Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho, Jong-Suk and Suk-Ho got up late at 9 AM next morning, after the long night of having a drink and a lot of talking.

“I got a headache.”

“Here it is. Drink the water.”

After drinking the water, Jong-Suk felt better.

“Go wash yourself. There are two bathrooms. Pick any of them and take a shower.”

“Hmm, it’s nice to stay in a big apartment.”

“Let’s have breakfast in my restaurant. But you have to know that there is no such thing as a hangover soup in China. There is no ox blood soup, Yangpyeong hangover soup, or pork rib hangover soup here.”

“Then what are we going to eat?”

“We have a beansprout soup in my restaurant. We can have it with rice. It’s not as tasty as the one in Korea, but it’s okay to eat.”

The three guys brushed their teeth and took a shower before they walked out of the apartment.

“Huh? There is a swimming pool in this apartment community.”

“Right. It gets so hot during the day here. So some apartment communities provide a swimming pool to their residents.”

“Wow. That’s nice.”

Jong-Suk and Suk-Ho took a picture of the swimming pool.

“Let’s have breakfast first, and we will stop by several tourist spots including West Lake.”

“What about your restaurant? Don’t you have to work?”

“That’s okay. The staff knows what they are doing.”

“We don’t want to interrupt your business or life here, man.”

“That’s fine. No worries!”

After having breakfast in Gun-Ho’s restaurant, the three men went to West Lake, Lingyin Temple and a green tea plantation.

The following day, they visited a silk market and a night market, and they also watched a Chinese traditional performance, etc. They spent three days and four nights, having fun by visiting tourist spots and exploring Chinese cultures. And then it was time to go back to Korea for Jong-Suk and Suk-Ho.

“I’m sorry, Gun-Ho. I guess we took too much time of you.”

“Don’t say that.”

“No, bro. You spent too much time and money for us. I am sorry too.”

“Hey, don’t think that way. You used to feed me with a lot of drinks before.”

“We brought some Pollock roe and dried seaweed for you.”

“Thank you, guys. These are so precious to me. Since you brought me something precious, I will give you guys something in return.”

Gun-Ho handed a bag to each of them.

“What is this?”

“This is a traditional Chinese tea, and this one is traditional liquor, one for each.”

“Traditional Chinese liquor? Whoa, thank you, bro.”

“Thank you, Gun-Ho.”

Jong-Suk and Suk-Ho seemed to be truly grateful for Gun-Ho’s gifts.

After they left, Gun-Ho was back to his routine. He had some spare time before his school started.

“I still have a few more days left before going back to college. Let’s take a bike and go around the town. It will be good exercise.”

Since Gun-Ho now could speak Chinese, he often talked with people on the street.

“How’s your day? Did you sell a lot today? How much rent do you pay for your store? I am running a restaurant over there.”

“Not very good today.”

“Where do you buy the tofu? It’s delicious.”

Gun-Ho enjoyed street food as well, but he had to choose it wisely. Some of them were really good, while some were really bad for Gun-Ho; the bad ones smelled bad and sometimes he wanted to just throw them out.

As Gun-Ho’s Chinese level of fluency improved, he took the HSK test again in Shanghai. The level-6 was probably beyond his current capacity. He passed the level-5 this time.

“Hmm. The level-6 is still difficult for me. Well, but I passed the level-5. My Chinese is improving. Let’s make to the level-6 by the time I graduate from the university.”

Gun-Ho didn’t forget to keep an eye on the real estate market.

“I came to China to make money. Learning the Chinese language and going to college is just a by-product. Let’s make an inquiry about the current price of my Hwaganghwawon condo.”

Gun-Ho asked Dingming at the counter.

“Ding Shaojie! (Ms. Dingming) Would you make a call to this realtor’s office for me and ask them how much the Hwaganghwawon condo cost to purchase. The one with the size of 198㎡.”

“The Hwaganghwawon condo? It is the most expensive condo in Hangzhou City.”

“I know. Someone asked me about this…”

Dingming made a call to the realtor’s office.

