Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho arrived at the HillState Condo in Guweol Town where his parents were living in. He entered the access code and got into the condo. There seemed to be no one at home because no one came out to see who just entered the home. Then Gun-Ho found her mother sleeping in the living room. Her mouth was open; she seemed to be having a deep sleep.

“She wouldn’t even wake up even if a robber broke into the house.”

Gun-Ho walked to his mother and tried to close her mouth, and that woke her up. She seemed to be surprised to see Gun-Ho.

“Huh? Who is this? Gun-Ho is here!”

“No one is home?”

“No. Everyone is out. Your father is probably having a drink with the neighbors. Jeong-Ah is in school, and her parents are at work.”

Everything at home looked so peaceful.

“I am on my way from Gil Hospital.”

“Gil Hospital? Oh, did you see your aunt?”

“Yes, I did. She said that she felt so much pain in her lower back that she can’t even go to the bathroom by herself.”

“She had acted as if she could live forever before she got injured in her lower back.”

“I bought her something to drink.”

“That’s good. Did you eat?”

“Yes, I did, mom. How’s everyone?”

“Everything is good here, except your dad is drinking too often.”

“Does he still go to Jongno 3-ga District?”

“No, he doesn’t go there anymore, but he found other places to go regularly. He goes to Oido Island and other islands with his friends.”

“Do you think he needs a car?”

“A car? Don’t even say the word when your dad is present. He drinks so often. That’s worrisome enough for me. I don’t want to worry about his driving while being drunk. He actually said he didn’t want to drive anymore. He even revoked his driver’s license voluntarily.”

“Really?”

“When you get old, it’s better for your health to walk rather than drive.”

“Oh, here, mom. I brought some dried yellow corvina for you and dad.”

“Oh, my. This must be very expensive. We are having truly a wonderful life at our ages because of our son.”

“And this is a box of KGC (Korean Ginseng Corporation) ginseng extract.”

“Oh, ginseng from KGC. Thank you, Gun-Ho.”

“And, this is for your travel. I want you and dad to go travel sometimes.”

“This is money? We have money…?”

“Just keep it and use it later.”

“Some friends asked me to join them to travel to China. They want to go to Zhangjiajie in China. Maybe I can join them.”

“Sounds good, mom. Have some fun.”

After visiting his parents, Gun-Ho was going to drive back to Cheongan City, and then he changed his mind and headed to Sinsa Town to his GH Building. He thought he had to stop by there often enough to make sure it was running fine. When he entered the office, Director Kang was arguing with someone on the phone.

Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh was looking at her smartphone and quickly stood up from her seat when she saw Gun-Ho coming into the office.

“Can I get some tea, please?”

“Would you like to have a green tea?”

“I’d like to have a cup of coffee.”

Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh brought Gun-Ho a cup of coffee, and a while after, Director Kang entered Gun-Ho’s office.

“Sir, you are here.”

“I heard you were arguing with somebody on the phone.”

“Oh, it was the president of Myeongjin System.”

Myeongjin System?”

“You know the staffing company where we use their professionals. We use our own people for parking and cleaning, but for professional works we use their people, especially for the work in the machinery and electricity rooms.”

“Hmm, that’s right.”

“They are asking us to raise those workers’ wages because the labor cost increased generally according to them. I told them we could raise the wages starting next year, and they are asking us to raise them starting next month.”

“Hmm.”

“There are tons of staffing companies we can use. If they keep insisting on it, I’m thinking of changing the staffing company.”

The accounting manager entered Gun-Ho’s office.

“Sir, since you are here, would you like to hear the monthly report on profit and loss?”

“Well, not right now. I feel so tired today. Why don’t you send the report to me through email instead?”

“Yes, sir. I will do that.”

Gun-Ho made a tour around the building with Director Kang. By a quick glance, the building looked so marvelous and gorgeous; however, if looked at the building closely, a lot of places showed cracks and stains which required repair jobs.

“I will send Director Yoon from our office in Asan City. You two then make a list of the areas to repair after inspecting the building. We don’t have enough funds in our building maintenance reserve yet, so let’s just repair the area that we must fix right now, and we can fix other areas later.”

“Yes, sir.”

Gun-Ho drove back to Jiksan Town.

Once Gun-Ho came back to his office, the co-president—President Jang-Hwan Song and the research center’s chief officer—Director Joon-Soo Oh followed Gun-Ho to his office. Gun-Ho wanted to take some rest since he drove a lot that day, but it seemed that his attention was required on too many areas in his business.

“I have something to report to you, sir.”

“Okay, have a seat.”

Gun-Ho’s voice sounded exhausted.

President Song took out some design drawings and said,

“For the first time since I joined GH Mobile, I went and took a look at S Group’s factories that I used to work at.”

“There are four factories of S Group in Korea, right?”

“There are actually five of them if we include the one in Ulsan City.”

“Oh, I see.”

“The S Group’s executives welcomed my visit and I guess they gave me some privilege since I was once their boss. I made a contract with them for selling them a product. These design drawings are for the product they want to buy from us.”

“Haha, really? You did a good job.”

“If we manufacture this product as shown in these drawings, I believe we can expect our monthly sales revenue to increase by 1 billion won.”

“Oh, really?”

“There is one problem though. In order to successfully produce this product, we first need to do some experiments. This company previously went through the reduction in size and number of workers with the research center, and many research workers had been relocated to another department. We can’t ask those people who are already working with another department to come back to the research center and they are sort of old for the research work anyway.”

“You are suggesting hiring new workers for the research center?”

“Yes. I’d like to make a team with young and smart researchers.”

“How many do you need?”

The new chief officer of the research center chipped in.

“We will need five for now, and we can hire more people as we get more work and as we generate more revenue.”

“Will we need an additional production line because of the new order from S Group?”

“Maybe later, but not now. We can use the existing production line at night if necessary for now.”

“I do agree with hiring additional workers for the research center. From now on, I won’t get involved in hiring workers except for the executives. So, please start the hiring process without me, including the first and second interview or final interview.”

“But…”

Gun-Ho smiled.

“It’s okay. I do trust you two. You don’t need me in selecting decent workers. You are more knowledgeable than me in the field.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The research center’s chief officer and President Song left Gun-Ho’s office after giving him a bow.