The Famous Millionaire

Kyungsu and Sanggyu looked at Hyunwoo at the same time. As the president of Ani & Funny Hyunwoo had a final say, but Hyunwoo was silent. The girls looked at Kyungsu and Hyunwoo, expecting them to decide whether to accept them or not.

Kyungsu opened his mouth first, and let out a sigh.

“Well, these guys here have great potential, but we can’t use them immediately. I am afraid we can’t use them as a part-timer.”

“I agree with Kyungsu. They need to learn a bit more,” said Sanggyu.

Though they gave a disappointing evaluation, Heejung and her friends were not disappointed. They were still full of expectation.

“Shall we work and learn here? In fact, the cost of private tutoring is too high for us…”

Kyungsu and Sanggyu again looked at Hyunwoo for a reply.

“Go and get your parents’ approval. I’ll let you come over here and learn,” said Hyunwoo.

“Wow! Thanks so much!”

Heejung and her friends hopped around out of joy.

In fact, Hyunwoo was thinking of assigning Suhim Yu’s new animation to them ranging from the creation of characters to development of their facial expressions, storyboards, and layout.

Of course, Jihoon, Myunghun, and Sanggyu would step in intermittently to coach them. That way the students would learn a lot, hone their skills and complete their assigned work.

I wish I had more friends like this.

Heejung and her friends came back to Hyunwoo’s office the next day with their parents’ consent.

Hyunwoo had something for them.

“Take these.”

He showed them three types of animation stories written by Suhim Yu. Each work had several episodes of its own, but Suhim could not complete them because other staff members were focused on Garbage World at the moment.

Receiving them, Heejung and her friends gave him a curious look.

Hyunwoo said casually, “Well, these are animation stories we have to complete later. You guys go ahead and choose the one you like. And then make a draft animation on that with new characters, their facial expressions, coloring, and even storyboard.”

“Really? Are we doing all this?”

They made a surprising look because they have never done this kind of work before, though they changed some others’ animations a bit for practice.

“Just do it. We are not expecting you to produce any complete work, but trying to find out what kind of animation specialty each of you has: your hidden talent.”

“But we don’t know how to start…”

Hyunwoo showed them some samples. They were the characters, their facial expressions and storyboard of Garbage World.

“This is Kenny. We changed and transformed a can like this.”

“Wow, this is the Kenny of Duckling Fly!”

“Right. Ah! Ani & Funny. Was it true that Ani & Funny made this music video?”

Asking a barrage of questions, they were overjoyed to learn more about Ani & Funny.

Smiling at them, he said, “You can be another Jinhon if you work harder. Try to enhance your skills so as to seize the opportunity when it comes along.”

And then Hyunwoo pointed to the character of Kenny.

“Look at Kenny closely. We made it out of a can, but it doesn’t look like a can at all. Without the corners on its head and buttock of Kenny, you would never find anything common between a can and Kenny.”

Heejung and her friends carefully examined Kenny. Like Hyunwoo said, obviously it was made from a can but it looked nothing like a can. There were less than 5% of common characteristics between them.

“Let me take an example. Look at the stubby pencil. It doesn’t necessarily look that way. You can just draw a circle and write down ‘stubby pencil’ on it. Try to maximize your imagination to the best you can.”

“We are not sure we can do well.”

“Of course, you will find it is not easy at first. Still, try to develop your imagination. That way you can enhance your worth,” said Hyunwoo.

“Got it. Let me give it a try,” said Heejung.

“Don’t feel stressed. We are just trying to help you form the habit of thinking. And our staff here will take a look at your work on and off and give you some guidance. That will be of great help to you.”

Only then did they shout for joy and nod their heads. They seemed to have realized his intention.

“Thanks. By the way, which animation story do we have to tackle first?”

“Well, there is no particular order here. And there is no timeline. You just go ahead if you feel up to that, and then do it with passion.”

“Got it!”

They got down to business right away, starting with reviewing the stories.

The next day they began to work on making characters of the stories such as drawing pictures with pencils on the reusable paper.

When Hyunwoo cast a casual glance, they were involved in personalizing the characters. As girls, they seemed to like the story about flowers and insects.

With a satisfied smile, Hyunwoo thought, They could grow to be competent animation workers in a few years.

***

Finally, the completed animation production of Garbage World arrived from Vietnam. There were five, all told.

Confirming the videos, Hyunwoo’s face brightened.

