The Famous Millionaire

Korean Broadcasting was the largest TV network in Korea. Hyunwoo suddenly felt as if he had been hit by a windfall.

“Who called you? Give me his cell phone number and his name. Let me call him directly.”

A little later Sungwoo texted the broadcaster’s name and contact number to Hyunwoo. He was an assistant producer named Jungman Jin.

Hyunwoo called him immediately, “Is this Assistant Producer Jungman Jin? My name is Hyunwoo Jang who started the dream team of N&C Vietnam.”

“Ah, Mr. Jang. I know about you. I’ve heard your name.”

“I hear you’re going to cover the dream team of N&C.”

“Yes, I talked to Executive Park a moment ago. Looks you two are close since he contacted you already.”

Hyunwoo felt a prick in the heart. When it came to a scoop, broadcasting guys stuck to the job no matter what, regardless of a producer or a reporter. If they knew he was the hidden representative of N&C Korea, Hyunwoo would be in a big trouble.

“Oh, he and I are high school alumni. As he is affiliated with my company, we have a special relationship in that respect.”

“Oh, I see. By the way, why did you call me? I’m a bit busy at the moment…”

“Let me ask you this briefly: are you going to cover N&C’s dream team? I mean, will Korean Broadcasting reporters cover it?”

“No, we’re going to assign it to an outside contracting company.”

“Then, can I choose the outside contractor? I know one that is very capable in that field.”

“I think it won’t be a problem as we have not yet chosen one. What is the name of the contractor? They have to meet our program quality standard.”

“You might have heard of them: Real Film.”

“Oh, wit Producer Han? They’re a good company. Let me talk to the main producer on this.”

“May I ask the main producer’s name?”

“His name is Jaegu Do.”

It looked like the assistant producer was quite busy.

After the call Hyunwoo called Kwangsu Han of Real Film since some other contractor might try to get the contract if he dragged his feet on it.

“Brother Han, have you set your schedule?”

“All through this week.”

“You don’t have any shooting schedule for the next few weeks, right?”

“No, I already have a schedule with you, as you know. I’ve reserved fifteen days for you.”

“Great! Do you know Producer Do with Korean Broadcasting?”

“Of course, I do. I’ve done several programs with him. What’s up?”

Hyunwoo explained the situation. Then, Kwangsu hung up the phone quickly because he wanted to save even a few seconds to get the contract as soon as possible.

Hyunwoo went back to cleaning up the warehouse, but Kwangsu called him in less than twenty minutes later.

“So, did you get the contract?” asked Hyunwoo.

“Producer Do said his assistant producer hasn’t briefed him yet. He said he would consider it once he was briefed.”

“Done deal, right? Hope I’m in good hands, Brother Han.”

“No worries, man. Don’t you know my capabilities? Besides this is something related to you, so I can’t treat it lightly.”

Hyunwoo had faith in Kwangsu that he would make the special program better than he expected.

With a light heart, Hyunwoo focused on his work again.

As soon as he was done with office work, he went home right away as he had for the last three days since he had nothing extra to work on. Then, he began to notice something unusual on his mother’s face. It looked as if she had something to say because she was trying to read his countenance.

“Mom, do you have anything to say?”

Only then did she began to speak hesitantly about something that Hyunwoo didn’t expect to hear at all, “Son, do you have some extra money?”

Hyunwoo was astonished because she had never asked about money before.

“Why? Do you need money?”

“Well, the store is too small for me to prepare the current breakfast order. I think I should stop working at the store and open a larger building for business.”

Hyunwoo let out a sigh of relief. He felt something big happened when she said she needed money. Fortunately, it was far from that. Hyunwoo was still curious because she was so scared of upsizing her business after his father failed in it.

“Do you want to run the business by yourself?”

“The volume of order keeps growing. I wanted to do make side dishes at the store and prepare breakfast at the same time, but I can’t do both anymore now.”

Hyunwoo could barely control his smile because she was serious about the new business project, but he felt her business idea was a bit funny. How much could she expect to earn by starting a business selling soybean juice or rice balls? Getting a business workplace and doing some renovation, as well as buying the necessary machine, would cost a lot more than she would earn, and once she started the larger business, she would find it hard both physically and spiritually. He would discourage her if given the choice.

“I can get the money for you if you need it, but I think you had better approach it more prudently. You have to think about the rate of return and business continuity rather than just business.”

“More than enough. Plenty of profits, I guarantee,” said his father, who had been sitting on a couch and listening to them.

Hyunwoo was surprised because his father, as someone with a thorough knowledge of business, knew how dangerous doing business was. He thought his father would be strongly opposed to his mother’s business idea, but he was supporting it.

That meant her idea had a real potential.

With sparkling eyes, Hyunwoo asked, “Do you have more orders?”

“Currently, there are nine workplaces I supply with breakfast, about 1,000 people in all, but more and more companies are asking for it. Three of them asked for it long time ago, but I couldn’t supply because I didn’t have any other room to prepare it, so I put their orders on hold.”

“How much would you get if you prepared breakfast for 1,000 people? I mean pure profits, not total sales.”

“We charge 50,000 won per month per person. After the cost of the ingredients, I take about 15,000,000 won, and after the salary for Hyunmin and his friends, I would get about 9 million won per month.”

“What? As much as nine million won?”

Hyunwoo felt as if he was struck in the back of his head by a hammer. He didn’t think soybean juice and rice balls could bring in so much money.

“All I need is to find a working space. Even an old warehouse would work. I want to find one after making some money, but I think I’ll lose the orders if I wait that long.”

Hyunwoo had several buildings in mind. Though he vowed that he would not be greedy for money, he became interested in investing in real estate as his bank account balance and stocks grew. Among the buildings was one that his mother could use for expansion.

