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n

nHyunwoo had nothing to say to Jungah. Instead, he smiled gently at her. Since she had found out about his financial support, the best he could do for her at the moment would be to acknowledge her gratitude in a way that she felt comfortable.

n“Actually, I learned about your financial support this spring. I was really surprised. I should have come earlier to see you to express my appreciation for your help, so I’m sorry. I’ll pay back your favor by all means,” said Jungah.

nHyunwoo smiled more brightly and said, “Sure, you should. I think the most profitable business in the world is investment in a person, so pay me back with a hundredfold return on my investment when you succeed.”

nJungah smiled bashfully, “Got it.”

nWatching them silently, Hyunwoo’s parents also smiled brightly. Though he kept it secret, Jungah probably told his parents about it.

n“You did great!”said his father suddenly, who had been silent all along, and added, “I’m ashamed of myself. You’re much better than me.”

n“I agree, honey. I thought my son was special, but I didn’t know how wonderful he was until now,” rejoined his mother.

nApproaching Hyunwoo, she gently touched him on the shoulder.

nJungah changed the awkward atmosphere by bringing up a new topic, “And Uncle Hyunwoo, are you available on Sat. two weeks from now?”

n“Why? Do you have an event?”

n“Well, I’m a member of an animation club, and we hold an exhibition of our artwork every spring and autumn. I’d like to invite you.”

n“Animation? An exhibition of works?”

n“You’ll like it. Among our graduates who display their artworks this time is one works at a famous animation company.”

nAt that moment Hyunwoo thought of the kids of Anifan with the House of Happiness orphanage. Though he has little to learn as a layman, the kids can learn a lot from the exhibition, he thought.

n“Is the exhibition invitation only?”

n“No, anybody can come. I just want you to come. Is it hard for you to take the time off?”

n“Oh, no. Let me be there if I’m available.”

n“Okay, then. I want to take my leave now as my last bus is coming,” said Jungah.

nHyunwoo saw her off at the bus stop and then went back home. His parents showered him with praise when he got home, and his mother was almost moved to tears.

nHyunwoo had supported her for only seven months by donating 310,000 won per month, and the total was only one month of his salary. If he could save somebody from the hardships of life with that money, how could he avoid it? From his perspective, he didn’t do anything great, but his parents kept repeating ‘you did great!’

n“Stop it, please. Let me go back to my room.”

n“Sure, you’re tired, I think. Take a break.”

nAs soon as he was in his room, he turned on the computer.

nThese days, Hyunwoo started a day with booting up his computer and ended it with turning it off. He visited the N&C Korea website and check the status of the day.

nN&C Korea website became more and more organized as time went by. When it first opened, it was too simplistic and only offered an introduction of the cafe, product information and inquiry requests. Instead of communicating with those who made inquiries on his cell phone, Hyunwoo decided to use the cafe. Then, he displayed the inquiries of the day as well as the specifics of contracts on the bulletin page of the cafe. Of course, information on the unit price as well as order quantities was not posted because of possible hacking.

n“Wow, Sungwoo Paek is like a fish in the water!”

nSince the contract with Art Hill was successfully executed, Sungwoo became almost like a master of sales. As they say, every word, indeed, is a seed. In the past, Hyunwoo told to Unhye Kim, the sales representative in Japan that Sungwoo was a master of sales.

nWhat was more surprising was Unhye’s performance. Though she didn’t make any remarkable progress in sales, she was still pulling off one or two contracts every month. It was encouraging that as time went by, her sales increased.

nHyunwoo calculated her monthly income, and smiled a contented smile before he knew it, “2.7 million won per month. Looks like she is taking in a stable income now. She could make more than 5 million won before the end of the year.”

nIf Unhye made 5 million won, Hyunwoo could also make 5 million won, as described in the contract. Hyunwoo thought of her proudly and at the same time felt grateful to her.

n“I think I will have to give her an award for her performance. Are there any good items?”

nAfter some hard thinking, Hyunwoo snapped his fingers, “Oh, I’ve got a good idea. Ha, ha, ha.”

nHe checked the time, and it was already 10pm, “Isn’t it too late if I call now?”

nThen he got a text message from someone.

nHyunwoo, congrats on your birthday! By the way, why don’t you contact me at all these days? I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t see me. Sent by Yoran Noh

nSpeak of the devil! Hyunwoo had been thinking about Yoran at the moment, and he was going to call her after some brief hesitation.

nShe was president of the Yellow Balloon Travel Agency. Though Hyunwoo had never worked at Yellow Balloon, he got acquainted with her through Kwangsu, president of Real Film, Hyunwoo’s previous employer, and now, Hyunwoo is on friendly terms with her.

nAs soon as Hyunwoo called Yoran, she picked up the phone immediately, “Who is this? Are you doing alright, Hyunwoo?”

n“Yes. How about you, sister?”

nAfter exchanging a few greetings, Hyunwoo got to the point right away, “I’d like to give my acquaintances in Vietnam a tour of Japan as a gift. Can you arrange the tour? Even it’s costly, I don’t care. I’d like to have them enjoy a really good and relaxing trip to Japan.”

n“Let me make even the impossible possible if you ask me a favor. I’ll pay special attention to them. Regard my care for them as my birthday gift to you.”

n“Thanks, sister.”

nHe could trust her because he knew she would take special care of them, given her personality.

nSuddenly, he thought of his parents. Though he went hiking with them on weekends to search for mountain ginseng, he never gave them any travel gifts.

nI think I have to give them some great travel gifts on this occasion.

nHe thought hard about various types of travel gifts, but he couldn’t think of a good one. Overseas travel was not an option because they were in poor health and couldn’t enjoy a long vacation.

