Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho spent days agonizing over the six-month mandatory closing of his restaurant.

“What am I going to do? Should I look for another place to move the restaurant? If I find a new place, I probably should renovate the place, and it will cost me. I like this hotel building. It’s clean, and easy for a new customer to find the restaurant location. I didn’t have to change a thing here.”

Gun-Ho couldn’t think of any good ideas to break through the situation.

When he was agonizing over the situation while sitting at an unoccupied table, he heard someone arguing loudly from the counter. It was Dingming and Mae-Hyang.

“What’s going on here?”

“That one looked down on me saying I am a Korean Chinese.”

“I didn’t. You are the one who looked down on me.”

Their fight gave Gun-Ho a headache. This was not their first time to fight. These two ladies didn’t get along and had fought each other before, but this time it seemed serious; they shook their fingers at each other and screamed loudly.

“Stop it.”

“G-jjong, you always take that bi*ch’s side.”

Mae-Hyang complained. In fact, Gun-Ho used to ask for Mae-Hyang’s help a lot for an interpretation, but he was not asking for her help anymore recently. That might give more power to Dingming in the restaurant.

The two ladies were nip and tuck in the power game.

Dingming’s older sister was the hotel manager and she had a good network in the area. Mae-Hyang was doing the interpretation for Gun-Ho, and he still relied heavily on her on an important occasion. Also, her mom was the kitchen manager.

“This is putting me in a difficult position.”

Gun-Ho couldn’t take anyone’s side; he had to be neutral.

“Maybe I should wrap things up here and go back to Korea. I’m not making that much money with this restaurant anyway.”

Gun-Ho was put off by the restaurant because of all the problems it was giving him and the fact that he was not having enough income from it.

Gun-Ho read an article about the prices of condos in the West Lake area that evening. It said that the prices of condos were going to go up in the area because it was the season where a lot of people were moving to a new place. It also said that while the prices of the condos in the West Lake area would increase substantially, the prices of ordinary condos for most of the Chinese people would remain the same, just like Gangnam in Seoul.

The TV in the restaurant hall was on and the news anchor was talking about the same topic. Gun-Ho could hear Dingming’s sigh.

“Those people living in fancy condos in the West Lake area are so lucky.”

“Just try to be happy with what you have; otherwise, you will get stressed a lot.”

Dingming pouted when she heard Gun-Ho say that to her.

“My parents are living in a condo in the Yeohang area, and their condo’s price is dropping. The apartment is small about 18 pyung, maybe that’s why. That condo was assigned by the government.”

“Hmmm…”

“My parents’ condo in Northeast is 100 ㎡.”

Mae-Hyang bragged about her parents’ spacious condo in front of Dingming and that made Dingming pout again.

Gun-Ho wanted to find out the current price of his condos.

“My Hwaganghwawon condo was priced 3,200,000 Yuan last year. It should cost more now since a year had already passed.”

He made a call to a realtor’s office.

After ringing a few times, a man in a deep voice picked up the phone.

“Realtor’s office? How much is a Hwaganghwawon condo now? The 198 ㎡ one.”

“198㎡? There is none on the market right now.”

“Are you expecting one to come out on the market anytime soon?

“Give me your phone number, then I will let you know once I see one on the market. It was 3,600,000 Yuan last fall, and now it costs a bit more than that. A lot of people are looking for a condo in that area because it is the moving season.”

Gun-Ho said okay and hung up the phone without giving his number to the realtor.

“Wow. You can’t fail in the real estate investment. He said it’s 3,600,000 Yuan. I guess the price went up as much as the economic growth rate in China.”

Gun-Ho decided to sell his condos and close the restaurant after the lease was up.

Spring rain was drizzling down.

Gun-Ho was looking outside the window in the restaurant hall when Mae-Hyang came to talk to him.

“G-jjong, I decided to quit.”

“Why now? We still have one more month left until the closing.”

“I can’t stand Dingming anymore, and my mom and I decided to go back to our town in Northeast.”

“Did you already talk with your mother?”

“Yes, we talked about it a lot. We want to go back to our town for now, and then we will find a way to move to Korea again. My brother is settling down in Korea right now. He rented a condo in Daerim Town.”

“Really? I guess your brother is doing great.”

“So we decided to move to Korea even though it will cost us.”

“Hmm, if your mother leaves, who’s going to manage the kitchen?”

“That smart Dingming will handle it.”

“Hmm.”

Gun-Ho thought it wouldn’t be practical to hire someone to fill up the kitchen manager spot since the restaurant would close in a month.

“Hmm, I should just close the restaurant.”

Gun-Ho intended to keep the restaurant open until the lease expired, but it didn’t seem to be possible.

“Well, let’s close it a month earlier.”

Gun-Ho was going to visit a realtor’s office to put his condos on the market.

“I’d better put them on the market before Mae-Hyang moves to her home town. I can handle most of my conversations with my Chinese. However, I might need her in case I encounter complicated words during I make the sales contract.”

Gun-Ho called for Mae-Hyang.

“Can you go to a realtor’s office with me? The investor who asked me to buy a condo here two years ago wants to sell it now.”

“You don’t need me anymore. G-jjong, you speak Chinese very well now.”

“There might be legal terminologies and things that I might not understand since it involves legal documents like a sales contract. I need someone who speaks perfect Chinese like you.”

Gun-Ho buttered her up to take her to the realtor’s office with him.

“Are you going to put the two condos on the market?”

The realtor’s eyes widened because the condo owners in the West Lake area at that time didn’t want to put the condos on the market. The price of the condos was on the way up and the owners wanted to wait until the price increased more.

“How much do you think I can get?”

“How much do you want to ask?”

“Well, you are the expert. You tell me.”

“Someone put the condo on the market last month for 3,800,000 Yuan before he pulled it off the market. Let’s price it for 4,000,000 Yuan.”

“What if no one buys it because the price is too high.”

“Then, what about 3,800,000 Yuan?”

“Well, I do like the 4,000,000 Yuan better.”

“Leave your contact number. If I sell them for 4,000,000, you have to give me a small incentive to pay for my cigarette, okay?”

“Of course.”

“Which ones are yours?”

“They are both in building number 2, unit 306 and unit 502.”

“Let me see. Building number 2… they are the ones that are all completed inside, right?”

“You mean the interiors? Right, their interiors are all finished.”

“Oh, then you should price them for 4,300,000 Yuan.”

Gun-Ho forgot about the incomplete interior thing for a second there. The condos in China were sold with incomplete interiors. Gun-Ho’s condos were all finished because he wanted to rent them out!

“Oh, I see. Then let’s put them for 4,300,000 Yuan considering the cost of interiors.”

Gun-Ho walked out of the realtor’s office.

Mae-Hyang asked Gun-Ho while following him with short quick steps.

“G-jjong, the Korean investor who invested in the condos must be rich. That condo is very expensive, and he bought two of them. I am jealous.”

“Me too.”

“You can buy condos like that once your business goes well in the future.”

“That’s not up to me, isn’t it? Huh? There is a new pizza restaurant opened over there. Let me buy two whole pizzas. Why don’t you take them to the restaurant and share with the staff.”

“Thank you, G-jjong. Haha.”