The Famous Millionaire

After those who accepted the offer left, most of the contractors didn’t show any enthusiasm about their work. All day, they idled away their time and then went home.

Enraged at their working attitude, Kyungsu shouted,”Just quit immediately if you don’t want to work. You’ll get paid for your work as of today. You get paid for your work, okay? Shame on you.”

Only then did they began to get down to work, but whenever there was a chance, they fiddled around doing nothing.

Of course, not all of them did that. There were two female contractors who just graduated from college and worked hard with smiles on their faces all the time.

It seemed that Hyunwoo could read their minds, given their working attitude. Namely, they seemed to be determined that they would do their best until the last day of their contract.

Sanggyu had his eye on one of them as his successor. She had an excellent feel for animation script, so she had the potential to beat Sanggyu with further training.

Hyunwoo also watched them with interest.

I think I have to hire them full time. As long as Ani & Funny is operating normally, let me hold you to the end.

Thanks to the remaining staff, the music video was finally finished. It was only five minutes long, but they spent more time and energy on it than on the ten-minute Tuti & Angelica.

Friday evening came at last, the final day of employment to the contractors.

“Thanks so much to you all for your hard work. I put some more money in the envelopes,” said Hyunwoo.

“Oh, you didn’t have to,” said the contractors, feeling a bit sorry.

Kyungsu and Sanggyu felt upset about those who idled away their time.

“Dirty bastards!” shouted Kyungsu after they left the office.

“Don’t say that, brother. They didn’t come here for the sake of my wellbeing. Anybody would have made the same decision if they received better offers.”

“Oh, I’m not talking about the team managers. I am talking about BNB. Obviously, they have decided to go after us.”

Come to think of that, Hyunwoo felt Kyungsu was right.

Anyway, their decision to leave was not that bad to Hyunwoo. In fact, he was agonizing over how to resolve the snowballing deficits after his animation failed to get selected by the Talent Broadcasting. He had to spend almost 500 million won to pay the staff’s salaries.

In a way, BNB’s decision to scout them saved Hyunwoo lots of money.

“What shall we do? I don’t know what to do from now on,” said Kyungsu, with a perplexed look on his face.

“Well, we just move on as we used to do. Let bygones be bygones, and start anew. I think we have to pay more attention to uploading the series on the website of Story Mecca,” said Hyunwoo.

And he pulled out a note from his pocket and gave it to Kyungsu.

Kyungsu received the note and looked at it.

<Unmi Lee and Yujong Suh>

They were the two female contractors who were recognized for their hard work and excellent capabilities. Sanggyu had an eye on one of them.

“I’m going to hire them as full-time employees,” said Hyunwoo.

Kyungsu’s face brightened because he wanted to welcome them with open arms.

“Please call them sometime tomorrow. If they are interested, please tell them to come to the office on Sunday. From now on, we’re going to work with a small group of elites,” said Hyunwoo in a confident voice.

“Got it. Let me notify them tomorrow. By the way, I guess you had better hire one more specializing in drawing. Right now, our staff are rather disproportionately placed in the area of planning.”

Nodding his head, Hyunwoo said, “I’ve felt the same way.”

“Do you have anyone in mind?”

“Yea, I know one. I think we can hire him on a contract basis. We don’t have to spend too much money on simple drawing.”

“Well, just contact one only. I am thinking of outsourcing the in-betweening job to Vietnam after we are done with the keyframes.”

“Really? Do you know anyone there?”

Hyunwoo was thinking of that beautiful Vietnamese girl Yu Zung, a college student he met before. She told him her father was a mid-level manager related to drawing.

“Yes, I have someone in mind.”

On Sunday morning, Hyunwoo held a staff meeting.

Until last Friday, there were almost 30 staff members in the office, but as most of them left, the office looked suddenly empty. Even though Jungah, Jinhon and Angela participated in the meeting, the office looked empty.

Hyunwoo felt he needed to change the heavy atmosphere first.

“Hey, everybody. Cheer up! This company will never collapse. Now is the beginning.”

Clapping his hands, Hyunwoo tried to boost their morale.

“Let me repeat this. Ani & Funny will not easily collapse. We’re financially more stable than you think. And we have a stake in Story Mecca. Our standing in Story Mecca is going up and up every day. We have great potential without turning to the Talent Broadcasting.”

Kyungsu seconded, “I agree. As of today the number of visits to our story is over 300,000 per episode. It’s an explosive uptrend. If we switch it to paid subscription, we can avoid deficits. We can expect huge profits.”

Hyunwoo continued, “Though it is hard to make profits as much as we want, the current status is much more than we initially expected. And I’m going to hire a drawing specialist.”

Was it because of Hyunwoo’s encouragement? It seemed the staff became more enlivened and cheerful with hope for the company’s future. All of them were nodding their heads, tight-lipped.

Jungah raised her hand cautiously at that moment.

“Just go ahead and tell me what you want to say,” said Hyunwoo.

“As a matter of fact, I know a senior friend of mine who specializes in drawing. Would you want to see him?”

Hyunwoo showed interest, but she said in a somewhat hesitant tone, “Well, he is not that excellent in drawing pictures, but he draws very quickly, at least three times as fast as anybody in the field.”

Hyunwoo opened his eyes wide to hear that.

In fact, it was better for Ani & Funny to minimize the spending with a bit lower quality rather than paying a lot to maintain the best quality. And then when there came a golden opportunity like the special animation contest of the Talent Broadcasting, he would spend all the financial resources on that.

“Sounds good. Can you interview him, Manager Kyungsu? Let me attend, too,” said Hyunwoo.

“Got it.”

“Okay, everybody. Let’s cheer up!” shouted Hyunwoo.

Suddenly, Hyunwoo came to turn to Jinhon and Angela who were staring at him.

At that moment, Hyunwoo thought of the music video of ‘Duckling Fly.’ Today, he would release the video to the market.

Raising his voice, Hyunwoo emphasized,

“As you know, the music video of ‘Duckling Fly’ has been completed. The owner of Real Film put the finishing touches on it, but let’s have a final review for the last time today. If there is no particular problem, let’s upload it on Youtube right away. Jihoon, you have the USB right?”

“Yes, let me play it.”

“Okay, let’s watch it, everybody.”

Obviously, it was a very exciting music video. The more they watched it, the more exciting it was.

“Wow, this must be a smash hit! I think I’m going to be your fan, Jinhon and Angela.”

“Is it so exciting?”

“Yea, it looks like it is a professional music video. I feel it’s going to hit gold sooner or later.”

Hyunwoo felt the same way. Though it failed to get the attention of the Talent Broadcasting, it might hit the jackpot on Youtube.

“Great! Let’s upload it,” shouted Hyunwoo strongly.

Hyunwoo thought if it could at least draw one million views, it would be a big success.

On the other hand, he also thought about Jinyoung Paek, a former music producer with a good reputation in the field. If he introduced Jinhon to Jinyoung, Hyunwoo was confident that Jinhon’s musical talent would grow rapidly.

That’s why Hyunwoo had a great expectation of the release of the music video on Youtube.

If this music video of Jinhon’s gained popularity, and Jinyoung became interested in it, he would certainly contact Hyunwoo.

I don’t want anything. I wish only Jinhon will be noticed by Jinyoung, Hyunwoo prayed.