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Since the dinner on Thursday, the atmosphere had been overwhelming.
Everyone Kang Chan met spoke about the Eurasian rail. Even the news kept talking about things relevant to it, including stock prices being likely to surge and properties on sale were being cancelled and taken off the market.
People were quite quick.
Kang Chan shook his head while watching the news, which was reporting that the size of the remittances that were being brought in from foreign countries one by one was several times greater than normal or whatnot.
The people remitting money at times like this likely already had enough money to live on. Why were they still making so much fuss over making even more money?
Starting Saturday morning, the news that turned the entire nation into an expert in the Eurasian rail changed course. It started to competitively report about the people that are expected to attend the announcement on Thursday.
What was funny was that Kang Chan didn't know anyone aside from Lanok, but it wasn’t a big deal.
While thinking of going out to have lunch with Seok Kang-Ho, Kang Chan’s phone vibrated.
“Hello? Mr. Manager!”
- Mr. Kang Chan, can you talk right now?
He sounded as if he had recovered at least some of his energy.
“Yes, but you sound exhausted for some reason.”
- All the employees of the National Intelligence Service feel the same way. What do you think about having delicious jjampong for lunch today?
“That’ll be great! As a matter of fact, I was already thinking about jjampong before you asked.”
- Please come over, then. I’ll call Mr. Seok Kang-Ho as well.
“Alright!”
Kang Chan left the house after telling Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook that he was going out for lunch.
He arrived at his destination twenty minutes later, then immediately headed up to the fifth floor.
Click!
As Kang Chan stood at the entrance, Kim Hyung-Jung opened the door for him.
“Welcome, Mr. Kang Chan. Mr. Seok Kang-Ho is already here. He arrived just a moment ago.”
Kang Chan walked inside and headed into the room with Kim Hyung-Jung.
“Welcome,” Seok Kang-Ho said.
“This is great—I was bored so I was debating if I should call you and have lunch together. The jjamppong here is amazing,” Kang Chan said.
Kim Hyung-Jung smirked, then ordered three servings of jjampong. In the past few days, the pain in his eyes had significantly decreased and the wounds on his face had healed up.
Kim Hyung-Jung started to talk about the operation in Mongolia little by little, showing that he was overcoming his wounds faster than they had expected.
Kang Chan only listened.
Was it because they were the National Intelligence Service or was it because they were in Samseong-dong? Either way, the jjampong was delivered quite fast after they ordered.
“Phew! This is amazing!” Seok Kang-Ho exclaimed about ten times before they finished eating.
The trio then bit on a cigarette with a cold iced drink in front of them. Only then did Kim Hyung-Jung bring up what he had been meaning to say. “Europe’s Intelligence Bureau has expressed that they hope you will attend this event.”
Kang Chan recalled the faces of the people he met at Loriam.
“That’s why the French embassy sent you an invitation. They’re trying to use it to get you to attend. The Prime Minister has told me to pass on that he hopes you will accept it.”
“Won’t that open up the possibility of me being shown on TV?” Kang Chan asked.
“That won’t happen. The people in charge of the countries’ Intelligence Bureaus attending this event always follow a closed-door policy for meetings. You’re going to be moving separately from them.”
If that was the case, then it wouldn’t hurt to come.
“Alright, but does Lanok also know about this?” Kang Chan asked again.
“The suggestion came from France's DGSE.”
Lanok was clearly the one who suggested it.
It didn’t really matter, though. Kang Chan just had to attend the event to meet Ludwig or Vant, whom he saw at Loriam.
“This event is surprisingly complicated. Since the heads of the attending countries’ Intelligence Bureaus will all be gathering here, we’ll be facing problems with security and agents that will be difficult to sort out,” Kim Hyung-Jung added.
That was certainly a possibility.
After about thirty more minutes of talking about different topics, Kang Chan and Seok Kang-Ho left the building.
Parting ways like this would be upsetting, so Kang Chan thought about having another cup of tea with Seok Kang-Ho first.
“Let’s go somewhere else for now. It’ll be uncomfortable for everyone if we run into someone we know while we’re uselessly lurking around here,” Kang Chan suggested.
“Let’s do that.”
The two headed to the main street and got in a taxi…
Beeep. Beeep. Beeep.
Seok Kang-Ho’s phone rang.
“Hello? Ah! Mr. President. Pardon? Right now? You’re working even though it’s a Saturday? Ah, that’s right. One moment please.”
Seok Kang-Ho put down his phone and looked at Kang Chan.
“The real estate agency says that a building near Misari was put on the market as a distress sale, so let’s drop by for a bit.”
He’s already doing this even though it’s not an urgent matter?
“We’re on our way,” Seok Kang-Ho said, then hung up while Kang Chan still looked puzzled. Seok Kang-Ho then told the taxi driver the address of the building in Teheran-ro.
“Real estate prices are going crazy right now because of the Eurasian rail announcement. The building is currently priced for urgent sale on the market, so we should definitely buy it. A bank loan they took will pull it from them anyway, so I was told that the landowner is willing to do the contract signing today if we buy it at the previous market price, which would be less upsetting for the landowner. Let’s check it out for ourselves first, though, then decide after.”
“You go there and take a look. I’ll be at a nearby specialty coffee shop. You just have to sign the contract, then send over the payment, right?”
