Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho waited two weeks before he called the co-tenant of that vacant lot he purchased at the auction, that was being held in tenancy in common. That co-tenant was holding 50% of the property interest in the land.

“Sir, I am the person who met with you the other day at your home, the one who purchased the other half of the property interest in the land that is located in Gangdong District. Have you thought about selling your interest?”

“I’m not selling.”

“Sir, you can give a better life to your children with the proceeds you could make by selling it. Why don’t you sell it to us at a reasonable price?”

“I said I’m not selling it.”

“Then, let’s do this. Why don’t you buy my property interest then? To raise the value of the land and to fully utilize the land, we need to terminate the tenancy in common. That’s another way to work out if you don’t want to sell your interest.”

“I don’t have money to buy out.”

“You are saying that you don’t want to sell and you don’t want to buy either. You seem to have no intention to make it work. You are just stubbornly holding the land.”

The old man didn’t say anything. Gun-Ho could only hear him breathing over the phone.

“Sir, let me buy you lunch tomorrow. I know a restaurant close to your Sampung condo. A soft tofu stew is really tasty there. I’d like to see you there at 1 pm tomorrow. What do you say?”

“Suit yourself.”

Manager Kang was listening to the phone conversation between Gun-Ho and the co-owner of the land. When Gun-Ho got off the phone with the old man, he asked Gun-Ho.

“What did he say?”

“I asked him to have lunch with me tomorrow and he told me to suit myself and hung up the phone.”

“That’s good. He meant okay about having lunch tomorrow.”

“Do you think he would come tomorrow?”

“I’m sure he will. I will go with you tomorrow.”

A mailman walked in the office.

“Is Mr. Gun-Ho Goo here?”

“It’s me.”

“We have an international express mail for you. Please sign here.”

The mailman handed an electronic signature device to Gun-Ho.

It was from President Chinkkweo Seon of Jinxi Construction Company in Kunshan City, China.

“What did he send to me?”

Gun-Ho opened the mail and found 7-pages of A4 papers. It was the business plan of Jinxi Industrial Park.

“Business Plan!”

Gun-Ho started reading it until he realized that he had to refer it to a Chinese-Korean dictionary because there were so many Chinese words he didn’t understand. Gun-Ho placed the business plan on his desk and Manager Kang asked after he looked at the document.

“What is this?”

“It’s a business plan.”

Gun-Ho tried to translate the business plan referring to the dictionary and then decided to ask someone to do the job for him; he didn’t want to spend time in translation work. He then placed a job posting on a translation web community online.

Gun-Ho and Manager Kang went to the soft tofu stew restaurant close to the Sampung condo in order to meet the co-owner of the vacant lot in Gangdong District in the afternoon.

“He is not here yet, I guess.”

Gun-Ho and Manager Kang sat at a table and drank a cup of water when the old man entered the restaurant. There was a man of sturdy build who looked like in his 40s, behind the old man. The man had a curly hair and beard, and he looked just like Ou-Joon Kim who was a film producer and the founder of the online newspaper—Ddanzi.

“Hello, sir?”

Gun-Ho and Manager Kang stood up and greeted the old man with respect by giving a 90-degree bow.

“This is my son.”

Gun-Ho thought that he was the son who was acting at a theatre, and Gun-Ho and Manager Kang gave the son a 90-degree bow as well.

“We haven’t ordered food yet.”

“The popular menu of this restaurant is a soybean stew.”

“Oh, really? Then would you like to have a soybean stew, a pork & soft tofu, and a mung bean pancake?”

“Suit yourself.”

The dishes that Gun-Ho ordered came out; it was neat and nicely presented.

“Sir, would you like to have a glass of liquor?”

“No, thank you. I’m good.”

Gun-Ho still ordered a bottle of soju.

“Why don’t you have just one glass of soju?”

Manager Kang placed one glass of soju in front of the old man while offering just one glass of soju. The old man spoke while eating the food.

