Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho went to work at his office in GH Building, Sinsa Town.

His secretary— Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh— brought steamed rice cakes to the office.

“What is this?”

“The lady who is running the book café on the rooftop brought these to us. She gave some to GH Media downstairs as well.”

“Really?”

“She also gave them to the machine room in the basement where Team Lead Jeong is working at.”

“What’s the occasion? It must be a good thing.”

Gun-Ho pretended that he had no idea why the “lady” in the book café distributed rice cakes.

“It’s probably so.”

Gun-Ho went up to the rooftop. It had been a while since the last time he went up there.

Ever since the rooftop was rebuilt as a green resting area with a subsidy provided by Seoul City, it became one of the favorite resting spots for the young workers in the building where they spent time for a cigarette or having a cup of coffee in the book café. The book café hadn’t really been used for a reading place among the workers who were working at one of the companies occupying the building, but most of them came to have a cup of coffee. That enabled the book café to make a good income. Every single penny that the book café made was being deposited in GH Media’s bank account.

Since it was morning time, there were not many people in the book café. There were two men, who seemed to be the workers working at one of the companies in the building, smoking a cigarette. They looked younger than Gun-Ho, maybe about 30 years old. Jae-Sik Moon’s wife was doing some cleaning in the book café.

When she saw Gun-Ho entering the book café, she looked surprised, and then she smiled and greeted him.

“Hi.”

“Thank you for the rice cakes that you sent to our office.”

Jae-Sik’s wife used to avoid eye contact with Gun-Ho by lowering her head, but now she was different. She even smiled at Gun-Ho when she talked with him. Even her appearance looked different. Her skin had improved. A person’s financial capability seemed to affect that person’s physical appearance.

She said, “I was told that you had helped us a lot in preparing our wedding. Thank you.”

“I haven’t done much. You don’t need to thank me for it.”

“Also, I learned later that you came to our wedding with your wife. I do really appreciate it.”

“Of course. My wife and I had to attend your wedding to congratulate you. Oh, by the way, is Mr. President Moon leaving for China tomorrow?”

“Yes, he is.”

“And you are leaving probably within two or three months, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that is the plan.”

“Life in China will be very different from the one here. You will face lots of challenging things in your daily life. They speak a different language, for example. Also, foods and weather are very different from here. Well, you will experience a lot of interesting things as well. You will have fun as well.”

“I guess I will get ready to adapt to the new environment by the time for me to leave.”

“So, you are planning to give birth in China? I’m not sure about the quality of their medical service. The area you are going to is a provincial city in the west.”

“I have a friend in China. According to her, they have a high-end hospital for foreigners.”

“Oh, really? That’s good to know.”

Jae-Sik once told Gun-Ho that his wife used to write poems. Knowing the fact and talking with her for a moment, Gun-Ho realized that she was an intelligent woman. Gun-Ho was sure that Jae-Sik and his wife would succeed in China.

“Mr. President Moon is a very smart man. He has helped me a lot. And, you— Mrs. Moon— have been running the book café very well. I’m very confident that Mr. President Moon and you will do great in China. I have no doubt about it.”

“Oh, thank you. Hahaha.”

Jae-Sik’s wife laughed while covering her mouth with her hand.

Gun-Ho came back to his office on the 18th floor. He was eating a piece of the steamed rice cakes when President Shin entered his office.

“Mr. President Goo, you seem to be very busy lately. It’s hard to see you these days.”

“Yes, I’ve been busy recently.”

“We’ve just printed out our second costume play magazine for the month of August.”

“It’s not even August yet, but you’ve already printed it?”

“Magazines usually come out ahead of time.”

“How did we do with the July edition? How many did we sell?”

“We sold 3,500 of them. It’s a big success for a magazine business.”

“Really?”

“The August magazine contains many of the photos that Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda took. Also, we will offer a postcard with some costume play pictures on it to every buyer of our magazine. Also, I placed an advertisement in the magazine for our book— the series of world history cartoons— which is an already-proved bestseller by Amazon.com. I used a full page for this advertisement and in color. I really like that we could place an advertisement in the magazine without paying for it. Hahaha.”

“Do you think the children— our main readers— can afford to buy those expensive books?”

“Not them, but their parents will buy those books for them. Their parents will see the advertisement and will buy the books so their children can learn world history by reading the cartoons.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“Sir, your parents must have bought you some educational cartoon books when you were little, haven’t they?”

“My parents? They couldn’t afford it since they had to work hard to make a living while I was growing up.”

Gun-Ho continued to talk, “It seems that the art gallery in the basement is closed. Don’t we have any art exhibitions in progress?”

“It’s a summer vacation season. Once the weather becomes a bit cooler, we will have an art exhibition with three experimental artists. We will also present installation art as well.”

“Installation art?”

“I’m sure that it will draw a lot of attention from the public with a unique presentation of spaces. The art exhibition will be aiming at expressing the female sex culture that had been suppressed, using various objects. They want people to recognize the different angles to it.”

Gun-Ho almost asked President Shin what the object was, but he decided against it. He didn’t want President Shin to think that he had been so ignorant that he didn’t even know what object it was.

“Does it mean that all of those experimental artists are female?”

“That’s correct. Those female artists all have a strong propensity for feminism.”

“Do we have a target market for that kind of artworks?”

“We might or might not have one.”

“Well, I don’t quite understand the art world. I’m just hoping that the art exhibition will make another success.”

After taking a sip of her green tea, President Shin said, “It was really nice to see you and Young-Eun at President Moon’s wedding the other day. You two looked very good together.”

“Thank you.”

“But I couldn’t find you two afterwards. After finishing my meal, I looked for you, and you two disappeared.”

“Haha. We quickly finished our meal and headed to Yeonan Pier.”

“I see.”

“I will soon be a father.”

“What? Oh, my gosh. Is it true?”

“Yes. Young-Eun had an ultrasound the other day and received the confirmation that she is pregnant. She is two months pregnant.”

“Young-Eun is still a baby to me, and I can’t believe that she will have her own! Congratulations, Mr. President Goo.”

“Thank you.”

“We can’t just let this day pass like a usual day. I want you to buy me lunch.”

“Haha. Sure, I will buy you lunch. Let’s meet at the sushi restaurant across the street at noon.”

“Okay, I will be there. Oh, I will come with Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda.”

When Gun-Ho finished two daily morning newspapers in his air-conditioned office, it was already almost noon. At that moment, he received a call from GH Mobile’s President Jang-Hwan Song.

“I just came back from the meeting with A Electronics’ research center’s chief officer in Suwon City.”

“Oh, you did?”

“We received six product drawings from him.”

“Did you say six product drawings? That’s a lot.”

“Even though there are six of them, all of the six products are very similar to each other. They only vary in size and length. They are all special ring products.”

“Are they urethane-related products?”

“No, sir. They are elastomer materials.”