Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho came back to downtown Seattle after completing the interview with Lymondell Dyeon.

“You must be very tired.”

Attorney Young-Jin Kim said with a smile.

“I’m okay.”

“How’s your stomach? Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah, I feel fine today. I guess that walking around downtown yesterday helped.”

“That’s good.”

“Is there any good place we can visit around the area?”

“Let’s go to the observation tower—Space Needle—before we fly back to Korea tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.”

Gun-Ho enjoyed the view of Seattle from Space Needle while Attorney Young-Jin Kim was busy with his cell phone.

“You are not looking down at the downtown view? How come you are so busy playing with your cell phone without enjoying the beautiful scenery?”

“I need to talk with someone since I am here in Seattle.”

Attorney Young-Jin Kim made a phone call to someone, and then he talked in Korean on the phone for a while; he probably talked with someone in Korea.

“Did you just call someone in Korea?”

“No, this guy is in Seattle right now. He is a friend of mine. He is a professor at the University of Washington.”

“Your friend?”

“Yeah. I went to Yale University with him. He is a very smart guy. He said he would come to see me to Sheraton Hotel. Since I came here all the way from Korea, I thought I should at least gave him a call.”

“I see.”

After having the city tour of Seattle, Gun-Ho and Attorney Kim came back to the hotel. Gun-Ho said to Young-Jin,

“You said you are meeting with your friend here, right? You go ahead and have dinner with him. I think I will just have a hamburger or something for dinner today since I am still not feeling perfectly well in my stomach.”

“No, you should come with us. Your friend’s friend is also your friend. Don’t you think?”

“I just wanted you to enjoy the time with your friend. I don’t know your friend, and I don’t want to ruin your time with him.”

“Don’t be silly. He is a very pleasant person to be with, and he is easygoing. You will like him. Why don’t you go up to your room and take a rest until he gets here? He said he would come here around 7 pm. I will give you a call once he arrives.”

“Okay. I will be in my room then.”

Once he came back to his room, Gun-Ho washed his hands and laid down on the bed. He felt exhausted after the city tour.

He was dozing off when his phone started ringing.

“President Goo? It’s me, Young-Jin Kim. My friend is here with me; why don’t you come down to the lobby?”

Gun-Ho wiped his face with a wet towel before he went down to the lobby. There was a man standing next to Young-Jin, who was wearing a gold metal frame glasses. He was smiling at Gun-Ho.

“Hey, this is my friend—Soo-Young Han. He is a professor at the University of Washington.”

“A pleasure to meet you. I’m Gun-Ho Goo.”

“I’m Soo-Young Han. I’ve heard a lot about you from Young-Jin.”

“I’m just a person who is selling stuff.”

“I’m just a person who has a good academic degree; that’s all I have.”

Young-Jin added to it.

“This is so nice, a meeting with a person who is selling things, and a person with an education degree only. Let’s go out and have dinner together.”

“Sounds good. I know a good place where we can have delicious food at a good price.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s actually close from here. We can even walk to that place. It’s a restaurant specialized in seafood.”

Young-Jin and Soo-Young seemed to be having a good time talking and laughing and enjoying each other’s company. It had been a while since those two friends got together after all. Gun-Ho just walked heading to the restaurant while following them behind.

The seafood restaurant was large, and it was already filled with a lot of people. It wasn’t difficult to figure out how popular that restaurant was.

“Wow. The food must be very good here. Their business seems to be doing great.”

As Young-Jin commented about the restaurant business, Professor Soo-Young Han added,

“We will have to ask President Goo who is standing next to us. He is an expert in selling stuff.”

Professor Soo-Young Han ordered king crabs and wine.

“King crab? It must be very pricey.”

Professor Soo-Young Han smiled in response to Gun-Ho.

“It’s not expensive at all. King crabs are rare in Korea but not in this area. It will cost about the same price as Galbi* in Korea.”

“Really?”

“Young-Jin and I are the people with good academic degrees without money. Since you are selling stuff, you must have more money than us. Would you pay for our dinner?”

“Hey, your father was the prime minister of our country. Behave like one who has a politician as a father.”

“Exactly. My father was a prime minister, not me. Moreover, he has retired already. Once a prime minister retired, he is just an old man.”

“He must have made a lot of money already.”

“Nah. He was just a politician without a sense of making money. I asked him once to financially support me because I was living in a tiny apartment with so many roaches. He declined without hesitation.”

Professor Soo-Young Han was a good talker and a good drinker.

Gun-Ho had a lot of king crabs and wine because of Professor Soo-Young Han.

“Isn’t running a business hard these days in Korea? The U.S. is asking to renegotiate FTA.”

“The industry I am in is a manufacturing business rather than trading business, so it doesn’t really get affected by FTA.”

Professor Soo-Young Han continued to talk; he looked at Attorney Young-Jin Kim this time.

“It’s not just about Korea. We will see the enormous US-China trade war soon. The book title that I am reading these days is ‘Tactics of two groups.”

“Two groups refer to the U.S. and China, huh?”

“Of course.”

Professor Soo-Young Han took out the book from his bag and handed it to Attorney Young-Jin Kim.

“Is it fun to read?”

“It is. The book was written by a professor at Chicago University. The author used to teach at Fudan University as an exchange professor in Shanghai, China. He explains and describes things in a very realistic way in the book.”

“Oh, it sounds interesting. I will have to read that book too.”

“Let me take a look at it.”

Gun-Ho wanted to see the book. It was all written in English, and Gun-Ho couldn’t even read its cover. Gun-Ho took a picture of the book cover instead.

“Why are you taking a picture of the book?”

“I have a publishing company, remember?”

“Oh, that’s right. Of course, you are interested in good books for your publishing business. You indeed have a sense of business.”

While drinking a few glasses of wine, Professor Soo-Young Han kept saying ‘nice.’

“This is so nice. Nice to have good friends with me, and nice to have good food as well. Young-Jin, have more king crabs. Once you go back to Korea, it’s not going to be easy to eat king crabs again. Eat as much as you want while you can.”

“The book you just showed me reminded me of Professor Jien Wang at Zhejiang University.”

“Chinese people are good at playing Korean chess too. If the U.S. attacks the king by moving a general, China would defend the king by moving a gun.”

“Of course, there are smart people in China. Look at Jien Wang. He is a very smart guy.”

“Hahaha. Jien Wang. Of course, he is smart. He is a member of the Financial Service Committee of a province, and a member of the Real Estate Development Committee or something. We need to try harder to establish a stronger economy for our country too.”

“Why don’t you come back to Korea? And get involved in all sorts of committees related to our economic development, like the Financial Service Committee and the Real Estate Development Committee.”

“Hahaha. It’s not like I can do all those just because I want to. The politicians who used to participate in a civic group will be heavily involved in those areas.”

That reminded Gun-Ho of one of his friends from high school—Min-Ho Kang—who participated in a civic group.

Note*

Galbi — Korean grilled beef ribs.