Empty-Handed Homecoming
The next day, Jo Sudeok was on the phone from morning onward.
The first call was about a building in Santa Clara.
Not as bad as New York, but it's plenty expensive here too. Near Stanford, even more so.
"We've got money. Get me the choicest one there is."
Among what's listed... there isn't a property like that.
"My good man, why are you talking about what's already listed?"
Sorry?
"Think about it. If I wanted something already on the market, I'd go to a real estate office. Why would I be calling you?"
Then don't tell me... you want me to hunt down the owners and talk them into it? Ask them to sell a prime property?
"Bingo."
Does that even make sense?
"Why wouldn't it? I'll cut you ten percent as a commission."
Come on. What money does a professor have...
"Use your head. I'm telling you to buy a building on the choicest land there is. You don't seriously think that's coming out of my pocket?"
Well. That's true.
"So are you doing it, or aren't you?"
No, it's just... I'm telling you there isn't anyone who'll sell.
"Then should I hang up?"
Aigoo, our professor's gotten impatient. There isn't anyone who'll sell... but we're Korean-style, aren't we? Show up every day and shove your face in first, and they get sick of you and agree to meet. They're human too. Of course they do.
"I'll give you a week."
What... a week to find a building?
"So you meant to pocket ten percent for nothing? Stay up all night. Don't even eat until the building is yours. Then you'll have time to spare, won't you?"
Good grief!
"Settle it as fast as you can. Understood?"
Should I call you in Korea?
"Okay."
That was the end of the call.
The building was handled.
Next came the lawyer.
"I just need you to draw up one contract. I'll dictate the terms, so write them down quickly."
This, at least, was work he did all the time.
"Yes. Creative works made by Miyamoto Hideo. Yes, that part matters. And the moment the contract is signed, the rights to Gorillong and Super Orlando vest in us. Spell that out."
What are Gorillong and Super Orlando?
Ah. I did hear the names once, but they're still unfamiliar...
"Our chief is always a step ahead, so of course everyone finds it strange. What can you do."
It was a contract the lawyer was drafting for the first time. Even so, the papers were finished in short order.
"Send this to Daisho America. This morning. You can manage that?"
Of course.
"Ah, and there's one more thing I wanted to ask."
Go ahead.
"It says here we split the revenue fifty-fifty. But what if their company lies about the sales figures?"
If they do, I'll thank them for it.
"...?"
This is America. Get caught cooking the books and...
"Ah. So that fearsome American law comes down and governs them strictly?"
Of course. They'd shut the company's doors that very day. Immediately.
"Aigoo, now I feel a little easier. This is why I say it's good to talk to a professional."
Nothing else you're curious about?
Hm.
Jo Sudeok scratched at his head. Had it been his own affair, he might have mumbled something and hung up around here, but this was the chief's contract. No amount of caution would be too much.
"If I ask something like this, our lawyer is going to think I'm an awfully suspicious man."
......?
"Looking at this, only the characters Hideo creates become the chief's share, correct?"
That's correct.
"On the off chance this fellow Hideo makes the characters and then colludes with the company to commit fraud, what then?"
For example?
"The company coaxes him."
Hide what you made, and let's put the ownership in the company's name? I'll take care of you a little in return?
"That. Exactly that."
Unlike the grave Jo Sudeok, the lawyer answered calmly.
I don't think you need to worry about that part.
"Is the mighty American law going to chew them up again?"
Of course.
Oh!
The explanation was simple. The firm Park Jihoon had established was an American corporation. Siphoning money meant for that American corporation off to a Japanese company?
Tell them to try it, if they like. Let's see how many years they spend in a cell.
"Aigoo. That's a comfort."
Have all your concerns been put to rest?
"Thanks to you, I'll sleep easy tonight."
Fortunately, the call ended on a warm note.
Setting up a company in America had its advantages, in more ways than one.
Wait. Now that he thought of it...
He had wondered why the chief was incorporating in the United States at all. Had the boy planned for even this? Given his age, it was an absurd thing to imagine.
And yet.
"Heh heh."
The laugh escaped Jo Sudeok almost before he noticed. Being surprised by the chief was hardly a matter of a day or two.
Isn't it about time I took these things in stride?
Jo Sudeok nodded to himself, and left it at that.
That afternoon I checked out, gathered my bags, and stepped out of the hotel. Jo Sudeok and the graduate students came with me. About three hours remained until departure.
I turned to Jo Sudeok.
"I hear you were busy all morning, taking care of things?"
"Oh, it was nothing much. A few phone calls, a contract drawn up and signed. That was all."
It wasn't just talk. He had carved the time out of that busy morning to go see Hideo himself.
"The man practically lives in the warehouse, doesn't he?"
"So he did."
"So I told him we were in the middle of finding an office in San Francisco. I said it was your consideration, sir, and that he ought to accept it quietly, and..."
"What did he say?"
"He was beside himself."
I let out a short laugh.
"Then everything's been handled."
"Of course. Now all you have to do is board the plane in a happy frame of mind."
"Before that, shall we stop by a department store?"
"...A department store? Ah, gifts! You're buying presents for your family."
"Let's go. Quickly."
We headed for Macy's, in the heart of Boston.
"If you're going to move as a whole crowd... I could tell the students to wait in the car..."
"No. We all go together."
"Even so, it'll be inconvenient for you."
