Empire of the Ring

At Yaniv’s mansion in Volgograd, there was a feast waiting for Youngho. Stepping into the reception hall, Youngho’s eyes widened at the variety of food.

“Mr. Yaniv, is this a special day? Are you expecting an important guest?”

He had a hunch that it was for himself, but he still could not believe it.

“Of course it’s for you. Don’t you know that you’re an important guest to me? I mean, you’re more than a guest. You’re an important member of our family.”

‘What? I’m no family. I got my own family in Baku!’

All of a sudden Youngho missed the siblings since he had not seen them for ten days already.

“Well, it’s an honor if you think of me in that way.”

“We are partners. These days, I feel alive because of you. The wine production, daily necessities business, and grain supplies! All of them are making me tremendous amounts of money. Well, of course they cannot compare to the oil business.”

“I’m more thankful that because of you, I don’t need to think about wine markets.”

“Your wines are excellent. Other companies are jealous of us.”

Youngho was flattered since his wines were selling well.

“I’m flattered by your compliments, but it feels like you have something you want to request of me. Am I right?”

“Hahaha….”

“…”

“Hey, Sergey. Did you hear that? Lee already knows! He’s a true businessman.”

At Youngho’s curious look, Sergey tapped his back.

“Today’s feast is for us to have a verbal agreement regarding wine distribution. How about you keep distributing your wines only for me? It’s a rare business that can make me ten million dollars a year with only a single product. What do you think?”

“You’re going to throw me in Volga River if I don’t take the deal.”

Yaniv laughed out loud until there were tears in his eyes.

“Hahaha…. That’s terrible joke! I don’t think you can drown even if I tried.”

“I’m glad that you think highly of Zeynep Farm’s wine. I never thought about distributing our wine to other companies.”

“Okay. Then it’s an agreement, all right? You can’t say otherwise later.”

It looked like Yaniv feared that Youngho would sell his wines to other companies since the amount of this year’s produce was twice as that of last year’s produce.

“I’m sure of it. Now, can we start eating please?”

“Yeah, let’s eat and drink up. Michael, you too, you’ve done a great job with Lee in Ossetia.”

They chugged down drinks again that night.

Youngho did not remember how he fell asleep again, but he now felt comfortable drinking in Yaniv’s mansion.

The next day, Yaniv, Sergey, and Youngho had a conference to find a way to open Georgia’s market. Sergey had already heard the Georgians’ poverty-stricken surroundings and their situation where they could not receive the benefits of civilization.

They decided to receive cheese and leathers in exchange for daily necessities and medicine in other isolated villages just like Kurta. Since handmade cheese and leathers made in the natural environment were popular in Russia, finding the market for them was not a problem.

As for the dispatched mafias delivering items in South Ossetia, Sergey would be recalling them back to Russia soon once Katya found local workers to hire. He expected a third of the South Ossetian population, which was 20,000 people, to be his customers. Even though it was only 20,000 people, selling grains and daily necessities to them would still make his organization a lot of money.

The word that an Asian merchandiser working with Russians and providing cheap daily necessities to Georgian towns in South Ossetia would spread fast because people would look for reasons when the Georgians would eventually not show up in Gori to buy daily goods. That would be a great time for Youngho and Yaniv’s mafias to open a store for daily necessities in the form of a warehouse in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Youngho’s role in Georgia was to be a figurehead as the Asian business owner. Although Yaniv would be providing the products and making money, since Youngho had made good impressions to Georgians in South Ossetia, he was the best person to promote the business.

Youngho thought that he would be satisfied with providing Korean goods in the warehouse store in Georgia. Yaniv insisted that they each manage half of the business, but Youngho did not want to be greedy since he was already overwhelmed with his stores in Baku and Sumqayit, his grape farm, and CIA work.

Youngho also wanted to focus on making better quality wines. Sergey did not understand why Youngho was stepping back.

“Brother Sergey, if I expand my businesses, it would be the tail wagging the dog. I’m not up to this. I’ll be fine with providing Korean products here.”

From last night’s drinking, Youngho and Sergey said that they would be like brothers to each other. Sergey gladly welcomed being called Youngho’s brother. Since Sergey was eight years older than Youngho, he really felt like a big brother to Youngho.

“Well, sometimes it’s just good to stick with one thing rather than having multiple things on your plate. By the way, boss will be disappointed that you won’t be part of our daily necessities business. He’d even give you 60% of the whole profits if you asked. Are you underestimating our business?”

Sergey, as a person who had a doctorate degree in business administration, was picturing the woods from Youngho’s remark.

“I won’t be called a businessman if I wasn’t interested in it, but as of now, the wine business is my priority. I’d like to focus on the farm for now. Can you deliver my message to Mr. Yaniv?”

“You know, it’s the boss who always compliments you, but I like your personality too. You have a great mind for business. I’m glad to have you as my brother!”

