Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

“Once you become a person with a bad credit score, your life will become harder and very inconvenient. The government and our society recommend young people to start their own business, but they would become cruel to you once you earn a bad credit score.”

“F*ckers! I didn’t want to get involved in personally guaranteeing the repayment of Mulpasaneop’s loan at that time, but they told me that I, as the son of the president and the vice president of Mulpasaneop had to jointly guarantee the loan with my father, so they could lend money to the company. It was a trap. F*ck!”

“Right. You shouldn’t have done it. Joint surety is a very serious matter. If it goes wrong, your life could be ruined.”

“What should I do?”

“Help your father to make the right decision. Tell him the price of 2 billion won is not a bad offer to sell the company.”

“What about the factory in China?”

“I don’t think you would be able to find anyone who would buy that factory. The company has way more to pay than to receive. You will have to give it to someone or close the factory.”

“If I close the factory, the unpaid wage claims wouldn’t cause any problems?”

“The overdue wages are treated seriously in China too as in Korea. If someone reports you, you wouldn’t be able to step on the Chinese soil anymore. You can talk to the buyer who wants to buy Mulpasaneop to take the factory with Mulpasaneop as a package deal.”

“You think that will work?”

“The factory in China could be used for Mulpasaneop’s business, so the buyer of Mulpasaneop would probably be interested in taking it as well.”

“I think you are the only person in Mulpasaneop with a practical perspective and insight into the reality that Mulpasaneop is now facing. There were many sons of b*tches at the management and executive level in Mulpasaneop. They are no longer with the company though. They always said yes to whatever my father said and didn’t care about the company, and didn’t really work. However, they all received a high salary of more than 100s of million won with a luxurious car that was allocated to them by the company. That was ridiculous and unacceptable.”

“Are you living in a condo in Bundang District right now?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Do you own that condo?”

“It’s under my wife’s name. I was worried about the creditors coming after my personal assets, so I put my wife’s name instead of me, as the owner of the condo.”

“That’s good. Does your wife work?”

“She is running an English language institute. We went to the same college—Y University.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I’d better get going now. I have to drive all the way down to Asan City.”

Gun-Ho was preparing the application for an objection to submit to the court when he received a call from Min-Hyeok in China.

“I talked with the workers’ representative of Mulpa Automotive yesterday. We had a drink together. He is a nice guy.”

“Really? Did you learn anything new?”

“He said that most of the workers had already found another job, but ten workers are still there without work. These ten people are just waiting for the sales of the factory.”

“That representative even had a product drawing of a product that was requested by the Korean B company that has a branch office in China.”

“B Company? That’s a big company.”

“The product that B Company requested was a gasket. He said B Company would need the gaskets worth of 100 million won every month.”

“Do you know how to read a product drawing?”

“Of course. I learned CAD before.”

“Haha, really?”

“It’s a shame if that factory has to close the business. Their machines are all in new condition. If someone acquires it and operates it well, it could be a very lucrative business.”

“I see. Okay, Min-Hyeok. I will have to talk to you later. I have to prepare some documents that I need to submit to the court now.”

“Okay. I will talk to you later then.”

It was Gun-Ho’s cousin—Jae-Woong’s wedding day. Gun-Ho wore a suit neatly to attend his wedding.

“Let’s not send him a congratulatory flower wreath this time. It won’t look good to have a flower wreath at the wedding sent from a cousin who are not even married yet.”

Gun-Ho arrived at the wedding place. His aunt was standing next to the groom—Jae-Woong. She was wearing a fancy traditional Korean dress with heavy make-up. Gun-Ho had never seen his aunt dressed up like this before. His overweight aunt and her also overweight son looked very alike.

“Oh, Gun-Ho! Oh, my gosh, I can’t even recognize you. I heard you are making good money these days, and you look like a totally different person now. Money is good, huh? You should marry soon too.”

“You must be very happy today since Jae-Woong is getting married.”

Jae-Woong who was standing next to his mother had a shiny face; he probably put too much facial crème or something on his face.

“Jae-Woong, congratulations.”

“Thank you, brother.”

Gun-Ho was just going to stay there for a moment and was going to leave quickly after meeting the groom and his uncle.

“Let’s skip the wedding reception. If I see other relatives, they would all ask me about my plan to marry or some other stuff. It could be very tiresome.”

When Gun-Ho was thinking about how to avoid running into his other relatives, one of his relatives already saw him and said hello to him.

“Gun-Ho?”

It was a distant uncle who was about 60 years old. He was wearing a jacket and his face was red; he probably already started drinking.

“Hi, how are you?”

“Hey, why haven’t you married yet? You are older than Jae-Wong, right?”

“Right.”

“How old are you now?”

Gun-Ho thought that it would be an unfortunate day for him.

“35 years old.”

“You are old enough to have a grandkid in the old days!”

Gun-Ho left his wedding gift money with the person at the reception desk, and then he quickly left the wedding hall.

Gun-Ho’s sister called him.

“Hey, where are you? I don’t see you anywhere.”

“I just left. I have something I need to take care of right now.”

“Really? Aunt said she saw you here, so mom and dad are looking for you.”

“Can you tell them that I had to leave?”

“Okay. I actually expected to see you here, brother. It has been a while. Well, I will see you later then. Jeong-Ah misses you too.”

“She must be big now.”

“She actually received an award. She was selected for a children’s choir. She will go to Seoul soon to sing with them. She brought a pamphlet of their performance in Seoul to give to you.”

“Haha. Please tell her I congratulate her and I am proud of her. I will buy her a piano and send it home. It’s a gift for Jeong-Ah.”

“A piano?”

“I knew she is musically talented and I was going to buy her a piano anyway.”

“You don’t have to, Gun-Ho. You have done so many things for us already. I don’t want to impose anymore.”

“Don’t say that, sister. Well, I have to go. I will talk to you later.”

After getting off the phone with his sister, Gun-Ho thought,

‘She is taking care of my parents, so I don’t have to worry about them. She deserves everything I give to her.’

Gun-Ho felt good and drove his Land Rover to Asan City while humming.