<h4>Chapter 120: Requital (1) – PART 1</h4>


    Gun-Ho made a call to the general affairs manager—Seon-Hong Hwang whom he used to work with when he was in Asan City.


    “Director Hwang? It’s me, Gun-Ho Goo.”


    “Oh, Gun-Ho! How have you been? By the way, I am not a director; I am a manager.”


    “You are still a manager? I guess thepany doesn’t recognize your hard work. You have been working so hard for thepany for a long time.”


    “Thepany cannot afford to promote anybody because of its financial situation.”


    “You are getting paid on time, right?”


    “I haven’t received thest month’s sry yet. However, fortunately, ourpany quickly let some workers go to handle the situation, but Mulpasaneop is in trouble.”


    “Is it that serious?”


    “Mulpasaneop hasn’t paid to its employees for the past three months, and some employees already filed awsuit for unpaid wages against thepany.”


    “Wow. It is serious.”


    “You seem to be doing very well, Mr. Gun-Ho Goo. Do you happen to have any position I can take?”


    “Haha! I’m not doing that well.”


    “I’m having a hard time every single day these days.”


    “Do you have time today? Would you like to have a beer with me at Dujeong Town since it’s Friday?”


    “Today? You no longer live in this area. Are you going toe to Cheonan?”


    “I will, of course, go there to have a drink with you. I want to see you too.”


    “Really? Haha. Okay then. I will see you at 7 pm.”


    For the first time in a long time, Gun-Ho was heading to Cheonan in his Land Rover. He had mixed feelings.


    “I drove this road when I went to YS Tech for a job interview in Dunpo Town, Asan City. I was, at that time, working in a gas deliverypany. That was already several years ago.”


    Gun-Ho remembered he sang Bohemian Rhapsody in his shabby car on the way to YS Tech at that time. He started humming the same song again.


    “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?


    Caught in andslide. No escape from reality.”


    “I cried a lot while singing this song then. Whew. I suffered all those years because of money.”


    Gun-Hopared his current self with his past self at that time.


    “I have two condos now: one is for my parents, and the other is the one that I’m living in, which is worth 1.5 billion won. I have cash of another 1.5 billion won in my bank ount and I also have 3 billion won worth of stocks. The capital of mypany—GH Development is 900 million won, and the office-tel for thepany is 500 million won. Additionally, I have 1.5 billion won put in the joint venture with China as well. So, the total asset is 35.9 billion won. But I still feel hungry.”


    Gun-Ho parked his car at Dujeong Station. He then headed to the Izakaya pub after meeting with General affairs manager Hwang at the station.


    “We didn’t have toe to this nice ce. We could have just gone to a deep-fried chicken restaurant where we can have some beer as well.”


    “No, I want to buy you a drink in a nice ce.”


    Gun-Ho ordered tfish sashimi and deep-fried shrimp. For a drink, he ordered Cheongha as General affairs manager Hwang suggested.


    “This will cost you a lot.”


    “Enjoy it.”


    Gun-Ho ced the sashimi in front of General affairs manager Hwang.


    After drinking several sses of Cheongha, General affairs manager took out his cigarette.


    “Is smoking allowed here?”


    General affairs manager looked around. When he found no one who was smoking in the pub, he put his cigarette back to his jacket.


    “Let’s order one more bottle of Cheongha.”


    Gun-Ho ordered one more bottle.


    Thepany was doing very well when you were working there. It was good days.


    “Was it?”


    “At that time, we often went out for dinner all together. Now, we are all working quietly.”


    “President Young-Sik Park must have a hard time to find a way out of that situation. How’s he doing? I know he is hot tempered, but I also know that he cares about the people around him.”


    “The president is not like before; he seems to lose confidence in himself. Mulpasaneop is his brother-inw’spany and it is almost going under after all.”


    “YS Tech should have diversified its clientele. It shouldn’t have heavily relied on one client—Mulpasaneop.”


    “It’s easier said than done. You need connections to be able to diversify the clientele.”


    “What about Manager Kim in the ounting team? How is she doing? She had just delivered her baby at that time. The baby must have grown a lot.”


    “She left thepany.”


    “Why?”


    “She got scared when the creditors came to the office and yelled at her. Her husband told her to quit the job.”


    “She then moved to anotherpany?”


    “I heard she is working in an ountant office.”


    “Does YS Tech still work with the same tax ountant office? The one that is located across the street from the tax office.”


    “Right, we are still working with the same ountant office. I heard we owe some payment to that office as well.”


    General affairs manager Hwang drank a lot that day. He was having the third bottle.


    “Are you okay? You brought your car, right?”


    “It’s okay. I can still drive. I know the exact location where the police stop cars for a sobriety test.”


    “I think you should call for a paid designated driver.”


    “That’s okay. Here. Let me pour liquor in your ss.”


    “I think I drank a lot already.”


    “Have some more. You only had one bottle.”


    “Do you know which ountant office has been working with Mulpasaneop?”


    “I don’t know. I don’t know that much about Mulpasaneop; it’s not like I have someone close to me, who is working there. Oh, I think I saw Mulpasaneop’s financial statements in the president’s office. I guess I can find out the name of the ountant office by looking at those financial statements.”


    Gun-Ho wanted to ask him to find out the name of the ountant office, but he didn’t ask him. He once caused a money rted problem with YS Tech president—Young-Sik Park and he didn’t want to do anything that could make him look suspicious again.


    “Mulpasaneop must have let go of a lot of workers by now. I remember their factory was huge.”


    “Their factory is indeedrge. More than 300 workers used to work in that factory, and now only half of them are still there.”


    “You said they couldn’t pay their workers for the past several months, right?”


    “Mulpasaneop still pays ourpany for the products we deliver to them. Our president told him he wouldn’t be able to send our products to them without getting paid. If we don’t provide the products to them, their factory would have to stop working.”


    Gun-Ho dragged his chair close to General affairs manager Hwang and talked to him quietly.


    “By the way, I heard that the president of Mulpasaneop and his son who was also working at the samepany were not getting along. Is that true?”


    “It is true. They don’t share the same value in running apany. His son fired several employees who were loyal to the president and filled with his own people. He also recklessly expanded the business to China and blew a lot of money.”


    “How is the business in China?”


    “I don’t know about it.”


    “That’s a shame. It’s a 1.5 vendor.”


    “That’s right. It is a 1.5 vendor.”


    The first vendor is thepanies that deliver products directly to a bigpany like Hyundai and Samsung. The second vendor is thepanies that deliver their products to those first vendors. There were the third vendors that deliver products to the second vendor, and so on.


    For example, DAS Corporation that people now say it is owned by MB delivers products to Hyundai; that means DAS Corporation is the first vendor. Anypanies that deliver products to DAS Corporation are the second vendors. The first vendors arergepanies with money and technology. Many of them have gross sales revenue of 1,000 billion won.


    “So Mulpasaneop is going under because of money.”


    “I think so. It was not like the first vendor didn’t deliver their products to Mulpasaneop or anything like that.”


    “In order to build another factory in China, they probably used their main factory in Korea as coteral.”


    “That sounds better than their actual situation. I heard they borrowed money from Korea Credit Guarantee Fund.”


    “Does the president of Mulpasaneop still go to work these days?”


    “You expect me to know too much. How would I know whether their president goes to work or not? I don’t work there. Why are you so interested in Mulpasaneop anyway? Are you thinking of getting a job there? Don’t. There are a lot ofpanies way better than thatpany.”