“They all look good.”

That was true. It was better than Hyunwoo expected.

The contents of Garbage World were simple. Kenny, the chief of the garbage yard, acted very mean to Butler, an empty bottle just dumped into the yard, and suffered disgrace later.

The background of the animation was a dumping ground, where all the garbage were beautified into a cute form that made them look affectionate rather than disgusting.

What pleased Hyunwoo above all was the facial expressions and movements of the characters.

It seemed that VPictures, the contractor in Vietnam, reflected all the demands that Hyunwoo made with respect to the storyboard. Reportedly VPictures boasted of the best animation technology in Vietnam, which Hyunwoo confirmed now.

Kyungsu also seemed satisfied, saying, “I guess it was worth we paid a high price for it.”

“Good. Can you post these on Story Mecca as they are? And announce the series of Tuti & Angelica through the bulletin board of Story Mecca, please,” said Hyunwoo.

“Sure, will do,” said Kyungsu.

As if he was tense, Hyunwoo rubbed both hands and murmured, “Please hit the jackpot just once!”

“It will. I’m in the positive. The thing is when we start switching to paid subscriptions.”

Kyungsu seemed to think Hyunwoo’s goal was to make money by selling the videos on Story Mecca, but that was his misunderstanding.

Hyunwoo never thought of any profit of video sales. Of course, he could make some, but he felt the derivatives of the characters would bring about more profits.

Though Hyunwoo didn’t make the final decision on switching to paid subscriptions, he didn’t want it now.

At that moment, he received a call from a woman named Sonjong Kim, a former employee with Ansan Customs Office.

“Can I come to your office right now?”

“Yes, please.”

Hyunwoo quickly headed to the KOVE DREAM office.

A little later, Sonjong came in and asked, “Is this KOVE DREAM?”

She looked shy, but her voice and actions were masculine.

She walked into the office without any hesitation as if she came into her main bedroom.

Noticing an ashtray on the table, she asked bluntly, “Does anybody smoke inside the office?”

Actually, Sukju Hwang and Dongsu Yang, who got hired by Juwhan’s recommendation, were smokers. At her asking, they cautiously replied, “Yea, sometimes we smoke here.”

“Sorry to say this, but I have a baby at home. I can’t take care of her with a whiff of smoke on my clothes. Would you go outside if you want to smoke?”

“Oh, yea, will do,” said both of them reluctantly.

Hearing her conversation with them, Hyunwoo found himself tense a bit. It seemed as if he would be rebuked if she found any fault with him.

Hyunwoo stood up quickly and pulled a seat for her. Then, he introduced her to Juhwan, Sukju, and Dongsu.

Originally, she worked for eight years at the customs office of Ansan. As she worked so hard and excellently, she was regarded as the prize of the customs office, but she gave birth to two children in two years, so she had to take a break, and they hired a new employee in between. She had been laid off for almost three years.

Despite her sharp personality, she was like a savior to Hyunwoo.

In fact, he had to stay at the KOVE DREAM office for a couple of hours on average per day because he had to work with Juhwan on trading, but he could have Sonjung take care of all that.

Hyunwoo said, “I don’t want to give you a working schedule. As far as you are taking care of the trading documents, you’re fine,” said Hyunwoo.

“How many documents per day?”

For now, there were not that many in the case of KOVE DREAM, while N&C Korea had lots of big-ticket contracts because of an increasing number of dealerships.

Hearing Hyunwoo’s explanation, she asked, “I guess there are less than six documents per day, right?

“I guess so.”

“Can I go and see my baby at home sometimes as long as my outing doesn’t affect my work? My mom is currently taking care of my baby, but she doesn’t feel good.”

“Sure, you can. As long as you handle the trading documents well, I have no problem. You are free to report to work and go back home at any time.”

“Then, how much do you pay me? Is it based on my working hours or just salary?”

“Let me give you a fixed salary of one million won per month, with a bonus based on your performance.”

Her face brightened at his mention of a bonus, “Can you give me a large bonus?”

“Of course I can if everything here goes well. By the way, when can you start?”

“Oh, even now. Do you have paperwork to handle?”

Hyunwoo gave her some documents related to invoices, packing lists, and B/L. She quickly handled the work and faxed the documents to the customs office without any difficulty.

Though she hadn’t worked for almost three years after being laid off, she was more skillful than Hyunwoo.