Youngho thought that it was always a great feeling to be acknowledged by other businessmen.

***

On the day when Youngho arrived at Baku Airport, the winds were strong. Not being able to land due to the harsh winds, the plane could only reach the ground after circling around the airport twice. Youngho, who almost peed in his pants because of the tension, came out of the security area and swore in his mind that he would never ever take a plane that would in Baku International Airport again.

Baku was always windy, and many foreign planes used to utilize Sumqayit’s emergency landing strip when there were bad winds. However, this time, Youngho was frustrated because Sumqayit’s airport rejected the plane that Youngho was on because it did not have the Azerbaijani flag on it. Cussing when leaving the airport, Youngho felt better when he was finally in Baku.

He regretted not traveling on a train. He wanted to shorten the time of travel, but his decision to take an airplane was worse than traveling on a train. Youngho wanted to come quickly because he missed the Fatima siblings. Although Baku was still a foreign land, it was his home now.

When he arrived at the farm on a taxi without telling anybody, there were more people on the farm greeting Youngho. Jongil and Karajan were there. Their house was finally done and they had already moved in. Everyone was eating dinner at a table on the first floor of the management building and greeted Youngho as he showed up.

Since he showed up without telling anybody, Park Jongil made remark.

“Insoo, don’t you think he’s watching us? He’s going to show up in the most unexpected time and nitpick on things! Man, he’s acting like a boss now.”

Listening to Jongil’s joke made Youngho feel relieved since it felt like home.

He always felt uncomfortable leaving their home, but smelling Korean doenjang jjigae and being in the chatty atmosphere made Youngho feel so comfortable. He started drinking with friends and eating food. Later, he was able to make it to his bed and fall asleep comfortably because Fatima pushed him back to his room.

Youngho opened his eyes early in the morning due to thirst. He found Zeynep sleeping on his bed and himself on the floor with a only pillow. Zeynep had a habit of coming into Youngho’s bed when she got scared on the nights when the wind blew hard. She must have come to Youngho’s bed but unconsciously pushed him because of the smell of alcohol in her sleep.

Youngho put a blanket on Zeynep. It was bright outside when he opened the curtains.

Through the window, Youngho could see the whole site of his farm.

Because the cultivation had already ended, it looked gloomy. The grape harvesting machines had left vines and leaves behind. Although using the machines would damage the vines, it was inevitable since timing was a crucial factor for a wine’s taste. Fortunately, vines grew back fast with some watering.

He stepped outside with his track suit on.

At the gate of the farm, farm employees were already present for work and honking at the gate to be let in. As a night security guard opened the gate, about twenty workers greeted Youngho as they came in.

Among them, there were accountants who were recently hired. One of them was 23-year-old Viola, the daughter of Hatsan who was in charge of the wine production line. She greeted Youngho brightly and went into the office. After greeting her, Youngho went on a four-wheeler and headed to the little river on the southern part of the farm to look over the new farm site: the 600-acre land that he forcefully took from the lunch with President Aliyev. The government had already measured the site and marked the territory, so Youngho would start fencing around the land.

The little river at the southern part of the farm had a width of only thirty meters, but since a great volume of water flowed through it as part of the streams of the Caucasus mountain range, a bridge was needed in order to move farm equipment and machines across. Youngho was deciding whether to use concrete or wood to build the bridge. They each had pros and cons: Concrete was semi-permanent, but it came with a complicated construction process, whereas wood was eco-friendly and easy to build, but needed repair work every year. Since there was no heavy equipment, a wood bridge looked more plausible for farming purposes.

When Youngho was considering how to go about building the bridge, he heard four-wheelers approaching from afar. He looked up to see who it was. It was Fatima approaching closer with her hair blowing in the wind.

“Oppa, you haven’t even eaten breakfast yet. What are you doing here? And also, you heard about it, right? Yunsuh’s family will be here tonight.”

‘Oh man, so I heard someone was coming to Baku. Was that Yunsuh’s family?’

Since they could not reach Youngho in South Ossetia, Yunsuh had contacted Karajan and Fatima.

“Is Jongil’s family coming together with them too?”

“No, Jongil oppa’s family and Insoo oppa’s family will be here in two days.”

Park Jongil’s brothers and their families were all coming to celebrate their brother’s wedding, and Insoo’s wife’s family was coming along. Youngho paid for all of their travel expenses in appreciation for his friends who worked hard for his business. Not to mention the fact that he was the richest among his friends. He felt like he was marrying his troublesome baby brother.

“Fatima, don’t you have classes today? Aren’t Szechenyi and Zeynep going to school?”

“Phew, you really have no recollection of last night. I told you already. I don’t have classes and it’s their school’s anniversary, so they don’t have school today as well.”

‘Man, that was why Zeynep’s sleeping in my bed now. I really should stop drinking.’

Fatima started giving Youngho an earful about drinking. It felt as if a wife was complaining to her husband.