Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

At Suk-Ho’s bar, the friends from Gun-Ho’s high school continued to drink and eat food. Dishes were prepared and a box of soju was placed; however, those seemed to be not enough. The bar was filled with clamor.

“Hey, you, Suk-Ho, f*cker! Why don’t you drink? You don’t drink because you own this place?”

“You drink, you f*cker!”

“Hey, Byung-Chul Hwang! Why are you being so arrogant? Is it your tie that makes your neck stiff? Remember when I went to your research center to see you? You hurt my feelings when you said you couldn’t come out and meet me just because you were in a meeting or something. Take this drink; it is the penalty you have to pay for treating your friend that way.”

“Hey, you are wasting soju. Don’t over pour it.”

“You, f*cker. Sh*t up and just eat this!”

The bar was full of noise and also cigarette smoke. These people were in their mid-30s and they were supposed to know how to well behave with other people in a public place by now. However, they seemed to go back to the old days when they were still in high school, and they certainly seemed to enjoy each other’s company.

Gun-Ho didn’t enjoy it though. He didn’t like the noise, smoke, and his high school friends’ rudeness.

Won-Chul who was sitting next to Gun-Ho kept asking him to drink more, so Gun-Ho drank a few glasses of soju; however, his mind was somewhere else. He was thinking about the secret bar at Hannam Town and the quiet bar in Shinjuku City in Japan. Gun-Ho became acclimatized to the lifestyle for the rich.

“I don’t see Jae-Sik Moon here, who used to sit in front of me in high school.”

Jae-Sik Moon just crossed Gun-Ho’s mind and he asked the friend who was sitting next to him. Jae-Sik was living with her grandmother at that time. He had a poor family too.

“Jae-Sik? He is delivering packages for a living. He lost all his earnings in the stock market; I told him he shouldn’t invest in the stock market. He now has a bad credit score, and he can’t come and enjoy this type of gathering now.”

“Really?”

Gun-Ho felt uncomfortable.

“Maybe the money I made from the stock market included Jack-Sik’s money that he lost in the stock market.”

Suk-Ho suddenly started screaming.

“Hey, stop talking for a moment, and listen to me. Won-Chul Jo who arranged this gathering for us has something to say.”

The room became quiet and Won-Chul stood up from his seat.

“Umm, it has been already 15 years since we graduated from high school.”

“Hey, just cut to the chase!”

“I’d like to make this gathering as our regular meeting so we could continuously share our friendship. I brought some flyers for it. Take a look at it.”

“The name of our social gathering is WestFacing Club? Does the name mean something?”

“Many of us used to live in Juan Town in Incheon City or Bucheon. Our high school is located there too. So, to remember the area that we once lived in, I named our gathering WestFacing.”

“It sounds like WaspFacing.”

People chuckled.

Won-Chul Jo read the flyer he brought in to the friends at the bar. It was about starting a social gathering with friends from high school. Everyone agreed with starting a gathering so they could meet each other on a regular basis. And then they started disputing over the amount of the membership fee, whether it should be 30,000 won or 50,000 won. The dispute lasted 30 minutes. Gun-Ho wanted to leave the bar after paying whatever amount of money they were asking.

“What do you think, Gun-Ho?”

“I’m good either way. I will just follow what is decided.”

After determining the amount of the membership fee, they started spending another time on electing the president of the club. They all nominated Gun-Ho for the position because he was rich. Gun-Ho jumped up from his seat. The idea of taking charge of this club and constantly getting together closely with these people horrified him.

“I think Won-Chul Jo should take the president position since it was his idea to get together regularly in the first place. I am not good for the position. I will pay some money to support our meeting though.”

Gun-Ho adamantly refused to take the position. Won-Chul, on the other hand, seemed to be interested in taking the position. Two very different types of people contrasted clearly; Gun-Ho was more like a recluse, while Won-Chul was a political person.

Gun-Ho took proactive action to confirm Won-Chul’s election as the president of the WestFacing Club.

“Everyone, let’s clap to congratulate Won-Chul on becoming our club’s president.”

One or two started clapping and then everyone clapped. Gun-Ho then stood up from his seat.

“I went to Japan last week and I have some left-over trip money. Let’s move to another place; I will buy you all a drink with the money to celebrate the formation of the club. Where are we right now? We are in Itaewon Town, right? The famous Itaewon Town! It would be a shame if we don’t drink more in Itaewon Town. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah! You are absolutely right. You are good at speech, Gun-Ho. You were not like this when we were in high school. Anyway, let’s have more drink as Gun-Ho suggested!”

“Let’s go!”

“Let’s go!”

More than ten people as a group walked towards Itaewon Town.

As soon as Gun-Ho came to his office, he made a call to Attorney Young-Jin Kim.

“Attorney Kim? Is this a good time to talk?”

“Yeah, it’s good. You spent too much on our last trip to Japan, Gun-Ho. I am sorry.”

“Nah, don’t mention it. It was not much at all.”

“That bar in Shinjuku City cost you a fortune, right? That place is famous for its high price.”

“It’s okay. We all had fun, right?”

“By the way, what made you call me in this early morning?”

“Oh, I’m calling to ask you about an accountant. I’m looking for an accountant. Your firm has a lot of accountants, right?”

“That’s right.”

“If you have an accountant close to you, would you ask him to look for an account with a name, Nak-Jong Lee? From Anchang Accountant Office. I am sorry to call you to ask a favor in the early morning like this.”

“An account’s information can easily be found at the Accountant Association or something. Why don’t you ask the accountant your company is working with?”

“I didn’t want to involve the accountant who I am working with. He would want to take the job for him. It could be troubling.”

“What are you up to, man?”

“I will tell you later.”

“Okay, I will see what I can do. There are so many accountants. It will take me some time.”

After lunchtime, Gun-Ho received a call from Attorney Young-Jin Kim.

“No one at our firm knows the accountant, Nak-Jong Lee personally; however, one of my attorney colleagues knows the president of Anchang Accountant Office.”

“Oh, then he can find out about that accountant, right?”

“Yeah, he said Accountant Nak-Jong Lee is in Cheonan City.”

“That’s about right! I think that’s him!”

“Let me give you a phone number. It’s not his personal cell phone number but it’s his office number.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Accountant, Nak-Jong Lee is the one who had been handling Mulpasaneop’s financial matters.

Gun-Ho lost in thought for a moment.

“Should I ask him how Mulpasaneop is doing right now?”

Gun-Ho then shook his head.

“He won’t tell me like that. I am a stranger to him, and he won’t reveal any information about his client to a stranger. He is not supposed to talk about his client’s information to anyone. How should I approach him then?”

Gun-Ho started thinking with his arms crossed.