Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

As Young-Eun instructed, Gun-Ho continued to work on spreading each child’s stool on a micro slide glass. Just like she said, Gun-Ho no longer could smell the stools. It seemed that he temporarily lost his nasal function detecting smell.

It took him two hours to finish the thirty spreading-stool jobs. Once he completed the task, he felt pain on his neck and shoulder.

‘I’m a billionaire with several thousand billion won. What am I doing here with the disabled children’s stools? Am I out of my mind?’

Gun-Ho giggled while thinking of himself who was working with smelly stools with his own hands.

The instructor came to the room where Gun-Ho and Young-Eun were working.

“It’s lunchtime. Why don’t you come and have lunch?”

Young-Eun took off her mask and responded with a smile, “We haven’t finished the test yet. Please have your lunch. We will eat later once we complete what we started.”

After the instructor left the room, Gun-Ho asked Young-Eun, “We haven’t finished it yet? I thought we are done.”

“You have one more job to do. You need to take these containers that held stools to the bathroom and wash them. Also, wash those micro slide glasses as well. Don’t forget to wear rubber gloves and use disinfectants to wash them. Once you are done, put them in a trash bag.”

“Oh my gosh, too much work to do.”

“You are not supposed to complain too much when you work as a nurse. Just do what I tell you to do.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Gun-Ho went to the bathroom with all those containers and micro slide glasses and cleaned them. When he looked at his watch after finishing washing them, it was already after one o’clock. When Young-Eun saw Gun-Ho coming back to the room, she said while smiling, “Oppa, you did an excellent job today.”

Young-Eun handed the stool test result to the instructor.

“There are several kids with worms. There are eight of them. I will leave you with anthelmintic medicines. Please have those eight children take them. The instruction is included in the medicine box.

“Thank you so much.”

The instructor smiled when she received the medicine. It was the first time that she showed her smile that day. She probably felt relieved.

“I wanted to thank you for cooperating with me on this. I know it was extra work for you. Please accept my gift. It’s cosmetic.”

“Oh my. This is a foreign-made expensive cosmetic! Thank you very much.”

The instructor couldn’t keep her mouth closed for a moment in surprise and delight.

Gun-Ho and Young-Eun drove off Chairman’s Lee’s vacation home without having their lunch there.

“We can have our lunch in Pocheon City’s downtown. What do you think?”

“Sounds good.”

“Since we are in Pocheon City now, maybe we should visit your mom’s gravesite. Do you want to go and see your mom?”

“No, it’s okay. We can come back later on Cold Food Day.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. By the way, where are you heading to right now? It seems that we just passed downtown in Pocheon City.”

“Oh, we did? Well, let’s go somewhere else then. Maybe we go to Yangju City. We can have our lunch there and take the automobile-only road on the way home”

Gun-Ho took a left turn and entered a tunnel.

“Oppa, you seem to know well what’s around here.”

“Yeah, I do. I told you that I used to come to this area pretty often for fishing.”

The reason why Gun-Ho knew the area inside out was because he used to work in a factory in Pocheon City and also in Yangju City. This was the area where he spent good years of his youth working as a factory worker. Gun-Ho didn’t want to tell Young-Eun about it. He thought that he would feel embarrassed.

“Once we got out of the tunnel, I see a well-developed town.”

“This is Goeup Town in Yangju City.”

“Oh, there is Starbucks too.”

“What do you want to eat?”

“I want a bowl of cold noodles.”

“Okay, let’s go and eat it.”

After having cold noodles, Gun-Ho and Young-Eun took the automobile-only road heading back home. The automobile-only road was extended all the way to Guri City and Songpa District of Seoul City after passing Gangdong Bridge. When they arrived at Songpa IC, there was a sign indicating Yangjae City. Eun-Young was surprised.

“We are already at Yangjae Station?”

“I know, right? I didn’t know I could get to Gangnam District this quickly by taking this road. We are almost at Yangjae Station. See the Towerpalace condo complex over there? We are almost home already.”

“Oh, my gosh!”

“Hahaha. I love how the roads are laid out in Korea. They designed them very smart. When I went to India last time, I noticed that their roads are poorly designed. It was like the 80s all over again.”

Gun-Ho went to work in Jiksan Town. When he was dozing off in his office, he received a call from his brother-in-law.

“Gun-Ho? Can we talk now? It is a good time?”

“Yes. It’s good.”

“I visited the real property that I talked to you about. You know the place that came out on the public auction at Onbid?”

“How was it?”

“It’s good. I like it. It needs some mowing, but it looks great. Mowing is an easy fix.”

“What about the access to the property? Is the road to the property paved all the way to its entrance?”

“The road is paved until you reach 300 meters away from the land, and then you will see a concrete road. The road is wide enough to have two lanes.”

“Do you think a 40-foot container semi-trailer could pass the road?”

“It’s possible. If someone watches the back, you can even make a U-turn with that large and long truck.”

“We need to make a bid at Onbid, right?”

“Yes, we have to make a bid online through their website.”

“Do they require 10% of a bid deposit as well like other offline auctions?”

“Yes. They require a bid deposit to be 10% of the offer price that you are making. You just need to deposit that amount to their virtual account.”

“An online bidding procedure can be very complicated. Do you think you can handle it?”

“Haha. I’m well aware of how complicated it is now. I studied about it in the evening while sitting in front of the computer. Your sister helped me. She will help me with the bidding as well.”

“We still have time before making our bid, right?”

“We have plenty of time.”

“I think we’d better make a bid with GH Logistics’ name rather than using your personal identity. I will have someone in GH Logistics to do the bidding.”

“Oh, okay.”

“In the meantime, I want you to sell your wing-body truck.”

“Sell my truck?”

“You will no longer drive your freight truck once you take over the transportation company.”

“Hmm. That’s right. Okay, I will sell it.”

“Also, when you have time, please go and visit GH Logistics. It’s in Seonghwan City.”

“Okay, I can do that. When do you think it will be a good time to visit it?”

“Tell me when you would be off from work. I will introduce GH Logistics’ president to you.”

“Sounds good.”

Gun-Ho received a call from Jae-Sik Moon.

“I received a bill for the real property acquisition tax pursuant to the land use conversion for non-agricultural use.”

“How much are they asking?”

“It’s a lot. I didn’t know they would impose that much tax on it. They are asking 60 million won.”

“I will transfer the money. They gave you their virtual account number, right?”

“Yes, they did.”

“After you pay the tax, wait a few days and get the cadaster of that land, along with its real estate register.”

“Okay, I will do that.”

“And, when you have time, go to the website— Onbid.”

“Onbid?”

“It’s a website operated by Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) for a public auction. When someone’s real property is seized because the owner didn’t pay the taxes or something, the property is placed for auction on that website. Also, the government sells its real property there too. Those real properties that were used as collateral and when their owners couldn’t make the payment, they would be placed for an auction as well, but at a courthouse. They are two different procedures.”

“Hmm. I think I’ve heard about it before.”

“When you visit the website, there are rental properties that were placed for a public auction as well. Someone told me that there is a land without restriction on its use. It’s in Siheung City. Please take a look at it.”

“Is that the place that you want to move the company to once the land is sold?”

“Yeah, I’m thinking about it.”

“Since the auction is managed by the government, I think we can find a nice place at a very reasonable price.”

“I think so. Do it quietly. You know what I mean, right?”

“Don’t worry about it.”