Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

“The building dedication ceremony is just around the corner. We will have to select the workers who will participate in the ceremony.”

“It’s already done. We have already experienced trial and error while we prepared for the building ceremony of the factory in Jiksan Town. This is our second time of the ceremony. We know what to do. The two researchers who received the training in the U.S. asked me to let them participate in the ceremony. They already know that they would be reallocated to Dyeon Korea.”

“Hmm, really?”

There were three blue-collar workers across the hall. They were having lunch with liquor. It seemed that they had already finished three bottles of soju. One of them shouted,

“Give us one more bottle of soju.”

Gun-Ho said to the general affairs director,

“They already had three bottles of soju and it’s still work hours. And they ordered another bottle.”

“People say that the labor workers take energy from liquor. The soju that they ordered is the popular brand these days, maybe because a pretty actress advertises it, and her picture is on the soju bottle. Oh, there is a poster of her on the wall.”

When Gun-Ho turned his head to look at the poster which was hanging on the wall, his eyes widened. An actress was smiling with a glass of soju in her hand.

‘It’s Seol-Bing!’

When Gun-Ho recognized Seol-Bing in the poster, his heart started beating really fast.

“She is so pretty, isn’t she? Her name is Seol-Bing. She is so popular these days.”

“Hmm…”

“You don’t know of her, sir? She is the main actress in the soap opera—Shade of Desire. My wife is so into that soap opera. She watches it every day.”

“That Seol-Bing woman is that popular?”

“She is on the top these days. You seem to be not very interested in the entertainment field, sir. Haha.”

Without responding to the general affairs director’s comment, Gun-Ho just focused on finishing his lunch.

After lunch, Gun-Ho usually felt drowsy.

After he came back to his office that day, Gun-Ho couldn’t stop thinking of Seol-Bing. His phone started ringing at that moment.

“This is the branch manager of the stock brokerage firm. Sir, how have you been?”

“Huh? Oh, hi.”

“I was just wondering how you are doing, sir. We can get busy when the wealthy people like you do something with your funds. I’ve noticed that you, President Goo who is the big player of Gangnam have been so quiet these days, so I just decided to give you a call.”

“There must be many other big players.”

“No, sir. You are the real big player. Other investors are not that big.”

“What made you give me a call today?”

“Are you still in a provincial city? I’ve heard you are actively growing your business there.”

“Well, I’m just running a small business.”

“It seems you haven’t done much with your funds in your stock account after you sold all of your stocks last time. You still have a substantial amount of funds in your account, just sitting there, and I’d like to recommend you to invest it somewhere very safe.”

“I don’t know.”

“The U.S. raised their interest rate and that will affect us, and we expect our country’s interest rate to increase soon.”

“The funds will be diverted from the stock market then.”

“That’s why we are debating with ourselves, and we are trying to find somewhere else for our major customers to invest in other than the stock market. Are you, by any chance, interested in investing in mutual funds, especially for investing in the foreign stock market?”

“No, I’m not. Why are you recommending investing in the foreign stock market? You just said the interest rate will go up.”

“There are some very good stocks in some developing countries.”

“I don’t invest in the stock market anymore.”

“Sir, you are losing money by just storing your funds in the account. There are so many programs that guarantee a 2.5% increase in your fund. Think about it. 2.5% might seem small, but if you invest 10 billion won, the annual return would be 250 million won. If you invest 100 billion won, you get 2.5 billion won per year. Will you just let these opportunities pass?”

“Hmm. What sorts of programs do you have that guarantee 2.5%?”

“There is a private equity fund and foreign currency investment. Or, you can invest in municipal or national bonds.”

“Okay. Can you make a customized portfolio of the programs that will fit my needs?”

“Of course, sir. I will have the portfolio ready. Can we then maybe have lunch together once the portfolio is completed? Are you often coming to Seoul? I read the newspaper saying that you acquired RiverStar Building in Sinsa Town. When you come to Seoul for business, please just give me a call.”

“Okay, I will do that.”

Gun-Ho agreed with the stock brokerage company’s branch manager that simply storing the funds in the account was a waste. By putting the funds in another place, he could easily make 2.5% of his funds. It didn’t sound bad at all. With 100 billion won, he could make 2.5 billion won which was a significant amount of money. Currently, Gun-Ho had 170 billion won in his stock account.

It was May.

Min-Hyeok’s wedding in Korea was finally scheduled. Because of his parents’ moving to Hyundai HomeTown Condo in Juan Town, the wedding was scheduled a bit later than initially expected. It was after Dyeon Korea’s building dedication ceremony.

“It is nice that his wedding was not scheduled on the same day as our building dedication ceremony.”

Gun-Ho gave a call to Jae-Sik Moon in GH Media.

“Chief Editor Moon? It’s me, Gun-Ho Goo!”

“Oh, President Goo!”

“Are you aware of Min-Hyeok’s wedding in Korea? The date is fixed now.”

“Yeah. I received a call for it.”

“Can you make calls to other friends from high school?”

“I am actually doing it. I guess everyone will be at his wedding.”

“Really? I suppose Min-Hyeok is popular among high school friends.”

Jae-Sik didn’t say anything in responding to Gun-Ho’s comment, but he was thinking that,

‘I’m sure everyone will appear at Min-Hyeok’s wedding. That’s not because they like Min-Hyeok so much, but because they know Gun-Ho will be there too. They want to get close to Gun-Ho. They are very clever and calculating. They are the people who called me a swindler when I couldn’t deliver the high school alumni directory book on time because of my personal situation. They didn’t even hesitate to use cursing words towards me and they spread words that I deceived them and extorted their money. It was not even a huge amount that they thought I took from them. It was 30,000 or 50,000 won. Come to think of it, Gun-Ho is a nice person, maybe because he has a colorful life experience. He had suffered from debts before, and he used to work as a factory worker too.’

Jae-Sik continued to think about Gun-Ho.

‘What if Gun-Ho was not a rich man? If he was not rich, would he have treated me the way he had? He told me once that when he was extremely suffering financially, he still give 100,000 won to Won-Chul to congratulate him on his wedding as his wedding gift. At that time, I didn’t even go to his wedding. I think I was doing better than Gun-Ho back then. Well, I guess Gun-Ho was just a decent man no matter how much money he has.’

Jae-Sik suddenly heard Gun-Ho’s voice.

“Hey, why aren’t you saying anything. Can you hear me?”

Jae-Sik forgot for a second that he was talking with Gun-Ho on the phone.

“Yeah, I can hear you. I guess I just had a bad cell phone reception for a second. I hear you fine now. Well, anyway, don’t worry about contacting other friends. I will take care of it.”

“Really? That’s good. Okay then. I will talk to you later.”