Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

It was Tuesday, and Gun-Ho went to work in GH Building, Sinsa Town.

GH Media’s President Jeong-Sook Shin came to Gun-Ho’s office on the 18th floor.

“We received a scenario from China sent by Director Woon-Hak Sim via EMS.”

“It must be the film scenario. Its title is Menghuan Yinghua, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. Director Sim sent the scenario along with a synopsis. I’ve already had the synopsis translated into Korean and sent it back to him. The scenario is being translated right now.”

“Did you have a chance to read the synopsis of Menghuan Yinghua? What is it about?”

“Yes, I read it. It’s a love story between a Chinese spy and a geisha in Tokyo during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Chinese spy went to Tokyo and met this geisha, and fell in love with her.”

“It would better not stop at the love story alone. That Chinese spy must do something that contributes to his home country—China. There has to be something more that could fulfill the Chinese nationalism.”

“The filmmaker will take care of it. They are the experts.”

“Well, yeah, you are right.”

“So, did you decide whether you would make your investment in the movie production or not?”

“If the scenario is really good, I could make my investment.”

“But, it takes a tremendous amount of money to produce a movie, doesn’t it?”

“I’m not going to fund 100% of the movie production cost. They are collecting crowdfunding as well.”

“I see. By the way, have you received the dividend from GH Media? I sent it to your bank account the other day. It’s 1.14 billion won.”

“You did? I’ve been busy with my trip to China lately. I will check it.”

“You don’t have to worry about our publishing cost at GH Media. We’ve published 50 books so far, and we earned good money. Additionally, we are getting income from GH Art Gallery, the book café on the rooftop, and the costume play magazine. We save about 100 million won each month. It’s now April, and we already have approximately 400 million won in cash in the reserve.”

“Hmm, really?”

“That is more than enough to pay the publishing cost for our new books.”

“That’s good to know.”

“And, we hired one more worker at GH Media. Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda is working alone at the costume play magazine team right now. We hired a designer, so she could join him in the costume play magazine team.”

“Is she a designer, not a reporter or a journalist?”

“She is covering those two jobs.”

“That’s good.”

“If you decide to invest in the movie production, GH Media will make even more money this year. Haha. Oh, since it takes a long time to make a movie, maybe we will start receiving an additional income starting next year.”

“I was told that preparation, editing, and marketing take up most of the production time for a movie, and the actual shooting doesn’t take long at all.”

“That makes sense. The more you take time in shooting the film, the more money you will have to spend on the actor and actresses. The movie producer would, of course, prefer to finish shooting as soon as possible.”

President Shin continued as she sipped her tea, “GH Media is making another essay book of a broadcasting scriptwriter now.”

“Did the same broadcasting scriptwriter send us a new manuscript?”

“No, we are working with a different broadcasting scriptwriter for the new essay book. The previous scriptwriter introduced another writer to me. The book is about gender conflict. It’s a feminist book.”

“Well, I don’t know much about books, but good luck with it.”

“Thank you, sir.”

After President Shin left the office, Gun-Ho checked his bank account.

“Hmm, she is right. 1.14 billion won has been deposited in my bank account. President Shin is holding 5% of GH Media share, so she must have received 60 million won this time.”

Gun-Ho then checked his bank account with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

“I received another 1.14 billion won from GH Parts Company in China. Min-Hyeok sent it to me. Min-Hyeok must have received 60 million won as well. It’s weird that both companies distributed the same amount of 1.14 billion won to me as a dividend. And, also it was quick. I understand that because they both need money right away.”

Gun-Ho grinned as he was putting the bank books back in his desk drawer.

“Well, I’ve already recovered all of the investment funds that I put in GH Media and GH Parts Company in China last year. Whatever I receive starting this year is extra money. I guess I will keep receiving earnings from those two companies as long as they exist. Hahaha.”

Gun-Ho thought about how much he made last year.

‘I have 170 billion won in my stock account, and I’m getting 4.2 billion won from them as interest income on that amount. I received dividends from GH Media and GH Parts Company, and it’s 2.28 billion won combined. So I made 6.48 billion won for the interest income and dividend altogether.

I will fall into a tax bracket of 42% since I made more than 500 million won. If I deduct the tax of 42% from 6.48 billion won, I will be left with roughly 3.8 billion won in my hand. When am I going to make 1 trillion won? It will take forever if I make money at this speed. According to Master Park, I am destined to make 1 trillion won before I turn 40 years old.

Let me get to the earnings from my salaries. I receive 35 million won on a monthly basis from 5 different GH companies. The amount is an after-tax amount, so it will make my yearly salary 420 million won.

I will have to limit my personal spending and living expenses to the amount of my yearly after-tax salaries of 420 million won. I will save the interest income and dividends in the bank. I have to grow my companies and also accumulate my wealth.

From next year, my two big companies—GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea—will probably distribute dividends. The amount will be larger. I look forward to it.’

Gun-Ho sat at his desk and started surfing the web. Since he might get into the movie production industry soon, he decided to check the news in the entertainment industry. Seol-Bing appeared on his screen.

“What? Seol-Bing and Lia got into a fight?”

There was a relevant video clip as well, and Gun-Ho clicked on it to open it.

The fight occurred at the K-drama filming location at the riverside.

Lia looked upset, and she challenged Seol-Bing first by saying, “Sister, you hate me, don’t you?”

Seol-Bing replied with a condescending look on her face, “Do you really think you are on the same level as me?!”

It seemed that one of the drama production staff secretly recorded them fighting and released it later.

“Oh my. What are they? A third-grader?”

Gun-Ho clicked his tongue and shook his head.

This was what really happened.

Seol-Bing was the lead actress in the currently airing Korean TV drama—The hymn of Desire. And, Lia took a supporting role in the same TV drama. The problem was that Seol-Bing was getting close to her 30 while Lia was only 24 years old. Lia looked, of course, cuter and more adorable than Seol-Bing, and the viewers knew that. Moreover, since Seol-Bing’s dating with the younger baseball player became known to the public, her popularity had been somewhat reduced. On the other hand, Lia was a rising star who was refreshing without any scandals.

Seol-Bing was dissatisfied with her current boyfriend who was five years younger than her. He didn’t admire her enough in the same way as all other men, who were older than her like Gun-Ho, had shown her. Seol-Bing was a spoiled actress who had a strong desire to do things in her own way, and she was having a lot of stress in her relationship with the baseball player.

To make things worse, Lia started gaining popularity as the Chinese TV drama that she was in gained popularity. What made her explode that day was the fact that the Korean company that funded the Chinese TV drama production was GH Media, which was one of Gun-Ho’s companies. Seol-Bing hated Lia who seemed to take what could be hers from her. She hated her, and she ignored her whenever she ran across her at work. Lia realized that Seol-Bing treated her as if she was invisible, and Seol-Bing was cold to her. Finally, Lia decided to confront Seol-Bing and asked, “Sister, you hate me, don’t you?” Seol-Bing felt a wave of annoyance and anger. She felt like Lia was taunting her. That was the moment when Seol-Bing became infuriated.