Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho looked at his watch.

“It’s afternoon already. It’s lunchtime. What do I want to eat today?”

At that moment, his phone started ringing. It was Jong-Suk Park.

“Bro, let’s have lunch together today.”

“Huh? Where are you right now?”

“I’m on my way to your art gallery. I want to see the wood-carved figures during my lunchtime. I’m almost there. Can we meet at around 1 pm? I think I will finish my tour by then.”

“Really? You are coming all the way here to see the artworks?”

“You probably don’t know, but all of the executive officers here visited the art exhibition already.”

“Why didn’t they let me know? We could have lunch together.”

“They had to get back to work. They probably don’t want you to think that they spent too much time outside the work.”

“Haha. They don’t have to think that way. Well, I will come down to the gallery around 1:15 then. Take your time. I will see you then.”

Gun-Ho hadn’t visited the art exhibition yet. He tried once yesterday, but he gave up when he saw so many people there. Since he already saw Mr. Sakata Ikuzo’s wood-carved figures when he visited him in Yokohama City, Japan, he wasn’t so desperate to see his artworks again anyway.

When Gun-Ho arrived at the gallery around 1:20 pm, Jong-Suk was standing at the gallery’s entrance waiting for him. He wasn’t alone, but he was with a lady who was holding a child.

“Bro!”

“Oh, hey. Huh? Your wife came along, huh?”

“Hello.”

Jong-Suk’s wife said to Gun-Ho.

“Oh, wow. Your kid is growing so quickly. She has hairs already.”

Jong-Suk introduced Gun-Ho to his child.

“Hey, kiddo, this is your uncle!”

The child was so young that she couldn’t speak any word yet. She was just staring at Gun-Ho’s face with her widened eyes.

“Hey, nice to meet you, kid. I’m your uncle Gun-Ho.”

The child kept staring at Gun-Ho’s face without showing any response.

“Let’s go and have lunch. There is a good Japanese restaurant across the street. I’m starving. I haven’t had anything yet.”

Gun-Ho ordered sushi.

“You know the wood-carved butterfly figure that you gave to me as a present the other day, that was carved by Mr. Sakata Ikuzo. It’s in a safe place at home. My wife said that we should keep it very well because it will become one of our family heirlooms.”

“Haha, really?”

“Actually, my wife wanted to come to the art exhibition. The person, who made a present for our first baby, is holding an art exhibition, and she said she had to be here.”

“Haha. I see.”

“Before you arrived, we even took a picture in front of the art gallery as a souvenir photo.”

“I guess that Mr. Sakata Ikuzo’s wood carving art exhibition has special meaning to your family.”

The food came out.

Gun-Ho placed the first dish in front of Jong-Suk Park’s wife.

“Please have them first.”

“No, it’s okay. You should have the first dish, sir.”

Jong-Suk’s wife placed the dish back in front of Gun-Ho. At that moment, the waitress brought the remaining dishes and placed them in front of Jong-Suk and his wife.

“When Mr. Sakata Ikuzo was working with us, he and Director Park were actually very close. Whenever I go on a business trip to Japan and meet Mr. Sakata Ikuzo, Jong-Suk is the first person who he asks me if he is doing good.”

“Haha, really?”

Jong-Suk’s wife seemed to be happy to know it.

“Well, let’s eat.”

When they started eating, Gun-Ho focused only on food because he was really starving. However, Jong-Suk’s wife seemed to be careful about eating the food, maybe because she didn’t want to give a bad impression to Gun-Ho.

“Bro, guess what the other executive officers said after they visited the art exhibition.”

“What did they say?”

“They didn’t know the GH Building was located in the middle of Gangnam District. They said they felt proud of being part of GH companies when they saw the gallery’s name— GH Art Gallery.”

“Is that right?”

Jong-Suk’s wife chipped in while smiling.

“I felt the same way.”

Jong-Suk continued to talk.

“The general affairs director and the accounting director said that they heard of the rumor that you are a big player from Gangnam, and now they believe it.”

“Haha. What are they talking about? A big player from Gangnam? There are tons of people who have way more than I have.”

Gun-Ho, however, felt good when Jong-Suk mentioned ‘a big play from Gangnam’ attached to himself.

After seeing off Jong-Suk and his wife, Gun-Ho came back to his office in the GH Building. At that moment, he received a call from Jae-Sik Moon.

“We had several visitors here in GH Logistics. Someone from the cosmetic company stopped by again, and a few people with a real estate agent came as well.”

“Did anyone make an offer?”

“That cosmetic company is the most aggressive party so far. They are trying to negotiate the price. Their verbal offer price is 1.3 million won. They said that they did some research on the market values around the area, and that 1.3 million won was a reasonable price.”

“Sounds good.”

“I didn’t give them our answer to that offer yet. I told them that I had to discuss within the company first.”

“You said that?”

“That cosmetic company’s owner president wanted to meet with you in person.”

“For what?”

“I guess he wants to see the owner of the property. To him, I’m just an employee who is running the company, and it seems that he wants to talk with the owner who has the full authority to make the critical decision.”

“Well, he is weird. If that’s how it works, how would an agent do their job?”

“That owner president already knew that GH Logistics is connected with GH Mobile. He knew your name too. He specifically said that he wanted to talk with President Goo.”

“Really?”

“And, he also said that he won’t sign the sales and purchase contract if President Goo is not present.”

“He sounds like an arrogant man.”

“He is actually a legendary figure in the cosmetic industry. I remember that I saw him in a magazine a long time ago.”

“How old does he look like?”

“He is in his 60s. And their director looks like he is in his early 50s.”

“Hmm, they are old enough.”

“I think I’ve heard from somewhere that he was the creator of several popular Korean cosmetic brands.”

“I’m going to work in Jiksan Town tomorrow. Maybe they could come to visit me at GH Mobile.”

“Okay, I will arrange the meeting then.”

President Jeong-Sook Shin visited Gun-Ho’s office in the afternoon.

“Please come and have a seat. Let’s have some tea.”

Gun-Ho called for the secretary— Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh— and asked her to bring two cups of coffee.

“Sir, have you visited the art exhibition?”

“I tried yesterday, but couldn’t get in because there were so many people.”

“I think I made a mistake in planning this art exhibition from the beginning.”

“Why do you say so?”

“If we were not going to sell the artworks, I should have charged the visitors’ admission fees.”

“We are a small art gallery. Isn’t it too much to ask if we charge admission fees?”

“Maybe I should have posted sales prices on each of Mr. Sakata Ikuzo’s artwork.”

“No one is buying his art pieces?”

“We didn’t clearly show that the artworks can be sold. Usually, for paintings and other artworks, their prices are predictable, and buyers could estimate their prices. But, his artworks are so unique that I’m not sure where to start to price them. The visitors seemed to truly enjoy the artworks, but no one asked whether they could buy them.”

“Hmm. I do feel your worries, President Shin.”

“We did put a lot of effort into making this art exhibition happen, not to mention our marketing effort and all that. But when I think of the possibility that it won’t generate enough profits to cover the expenses and our labor, I feel so stressed.”

“Well, you did a good thing for the public at least. You gave a good opportunity to a lot of people to enjoy the unusual art pieces. That’s a success too in a sense.”