The Famous Millionaire

However, Hyunwoo already said it. He had to stop the press in order to lessen his mother’s burden anyway, he needed some strong reassurance.

“If this is reported by the press, my mother will stop supplying the food.”

“Oh, why? She’s doing such a good thing for our students.”

“She doesn’t want the press to know what she’s doing.”

At that moment Hyunwoo’s mother, Han Jisook opened her eyes wide. She couldn’t understand him a bit. It was true she was not doing this for boasting, but at the time she was not afraid of her job getting reported by the press, but Hyunwoo was saying the opposite! However, she felt he must some reason for having said that, and he was always more thoughtful than she was.

So, Jisook supported Hyunwoo unconditionally.

Sunwoo nodded his head and said, “Got it. I will make sure your mother’s work won’t be leaked to the press. Is it enough?”

“Yes, please.”

“When can you start, by the way?” asked Sunwoo, turning to Hyunwoo, but he could not answer as it was her job.

Actually, she wanted to speak her mind, too.

“I just have an idea for the breakfast menu. It will take three to four days to prepare the food.”

“Oh, really? Can you tell me what the menu is?”

“Students don’t like soybean soup, so let me make some rice cake. It’s sticky inside but cripsy outside. They will like it if they eat it with honey syrup.”

“Well, there are some prohibited foods in school for the safety of the students. Do you know that?”

“I don’t deal with soda or fried food. I can’t offer a variety of menu items anyway.”

“Got it. Let me report to my principal and get back to you as soon as he makes the final decision. Can I look around your factory? I would like to confirm it myself.”

“Of course.”

She guided Sunwoo and the Jamohoe to her factory.

The women were rather picky. They showed disappointment when they saw the shabby exterior of the factory inside the renovated warehouse, but when they stepped into it, their attitude changed instantly.

“Wow! This place is cleaner than my house!”

Sunwoo immediately reported to the principal about the outcome of his meeting with Hyunwoo, including Hyunwoo’s idea.

It was about using the students from the House of Happiness as volunteers for snack sale.

After he was given a briefing, the principal felt it was a great idea and praised Sunwoo.

“Thanks a lot for your hard work,” said the principal.

This time Sunwoo, much more encouraged by the principal’s praise, proposed, “I feel it’s a good idea to make a feature reporting on this.”

“Feature reporting? How?”

“First of all, we publicize our efforts to quickly cope with the food poisoning situation. At the same time, we promote the economic benefits as well as the benefits of deepening friendship among students by offering the poor kids the chance to work as volunteers for the snack sale.”

“Wonderful idea. Why didn’t I think about that?”

Sunwoo continued in a more confident tone, “If we put out the press release on this, the press will report about it extensively. And if all the schools do the same thing by taking a cue from us, the reputation of our school would soar.”

“You’re the think tank of our school. Please go ahead. And let me know if you need any help.”

On Monday, Ahn Sunwoo showed the principal the press release.

Fully satisfied, the principal reviewed it.

“Did you select the students who will help sell the snack?”

“I think we need five students. The orphanage, House of Happiness, has decided to send us three, so let me find two other volunteers from our school.”

The principal nodded at that, but suddenly he felt something curious, “By the way, I don’t see any contents about the food supplier here. Is that Hyunwoo Mom’s?”

“I called them if I could include the name of the food supplier, but they requested me not to, saying they’re not doing this for publicity,” said Sunwoo with a bit of dramatization of his conversation with Hyunwoo on this.

As if moved by that, the principal nodded and said, “Oh, How wonderful they are! No content about supplying the food at the cost of production, they don’t want to have it known to others. Don’t you think they’re the very angel without a face?”

At that moment, Sunwoo’s eyes sparkled. He felt the press release would draw much more attention if he included that fact in it.

In fact, the reputation of the school was at risk due to the food poisoning incident.

Thanks to Hyunwoo’s Mom, however, the school could restore its tarnished reputation and shine it further.

“How about omitting the name of the food supplier and using ‘angel without a face’ instead? Doesn’t it make their good stand out more?”

“Yea, just go ahead. I think people like them should get more publicity in our society for their good, but the wrong persons are competing for it.”

Sunwoo added not only the ‘angel without a face’ and explained their charitable act.

The next day the major press published the article titled “Someone’s Beautifully Good Deed at Ansan High School.”

Though it was run as a brief article in the general news page of the local section, lots of people read it.

“I wish they had given such a good story more space.”

“How wonderful! It looks like the snack houses that rejected Jamohoe’s request for sanitation inspection might feel the heat.”

“They even offered part-time jobs for the orphanage kids. What a good idea!”

“Supplying the food at the cost of production? And they don’t want any publicity for themselves? There are kind-hearted people like them in our society.”

Of course, there were some who were skeptical.

“Angel without a face? They’ll certainly come back later with his real face. No free lunch in this world.”

“Looks like a large company made up such a promotional idea. I just don’t understand why they’re doing it when I clearly notice their intention.”

