Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho’s sister obtained a level-1 certificate of a social worker after finishing the level-2 certificate. Her husband was doing a transportation work with his own truck, and he was making at least 5 million won per month. Gun-Ho’s sister was having a good life; she was driving Hyundai Sonata and she was actively participating in a school parent association at the elementary school which Jeong-Ah was going to. Jeong-Ah was a popular kid at her school; she was in a good class rank and she had a pretty face.

“Jeong-Ah is nominated for a class president. People think her family is affluent since she is living in a 50 pyung large condo. She is so popular at her school.”

Gun-Ho remembered her mother mentioning about it. Jeong-Ah was loved and cared for by not only her parents but also by her grandparents. She was having a good life.

“When she was living in a rented old townhouse in Juan Town, she was bullied by her classmates. Now, she is a leader among friends.”

Gun-Ho’s mother was laughing while she talked about how well Jeong-Ah was doing in school.

Gun-Ho nodded his head.

When he was in high school, he used to get beaten up by his classmates too. He was bullied and he even lost his umbrella to his classmate on a rainy day. He couldn’t even look at a pretty girl when she was passing by him. He couldn’t be admitted to a decent college and couldn’t enjoy a romantic college campus life because his family was poor. The good life that Jeong-Ah was having now was all possible because of money.

“Human beings are greedy and calculating. They quickly recognize who is poor and who is rich even when they were little, and they rank people in that order. They bully their peers who had a poor family too.”

People judge a person by their appearance, such as what kind of car they drive and where they live. Teachers were not an exception to this tendency.

Jeong-Ah’s homeroom teacher was a married woman and she recommended another teacher she was working with to meet with Gun-Ho.

“He is one of my student’s uncle. He is running a big company. He graduated from a college in China and his parents are living in a 50 pyung condo in Guweol Town. Why don’t you meet with him? You might like him. I was told that he is a good-looking man.”

“Which university did he graduated in China?”

Jeong-Ah’s homeroom teacher called Jeong-Ah’s mother to find out which college Gun-Ho graduated from.

“Which college in China did you say your brother graduate from?”

“It’s from Zhejiang University. He majored in accounting.”

Gun-Ho started getting calls from everyone for the meeting with the elementary teacher in Jeong-Ah’s school. His father called, and his sister called and even his sister’s friend who was selling insurance called too. Gun-Ho’s father even threatened him.

“Son, you have to get married soon. Money is not that important in life. You need to make a grandchild for me. I am getting old and I might not have much time left. I want to see my grandchild before I die.”

“Dad, you have Jeong-Ah.”

“She is a girl. I need a grandson, so he could take care of the ancestral rites of our family!”

“We don’t discriminate grandchild based on their gender anymore, dad. Moreover, there is no guarantee that I would have a son after I get married.”

Gun-Ho’s mother kept calling him too.

“You have to have a wife who can take care of your family. And the girl whom your sister recommended is an elementary school teacher, which is great. She graduated from Gyeongin National University of Education. She must have studied very hard and well, better than you. Additionally, since she is a public school teacher, she should have an excellent pension, meaning that she is prepared for her retired life. You won’t have this kind of opportunity once you get older.”

“Okay, mom. I will have to move my factory to a new location first. I will call you next week.”

Gun-Ho thought a family could be tiresome sometimes, even though they could give a comfort and protection at the same time.

It was Saturday— the moving day for Gun-Ho’s factory.

Gun-Ho was wearing his company’s uniform; he headed to the factory. Large trucks of a moving company were already parked in line. He could hear the noise from a forklift truck. The plant manager was standing with his arms crossed while Jong-Suk was running here and there to supervise the moving.

“Hey, hey. Be careful with that box. You need to put that in a wooden box!”

“Hey, you, the truck number 3! Move your truck to the back!”

“You stupid! Move the crane to your left side before walking there!”

Gun-Ho smiled when he saw Jong-Suk moving around busily. The Japanese engineer— Mr. Sakata Ikuzo seemed to be busy as well. He was putting his stuff in a plastic box.

The moving was hard work for the employees.

Moving a residential home was hard enough, and moving a factory was much harder; they had to load and unload large heavy equipment and machines to a huge moving truck. They weighed several hundred and thousand tons. It was certainly not an easy job. The safety was an issue in moving a factory too. Some of the equipment required welding work.

“Manager Park, I can’t take this out. Please come and take a look at it.”

“You idiot! You shouldn’t do the welding like that. Give it to me.”

Jong-Suk Park did welding work himself while wearing a welding cap. After a moment, the machine could be removed from its place and a forklift truck lifted it and moved it away.

Gun-Ho hadn’t seen those forklift trucks before; they probably lent them from somewhere.

The moving started early in the morning. After the big fuss about the moving, all of the machines and equipment were moved to the new factory in Jiksan Town. Unloading them was another hard work though. Machines were stacked up in the factory yard, and the workers had to move one by one to an exact location specified for each machine in the production field. The plant manager was testing machines that were already moved to their new spot.

The general affairs manager came to Gun-Ho.

“Sir, why don’t you go inside the building? It’s too noisy out here.”

“It’s okay. I can’t go inside the building when other workers are working so hard in moving things around.”

“We will set up the office with computers and other office machines tomorrow, so we can start working on Monday.”

“Did you already request for the phone service?”

“Of course. The workers from Korea Telecom (KT) are already here getting ready to start, along with engineers from a computer company, and electricians.”

“Hmm.”

“As you instructed, the cafeteria is ready to serve today. The kitchen lady workers are all here and preparing food for us. Since it’s our moving day, they are cooking special food.”

“That’s nice.”

The moving continued until 5 pm that day. The machines start working while making a loud noise. The conveyor belt began to move, compressors were making a noise, and coolants started circulating.

Manager Jong-Suk Park shouted himself hoarse during the moving.

“You did a great job, Jong-Suk. It has been a long day.”

“Bro, you have to buy me a drink, okay?”

“Of course. You sound like you did all the moving by yourself.”

Manager Jong-Suk Park smiled with his white teeth. He was sweating heavily.

Gun-Ho went to work on Sunday too. It was the second day of the moving.

The office workers were already at the company in Jiksan Town; they were testing their office machines and computers. The workers from the research center were arranging their lab equipment.

“Sir, your office is ready.”

The general affairs manager came to Gun-Ho to let him know his office was ready to use.

“Really?”

Gun-Ho entered his new office. It was a large office with a lot of natural light. He could see a big tree from his window. Some of the books in the bookshelf were not standing straight. Other than that, his office was reproduced and looked exactly the same as his previous office in Asan City. His desk, chair, sofa, and the conference table and chairs were very well arranged. He was not sure who cleaned the office, but it was super clean.

“I smell something. Oh, it’s a scent from the pot of orchids.”

The vendors sent ten pots of orchids to Gun-Ho’s office with a card that says, “Congratulations on your moving to your new factory.” Gun-Ho selected two pots that he liked the most out of the ten and placed one of them on his desk and put the other one on the conference table.