The Youngest Son of Sunyang

Seo-yun stood up from the chair, knelt on the floor and bowed her head. “Please forgive me, father,” she said. She would always put her greediness ahead of her

ability.

As she was a married daughter; no better than a stranger, she was not on the Sunyang’s successor-list. So she’d been convinced, if she helped her husband, Choi enter into politics and lay hold of political authority, with which she could remove the successors, in order to monopolize Sunyang. It was not necessary to add the idea of making Choi the next president in the first place.

And Seo-yun must have egged Choi on to submit his resignation to the prosecution and run for the National Assembly.

“Once the department store’s sales results go down, you’ll have to stay out of its management,” the grandfather said.

His tone was firm. She stiffened.

***

With his flushed face, trembling lips, Choi came out of the grandfather’s study and left without looking back.

Something was not right.

After I quickly scanned the living room to make sure there was no one else there, I moved my feet closer to the door to the study.

A loud voice burst out. Its owner was of course the grandfather.

He seemed determined not to give Seo-yun any more than Sunyang department store.

Her resentment must have been accumulating while her brothers were taking over Sunyang’s main affiliates.

The sound of a chair scratching against the floor startled me. I darted into the living room.

Pretending to laze around on the sofa, I stole a glance at Seo-yun coming out of the study, blowing her nose.

I jumped up off the sofa when I noticed the grandfather’s appearance.

“What were you doing? Weren’t you bored?” he asked.

“Not at all, I was reading the book,” I answered.

“That’s a good habit,”

When he then stroked my head, his PA rushed through the front door into the living room, bowed his head and handed him a thick envelope of documents.

“Did you finish the purchase?”

“Yes, sir. Finished the registration transfer as well,”

“Great, and the construction?”

“It will start tomorrow, and once the pasture is completed, two thoroughbred ponies will be transferred first,”

“Good,”

When the PA bowed his head, then left the study, the grandfather smiled brightly and opened the envelope.

The thick documents were obviously the registration of the pasture. And some pictures and the construction drawing.

The pictures were of ponies from Arab, and the drawing was for the pasture.

“What do you think?” he asked, looking at the pictures.

I did not care what the ponies looked like, but I pretended to like them, clapping my hands for joy. What I was most interested in was whose name was on the register, and whether the land was 50 acres.

We looked at the pictures of the horses, then finally opened the registration documents.

“This is the land you picked,” he said, showing the documents to me.

What! 80?

“I remember you said 50?” I asked.

“You remember the number of its acres?”

It seemed to have impressed him as he would always think numbers matter a great deal.

“The landlord would not sell 50, but 80 acres,”

I was already calculating the amount of the land compensation in my head. A giggle escaped.

When he saw my smile that I could not hide, a gratifying smile curled his lips.

“Is that good?” he asked.

He probably thought I smiled because of the pasture and ponies.

Although my name is on the register, I should keep the documents safe.

I dropped the pictures and reached for the documents, then started to read them.

“If you read them, can you understand them, kid?” he asked, then laughed out loud.

“No, but because these are mine,” I said.

More laughter ensued.

Mine; a savings account with a current balance of 16 billion won that will expire in a couple of years.

This was a large amount of money that was the equivalent of over 200 apartments as a 90 sq.ft. apartment in Seoul was now worth only 75 million won.  And it was my seed money.

“Let me keep them,” he said, stroking my head.

When he thrust his hand out, I put a sullen look on my face.

He blinked, looked startled and burst out laughing.

The look would be seen as possessiveness.

“Oh, well, you can keep them locked in your desk drawer then. Never lose them. If you lose them, not yours anymore. Get it?”

“Yes, Grandfather. Thank you,” I said, then…

Argh.

I dashed over to give him a tight hug.

***

When I returned home after a week, my mother greeted me with a stern face.

“Do-Jun, let me see what your grandfather gave you,”

Well, I thought that was too easy. The grandfather told my mother about the documents.

The interesting thing was that it was my mother who was told, not my father.

I handed the envelope to my mother.

She placed it in her lap, looked at the pictures and read the documents for a while.

An anxious look appeared in her eyes.

Although it was the first property the grandfather bestowed, she didn’t look pleased.

“Do-jun, let me keep these safe,”

Not a bad idea, I thought.

“Yes, please do,”

“And grandfather said, do not tell other cousins about the pasture,”

“Okay,” I said.

Then I looked her in the eye and carefully opened my mouth.

“Mother,”

“Yeah?”

“Do you have… money?”

The question took her by surprise, as I would not usually ask for money.

“Do you need some pocket money?”

“Very much bigger than pocket money,”

“How much?” she asked.

Her eyes filled with curiosity.

“Where is Ilsan, mother?”

“Ilsan? Well, I don’t know where, but why?”

Ignorant of the world but she is a good mother after all.

“I heard at grandfather’s that Ilsan would become a city and the land price would rise,”

“Who said that, Grandfather?”

“No, his people in the company,”

She was not too naive to understand it nor too ignorant to waste away all of the money she’d saved.

After tipping her off, I ascended into my room.

Too young. If only Do-jun were in his twenty, I said to myself, letting out a long sigh.

While I was spending my winter vacation cozying up to books, a new era, the 6th Republic, began.

On February 25, Roh Tae-woo was inaugurated as the 13th president and soon did the 13th National Assembly election begin.

***

The grandfather was more scrupulous than I’d imagined.

In particular, the most surprising thing was that he took advantage of the National Assembly election for Sunyang electronics’ outdoor advertising.

As the election was a month away, all the district candidates delivered speeches during their campaigns, which involved trucks with video screens.

In order to create a special demand for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, Sunyang electronics built the prototypes of a high-end TV and VTR, and leased them to all the candidates as a rental form.

The TV featured a huge 33-inch screen, separate surround-sound speakers with the sub-woofer, and the PIP function (two channels at once).

The price of the TV was 2.6 million won, which was the highest price ever paid at the time when the monthly wage of a college graduate employee was about 330,000 won.

And 450,000 won was the price of the wireless remote-controlled VTR.

The advertising impact of these two products was louder than the voice of the candidates.

And Choi got elected to the National Assembly from the city of Sunyang, Suwon, which, compared to the impact, was not newsworthy, but certainly an achievement worth celebrating.

The celebration was held at Grand Ballroom in Sunyang hotel.

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