Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 764: Upcoming By-Election (3) – Part 1

Gun-Ho said while looking at Mr. Adam Castler.

“When you run a business, sometimes you need to make a donation to a civic organization or make a contribution to a political party. Dyeon Korea hasn’t made such contributions yet since it was established.”

“That’s true, sir,” Mr. Adam Castler replied.

“As you know well, American companies often make their contributions to a civic organization or support for a specific political party by giving funds to them as well. We now have the opportunity to make such a contribution. I’d like to make a contribution of 10 million won for a political fund. It’s not an official support for a specific political party though, but I want to support a politician individually. Accordingly, we need to be creative in making the actual transaction.”

“What are you suggesting, sir?”

“These are copies of three individuals’ resident registration and bank accounts. I want to make a payment to these individuals as a form of wage; I would say that we pay them for their lectures to our employees, so the fund would be categorized as an educational expense.”

“Where should we send the payment?”

“We will send them 5 million won in two different times. We will first send 1.6 million won to these two individuals, and 1.8 million won to the person—Min-Ho Kang. It would be 5 million won in total. I want you to make the transaction yourself, Mr. Internal Auditor.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You will need to make the same payment—5 million won—to the same people next month too.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The upcoming by-election will be over at the end of next month, so we need to pay them for this month and next month.”

“Understood, sir.”

Mr. Adam Castler asked, “Do these individuals have something to do with the upcoming by-election, sir?”

“Yes, they do, but it would be better that you don’t try to know more about it.”

“Do you want me to send 5 million won today, sir?”

“Yes, please. I want you to make the payment right away, and let me know. If the amount of withholding tax is not much, please pay for them as well.”

“Yes, sir. I will do that for two months then.”

After Mr. Adam Castler and the internal auditor left the office, Gun-Ho asked the secretary—Ms. Seon-Hye Yee—to bring one more cup of jujube tea. When Gun-Ho was enjoying his jujube tea, the internal auditor entered the office and updated Gun-Ho with the transaction that Gun-Ho had requested earlier.

“Sir, I’ve just sent the first 5 million won—1.6 million won for two people, and 1.8 million won to Mr. Min-Ho Kang.”

“Thank you.”

After the internal auditor left the office, Gun-Ho gave a call to Min-Ho Kang who was working for a civic organization.

Recognizing Gun-Ho’s phone number, Min-Ho Kang said first, “President Goo, I just verified that we received the payment. This is for the special lectures that we gave to your employees the other day, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“It will take some time until you see the effect of the education that we conducted.”

Gun-Ho realized that Min-Ho Kang was being careful in case the phone conversation was being recorded. It was for security reasons.

“We will look forward to having another special lecture of yours next month.”

“No problem. I will talk to you later then.”

Gun-Ho received a call from Director Woon-Hak Sim in Japan.

“It’s Director Woon-Hak Sim from Kyoto, sir.”

“Is the movie shooting finished there?”

“Today is the last day of shooting. We were supposed to be done with shooting yesterday, but we couldn’t finish it because there were so many tourists and visitors at the film studio park—Toei Uzumasa—yesterday.”

“Is that right?”

“We mostly shoot our scenes in early mornings and nights when there are not many tourists at the film studio park.”

“Well done.”

“We are going back to Shanghai City tomorrow. Ms. Mori Aikko is not coming with us this time, but she will stay in Japan for a while, taking a break from movie shooting. She is leaving for Tokyo tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“I believe that Mr. Yoshitaka Matsuda is going back to Korea tomorrow as well since he has completed his task here. He told me that he already finished taking pictures at the Manga (cartoon) Anime Fair in Miyako Messe, Kyoto for the costume play magazine.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“Actually, the staff from Huanle Shiji Production Company and I went to the Manga Anime Fair in Miyako Messe as well. It was very interesting.”

“Haha, really?”

“And, I wanted to thank you for buying us a drink, sir. When Mr. Yoshitaka Matsuda announced that he was loaded with money to buy us a drink, the staff here was so excited that they clapped and jumped for a while. We wanted to celebrate by having a drink together when the shooting is over. Thank you, sir, for recognizing our hard work here. You are very thoughtful.”

“Haha, you’re very welcome. I hope you have a good time.”

“We all are going to Nishiki Shijio (Market) in Kyoto this evening. We will have a drink there.”

“Sounds great. You are all doing a great job.”

After getting off the phone with Director Sim, Gun-Ho thought that money was a very convenient and also good thing that could bring him joy. When he did a kindness to someone using money, and that person thanked him for it, Gun-Ho felt extremely delighted.

‘I think it’s a popular saying among Chinese people. It said that money can control even ghosts. I’m sending money to Min-Ho Kang who is working for a civic organization, and that would affect politics. I don’t have to be a movie director or a congressman to produce a movie or make a government policy. As a big player in Gangnam, I control the people in those fields behind the scene using my money.’

After lunch, Gun-Ho headed to GH Mobile in Jiksan Town. Gun-Ho switched the order of his workplace that day. Since he worked at Dyeon Korea this morning, he went to GH Mobile in the afternoon.

When Gun-Ho’s Bentley was going into GH Mobile, a Genesis was heading out from GH Mobile.

Gun-Ho asked Chan-Ho, “Chan-Ho, whose car is it?”

“It looks like Mr. President Song’s car, sir. I guess he is going somewhere.”

“Hmm, I see.”

Chan-Ho Eom said as he looked at the rearview mirror, “Oh, he is making a U-turn, sir. I think he saw our car and is coming back to GH Mobile.”

“Really?”

Gun-Ho’s car stopped at the front entrance of the building after passing the gate. When Gun-Ho got out of his car, the Genesis that was following Gun-Ho’s vehicle stopped at the front entrance, and President Song got out of his car as well.

“Aren’t you heading out somewhere? You didn’t have to come to see me just because I’m here.”

“I have something that I want to report to you, sir.”

“Is something going on?”

“A Electronics’ volume of product orders increased unexpectedly and substantially. I was startled when I was checking our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system this morning.”

“I guess they need more parts since they are manufacturing more home appliances when it’s getting cold. That’s normal, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, but it was very sudden, and we never expected to see such an acute increase at once. Our company has been handling 30% of their door assembly work so far while our competitor companies took care of the remaining 70%. But, these percentages will be gradually changed, I suppose.”

At that moment, Minister Jin-Woo Lee crossed his mind.

‘Does this have something to do with Minister Jin-Woo Lee? Because of what I told him when I visited his office in his election district?”

“We can handle the production, right?”

“It’s possible, but we will have to have the new 50 production workers start working as soon as possible to stabilize the production. Director Jong-Suk Park is coming back to work tomorrow. He will arrange the new allocation of the work among the production team and workers, corresponding to the new production requirement.”