"We're here anyway. We might as well look around."
"Understood."
I went into the menswear section first. Where did it look the best?
Ah. There.
Giorgio Armani. Even at a glance, the interior was the expensive kind. The moment I stepped into the shop, a clerk bowed and came toward me.
There were so many adults here.
"May I help you?"
He aimed the question squarely at me. The audio shop last time had been the same.
So I really did smell like money.
"I'd like to buy some clothes."
"What sort of style are you looking for?"
"Something I could wear somewhere formal."
"Somewhere formal..."
"A doctoral commencement, for instance?"
At that, the graduate student interpreting for me startled and looked my way. His eyes asked whether I meant what he thought I meant.
Oh, please.
It was only a suit. No need to go round-eyed over it.
I turned back to the clerk.
"I'm buying one suit apiece for every one of these gentlemen. I'd appreciate your help."
"All of them?"
"Is that a problem?"
"N-no, of course not. I'll help you at once."
The moment the clerk left, Jo Sudeok hurried over to me.
"Sir? Why so suddenly..."
"You've all worked hard."
Stipends and bonuses would be going out besides. Even so, a designer suit as a gift looked good, and felt good. Sure enough, the excitement on the graduate students was plain. Had they ever even imagined a suit worth more than their university tuition?
"You've already taken more than enough care of us... what more..."
"It's what I want."
"Ha. That feeling alone is enough for us... aren't you overdoing it..."
"Overdoing it?"
"Sorry?"
"Are you worrying about my money?"
"Ah, that... well. Considering your fortune, sir, 'overdoing it' does sound rather awkward. Even so... this isn't one or two people..."
"Hurry and pick one too, Professor."
"I..."
"Stop going around in that worn-out suit every day. That navy one over there would look exactly right on you."
"No, no..."
Jo Sudeok had done a great deal for me. And now, asked only to accept a single suit, he made a face like this!
"Choose quickly. Then we can go buy shoes."
"Shoes? Sneakers are plenty!"
"You can keep wearing sneakers, Professor. Your students will wear the dress shoes."
"But..."
"I don't like having to say things twice."
"Aigoo... our kids are living well, having met you, sir. You lot—aren't you going to say thank you?"
"Save the thanks for after we've bought everything..."
But against my wishes, faces came striding toward me. They offered their thanks in one voice.
"......"
Embarrassed, I looked away at nothing.
At any rate!
It did feel good.
Only after we'd been fitted for suits at Armani, and had bought Edward Green shoes at more than a million won a pair, were we able to leave the department store. The graduate students carried shopping bags by the armful.
Right. You needed at least this much to make heading for the airport feel like something.
And so we finished getting ready to go home.
For more than ten hours in the air I did nothing but read. Whenever that grew dull, I turned over what America had given me.
I had sold Dürer's last drawing and made thirty billion won. With that money I had founded a company to manage intellectual property. The first man through the door was Miyamoto Hideo. Because of him I'd had to buy a building and invest in Daisho as well, but even so I didn't think I'd need to spend more than twenty billion.
Hm.
Was it because Super Orlando's rights were in my hand? Sega's Sonic, Capcom's Mega Man—they were starting to look tempting too...
I was still turning those thoughts over when the plane settled onto the runway.
"We're finally here."
It was Jo Sudeok in the next seat, turned toward me.
"You must be tired, sir."
"So for a while now you'll be buried in preparing your solo exhibition?"
"If my painting is to hang when the Hyeon-gang Art Museum opens, I'll have to keep the brush moving, won't I?"
"Then I won't be seeing you for a while."
"Oh, don't say something so lonely. A professional like me lives an ordinary life and still turns out perfectly good work, one piece after another."
Please let that be true. Heh heh heh.
"By the way, sir, did you call home?"
"Call about what?"
"To say you'd be arriving today..."
"Ah, I forgot!"
"Sorry?"
"Now that I think of it, the whole time I was in America... I never made a single call, did I?"
"You didn't?"
"Come on. Why are you so shocked?"
I hadn't forgotten. I'd left it undone on purpose.
A heedless little boy, so dazzled by his first overseas trip (?) that he even forgot to call.
That was the impression I wanted to leave. In that same spirit, I wasn't bringing so much as a gift for the family. I was going back empty-handed.
"Then there's no way your family will be waiting at the airport..."
"They'll be there."
"Sir? You said you didn't call..."
"Do you really think they wouldn't know, just because I didn't phone? The moment a ticket was bought in my name, word would have reached Grandfather."
"Ah. That could be. Hyeon-gang's intelligence goes without saying."
A little later, the announcement came that we were free to unfasten our seat belts. Just as the plane came to a complete stop, a solidly built male flight attendant approached me.
"Good day. I'm Kim Hyunwoo, with Korea Air."
"...?"
"You would be Young Master Park Jihoon of the Hyeon-gang Group?"
The question mark had not even left my face.
"I'll escort you as far as the gate."
He bowed to me with careful courtesy.
Hm.
This didn't feel like a courtesy for my convenience. Someone rather important was waiting for me, and that was why.
"And immigration?"
"We can waive it for you."
"I spent quite a lot of money abroad."
"We'll help you settle that afterward."
Special treatment, the moment I set foot off the plane!
So I really am back in Korea.
Feeling the homecoming settle in, I rose slowly to my feet.