And there were some others who showed a completely different reaction. They were none other than the owners of the snack houses. They didn’t care much about the decline in their profits because of the aftereffects of the food poisoning incident.

For the time being, the students would shun the snack house, but they would come back soon.

However, this changed everything if the students began getting snacks from somewhere to sell them.

The reason the snack house owners were not concerned up to then was that the students had no other alternatives, but if they had an alternative like the snack bar, they would never come back.

The bigger problem for them was the school’s plan for a snack bar. The school announced that it would set up a snack bar during the winter vacation, and the school would continue to run it next year.

They could not find any fault with the school about this, so they urgently gathered to cope with the new situation.

Someone came up with a countermeasure, “Let’s track down the food supplier in question.”

“Are you talking about the ‘angel without a face’?”

“Yes. Everyone has his or her fault, as you know.”

They all saw eye to eye on that and began to track down who the food supplier was.

One of them, an ex-marine, finally succeeded after some tailing and investigating in disguise.

“It’s called Hyunwoo’s Mom.”

“Okay, then. Let’s find out their evil practices and accuse them.”

They once again quickly moved. This time their actions were more organized than before.

In particular, the ex-marine guy took the initiative again.

They felt they could quickly wrap up the work because every man had his own fault.

However, it turned out a very tough job.

“I just can’t believe how such a factory can exist these days.”

“Just flawless. I can’t find any fault. No profits at all on their end.”

They were agonized over what to do next.

After a long silence, the old woman who was responsible for the food poisoning incident made a suggestion.

“After all, this is the only option.”

“What is it?”

“As a matter of fact, I realized a lot about my own faults after checking out the factory of Hyunwoo’s Mom. I thought I was using quality ingredients, but that was just my own thinking. The moment I visited Hyunwoo’s Mom factory, I began to feel how dirty my workplace is and how low-grade the ingredients I use actually are.”

Other owners nodded, too.

In fact, they were feeling a sense of guilt after they visited Hyunwoo’s Mom factory.

In terms of sanitation and freshness, the difference was simply too big.

“Let’s accept Jamohoe’s request, and let’s try to show them we’re going to change. We should.”

They hesitated a bit. It was easier said than done, after all.

They would need to invest a lot of money to solve the problem of food sanitation and freshness, which meant increasing the snack price.

However, what was really difficult was that they could not solve the problem by themselves.

The heart of the matter was the food factory that supplied the snack food to them.

When someone raised this issue, the old woman nodded her head, “I know, but that doesn’t matter. All we have to do is try to show we’re making the necessary efforts now. Then, the Jamohoe will understand us and make some concession, thinking our efforts alone can’t solve the problem.”

Several days later, Hyunwoo was quite busy transferring his duty to his successor in the office, when he received a call from Han Kwangsoo, the president of Real Film.

Hyunwoo had been waiting for his call anxiously.

“Wait a minute. I’ve got an important call now.”

“Yes, go ahead, please. Let me take a break. Looks like I met the wrong predecessor. So much work to do!”

With a smile, Hyunwoo went outside quickly to answer the call.

“Brother Han, why did you call me so late? I’ve been waiting for your call for long.”

“Sorry. Actually, I’m busiest when I’m almost done with a current project.”

“Are you done now?”

“Yea, I’ll be done this week. By the way, do you have any potential buyers of your video project? Even if you spend kickbacks, it’s very difficult if you don’t have good chemistry with the broadcasting company involved.”

“That’s why you have to make the video for their taste.”

“Hey, dude. Do you think I’m the hand of Midas? I am not so sure this time,” said Kwangsoo.

“Well, I have an idea.”

“What’s that?”

Hyunwoo explained to him about KO.VE dream.

Listening to his explanation, Kwangsoo seemed more optimistic, “Your idea seems good. I think I can figure it out now.”

“The thing is this: Korean technicians, who were frustrated with the high labor cost in Korea, made a brilliant comeback in Vietnam.”

“In other words, you want me to make the video just like the Dream Team’s castor project, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. By now Mr. Na, president of N&C in Vietnam, has made KO.VE Dream in one way or another.”

“Got it. Let me get the flight scheduled for next Tuesday. I hope they prepare everything well in Vietnam.”

“Let me give you the list of the local Korean presidents. Just talk to them directly. They will help you a lot, and let me call Sungji.”

Han Kwangsoo was satisfied.

Then, he brought up an irrelevant topic suddenly, “I saw an interesting story in a local newspaper yesterday.”

“What is that?”

“I am not sure if you read it as it was a brief article in the local paper. Have you heard about the ‘angel without a face’? According to the story, some snack bar is supplying the food without making any profits to resolve the food sanitation issue of the snack houses in front of the school.”

Hyunwoo was quite surprised. He saw the article, too, but as it was published as a brief article on the general news page, he doubted it could ever draw the public’s attention, yet Kwangsoo, who was living in Seoul, had read it.

“It’s a very good story. As soon as I’m done with filming in Vietnam, I’d like to make a feature program on that. Can you find out who they are? Just let me know who that ‘angel without a face’ is. Let me take care of the rest.”