Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

When he heard Chairman Lee clicking his tongue, Gun-Ho suddenly came to his senses.

“Let’s say, you acquired that company for 5 billion won. Then what?”

“I believe I could gradually pay off the debt as I make money by running the company.”

“Creditors have no mercy. They will fiercely come and attack you.”

“That’s possible. However, creditors are human as well. I guess maybe I can negotiate with them about the repayment plan.”

“Creditors are greedy. Every single one of them will come to you to get his money first. All these account receivables in these financial statements are not true; you know that right? Since you had worked in an accounting department before.”

“That’s right, but…”

“This company’s credit purchase and the payable amounts are over 50 billion won. They can’t pay off the debt even after disposing of all of their assets. If you have 50 billion won, then go ahead and buy the company.”

“Whew.”

“Moreover, they could have hidden debt that didn’t show on their financial statements.”

“So, there could be unexpected debt that would be popping up anytime. I see.”

“Exactly.”

“If they sell the assets they invested in another country, that could be helpful, right?”

“There is none. They invested 10 billion won in another country, but you should assume that there is nothing left there. The fund they invested must be the cost to build their factory there and to buy equipment. A piece of equipment that cost 100 million won at that time now costs almost nothing.”

Gun-Ho realized that Chairman Lee pointed out all the concerns he was worried about himself.

“I know that you are worried about the same things. You just came here to confirm.”

“Whew. That’s right.”

“So, what do you think? Did you get what you came for? Was your dried persimmon worth your money?”

“Haha, yes, more than enough. Thank you, sir.”

Gun-Ho laughed along with Chairman Lee.

Gun-Ho stood up from his seat and said goodbye to Chairman Lee. Chairman Lee gave Gun-Ho his last advice for the day,

“You can get the answer that you are looking for by carefully reviewing the types of creditors, characters of debt, and their lawsuit and the court judgment. If you want to catch a tiger, you have to get into its mouth.”

“Thank you for the advice, sir.”

Gun-Ho went down to the parking lot in Chairman Lee’s building and started his car. While he was inside his car, he repeated to himself what he heard from Chairman Lee.

“I have to get into the tiger’s mouth.”

Tomorrow was Suk-Ho’s wedding, who was running a bar at Gyeongridan Street.

Gun-Ho asked Ms. Ji-Young Jeong to prepare two congratulatory envelopes.

“Put 100,000 won in each envelope. Write my name on one of the envelopes, and the other one is for President Min-Hyeok Kim.”

“Understood, sir. I will ask Manager Kang to write the names on the envelopes. He has beautiful handwriting. He will come back soon to the office after checking the OneRoomTel.”

“Okay.”

“Sir, if you received the wedding invitation, please give it to me. I will make a copy of it and give it back to you.”

She needed to attach the copy of the wedding invitation to the business expense form in order to categorize it as a business expense.

“Okay. I have it at home. I will bring it to you tomorrow.”

Gun-Ho thought of Won-Chul Jo’s wedding that he attended years back.

‘At that time, I was so worried about the wedding gift money for him. I guess I will see many high school classmates at Suk-Ho’s wedding tomorrow. Won-Chul and Suk-Ho were popular in high school since they both had a middle-class family. They did better in school than me. Min-Hyeok and I were like invisible at that time. Min-Hyeok’s father was a bus driver, and my father was a labor worker in a subcontracting company.’

Gun-Ho was thinking of sending a congratulatory flower wreath to Suk-Ho’s wedding with his name on it.

‘Do I want to send a congratulatory flower wreath to his wedding? What do I want to achieve by doing it?’

Well, Gun-Ho decided to send it anyway. His friends probably already heard that Gun-Ho was making a lot of money, by now. If he gave only 100,000 won for Suk-Ho’s wedding, his friends would think he was cheap. In addition, Suk-Ho might not get a lot of flower wreaths because he hadn’t really worked in a company or belonged to some kind of group, but he had rather been self-employed all these years.

Gun-Ho called for Ms. Ji-Young Jeong again.

“Do we have a flower shop we usually use on occasion?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Can you send two congratulatory wedding flower wreaths to the wedding?”

“What name should I place on the wreaths?”

“One is for President Gun-Ho Goo from GH Development, and the other one is for President Min-Hyeok Kim from Jinxi Industrial Park in China.”

“I’m sorry, sir. Jinxi what?”

Ms. Ji-Young Jeong couldn’t catch everything that Gun-Ho just told her. So Gun-Ho wrote the exact names down on a piece of paper and gave it to Ji-Young.

“Here we go.”

“Got it, sir.”

The next day, Gun-Ho went to a beauty salon to get his hair done, and he wore new clothes as well.

“Wow, sir. You look like a groom.”

Gun-Ho laughed.

“This tie here is the one that Manager Kang bought for me from China.”

“It looks good on you. It looks expensive.”

There were a lot of people at Suk-Ho’s wedding. Some of them changed a lot over the years and Gun-Ho couldn’t even recognize them.

“Gun-Ho? Good to see you, man. I heard you are running your own business. Give me your business card.”

“Hey, Gun-Ho? You look great. I smell rich from you.”

After chatting with several friends from high school, Gun-Ho went to the groom.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you. I saw the flower wreath you sent to me. Oh, this is my mom.”

Suk-Ho introduced his mom to Gun-Ho.

“Mom, this is my friend, Gun-Ho.”

“Oh, this is the guy who is running a big company. Thank you for coming.”

Gun-Ho looked around the wedding hall. There were four flower wreaths; two of them were from Gun-Ho. His flower wreaths were standing confidently with his and Min-Hyeok’s name on them.

Gun-Ho’s classmates from high school approached him again.

“Gun-Ho, I heard Min-Hyeok is working with you.”

“Yeah, he is working in China for the joint venture.”

They looked at the flower wreath that has Min-Hyeok’s name on it.

“President Min-Hyeok from Jinxi Industrial Park? Is he a president?”

“That’s right. He is the president of our joint venture. He is having a hard time there now since the company just started.”

“Really? Hey, do you need anything from my company?”

“Haha, my company is a rental property business.”

“Can I stop by your office sometime?”

“Haha, you could but I usually don’t stay in the office, and it is a small company with only two employees. You will have a hard time finding a place to sit there.”

Won-Chul Jo who was working at a big company came to Gun-Ho and asked for his business card. Won-Chul handed his business card to Gun-Ho as well. Won-Chul was now a manager.

“Wow, you are a manager now. Congratulations.”

“You are making good money these days, huh?”

“Working in a big company is better. They pay you a high salary there. Running a company is not easy at all.”

“Let’s get together more often.”

Gun-Ho thought that things changed a lot. Won-Chul used to treat Gun-Ho like an invisible man, and now he was suggesting meeting Gun-Ho more often.

“I’m living in Mok Town right now. Where do you live?”

“I’m living in Dogok Town in Gangnam District.”

“Do they have an office-tel there?”

“I purchased a condo there.”

“Which one?”

“TowerPalace.”

“Really?”

Won-Chul looked sulky at that moment.