The Famous Millionaire

Yenam Noh was an eccentric man.

Regardless of his way of speaking, he was too much on the defensive. He seemed convinced that anyone who contacted him had the intention of committing a terrorist act against him.

Come to think of it, his actions were understandable to some extent.

He was notorious for posting hate comments on Story Mecca. Lots of writers must have gotten stressed because of him, and some of them might have stopped writing.

They would obviously bear a grudge against him.

Some of them might have tried to meet him in person to do physical harm to him.

In such a situation, someone offered to meet him suddenly. In his position, he might misunderstand that someone with malicious intent might try to approach him.

Scratching his head, Hyunwoo said, “I think I have to make him trust me first.”

Hyunwoo wrote another message to him.

<Looks like you misunderstood me.

In fact, I’m a businessman, doing animation business now.

I’m always thirsting for talented men in the field, so I’m looking for those who can help animation production, in particular.

I’ve come to notice you in that process. I think your capabilities will be of great help to my business. I just wanted to meet you to see if you could work with us.

Hope this could clear up your misunderstanding.>

Hyunwoo wanted to praise his ability, but it was risky.

In Hyunwoo’s mind, Yenam didn’t show his ability not by his own efforts or determination but by some sort of inspiration. His strength was that whenever he noticed a certain work, he would immediately feel drawn to it before he knew.

In short, instant immersion was his unique strength, but if he began to recognize his strength like that, what will happen? Hyunwoo was concerned that Yenam might not be able to immerse himself like before because he might try to use it to achieve his own purpose.

Even if I hire him, let me give him an assignment that has nothing to do with Ani & Funny.

Come to think of it, he felt Yenam could work for KOVE DREAM.

KOVE DREAM was always short of hands. There were various types of work, such as manual work at the warehouse or receiving calls inside the office or working on the computer.

Hyunwoo took out any words related to animation in his second message to Yenam. Instead, he focused on the common taste and preferences that he had with Yenam. Hyunwoo also said he wanted to work with Yenam.

The next morning Hyunwoo stopped by the construction site of the research center.

The farming ground for grasshoppers was completed already.

His mother Jisook was a meticulous woman. In the past, she farmed grasshoppers in the backyard for a while and found that mass farming created a headache, so she wanted to have a grasshopper farming lot with the proper amount of space.

The new dormitory for the incoming students was nearing completion, with the ribbon-cutting ceremony due one month later.

He then headed to the construction site of the new KOVE DREAM warehouse.

Though the construction started a long time ago, there was still a lot of work to do because they decided to build the research center and the dormitory first.

As the new warehouse was pretty big, KOVE DREAM staff would not have to worry about the space of the warehouse anymore.

In the meantime, Hyunwoo kept hiring more people. The male staff already increased to ten, including Hwasik Kang. Hyunwoo hired one more female candidate.

She had no knowledge of trade, but she was skilled in typing and had a beautiful voice. In short, she was right for the job of receiving calls from customers and checking the stock at the warehouse.

“So, how do you feel as you have another woman helping you?” said Hyunwoo jokingly, looking at Songjong.

“What’s the point of hiring one more? My workloads are increasing so quickly. Why don’t you hire two or three if you want to really help me? You’re making lots of money but very stingy about hiring, I think,” she grumbled.

Hyunwoo scratched his head at that. Though he felt he took care of her complaint, it seemed he had to do more to help her.

In fact, there was an increase in the existing workload with the hiring of Hwasik Kang because KOVE DREAM had to handle the business related to customs clearance, which Hyunwoo used to leave to the licensed customs agent.

Besides, there was an explosive growth in sales, too. At the beginning of the month, he expected a revenue of 1.5 billion won in sales, but now, it was approaching 1.7 billion.

In fact, all the participants of the KOVE DREAM team recorded a sales increase since the trade fair in Seoul recently as the rumor spread that their products were good quality.

Most of the participating companies saw their sales grow by 50%, and some companies even grew by 200%. For this reason, most of the local Korean companies in Vietnam were anxious to join KOVE DREAM.

In that respect, Sonjong’s complaint made sense.

Hyunwoo wanted to entrust Sonjong and Juhwan with running KOVE DREAM. The ideal solution would be for Juwan to take care of the warehouse while Sonjong managed the office.

Both of them were very competent to carry out their work.

