Empire of the Ring

"It's me. Were you asleep?"

"Youngho, what time is it there?"

"It's at midnight. What?"

"Dude, you've got to consider the time difference…"

Sangchun's voice decreased. He just figured that he had done the same to Youngho before.

"Yeah, are you realizing that now? You've done this to me all along."

"Sorry man. If I knew you were a narrow-minded dude, I shouldn't have done that to you."

"Shut up dude. It's only 6 AM in Seoul. You should get up by now."

"No! It's 5 AM. You are on daylight savings. I couldn't sleep last night because the baby kept crying, you single!"

"Is the baby sick?"

"No, all babies are like this. What's up anyways?"

Sangchun sounded worried and Youngho was glad to have someone who cared for him.

"Sangchun. I've been stopping myself to call you and I couldn't help anymore. I need 10,000 sets and there will be a LC opened from Deutsche Bank."

"Wait, What sets? … oh! You mean backpack, sleeping bag, and tent?

"Yep. The price is the same as before. You've got to do it fast. Call B company right away and tell them to operate their full production line."

"Oh man! My sleep is gone. Hold on Yunsuh wants to talk."

"No, no! She will give me an earful again!"

"What earful?!"

He could hear Yunsuh's voice. Youngho was glad to hear his little sister's spiteful voice.

"Hey, my Yunsuh. You must be busy taking care of your baby and the company work."

"Oppa. Why would you hang up the phone? I don't always talk like that."

"Okay okay, you should get back to sleep. You're cracking. Sleep tight and let Sangchun do all the work."

"What kind of order is it that Sangchun got that excited?"

"Mountain climbing equipment, 4.5 billion won worth of order. It's 10,000 sets like the last time, and that's why Sangchun must be acting like that. He's crazy over money."

"What! Really oppa?! That's going to make us profit of more than 100 million won"

"Yeah, yeah. You guys can roll and party in the money. I'm going rot alone here."

"Aww, oppa, what's up? I sent you enough kimchi. Let me know if you need anything. You know my mother-in-law is a great cook."

"Yeah I do. I don't have kimchi anymore, my friends ate them all. Send me instant rice and some side dishes."

"Of course. I'll send a lot of them. Take care of yourself."

"Okay, you too. Don't overwork."

"Alright, oppa."

Youngho always felt empty after talking to Yunsuh. Maybe it was because he was homesick. Yunsuh was the only family left in the world, so he cared for her to a great deal.

***

Youngho was now in Eti the food company's conference room in Istanbul to meet Mehmet, the head of the sales department. Mustafa, who came as an agency representative, was with him as well.

It took 25 days to come back to Istanbul.

"Wow, Mr. Lee. Are you saying that you've already sold all of our products?"

"Yes. You're not asking about my secret for sales?" Youngho squinted his eyes as he spoke.

"No no no. Our company doesn't even keep trading records for combat rations, since it is in the sensitive area."

"Hahaha, I'm not asking for that kind of secrecy. I just need 10,000 packages this time. Since it's inconvenient to deliver them at once, I'd like to split them in three shipments. You can produce them ahead and send me separately."

"Thank you. Since you are ordering a large quantity, I can give you some discounts. How about $7.7 for each package? This is a very good price."

Mehmet called the price considering that Youngho would try to bargain with him.

"Let's do $7.5 but if you pay my agency well, I will consider paying what you suggested in our next business."

"Deal. I can allow the price of $7.5 at the discretion of the head of the sales department. Don't worry about the payment for agency. I raised sales rate because of Mustafa."

Satisfied with signing the deal, Mustafa and Youngho had lunch together and sat at a cafe to drink Turkish traditional tea.

"Youngho, I've got to follow you around instead of selling carpets. I'll make more money from that."

"Haha, brother. You'll have other chances to earn more money."

"Yeah, hopefully I can help out my country more. I just hope that it's not for the battlefield though."

Mustafa was worried about the war.

Youngho suddenly changed the subject.

"Brother. How are the siblings doing? I talk to them every day on the phone but I was curious since I couldn't see them."

"Well, they are literally growing leaps and bounds. You'll see it for yourself soon."

Mustafa's words made Youngho even more curious. He could not wait to see them. His heart was already at the apartment near Taksim Square where the siblings lived.

***

As soon as Youngho rang the bell, the three siblings opened the door and jumped at Youngho. What Mustafa said about the siblings was true, they have grown in 25 days. Fatima got an inch taller and looked like a woman now, Zeynep was as tall as girls of her age, and Szechenyi looked older than his age.

The siblings' physical conditions were so awful that they needed to be nurtured well at least six months to get to normal, but they got perfectly healthy after only two months. It was all because of the mystical rings' healing power. They were even complaining that their clothes do not fit anymore. They were somewhat embarrassed to be growing so fast.

Youngho sat down with them and explained everything he knew about the rings. When they checked the color of the rocks on their rings, they all seemed changed. Fatima and Zeynep's were greenish and Youngho and Szechenyi's were almost black. Zeynep kept taking off the ring and putting it back on as if the ring's magically changing size was interesting. Youngho told her not to take it off since she could get sick again.

It was a week ago when Fatima passed the driver's test. She needed to get a license to drive to school with her siblings. Youngho and the siblings went out for driving with Fatima. There were some scary moments when nervous Fatima almost hit other cars on the road, but she was getting used to driving. She drove better the next day and her fear of driving was gone.

Youngho took Fatima to a club as a reward for her passing the driving test. She had never been out to night streets for fun. After watching people drink and have fun together, she was in shock.

"Oppa, I didn't know people have fun like that. Why do they do that?"

"Well, people come out to enjoy because they are stressed. I don't really like the nightclubs but I just wanted to show you new things."

Fatima seemed still in shock. She looked like a grown-up but she was still tender inside.

Looking at Fatima, Youngho was worried on how could an innocent girl like her survive in the harsh world.

Youngho was related to them through the mystical rings, and now they were now a big part of his life. It seemed like the siblings relied on him but he also started to rely on them. In fact, living as a foreigner far away from his hometown, he felt comfort from the siblings. Fatima and her siblings were now a family to him.

***

Gerhardt in Baku called urgently.

He said that there was an accident at the farm construction site and five people were injured. Officials at the site tried to resolve the issue but the incident had attracted various media and they were stirring the public opinion into a weird direction.

Youngho had to go back to Baku immediately. It was only two hours away by plane, so he told the siblings that he will be back soon. However, Zeynep started crying since she was counting on the promise Youngho had made last time that he would take her to Baku on his next visit. She had already made a passport waiting for his next arrival.

Youngho could not leave Zeynep alone, so he decided to take all of the siblings with him. After a while, they were now on an airplane. Because economy seats were all taken, he bought business seats for all of them. The siblings had never been on the plane, let alone sitting the business seats. And same with Youngho, business seat was a new experience. He was trying to figure out how to control the chair. Excited to fly for the first time, the two younger ones were fighting to sit closer to the window to look outside.

Knowing something bad happened to Youngho's business, Fatima worried about him. She was sorry that he had to bring them because of Zeynep's nagging.

"Oppa, I'm sorry for Zeynep."

She was not very fluent in English yet, but it was good enough to understand.

"Fatima, we are a family now. We met because of the rings but I think it was a destiny. No need to feel bad. I'm your big brother, 'oppa'."

Even though he had to explain this using Turkish, body language, and English, she seemed to understand him and looked relieved after the conversation.