The Famous Millionaire

Two hours later the video material was delivered to the newsroom of the Ansan branch of Korean Broadcasting. The news director sent out the report during the main evening news and repeated it during the regular news hour with the advertisement on the in-depth reporting.

Korean Broadcasting expects the beautiful change that is underway in the snack houses in front of Ansan High School to spread to other areas in the country. We’re going to prepare an in-depth report on the sanitary condition of the snack houses in front of schools across the country. We look forward to tips from you students and parents out there about this. This is Jaeyol Song with Korean Broadcasting.

He reviewed his own report on this several times.

This is one of the few golden chances in my life. Let me make my name known to the public on this occasion.

He felt he should decorate the ‘faceless angel’ and enhance their appeal so that the general public can pay more attention to the subject and long for the beautiful change in the snack houses in front of Ansan High School.

Now, he felt he needed to do more research on Hyunwoo and his family. He needed it just in case the ‘faceless angel’ revealed her identity someday and he decided he would make the story as touching as possible.

***

Friday evening, Hyunwoo’s heart was light as a feather on the way home.

Though he didn’t sign an official contract, it was a foregone deal given the mood of Producer Mansoo Kim. In addition, talk about sponsorship for other soap operas was also underway.

The soap opera with Space Design’s sponsorship was to be aired around June.

In the meantime, N&C Korea was also doing good business.

Sungrak and Juhwan followed Sungwoo Paek on on-the-job training, and Jaegyong took good care of the retail sales at the warehouse. Unhye Kim, the representation of N&C Japan, was giving a great performance, too. As Hyunwoo was focused on his work at Space Design, everybody was doing their best.

The only problem was Ani & Funny.

It had been almost one month since Hyunwoo went to work at Space Design in Seoul.

The new animation ‘Tuti & Angelica’ posted part seven as of the day before and was drawing steady popularity.

In particular, the reader’s interest exploded on the occasion of Lunar New Year.

Hyunwoo analyzed the cause of the explosion from various angles and felt Jungah’s reasoning was the most accurate. According to Jungah, when families meet on a Lunar New Year, not only adults but also their kids gathered together. In a place where many people gathered, it was impossible to control the kids, so they needed to play something to keep their attention. Likely, one of the family members introduced ‘Tuti & Angelica’ to the kids.

Whatever the cause of the surge in popularity of ‘Tuti & Angelica,’ the number of visits to the site on average was over 100,000 every day.

Hyunwoo started thinking seriously about what to do next.

I think I can switch the format to a paid subscription.

Hyunwoo heard that a popular web novel would command up to 15% of the existing readers when switched to a paid format. On average it was around 10%, and for web novels of lesser popularity, it was below 3%.

Assuming the following ratio of the readers at 10%, the paid subscribers will be 10,000.

A serial novel cost 100 won per piece, and the price varied in the case of video material.

In the case of ‘Tuti & Angelica,’ it should bring in three million won, assuming the basic paid fee of 300 won per user per piece. With various fees taken out, the real revenue per month would be about 60% or 1.8 million won. As they currently posted 1.7 pieces every week, it would mean 12.24 million won per month.

If that was the case, it would be a huge profit, and it would increase as time goes by.

Actually, the team members of Ani & Funny wanted a switch to a paid format, but Hyunwoo was not yet satisfied with it. He didn’t want to give up his original dream for such revenue. And what’s more important to him was that this was the last golden chance to switch to a paid format.

Certainly, it was not, he thought.

In his opinion, the real revenue of the animation was not the subscription fee but the secondary work. If ‘Tuti & Angelica’ hit the jackpot, companies producing stickers, drinks, and toys would compete to pay lots of money to claim the right to use its design. That meant a higher poplar recognition than now, which meant that free format was better than paid. He didn’t want to spoil the golden chance later by taking the risk now.

While he was thinking hard about this matter, he already arrived at his house before he knew it. When he got home, he saw an unexpected guest talking to his mother.

“Oh my god! How come you’re here, Reporter Song?”

Jaeyol, who had been interviewing Hyunwoo’s mother, stood up gladly, “Oh, you just got here. I’ve come here to interview the faceless angel, of course.”

She also looked at Hyunwoo with a bright smile, but her expression was not that bright. Though she smiled, it was forced. She was worried about her husband, Duyoung Jang. If Jaeyol began to dig into her family history with the excuse of covering the faceless angel, he could find out something about Duyoung’s business history.

And if Jaeyol reported about it, it might make Sinyoung Co. pay attention to him again.

