call Karajan by her name anymore since she’s my wife and it’s weird for me to call Fatima’s name.”

“I can’t call her name since she’s now a mother. Man, we’re still so soaked in Korean culture.”

“I don’t think you can fix that until you die. Anyway, I know you’d be too shy to push the wedding, so I’m going to do this for you, okay?”

For his shy friend, Jongil was going to push ahead with Youngho and Fatima’s wedding plan.

After a while, Youngho and Fatima’s wedding rumor was spreading on the farm. Sangchun’s parents were so happy to hear the news.

“Youngho, many people in Baku already think Fatima’s your wife. It’d startle them if you have a big wedding, why don’t you just have a small wedding at the farm?”

Youngho could not even open his mouth.

“December 20th looks like a good day for a wedding. There’d be no workers on the farm.”

“…”

“You know you can’t do this alone. Just follow through.”

“Yes, father.”

Youngho had no choice but to agree with him.

After the wedding rumor was spread, it was difficult to see Fatima’s face. Whenever she met Youngho, she blushed and tried to hide in embarrassment. She was stunned by the wedding rumor that she did not even know of.

Youngho had not even proposed to her yet. Not only he was terrible at romantic things but also he was shy. It would have been nice if Jongil came to help but he was focused on training the security crew.

*Hangul Proclamation Day – Korean Alphabet Day, a national holiday of celebrating the invention and proclamation of Korean alphabets