“This restaurant—Giwajip Soft Tofu is a family-owned restaurant and the current owner is the fourth-generation owner.

“Oh, really?”

Gun-Ho and Manager Kang simultaneously reacted with surprise to the old man’s explanation. They both purposefully a bit overreacted. The old man seemed to like it and gulped the glass of soju that Manager Kang placed in front of him earlier.

“So, why did you want to meet with me today?”

“I came here to ask you again to either buy my property interest or sell your property interest to me.”

“If I sell it, how much would you pay for it?”

“I purchased my interest in the land at 2981 million won. You can easily verify it with the court. So, I will give you 3 billion won.”

“That’s nonsense!”

The old man shook his head.

This time his son spoke.

“The previous co-owner was going to buy it for 4 billion won.”

“4 billion is way too high. We don’t have 4 billion won.”

The old man raised his voice.

“I can’t sell it below that price. Everything has its current market price!”

“Since you have retained the land for a long time, your tax for the capital gains won’t be a lot. Once we buy your property interest at the price you suggested, the price of the entire land becomes 7 billion won.”

“That land is worth the price. You can do anything with the land.”

“If the price of the land becomes 7 billion and I have to spend an additional substantial amount of money to build a building there, then there is no payability for me. I will just have to assume that you have no intention to sell the land.”

Gun-Ho gave his business card to the son. And the son handed his to Gun-Ho. The son’s business card said he was the president of a production agency and a theater company.

“You are an artist. I am envious of you. Businessmen like us admire artists.”

As Manager Kang said, the son cleared his throat by having a dry cough and the old man kept eating his tofu with a disapproval look on his face.

“Then, we will have to let you go here. If you happen to change your mind, you know where to contact me. Oh, there is one more thing. I already talked to the parking lot owner so he could send the half of the rent to us. As to the tented cart on the land, we will have to evict them because that doesn’t look good on our land.”

“You shouldn’t evict them. They have been running that cart while serving food for a long time now.”

“If you say so, I will let them stay. I’ve heard one of them is your nephew. Is it true?”

“No, he is just my distant relative.”

The old man stood up to leave after he said it bluntly.

Once Gun-Ho returned to his office, he opened his email inbox.

“Wow, I have 30 applications waiting for me for the translation work.”

Those applications were sent to Gun-Ho in response to his job posting to translate the business plan done by Jinxi Construction Company, which was mailed to him.

“They won’t make a lot of money by translating this 7-page A4 paper, but still this many people applied for the job.”

The applicants had a variety of background and work experiences. Some were college students majoring in Chinese and another applicant was a college teacher with a Ph.D. Some were Chinese Korean, and one was a Chinese Korean student who was studying in Korea.

“Okay, I will ask the applicant who received his Ph.D. in China and is currently teaching in college.”

Gun-Ho sent the business plan that was to be translated to the college teacher.

The business plan for Jinxi Industrial Park looked good. They included an income statement in the financial section, which showed that the business would become profitable after three years. It also stated that an increase of capital stock without consideration would be possible.

“Increase of capital stock without consideration…”

Gun-Ho liked the idea.

“About whether the business would be profitable or not within three years, I will have to wait and see for three years; however, if they could increase capital stock without consideration, then I will make money. Maybe I should participate in the joint investor?”

Gun-Ho received a call from Professor Wang.

“Did you receive the business plan sent by the president of Jinxi Construction Company?”

“Yes, I did.”

“If you are still interested in it, let’s sign on the letter of intent. Oh, and the staff of the City of Kunshan and the staff of Jinxi Construction Company will visit Korea soon to see the industrial complexes in the province of Korea.”

“Should I give them a tour?”

“No, we already talked with the government in the province and they will arrange a tour for them.”

“When will they come?”

“Next week. The group consists of five people and will stay in Korea for two nights and three days. Once they complete their visit, why don’t you come to China?”

“Okay. I will make my schedule to work it out.”