Kang Chan wasn’t busy, but he didn’t want to sit in a place like that if he had a choice.
“Hmm, let’s do that, but—”
Seok Kang-Ho glanced at the taxi driver, then whispered in Kang Chan’s ear, “The land costs two billion won.”
Two billion won? They were going to spend that much just to exercise and to drink coffee a bit more comfortably?
Seok Kang-Ho shook his head when he saw the look Kang Chan was giving him. “Jeez! Let’s just buy it. It’s up to the seller how much he’ll sell it anyway. If it doesn’t work out, then I’ll just give back the money to you even if I have to sell my stocks.”
Tsk!
Then again, what Seok Kang-Ho said also made sense. Why would Kang Chan keep money in his bank account that he wasn’t even planning on using for a long time?
Preparing a place where Kang Chan could exercise without worry and comfortably stay with Seok Kang-Ho in the second semester would be a hundred times wiser than that.
Kang Chan stared outside the window. It was a Saturday, so the traffic was quite heavy.
While thinking the signboards around them were very flashy, he suddenly saw large letters that said ‘Suh Jeong - Best Value!’
That was right! The Suh Jeong group’s company was in Teheran-ro.
‘There are so many fucking people.’
For some reason, sturdy men in suits were standing around the front of the building.
“What are you looking so intently at?” Seok Kang-Ho asked.
Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
“That.” Kang Chan gestured with his chin. Seok Kang-Ho leaned over and looked up at the building.
“Huh? That was here?” Seok Kang-Ho asked again.
“Apparently.”
Seok Kang-Ho followed Kang Chan’s gaze, then saw the group of people as he moved his head from side to side to get a good look.
“I heard that there’s a picketing[1] because of their female employee that committed suicide. Is that why they’re crowding that place?”
Kang Chan looked back at him, seemingly asking what he was talking about. Seok Kang-Ho continued, “There was a short news report about the deceased’s family claiming that the police concluded it as suicide even though there’s evidence that she died unjustly.”
“Would picketing even make Suh Jeong bat an eye?”
“Phew! What else could they do? Don’t you think they’re doing that because that’s their only option?”
Amid their conversation, they arrived at their destination.
“Go sign the contract. I’ll be in the coffee shop over there,” Kang Chan said.
“Alright.”
Kang Chan ordered a cup of coffee and brought it to an unoccupied table. Sitting comfortably, he smoked a cigarette.
After about forty minutes, Seok Kang-Ho entered the coffee shop. “Phew! What kind of place doesn’t let people smoke inside?”
He sat on the other side of Kang Chan while complaining. He then took out a cigarette and bit on it.
“We decided to deposit the initial payment of a hundred million won today and repay the one billion and six hundred million won bank loan on Monday. We’ll then pay the remaining balance excluding the overdue interest, which might have to be deducted from the three hundred million won,” Seok Kang-Ho explained.
“What’s your account number? I have my card with me, so I can go to the bank and deposit the money now.”
“I paid with what I have for now. This is the contract.” Seok Kang-Ho took out an envelope that had the company name of a real estate agency stamped on it, then placed it on top of the table.
“Hey! Is it okay for us to buy land worth two billion won when we haven’t even seen it in person yet?” Kang Chan asked.
“Hey now! That property is valuable enough for the bank to lend us a hundred and six billion won. They can’t fool us because everything about the land—even satellite photos—is on the internet these days, so don’t worry about that. Since it’ll be on its third auction next week, we also got a discount of five hundred million won. It’s not easy to find land like this.”
Kang Chan felt uneasy for some reason, but he just let it pass because Seok Kang-Ho was so confident.
“Anyway, make sure you come to school on Monday,” Seok Kang-Ho said.
“Stop spouting nonsense. I’m not going. Why should I get shamed in front of the kids?”
“Don’t be like that—just come to school on Monday. That way, the school will send the Seoul university acceptance letter to your house. If that also blows up later on, then it’ll become tiring. Just attend and think of it as a graduation ceremony.”
Why is this fucker acting like this?
“You’re hiding something, aren’t you?” Kang Chan asked.
“I’m your teacher, am I not? Please just attend. Think of it as you helping me out.”
Kang Chan couldn’t help but laugh. “Did the school really say that they’re giving me a certificate of commemoration?”
“I’ve already stamped everything before coming here.”
“I don’t even remember anything about the school other than breaking kids' arms, yet they still want me to accept a reward for being a good student and whatnot?”
Seok Kang-Ho laughed with a ‘Phuhu,’ and then quickly wiped his nose. “Regardless, you still have to come. It’s only for a day anyway. We decided to broadcast you receiving the reward in the principal’s office. Let’s do that, at the very least.”
The conversation ended with both of them grinning.
“Let’s go get a hamburger,” Seok Kang-Ho suggested.
“It hasn’t even been two hours since we had jjamppong.”
“So? We should eat if we’re hungry.”
Kang Chan forgot to buy and feed this fucker anthelmintics.
After having dinner with Seok Kang-Ho, Kang Chan came home and ordered chicken while watching a movie with Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook late at night.
Spending time like this with just his family was very nice.
1. picketing is a form of protesting where people congregate outside a place of work or where an event is taking place. It can be used to draw attention to a cause. ☜