Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Jae-Sik Moon’s wife was calling home. She probably wanted to talk to a helper lady at home.

“Auntie? It’s me. I have a guest from Korea today and will have to have dinner outside. I’m sorry that you need to stay there a bit late today. Oh, the baby is sleeping right now? Why don’t you have dinner there then? If you go to the veranda, there is dried duck meat. You can have that.”

Listening to Jae-Sik Moon’s wife speaking with a Chinese helper lady on the phone, Gun-Ho was very impressed by her fluency in Chinese. Her pronunciation sounded perfect just like a native Chinese speaker, and also, she was talking very fast. Gun-Ho knew several people who could speak Chinese well in GH companies, and she was definitely the person who was the most fluent in Chinese among them.

“I think I mentioned this before. You speak Chinese unbelievably fluently. It’s amazing given the fact that you haven’t been in China for a long time at all.”

Jae-Sik Moon smiled and said, “I think she was Chinese in her previous life.”

“Her Chinese is definitely the best among us. Min-Hyeok Kim is the next, who is living with a Chinese wife. I guess you and I are the ones who need to practice more.”

“You are good. I’m the one who needs to study.”

Jae-Sik laughed in embarrassment.

“Oh, you know what? Maybe we should ask Ms. Eun-Hwa Jo to come and join us for dinner in the Korean restaurant. You know, the interpreter lady.”

“Sounds good. She is Korean Chinese as well. Maybe the restaurant owners will be delighted to see another Korean Chinese.”

“Yeah. She loves to go to that restaurant whenever I ask her to go there.”

Gun-Ho, Jae-Sik Moon, and his wife headed to the Korean restaurant. Since he was told that it was a Korean restaurant, Gun-Ho expected to see cooked rice with some popular Korean dishes such as Bulgogi*. But, surprisingly their main dish was dog meat. The restaurant business sign was written in red. It said ‘We offer dog meat.’

“People here could misunderstand by looking at their business sign that every Korean person enjoys dog meat.”

Gun-Ho said as he felt embarrassed. Jae-Sik Moon laughed and said, “I know, right? I once received a gift from the workers in the terminal. They gave me dog meat.”

“They gave you dog meat as a gift?”

“They grilled dog meat and wrapped it with a newspaper and brought it to me. When I took it home, Soon-Young’s mom screamed.”

“Haha. Yeah, she must be frightened.”

“The thing is that I took her to this restaurant later and had dog meat with her. Now, she eats dog meat.”

“Really? Well, let’s try their dog meat then today. I guess they don’t call the dish as dog meat soup like we do in Korea, huh?”

“No, they don’t make a soup with dog meat, but it’s just Gourou (dog meat).”

Gun-Ho entered the restaurant as Jae-Sik Moon showed him. The restaurant was about 50 pyung large.

“Mr. President Goo, it has been a while.”

It was Eun-Hwa Jo. She was already in the restaurant waiting for Gun-Ho’s party.

“Oh, Ms. Eun-Hwa Jo. How have you been?”

Gun-Ho and Eun-Hwa Jo had a handshake delightedly.

“We will have a board meeting tomorrow. I guess you will be busy tomorrow, Ms. Eun-Hwa Jo.”

“That’s my job. It’s okay. By the way, Mr. President Goo, you look good.”

“Haha, really? Thank you. You look fine yourself too, Ms. Eun-Hwa Jo.”

At that moment, a man who looked like he was in his 50s came to Gun-Ho’s party’s table and greeted them.

“It’s very nice to meet you. I’ve been to Korea for a long time before. I used to work there.”

“Oh, you are the owner of the restaurant. Nice to meet you too.”

“I came to this area and opened this Korean restaurant because I was told that there was no Korean restaurant here.”

“Oh, I see. How’s the business doing?”

“It’s doing okay. President Moon comes to our restaurant from time to time and gives me a lot of support.”

“Really? It seems that your restaurant’s main dish is dog meat, isn’t it?”

“In the beginning, we offered other seemingly popular Korean dishes such as Doenjang-jjigae* and Kimchi-jjigae. But we didn’t have enough customers back then. Once we started serving dog meat, we have been getting more customers. We need to target Chinese customers rather than Korean customers here after all.”

“Well, I’d like to try your dog meat dish today.”

“Our two popular dishes are sliced boiled dog meat and soup. I will prepare them for you.”

There was no customer when Gun-Ho’s party sat at the table there. Gun-Ho, Jae-Sik Moon, his wife, Eun-Hwa Jo, and Jae-Sik Moon’s chauffeur who drove his Audi were the only customers at that moment. Those five people sat at a round table and enjoyed boiled dog meat and soup. They tasted not bad at all. Eun-Hwa Jo and Jae-Sik Moon’s wife seemed to love the dishes. The chauffeur ate a lot as well.

“Hao Chi (It’s delicious).”

The chauffeur raised his thumb and kept saying ‘Hao Chi’ several times while eating the food.

The following day was the day when GH Antang Transportation Company’s board meeting would be held. It was held in a meeting room of a hotel near Antang City’s terminal, called Hong Feng Fandian.

Antang City’s Changtu Qiche (intercity bus company)’s President Runsheng Yan and the joint venture’s Vice President Chun Chang were in the meeting room already.

“Hey, President Goo.”

“President Yan! It has been a while. Vice President Chang, it’s good to see you again.”

They had a handshake delightedly for the moment even though they had unsettled issues between them. When Gun-Ho saw the office manager and the accounting manager, he extended his hand to them for a handshake as well.

In the meeting room, the Chinese partners—the president, vice president, and the accounting manager—and the Korean partners—Gun-Ho, Jae-Sik Moon, and Eun-Hwa Jo—sat at the table facing each other. The office manager was standing to lead the board meeting.

The office manager lady announced that the board meeting would start now.

“Antang GH Yunshu Youxian Gongsi Dongshihui Huiyi Kaishi (Antang GH Transportation Company’s board meeting will begin).”

She continued, “We will start with the joint venture’s report on this year’s performance. The joint venture’s president—Mr. President Jae-Sik Moon—will give the report.”

Jae-Sik Moon stood up from his seat and distributed relevant documents to the attendees. Several papers were stapled together. He then began giving the report.

“Our joint venture is currently owning 9 buses in total, and we are providing transportation services in the area here and there… Banche Hui Shu (number of operational buses) is…”

As Jae-Sik Moon gave the report in Korean, Ms. Eun-Hwa Jo’s interpretation into the Chinese language ensued. That made the meeting long enough to make Gun-Ho feel bored. Gun-Ho Goo, who could understand both languages—Korean and Chinese—wanted to ask them to skip the interpretation part, but he couldn’t do that since it was a board meeting of a joint venture company where Korean and Chinese partners worked together.

“Well, you don’t have to give us all the details, but please tell us only the sales that the company made.”

As Gun-Ho made the request, Jae-Sik Moon gave the amount of the sales revenue and the operational cost. That alone took them 1 hour. After taking a ten-minute break, the meeting resumed. It was around 11 am.

The office manager announced that the board meeting would resume.

“We will now continue our board meeting. Next, we will hear the business plan for the next year. Mr. President Runsheng Yan, please give us the business plan on the terminal project.”

Runsheng Yan started making complaints and grievances on the things related to the terminal project. It seemed to be well planned.

Note*

Bulgogi – Grilled beef which was marinated with all sorts of vegetables and soy sauce.

Doenjang-jjigae – A Korean soybean paste stew.

Kimchi-jjigae – A Korean stew made with Kimchi.