Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 388: Single House in Yangpyeong County (2) - Part 1

The loan was approved and 720 won was deposited in GH Logistics' bank account.

Gun-Ho had initially invested the sales proceeds which were made when he sold his condo in Buldang Town into GH Logistics. GH Logistics was established and started its business with that initial fund.

Gun-Ho had bought this condo located in Buldang Town when he had to drive to commute to GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea from his home in Seoul City. He initially rented a 26 pyung large condo there and paid a monthly rent, and then he decided to purchase a 30 pyung large condo so he didn't have to make a payment on a monthly basis, which he perceived as additional work. He eventually sold this condo for 300 million won and put it into GH Logistics.

With 300 million won, he acquired the existing small transportation company in Paju City and bought freight trucks to procure the work from the factory in Eumseong Town. There were 80 million won left in the bank account. He now borrowed 720 million won from the bank using the GH Logistics' land as collateral, and he now had 800 million won in total in GH Logistics' bank account. Jae-Sik felt encouraged and confident to make the business successful when he saw the balance in the company bank account.

'Unless it has to be a special car or a luxurious foreign-made car, we can purchase any vehicle with a few tens of million won. If we buy them in installments, we will be able to buy more trucks.'

As Gun-Ho suggested, Jae-Sik used 30 million won out of 800 million won to pay off his personal debt to the Korea Federation of Community Credit Cooperative. Jae-Sik now had no debt at all, no credit card debt or no bank loan. He had suffered from the consequences of having a bad credit score, and he would now start with a clean slate. Before paying off his last debt to the Korea Federation of Community Credit Cooperative, he had already paid off other debt such as the loan interest. He used part of his salary as he worked in GH Media as a chief editor, and he also used the award that he received when his novel was selected for it. He was able to pay for the security deposit of the townhouse that he was living in right now with the monetary award as well.

Once Jae-Sik paid off his debt, he had time and energy to think about his surroundings.

His wife must have her own debt as well, but he didn't ask her about it. Her family was not financially affluent either. She also lost contact with her father, who was also a person with bad credit. Since she hadn't received any news about her father's death, she believed her father must be living somewhere.

Jae-Sik hadn't even tried to find his father who he lost contact with. His father hadn't financially taken care of his family, and he passed on the poverty to Jae-Sik. He was the very person who let Jae-Sik gain a nickname—Mr. Basement—in high school. He didn't pay Jae-Sik's tuition or living expenses, but Jae-Sik had to pay for his father's debt. His father had spent time writing a poem or something rather than trying to provide for his family.

Jae-Sik was told that his mother was still living in Incheon City in an old and shabby townhouse basement on welfare. He had a sibling with special needs, and he died before he turned twenty. Jae-Sik's mother collapsed in shock when his sibling passed away, and she had been mentally unstable ever since.

'I have no debt any longer. I have to recover my credit status before I could help anyone.'

Jae-Sik worked so hard while staying in the upstairs room of GH Logistics. It seemed that he took the time as his opportunity to make his family whole again.

Jae-Sik purchased ten heavy equipment such as excavators, hydraulic shovels, crane trucks, bulldozers, and payloaders. He sent two out of them to the factory in Yangju City that Jong-Suk Park introduced to him and sent three to the company that Tae-Young Im recommended. He had the remaining five equipment parked in the GH Logistics' yard.

GH Logistics would generate 30 million won per month with the current workload even though it wouldn't produce any profits yet.

It was Sunday.

Gun-Ho was driving his Land Rover heading to Yangpyeong County.

"Artist Choi must be really good at cooking a noodle dish. She would cook a warm noodle dish today. Is it buckwheat noodles? Well, the weather is chilly these days; it will be very nice to have warm buckwheat noodles in this weather."

Gun-Ho continued to drive to the direction of Seojong Town after passing Paldang Bridge from Yangsu Town.

"Bukhan River looks really nice. It seems that artists usually pick a beautiful place to live in."

Beautiful houses started emerging one by one on the way. Artist Choi's house was a small single house situated on a hill. It was a one-story house. She had a small yard with a lot of plants. When a dog started barking loudly, Artist Choi came out of the house.

"President Goo! Come on in. Thank you for coming. Was it easy to find the house?"

"Yes, it was. It took me no time to find it. I saw your name at the entrance."

"Yes. My name is sort of an outdated name. Please come in. Jeong-Sook Shin and the Japanese man are already here."

Gun-Ho didn't forget to bring a housewarming gift. He bought a box of pears on the way here.

"Oh my, I love pears. Thank you."

Gun-Ho entered the house after taking off his shoes. Jeong-Sook Shin and Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda were sitting in the living room, and they stood up when they saw Gun-Ho coming into the house.

"You are right on time, sir."

"It's good to see you."

Gun-Ho had a handshake with Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda. Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda showed the seat that he was sitting on to Gun-Ho and said, "Please sit here. You can have a very nice view from that seat."

He was right. The seat was facing the yard. Gun-Ho could see the flowers in the yard and a mountain in the distance through the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Nice, huh? That's my favorite seat too. I drink a cup of coffee and listen to music while looking outside the window every day."

"You are living in paradise."

Gun-Ho looked around the living room. The room was uniquely decorated with some flower vases and a crane figure hanging from the ceiling. It did certainly look like an artist's space. In the kitchen, there was a young lady who was cooking noodles.

"Young-Eun, come here. I want to introduce someone to you."

The young lady was wearing a black striped apron. When he saw her, Gun-Ho was startled.

'It's her!'

Gun-Ho couldn't feel his heartbeat.

The lady wiped her wet hands with a kitchen towel and greeted the guests. The way that she wiped her hands reminded Gun-Ho of her wiping her hands after taking care of his mom at the hospital.

"She is my niece. She is a doctor at Seoul National University Hospital. She is my precious niece. I have only one niece."

Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda's eyes widened.

"Oh, she is a medical doctor? Sodesu Ka (Is that so)?"

"Young-Eun, this is Mr. Yoshitake Matsuda. He used to work as a correspondent for a Japanese newspaper in Korea. He now works as an art dealer."

The young lady smiled broadly and gave a light bow to him.

"This is President Gun-Ho Goo. He is a businessman, and he owns an art gallery in Gangnam District."

The lady smiled broadly again and gave a slight bow to Gun-Ho as well. It seemed that she hadn't recognized Gun-Ho yet. She then went back to the kitchen and continued to cook.

"She is my sister's daughter. Her name is Young-Eun Kim. She used to live in Sillim Town before moving to Myeonglyoon Town."

Artist Choi brought some tea. The tea was red in color.

"It's a tea made of Cornus. I harvested its fruits myself from the mountain behind my house. Cornus is known to be rich in vitamins and promote kidney health. Please enjoy it."

While having a cup of Cornus tea, Artist Choi continued to make small talk, "My house is not very spacious, isn't it? I felt it became larger though for the past several days. It was cramped with tons of my artworks before I had the art exhibition at GH Gallery and in Yokohama City."

"Do you paint here?"

"No, I have a studio. It's actually a storage, but I use it as my atelier. You can take a look at it later."

"It will be an honor to visit an artist's atelier myself. I will send you Japanese art magazines to your atelier."

"Oh, Japanese art magazines? Thank you so much."

Artist Choi then excused herself and went to the kitchen to help her niece to cook.