Jong-Suk filled up a cup with soju and gave it to Jae-Sik Moon .
“That’s too much . ”
“Don’t be shy . I know you love soju . You don’t have to drive tonight since you are staying on the second floor in this building anyway . Enjoy it as much as you want, bro . Being able to drink a lot is one of the necessary traits to be a successful president of a transportation company . ”
“Don’t get me started . I drank with the truck drivers last night . We finished ten bottles of soju . ”
“By the way, bro . You seemed to be doing very well these days . You moved from the basement to the second floor, huh?”
“Man, stop talking about a basement . I’m so sick of hearing that word . ”
Chan-Ho picked up a bottle of soju and said, “My little brother, let me fill up your cup with soju . ”
“Chan-Ho, don’t let Jong-Suk drink it . He has to drive . ”
“It’s okay . I will have just one cup of soju . I can stay sober with one small cup . ”
“You have to be very careful . I saw the other day that the police was conducting a sobriety test on the road from Jiksan Town to Dujeong Town . ”
“Shoot . It drives me crazy not to drink soju when it is right in front of me . If I knew it, I would have asked my wife to pick me up . ”
“Your wife will scold you for coming home late tonight . ”
Chan-Ho laughed out loud .
“You said that your parents placed their home in Incheon City on the market, right?”
“Yeah, but since it’s November, I think they will have to wait until the Lunar New Year’s Day for their home to be sold . ”
“How are they doing? They must feel mixed feelings when they think about leaving the town where they have spent almost their entire life . ”
“One of their good friends from church moved here, so it seems they want to move as soon as possible . Also, since my wife and I are expecting to have a baby this coming March, it would be very nice to have them around and closer . My wife’s parents are still working, so we can’t ask them to take care of our baby . By the way, Jae-Sik bro, how come you don’t have a child yet?”
“It just didn’t happen yet . But since we now live separately, we miss each other more . When I went home last Saturday, my wife prepared a nice meal with grilled yellow Corvina . ”
“Ohhh, I guess you will have a baby soon . Yellow Corvina is certainly a big help for it . ”
“Come here . Let me give you a nice hit with my knuckles . ”
“I haven’t still figured out what was going on with Gun-Ho bro . It seems you might have a girl, or not . I heard a rumor that you are seeing an actress or someone . ”
“Who told you that?”
“I keep my ears open, bro . Chan-Ho, you should know something . ”
“I don’t know . ”
“Since the company website is up, we get calls from potential clients . Today, we received a call asking us to transport a 40 feet container . The container is coming from Guangdong Province in China to Pyeongtaek Port . They want us to pick it up at Pyeongtaek Port and transport it to Pocheon City . ”
“So, did you tell them that you don’t have a truck to do the work?”
“No, I told him that we don’t have any truck available at this moment . A container transportation job can pay good money like more than 1 million won per day if it is long-distance work . For the work that you introduced to me, Jong-Suk, with heavy equipment, we will have to temporarily stop it next month . The ground is frozen in winter . The contract with them is until next June . We will resume the work in February right after the Lunar New Year’s Day .
“Hmm, I see . ”
“I talked with Min-Hyeok yesterday . He called me from China . He told me to keep an eye on the container transportation business in the west side of China . ”
“West side of China?”
“Yeah, the east market in China is already saturated, like Tianjin City, Shanghai, and Qingdao City, and it is very competitive . He said we still have a chance to get into the west market like Sichuan Province, Tibet, Gansu Province, etc . Distribution business will become hot there soon, according to his observation . ”
“Don’t you have to do some sales promotion there too?”
“Min-Hyeok recommended starting with Korean large companies, even though it won’t be easy . ”
“Hmm . ”
“In fact, the transportation field in Korea is very competitive as well . I am lucky that I have Dyeon Korea and other GH companies that give me some work and also connect me to other companies . I started the business without difficulties . Growing the business further is up to me . I will make it successful to buy the farmland next door as you asked, Gun-Ho . The landowner has been acting as a pain in the as*, but I think he is doing it on purpose hoping that we would buy his land . ”
“Hmm . ”
“Yesterday, I registered for my residency with this location . I was at first concerned that they might reject the registration because this is a factory, not a residential area . But they didn’t say anything about it . I already met with the head of the village, and I talked with the people from the senior citizen’s center when they came to collect some contribution to their heating cost of the center . I will make an offer to buy that farmland in Spring . ”
Two weeks had passed . The weather got colder . People started wearing winter outfits .
Gun-Ho’s office in GH Building in Sinsa Town, Gangnam District was warm with a good heating system . Gun-Ho made a call to President Song in GH Mobile in Jiksan Town .
“It’s Gun-Ho Goo . ”
“Yes, sir, this is Jang-Hwan Song . ”
“I will capitalize on my 3 billion won . ”
“Oh, thank… thank you so much, sir . ”
“How much do you expect the year-end dividend would be?”
“We are anticipating the net income after taxes would be 3 billion won, and 2 . 5 billion won can be a dividend . ”
“President Song, why don’t you take 5% of 2 . 5 billion won as your share and as I promised you? That would be 125 million won . Let’s record my dividend of 2,374 million won as earned surplus and use it to pay the debt . ”
“I can’t take my dividend, sir . I haven’t been with the company even for a year yet . I’m not qualified to receive a dividend even if I want to . Let’s use all of 2 . 5 billion won to pay the debt . ”
“President Song, just take your portion . It’s an order from the chairman of the board of directors . ”
“I can’t do that, sir . You shouldn’t ask me to do it . ”
“Hmm . ”
“I will record the meeting minutes as you just said . We will use 2 . 5 billion won after deducting the legally required retention fund to pay the company debt . I will inform the external auditors accordingly . I do thank you for your decision, sir, on behalf of the entire employees of GH Mobile . ”
After getting off the phone with President Song, Gun-Ho sent a text message to the lady doctor—Young-Eun Kim in Seoul National University Hospital .
[It has been two weeks since we had a walk together . I can’t stop thinking of the path we took at the Fortress Wall of Seoul . I will be waiting for you at the same Starbucks in front of Hansug University this Sunday at 10 am . ]
Gun-Ho received a call from Min-Hyeok Kim .
“Dingding made her decision . She wants to give it a try in running the joint venture . ”
Dingding was Min-Hyeok’s wife’s name .
“That’s really nice . Then register the company with the government . The name of the joint venture is GH Plastic and Chemical Compound Trade . The capital is 100,000 dollars . The president is Dingding, and the investment-capital ratio between the co-venturers will be that Gun-Ho takes 90% and Dingding takes 10% . ”
“I have one condition though . ”
“What is it?”
“Dingding wants a small office for herself . I told her to use an office in GH Parts Company, but she doesn’t want to be with me at work . She said that she doesn’t want to get interrupted by her husband at work . ”
“The investment funds will be there and she will have access to it . Use it to lease an office and get necessary stuff for it . ”
“Thank you . ”