“They said they don’t have any Hwaganghwawon condo available on the market for now, but it costs at least 3,200,000 Yuan.”

“Hmm, 3.2 million Yuan… I paid 2.6 million Yuan for it two years ago. Then the price went up by 600,000 Yuan.”

Gun-Ho could feel his body temperature rise.

“I might not hit a jackpot but I surely made a lot of money from this investment. Since I purchased two of them, I made 1.2 million Yuan in total, as long as I could sell them at full price.”

Gun-Ho started calculating with the electronic calculator.

“1.2 million Yuan is 144 million won. I will let them sit there for one more year.”

Gun-Ho smiled in satisfaction. As Dingming saw Gun-Ho smiling, she asked him out of curiosity,

“G-jjong, why are you smiling? Any good news?”

“No, nothing. Haha.”

The hot summer days continued.

Gun-Ho went to the bank to deposit.

“So many people are here in the bank as well. It’s too hot and so annoying.”

The bank was filled with people, not only with the people who had business with the bank but also with those people who just needed a place to stay cool. Many town people seemed to be there.

Gun-Ho pulled his number, sit on a chair, and wait for his number to be called.

“It’s still hot even though the air conditioner keeps running. It’s probably over 40 degrees Celsius today.”

“It’s actually 39 degrees today. I’ve heard the government’s announcement from a TV earlier.”

A man seemingly in his 50s talked to Gun-Ho.

“39 degrees shouldn’t be this hot.”

“I think the government lied and announced it was 39 degrees because factory workers are not supposed to work in this extremely hot weather with over 40 degrees. They are entitled to have their day off, and the government doesn’t want to give them a day off.”

“As*holes!”

“By the way, are you from Beijing? You have a Beijing accent.”

Gun-Ho had different Chinese accent from the locals here. Maybe because he studied standard Chinese.

“No, but I used to live in Beijing.”

“Oh, really? I thought you were from either Beijing or Dongbei (Northeast).”

Gun-Ho liked the fact that Chinese people don’t recognize Gun-Ho as a foreigner.

“He will be surprised if I tell him that I am a Korean. Whether being a Beijinger or whatever, I guess I am becoming one of them.”

Gun-Ho chuckled.

After he deposited money into his bank account, he came back to his restaurant.

“Dingming, here is the deposit receipt! I deposited the revenue from yesterday.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Dingming, I will be back later.”

“G-jjong, can we have some ice cream today?”

“Sure. Also in the future, if the government announces the temperature exceeds 40 degrees, get some ice cream for all of us.”

“Okay, got it.”

Dingming gave him a broad smile.

G-jjong walked out of the restaurant.

“I’ve never used the swimming pool since I came to China even if there is a swimming pool in my apartment community.”

Gun-Ho came back to his apartment and changed his clothes into short pants and went to the swimming pool in his flip-flops.

“Wow, a lot of small kids are here. Their school hasn’t started yet.”

The swimming pool was crowded with children of elementary school and junior high school.

“This swimming pool is still less crowded than the one in Korea since only the residents are allowed to use it here.”

Gun-Ho had fun swimming. In the deeper area of the swimming pool, he could enjoy swimming without children.

“Oh my gosh, this is so good. It’s a paradise.”

Gun-Ho thought for the moment that maybe he wanted to live here forever.

“Nah…, I have to go back to Korea. I have to get married. I don’t think I can marry here unless I find a Chinese lady to marry.”

While thinking a lot of things, Gun-Ho tried all kinds of swimming strokes he knew how: a frog, a dog, and a dead body stroke. After he was done with swimming for the day, he took a shower. A lot of elementary schoolers were at the shower facility as well.

“Let’s just take a quick shower here and go home. I can take a full shower at home.”

When Gun-Ho walked out of the shower facility while holding a black vinyl bag with his wet bathing suit in it, he saw a man walking out of the same shower facility. He was holding a black vinyl bag just like Gun-Ho, and he was wearing short pants and flip-flops, just like Gun-Ho. The man recoiled when he saw Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho also recoiled when he saw the man.