nSuddenly, he thought of the artwork exhibition Jungah mentioned. He felt a gift should not necessarily be something like a grand travel gift.

nEven a small gift reflecting my deep love and respect for them would be enough, Hyunwoo thought, Okay. Let me take them to the exhibition then.

nWhen he thought about it, Hyunwoo thought of the old people who would accompany his parents when they went hiking. They would all be happy if Hyunwoo invited them to the artwork exhibition held in Seoul.

nHyunwoo turned on his cell phone again. Most of old people went to bed early and wake up early, but there were some who didn’t.

nOld Woman Kil was one of them. She enjoyed watching soap operas and read books fanatically. Around this time, the soap opera would be coming to an end, he thought.

nHyunwoo called her, “Grandma, do you have any appointment next Sat.? If you don’t, don’t you want to tour a university in Seoul?”

n“Seoul? University? Why are you going there suddenly?”

n“Well, a young acquaintance of mine is holding an exhibition.”

n“Artwork exhibition? Can a senior like me go and see it?”

n“Of course, you can. Please check if any other senior friend of yours can join you.”

n“Got it. Did you say next Saturdat?”

n*****

n“Are you going to work today?” asked Kyungsu’s wife.

n“What’s the point of me staying at home? I need to make at least a little money,” replied Kyungsu putting on his socks.

n“You’re working during the day, in the evening, early in the morning, and now working on weekends? What if you get ill? Please take a break sometimes. I’m so worried about you.”

n“I’m alright. It’s not rough manual labor. Teaching the kids is a breeze for me. I like it, and it relieves my stress, too.”

n“I feel relaxed to hear that. Take care, honey.”

nKyungsu left home. It was about 10 am on Saturday. Though he was supposed to visit the House of Happiness in the afternoon, he left early to prepare the teaching material.

nHe headed for his office first, which was empty, turned on the computer and inserted a USB drive.

nThe USB drive contained lots of data on the orphanage kids’ work. Kyungsu wanted to find out what they’re lacking and how to make up for it.

n“Wow! The storyline is perfect, and the characters are unique. The problem is lack of layout and modelling of their works…”

nIn particular, the expressions of the animation characters were not refined. In the animation world, the characters’ psychology is displayed by the movement of eyes or lips, and at the same time the characters should have a sense of humor and fun, but all these were lacking there.

nHowever, he could not help the kids on that as he, also, had no experience there.

n“Let me just teach the kids about only what I know. They’re lacking in modelling. Let me focus on this for the time being.”

nKyungsu analyzed the kids’ animations, focusing on the awkward movements of the characters, and checked out the parts that he was supposed to teach them.

nIf he had another source of income, he would teach them for free, of course. One would be stable income, and the other would rely on his availability.

n“Phew! A full belly counsels well, as they say. When can I get rich?”

nThen, he got a sudden call from Hyunwoo, “What’s up, man?”

n“Brother, why aren’t you here? Everyone is waiting for you now.”

n“Where are you?”

n“Oh, Seoul Imaging University I mentioned the other day. Don’t you remember we promised to visit the animation exhibition at the university with our kids?”

nKyungsu’s eyes widened. He was so absent-minded these days, he completely forgot about it.

n“Oh my god! It’s today?”

n“I knew this was going to happen. Where are you now?”

n“I’m at the office. How about you?”

n“In front of your house. Come quickly now. More than 30 kids are waiting at the moment. Can I go to your place?” said Hyunwoo.

n“No, no. I have to park my car in front of my house anyway. Hang on a minute. I’ll be there in a minute.”

nKyungsu hurriedly packed his stuff and left the office.

n“Ooops.. I forgot about the security system.” He put it on his jacket and armed the security system..

nWhen he got on the elevator, he heard a recorded message from the security system announcing that the system was armed.The elevator soon arrived at the lowest level, and he drove his car back home quickly.

nA little later, Kyungsu’s security system announced, “Security disarmed.”

nA middle-aged man in his early 40s came into the office. He was Daeyong Ahn, president of Imagingpia. Daeyong looked worse for wear as he slept in the open.

nAs soon as he sat on the sofa, he let out a long sigh and said, “Damn it! Am I going bankrupt like this?”

nDaeyong’s company had been doing well in its early days. It received so many orders from a Japanese company at that time that its employees had to work day and night.

nDaeyong felt all the money in the world was his then; however, the tables was suddenly turned three years ago. The wages for Korean animators began to rise drastically, which made Japanese animation companies turn to companies in China and other countries for their orders.

nDaeyong felt it wa time he needed a change.

nThe day when we comfortably relied on outside orders was cleary over. We need to create our own animations to survive.

nSince then, Daeyong had begun increasing new hires sharply. As he had experienced technicians in the area of modelling, mapping and writing, he focused on hiring those who were good at planning and storyboarding. His company produced many animations energetically, but every new animation failed. He spent lots of money on a publicity campaign in vain. Thanks to the publicity efforts, he seemed to enjoy some profit, but when he expanded his business with the profits, he failed miserably again. This had lasted for the past three years.

nHis financial firepower, which had once seemed bottomless, ran out, and the able staff began to leave the company one by one when they found out they had no future. As a result, the quality of the animations declined, and even the remaining Japanese client stopped ordering as of yesterday.

nNo matter how hard Daeyong thought, there was no way he could get out of this financial trouble. Unless he came up with a big hit, it was fait accompli that his company would go bankrupt.

n“What should I do from now on?”

nHis mind was blank and filled with lots of jumbled thoughts. He even felt no incentive to live, let alone work. He just wanted to take a break and think of nothing else.

nDaeyong stood up from his sofa and left the office. Before he left, he noticed a computer that was on.

nIt was Kyungsu’s computer which had a USB drive inserted into it.

n