Of course, the possibility was very slim as it happened 20 years ago.

Hyunwoo cautiously asked, “What are you trying to cover?”

“Don’t worry, Hyunwoo. There is nothing that might do any damage to your family. What I’m trying to cover is…”

Jaeyol outlined the direction of his coverage. The gist of it was that there was a quiet revolution underway in the snack houses in front of the schools in Ansan, and he wanted to use the change as the springboard to bring about more changes to the snack houses in other areas across the country.

Hearing Jaeyol’s explanation, Hyunwoo found that there was nothing that could reveal his father’s past business.

“You can reveal everything except for the details about our family in your report. I want you not to reveal our names.”

“Not a problem. As you already know, I used ‘the faceless angel’ instead of ‘Hyunwoo’s Mom.’ If you want it, let me keep doing so.”

Jaeyol felt it was more effective to draw the public’s attention by introducing her as the faceless angel instead of the owner of Hyunwoo’s Mom. Nonetheless, he was curious why Hyunwoo didn’t want to reveal his mother’s real name.

“By the way, I just don’t know why your mother wants to hide her identity. You mother is a businesswoman. Even though the purpose of this project has nothing to do with her business, I just wonder why she insists on hiding her real name. I think it’s a good idea to let the people know her because a good person like her is selling good food.”

Of course, Hyunwoo felt the same way, and his mother did, too, but what bothered him was the possibility that his father’s past could be revealed by the report.

Suddenly something came to Hyunwoo’s mind.

Hyunwoo said in a calm voice, “Well, if you push somebody to the brink of a cliff, you also have to stand at the edge of the same cliff.”

Unable to figure out what Hyunwoo meant, Jaeyol tilted his head again.

Why did he suddenly mention a cliff when he and his mother are doing something very good?

“Do you mean somebody has been driven into a corner because of my reporting? Any of the snack houses in front of the school?”

“Yes. Though you didn’t do it with any malicious intention, some of them were driven to the edge of the precipice. Fortunately, they got out because things worked out smoothly.”

“Then, all is good, right?”

“No, the thing is what is happening next. Jaeyol, you are planning to make an in-depth report on this food safety issue across the country, aren’t you?”

Jaeyol nodded and seemed to understand what Hyunwoo was hinting.

Hyunwoo continued, “If the situation escalates as a result of your reporting, some of the snack houses will certainly go out of business. In that case, they won’t go bust alone and will try to ruin others in their chagrin.”

“I get it now. I have been thinking of revealing the identity of the faceless angel at an appropriate time. Hearing what you say, I had better reconsider it.”

“Thanks so much. The owners of the snack houses are parents of students, too. I hope you can cover and report about this issue to the effect that they can be good parents to their children as people who make the right decisions.”

“Sure, will do. Don’t worry about that. By the way, you’re really generous. It is just heartwarming to talk and listen to you like this, Hyunwoo.”

“Oh, don’t say that,” said Hyunwoo.

After quickly having dinner, Jaeyol continued to interview Hyunwoo and his mother.

And then he left with the video technician.

Jaeyol didn’t go straight to his house. As it was not so dark, he had some more free time to meet some other sources. Actually, he was busy with meeting the sources from early in the morning and covered lots of stuff on food safety and sanitary issues.

Still, he felt he needed to cover some more about the motivation of Hyunwoo’s mother and her drive to innovate the existing food hygiene practices of snack houses.

Though he heard from a teacher that she first got involved in it at the recommendation of the principal of Ansan High School, he felt that was not enough.

Suddenly, he thought of someone who might be helpful.

“Oh, I heard the former principal of that school is working as a security guard for Aurum.”

“Are you going to meet him?” asked the video technician.

“Yea. I got his contact number.”

Jaeyol called Suyoung Oh, the security guard, Hyunwoo’s mentor, and interviewed him. Fortunately, Jaeyol found out why Suyoung recommended opening ‘Hyunwoo’s Mom’ and how the name ‘Hyunwoo’s Mom’ was created.

While Suyoung was talking to Jaeyol, he unexpectedly mentioned an episode about Hyunwoo.

“I’ve thought all along that Hyunwoo is a guy with great character, but I have become convinced about while watching him sincerely persuade Dohyok Kim to make the castor Dream Team. Hyunwoo is such a great man. If our country really wants to stand tall, we should build a country where people like Hyunwoo are doing well.”

“Did you just say that Hyunwoo supported the Dream Team? What are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you heard about anything about the castor Dream Team? It was placed in the limelight several months ago.”