Objective (18): The Trading Company
As I headed up to Seoul, I turned the car around and drove back down, then climbed up to the welfare center where I spotted Manager Ha watering the trees. Living the immortal’s leisurely life. Sodong was there beside him too.
“What brings you here?”
“Ah… I had business with the security team.”
It wasn’t the kind of thing to discuss in front of the kids, so I guided him to the office and explained the Philippines transaction.
“It went well. I heard you gave them a dressing-down last time?”
I didn’t, though?
“This time they’ll do it right.”
I laid out the operation outline for Team Leader Lee and told him to prepare for tomorrow’s run.
The moment the call ended, someone came sprinting out of the building. The sight somehow satisfied me.
The next morning I used the direct phone—this one was disposable too—and sent the location. Ten minutes later they left the welfare center in a van. I followed. From what I’d seen last time, the team leader already knew the drill. Plus he’d slept at the center yesterday, so he’d definitely caught on.
Navigation said to take the Daejeon-Tongyeong expressway and exit toward Jangsu at the Jangsu junction, but they suddenly dropped off at Muju IC. I exited too and tailed them. They must have been trying to shake me; the driving turned into an advanced course. Speeding was the baseline, and they even tore through alleys like they had a death wish. Guys, please don’t crash. And I never learned city driving.
I followed a little longer before giving up. Well, I already knew the destination anyway. But it really felt like part of the training—I genuinely couldn’t keep up. Pass! I turned around, got back on the highway, and headed to the rendezvous point.
I copied the message exactly and sent it. Then I circled the area myself. Habit made me do three laps. The security team stayed inside the vehicle; I couldn’t tell what they were preparing.
“You’re the boss, right?”
Okay, passed. They’d been waiting because of me.
“Yes, correct. Please proceed with retrieval.”
Two men got out first. Their outfits were perfect—identical to the wholesale market guys moving boxes nearby. The pair casually smoked in the designated area, hit the bathroom, then approached shop 22. One made a call. One or two minutes later the operation vehicle pulled up, perfectly shielding the target and the store front from view. Excellent CCTV blind spot. Then the retrieval. The moment the goods were loaded they sped off. Immaculate.
“After reaching the safe zone, inspect the goods and report back. Pay special attention to counterfeits.”
An hour later the report arrived.
“Return to the welfare center.”
With the clean transaction finished, I bought a hot bar at Deogyusan Rest Area and disposed of the phone.
The next day, the Chungnam Daily ran an article about an anonymous donor making a massive contribution to mark Chuseok.
Gonzales had sent the list I requested. It was so extensive that when I asked for an email address he essentially told me to prepare for an entire discount mart’s worth of goods.
After yesterday’s successful deal, the temperature had clearly risen. It reminded me of what my senior once said—how the temperature went up after doing business with me. The Philippine brother was at 36.6; had I finally met the threshold? Suddenly I missed my senior. I hope he’s doing well.
Yes, sir. I’ll show you the export powerhouse’s true capability.
Of course I know that, dumbass.
I waited that day thinking the call would come, but nothing arrived. After Chuseok ended and I returned to school, I gathered our team members. Of course I played the role of the money man. They say repeated favors start to feel like rights; the moment they saw me they demanded I buy them food. Fine, I’ll buy. In return, dedicate your labor to me.
“Kids, we have that assignment, remember?”
The moment I mentioned the assignment their eyes changed. A minute earlier they had been stuffed pigs. And why were they fused to their chairs like that?
“I was talking with someone I know about school and brought up our assignment.”
“Yes, and then?”
Good reaction!
“He must have taken a liking to me because he told me a lot. When I mentioned we were planning a practicum, he said we should try it for real. Here.”
I had filtered the list for cheap, bulky items—roughly enough to fill one container.
This feels awkward. They probably won’t buy it.
“Whoa, hyung, you’re amazing. What’s next?”
The class president’s reaction was top-tier. My unnecessary worry seemed pointless. It really was this simple.
“So I drew up a plan, but first—this is our assignment. That’s why I want Yunjeong to start keeping records from now on. If we’re doing it, we should do it properly, right?”
“Yes, I like that.”
Yunjeong answered. Her decisive personality was truly pleasant.
“Okay. I’ll share what I learned from the person I know and what we’ll be doing. We also need to study. I’m not perfect either.”
“Of course.”
Myungjae spoke as if I were stating the obvious. That was the bait, you idiot.
“First we need to establish a company. For exporting, personal registration is possible, but at container scale we need a proper entity.”
“I’ll set one up under my name. Myungjae, there’s a forwarder that handles container logistics as an intermediary—contact them.”
“Yes. But what about preparing the goods?”
The class president asked a proper question now that he’d studied a little.
“The person I know…”
In the end I had to talk about “the person I know” for a full hour that day.
That afternoon I visited the Dongjak District Tax Office. Why? To obtain a business registration certificate. When I told them I was there to register a business, they handled it without fuss. Business address? A one-room in Noryangjin. When I said I was in the trading business, the civil servant looked at me with admiration. But as we talked it became clear they thought I was a peddler. Miss, I operate on a slightly larger scale.
I contacted Director Jo and asked if he had anyone who could handle the work. He introduced an office employee I had seen last week. Her name was Hyeseon. When I asked her position she said she was a regular staff member. I gave Employee Hyeseon the list and asked her to secure one container and fill it. I told her we would be trading with Mexico and that it would be good if she studied up on trade. She said she understood. When she asked if there was anything else I needed I was momentarily flustered. The people in our organization were far too proactive.
Suddenly, while organizing things, I wondered if it might be easier to simply run it through the organization, but I held back for Eunsu’s future. Legitimization was harder than I thought.
And I couldn’t stop admiring Hyeseon’s work ethic. Why? Because three days later she called to say everything was ready.
I issued an assembly order to the team. I told them to arrive thirty minutes before class started. Then I shared the current progress. Myungjae updated everyone on the situation.
“At first they treated it like a prank call. But once I gave specifics, we reached the point where they said to contact them when the goods are ready.”
“I was a little offended too. I’m a customer, after all.”
That’s how you learn about society. Getting ignored, then ignoring others in turn—that’s social life.
I handed Hyeseon’s contact information to Myungjae and told him she was the person in charge at the acquaintance’s company, so he should call her often and learn as much as possible. Just watching the goods-preparation process looked like it held many lessons.
I also told the team in advance that we needed to set clear limits on the assignment’s scope.
“I’m still studying too, but let’s present everything up to loading the ship. If things go well, we might even manage to load it before the presentation deadline.”
“Recovering the trade payment and producing results would be nice, but that feels greedy.”
“Yes, hyung. I agree. If Yunjeong organizes the materials, I’ll prepare the presentation. After watching Myungjae, it looks like that alone could fill an hour.”
“There are so many episodes. They even thought it was voice phishing because of Myungjae’s bad pronunciation.”
The class president started teasing Myungjae. That’s how friendships form. By the way, is my pronunciation bad too?