Hyunwoo asked Sonjong, “How many more do you need to hire?

“I think we need at least five more. At least, we should not get any complaints from the customers that the line is busy all the time.”

“Okay, just hire as many as you want, Sonjong. It’s your responsibility to hire them. If you need any further help, just let me know. You can text me if it’s urgent.”

“Are you sure?” asked Sonjong, as if she was surprised by his ready approval.

“Of course.”

“Let me hire them immediately. I’ll let you know about the candidates once I pick them up for you to interview.”

“You take care of the interview, too. Just assume you’re the president of KOVE DREAM and run the office. Would you want to help her, advisor Kang?”

“Sure,” replied Mr. Kang, nodding his head.

She tried to get reassurances from Hyunwoo once more by saying,

“Great. Don’t blame me later, okay?”

Hyunwoo also told Juwhan to hire people if he needed to.

But Juhwan reacted very cautiously, “Phew. How can I…”

But when Hyunwoo delegated authority to him, Juhwan appreciated his sincerity and nodded, “Got it. Will do as instructed.”

Leaving the KOVE DREAM office, he stopped by N&C Korea briefly, which he felt was running alright.

Finally, he headed for the office of Ani & Funny around lunchtime.

When he entered the office, he received a call from Myunhoon Koh.

As soon as he confirmed the caller’s name, Hyunwoo giggled because he knew why Myunghoon called him.

Pretending not to know his intention, however, Hyunwoo asked, “What’s up, buddy?”

“Can I report to the office in Ansan starting in July?”

Hyunwoo barely held back laughing to hear that.

There was only one reason he wanted to go to the trouble of moving to the Ansan office instead of working comfortably at home in Seoul: Yu Zuung whose end of term was in July.

Hyunwoo was a bit concerned about Myunghoo’s behavior. He had a secret crush on her, but it seemed she was not interested in him at all as her potential boyfriend.

“Got it. Let me arrange a seat for you then,” said Hyunwoo.

He then thought about which seat Myunghoo would take. Given his affection for her, Hyunwoo might want to have him sit right next to Yu Zuung, but that was not the main reason. In fact, she needed to have a brisk exchange of opinion with him because they both specialized in developing the facial expressions of animation characters.

Jungah, who seemed to like Myunghoon, was already down in Ansan because her spring semester was over. With the addition of Myunghoon and Yu Zuung to the office, Hyunwoo felt the Ansan office would be full of competent staff.

When he entered the office, he found the students already gathered in groups, watching the staff installing office equipment here and there.

Hyunwoo called them to one side, “Hey, come here everybody!”

They rushed to the place where Hyunwoo called them to gather.

A total of 28 students came today, and they had all quit high school to pursue their dreams of animation. As they made the hard decision, they would have to work hard to achieve their goals.

Hyunwoo felt their creativity could come out of their actual experiences, and the best experience they could have during school days would be traveling and working at companies as trainees.

What was more important to them was that they should plan and go through such experiences without anybody’s help.

“In that respect, you guys should travel at least two times per month. Divide your teams into four and fix the place and date of your travel. Let me give you financial support, including travel expenses.”

The students’ eyes opened wider with a big surprise.

Even the mere word ‘travel’ thrilled them.

“Got it, sir!” replied they in a loud voice. All of them had a pretty thrilled expression when Hyunwoo mentioned ‘travel.’

“Just go ahead and make your own travel teams.”

As soon as he said that, they instantly began to form their own teams.

Looking at them with a smile, he went upstairs.

Saying hello to the staff, he sat in his desk and logged in to the computer.

There was a message waiting for him. It was Yenam Noh’s message.

He opened the message gladly.

This time, too, his message was disappointing.

Yenam didn’t trust Hyunwoo at all. Yenam thought Hyunwoo lied when he said he was searching for talented animation people and hiring him.

<If you want to send me this kind of message again, give me specific evidence, not just words. Let me think about your suggestion then. Of course, I know you don’t have the ability to show me that.>

Hyunwoo smiled at that.

“It looks like there were lots of writers who bear a grudge against him. That’s why you should have thought twice when you posted hate comments, man.”

Hyunwoo thought he would have to change Yenam’s attitude if the latter decided to join his company, but Hyunwoo’s immediate task was to show Yenam the specific evidence.

Hyunwoo sent him another message just in one line.

<Are you willing to meet me if I show you the evidence?>