Chapter 355: Strategic Change (3) – Part 2
Chan-Ho continued to talk about his work at the bar in Hannam Town.
“Ms. Jang’s bar is different from other bars. It is decent and their custors are gentle and act property. Nothing much to do there. I had worked for other bars before and I often had to be involved in a physical altercation there, and that doesn’t happen in Ms. Jang’s bar.”
“I see.”
“Sir. I want to clarify this. Even though I’ve been involved in a physical altercation several tis, I have never been charged with a cri. GH Mobile’s general affairs director checked my criminal record after he saw my tattoo. He was so glad when he found no criminal record on .”
“Oh, you have a tattoo?”
“Yes, I have a small tattoo on my arm. Many Arican soldiers have tattoos too. Theirs are usually huge.”
“Really? Don’t add any more tattoos on your body.”
“Okay, sir. We are almost at Pyeongtaek Interchange. I will now take the Gyeonbu Line.”
The next day, Gun-Ho went to work at his building in Sinsa Town.
Gun-Ho was receiving a report from President Jeong-Sook Shin. She said she just finalized the contract for the next art exhibition with the French master of color aesthetics—Ms. Marion Kinsky.
“The terms and provisions are similar to the contract for our previous art exhibition of Chinese young artists’ artworks.”
“You will need to work on the articles to give to the press.”
“Haha. It’s done already. If any office’s lease contract in this building expires soon, please let know.”
“Oh, have you made up your mind to move into this building?”
“If GH dia handles only publishing work, we can stay in our current location. But I think our company will expand to handle various work. We’d better move to this location. I already talked to Director Kang to negotiate the security deposit with him, but he was firm with the price. Director Kang said he wouldn’t be able to lower the security deposit for us. He said that GH dia will have to pay the sa amount of the security deposit that the current tenant is paying for whatever office that would be available for us to take.”
“He said that? Hahaha.”
“Once we finish the next art exhibition of Ms. Marion Kinsky, it won’t be a problem for us to pay the security deposit for an office with the size of 30 pyung in this building.”
“I have a question.”
“I’m listening, sir.”
“I’ve seen an entertainnt company called BM Entertainnt take Korean singers to Shanghai for a large performance.”
“Oh, I rember that. They had a huge performance event at the sports complex in Shanghai. At that ti, they distributed the event pamphlet at the international book exhibition.”
“I understand that that sort of event is handled by a big entertainnt company in taking Korean singers and entertainers to China for a performance. What if we want to bring Chinese entertainers to Korea for their performance? Do you think our company can handle it?”
“We will need soone who has a rich knowledge and experience in performance art. I’m sure you can hire those types of people in no ti with your money, especially people who studied performance art. It’s not a problem. However, it’s hard to make the event successful with Chinese entertainers in Korea.”
“Well, I’m just asking. I’m not sure if I would try it yet.”
“A play or traditional music performance might work though. There was an opera—Turandot perford by Chinese actors in Korea. That was successful. Also, a Chinese music band called CrossOver ca to Korea and did their performance successfully as well.”
“Hmm, really? I thought I knew a lot of things connected to China, but it seems you know much more than .”
“That’s because I am in that cultural field. Hahaha.”
After President Shin left the office, Gun-Ho went up to the rooftop. He wanted to get so fresh air.
There were a few workers in a business suit on the rooftop. They were smoking.
Gun-Ho looked inside the book café. Three lady custors were having coffee. Gun-Ho entered the book café.
“Hi, please have a seat.”
Gun-Ho sat at a table.
“What can I get you...?”
The lady who tried to take Gun-Ho’s order recognized him and she seed to be surprised. She was Jae-Sik Moon’s wife.
“I will have an Aricano. Thank you.”
The lady brought a cup of coffee to Gun-Ho. Her hand was shaking.
“Do you receive lots of custors here?”
“Yes.”
The lady maintained her head low.
“Is Jae-Sik coming here sotis?”
“He ca once.”
“You know that I am a friend of Jae-Sik’s, right? We are very close and very good friends.”
The lady didn’t say anything.
Gun-Ho didn’t want to make Jae-Sik’s wife feel uncomfortable. He grabbed his coffee and stood up from his seat.
“The coffee is very good. I will have it outside.”
Gun-Ho took his coffee and walked out of the book café.
Gun-Ho wanted to help Jae-Sik and his wife. They seed to still have financial difficulties. But he couldn’t think of any good position that he could place them into his companies.
“Jae-Sik is a writer and he has been writing in his entire life and nothing else. If I could place him in GH Mobile or Dyeon Korea, he will get paid with a high salary. But, with his current skills and work experience, there is no good position for him there.”
Jae-Sik had a different life from Min-Hyeok Kim or Jong-Suk Park. His skills were not very useful in the manufacturing industry where skills in producing products or controlling the quality were required. Jae-Sik wouldn’t perform well with sales activities either. Gun-Ho couldn’t trust Jae-Sik in managing workers either.
“Well, Jae-Sik reminds of the old days in high school.”
Gun-Ho reminisced about his high school days while drinking his Aricano.
‘It was Won-Chul’s birthday. He invited everyone from our class to his condo. His mom threw a pizza party for him. But he left out only three people out of the entire class: Jae-Sik, Min-Hyeok and . Won-Chul didn’t invite us just because we were the poor kids living in a poor area.’
‘There was one kid. He was on the way to Won-Chul’s ho for his birthday party. When he saw Jae-Sik on the way, he threw a rock to him and said, ‘you Mr. Basent, get lost!’ Jae-Sik cried hard that day. I heard Jae-Sik is living in a small rental townhouse in Mapo District. Is it impossible for him to live a better life than those an kids who threw a rock to him, in this life?’
Gun-Ho sat on a bench in the rooftop garden and looked up at the sky.
‘Jae-Sik is a decent man. He just likes to read books. He doesn’t cause any harm to anybody. I guess life is not fair.’
When Gun-Ho ca back to his office, he made a call to Jae-Sik Moon.
“Jae-Sik? It’s .”
“Hey! President Goo.”
“Are you busy with editing work these days?”
“Yeah, I’m working on several books now. The work is busy. I want to thank you again for letting my wife work at the book café.”
“I actually just ca back from the book café. Your wife seed to have a lot of work to do there. Doesn’t she say the work is hard?”
“No, she didn’t say anything. She just said she felt sorry for you, President Goo. Well, one thing is that we live a bit far from work. I guess commuting is the only thing she feels hard. But, that’s not a big deal. A lot of people commute long distances.”
“Do you have a driver’s license?”
“A driver’s license? Yes, of course.”
“Is it Class 1 or Class 2?”
“Mine is Class 1. I once drove a taxi when I didn’t have enough editing work.”
“You drove a taxi before? I didn’t know that.”
“It was hard work and it was embarrassing for too. When I drove a taxi, I was worried that I might run across one of the high school friends. I didn’t want to hear them say Mr. Basent is now driving a taxi. I know there is no low or high class in occupation but I still didn’t want my classmates from high school to see driving a taxi. As soon as I found more work in the editing field, I quit it.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I’m happy with my current work. I make 3 million won per month working as a chief editor and my wife is making 2 million won. I think I can pay for my debt.”
“You need to buy a ho...”
“I don’t even dream about owning a ho. I’m just so grateful that I don’t have to live in a basent anymore.”
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