“Mom. Is it okay that the new place is an ordinary house? It’s in the countryside with a large yard and a warehouse. I think it’s large enough for your business.”

“Of course! Do you know a good place?”

“Yes, I know one. Come to think of it, however, it’s a bit unfeasible.”

“Why? Is it very expensive?”

“The price is okay. In my opinion, it looked worth closer to 300 million won, but the sales price was 250 million won. If I try, I think I can get another discount of between 10 and 20 million won.”

“What’s the problem, then? Is the house very old?”

The house was a bit old, but that wasn’t the problem. The real problem was that it was located very far from Hyunwoo’s place.

“It’s too far away from us. It’s in the city of Hwasung. Though it’s near Ansan, it would take more than an hour to drive there each way.”

His mother also had an troubled expression on her face.

An hour commute was not a problem. The problem was that she could not use any public transportation service because she had to go to work very early in the morning. At her age, she would have some difficulty to obtaining a driver’s license and using taxi every morning would be a big financial burden to her.

After some hard thinking with wrinkles on her forehead, she clapped her hands cheerfully as if she had a good idea.

“Oh, I have a good idea!”

“How?”

“You said it’s an ordinary house, right? Why don’t we move to that house? I’ve always wanted to move to a country house with a yard.”

It was a good idea.

His father and mother wanted to live in a country house rather than an apartment in the city. His father thought of an apartment as a prison. Though he felt better when she was off, he felt lonely in the apartment when he had to spend the whole day alone. Hyunwoo had considered getting a pet for them, but his father and mother were strongly opposed.

If they moved to a country house, all of the problems would be solved at once, and they could raise one or two dogs of Jindo breed in the yard.

“Great. Let’s move.”

Hyunwoo immediately got down to working on the purchase of the country house.

He didn’t make any effort to get a discount. Thanks to a real estate agent he knew well, the agent got a good deal. The renovation of the house was done by Hyunwoo’s acquaintances in the field. Thanks to their help, they could pack within a month after she mentioned it.

In fact, fifteen days was enough for them to pack, but it took more than that because they had to renovate the warehouse for her purposes. Though Hyunwoo called the movers, he also rolled up his sleeves to move the stuff in the apartment. He once worked for the movers, and many of the workers there were on good terms with him.

An acquaintance of the movers tried to lift the drawer by himself, “What is this? It’s locked.”

It was an accessory draw of a desk when he checked it out. If the books in the main bedroom were his father’s treasure, this accessory drawer was Hyunwoo’s. Maybe his father knew about the secret of the drawer.

“It’s rather heavy, brother, and you have to move it carefully because it contains some important stuff. Let’s move it together,” said Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo rushed to help him.

“Why do you keep this kind of drawer that you’re supposed to have in the office?”

“Well, I’ve got a lot of stuff to keep here.”

“Really? What is it?”

Hyunwoo could not reply to his question. It contained Hyunwoo’s dream, but it was an almost impossible dream. He vowed that he would open it when he saw the chance to realize it, so he locked it more than ten years ago and never opened it.

Maybe he would not be able to open it during his life. In that case, he would hand it down to his children. It was something he should never open unless he was ready.

“There’s a love letter in it, hahaha,” said Hyunwoo as a plausible excuse.

Hyunmin, the cook boy from the orphanage, also chipped in. Thanks to their help, Hyunwoo could finish the moving quickly.

Pushing the wheelchair his father was on, his mother took a look around the new house. It was the second time she came since she had visited the first time Hyunwoo mentioned it.

“Wow! Are you sure this is that old house we purchased? How could that house be renovated to be so clean and neat in less than one and a half months?”

Though his father didn’t say anything, he looked very satisfied.

The only drawback was that there were many empty houses in the area. The village had about 50 houses, but more than twenty were empty, and several looked like haunted houses because they had been empty for long.

“I think we had better raise a dog.”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking of getting one of the Jindo breed.”

Hyunmin also seemed to be excited. He must have been pretty uncomfortable living in that small dent of the store. The country house had four large rooms including a guest room, so he could take his own room.

The new house was near the House of Happiness. It was within a fifteen minute drive and about an hour’s walk from Hyunwoo’s house.

It was really good when Hyunwoo looked at it,too. The yard was quite large, and there were several fruit trees along the wall. If he wanted to, he could tend a vegetable garden there.

There was nothing to fix about the warehouse, his mother’s workplace.

She liked it very much. As she had to prepare food there, cleanliness was the most important factor, and it was very clean. It had a double door to prevent flies or other insects from coming into the building.

“I think I made the good decision to assign this work to Brother Suyoung. Let me treat him to good food next time,” said Hyunwoo.

He looked at his mother, and said, “All you have to do is buy the necessary equipment and register your business with the city.”

“I’m going to buy the equipment with Hyunmin today. I already registered it already.”

“Really? What’s the name of it?”

“Hyunwoo’s Mom.”

Hyunwoo’s eyes widened because he wasn’t sure if she answered his question correctly.

Hyunwoo double checked with her, “Did you say it’s Hyunwoo’s Mom?”

He expected it was not, but she nodded, “Yes. Doesn’t it sound good?”

“Oh, why don’t you get a better name?”

Then, his father, who had been silent until then, suddenly cut in, “I don’t think so. It’s the best name in my opinion.”

“Are you serious? Is that a good name?”

“Yea, I think so. Doesn’t it mean that your mother makes food, putting your name as the guarantee on the quality? When customers see the name, they will trust the food all the more, and your mother will be doing her best because of your name.”

Hyunwoo seemed to understand his mother’s intention after hearing his father’s explanation, “Don’t do your best, mom.”

“Oh, just let me be your mom, hohoho. ”