I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 215

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 215
Friday, September 5th, 2008.
The moment I arrived at FaceNote, Mark came rushing over.
“Sung-guk! The post you wrote has the investors in an uproar!”
“Mark, keep your voice down.”
At my quiet admonition, Mark quickly covered his mouth with both hands.
“Mark, you’ve already said everything out loud. What good does covering your mouth do now?”
“Ah… sorry.”
Mark hurriedly closed the door to my office.
“Sung-guk, what’s really happening here?”
“It’ll be difficult for now, but if we can hold on for a month or two, the investors will come back. Don’t worry.”
“Is holding on for a month or two such a simple matter?”
“I have the funds to weather this. And soon, through the Intern program, we’ll find a new office and relocate.”
“Sung-guk! With what money? The investors are pulling out!”
“I’m going to help my hyung Tae-guk pass the first gate of the Intern program. If he succeeds, he promised to cover three months of rent for the new office.”
“And after that?”
“The investors will return within three months.”
Mark’s expression remained skeptical despite my conviction.
“Sung-guk, if what you say is true, the entire United States will fall into an economic crisis. Is that even possible?”
“We need to expand FaceNote’s service area. We’ll publicize that. Meanwhile, we’ll relocate to the new office through the Intern program and hire more staff. When that happens, we’ll become a stable company both internally and externally, even in a recession.”
“There’s no guarantee things will go according to your predictions, Sung-guk.”
“Mark, we started with absolutely nothing anyway. Even if we lose everything, we’re still in our twenties.”
At those words, Mark nodded. Then he straightened his checkered shirt.
“Yeah, I could go back to Harvard and study more. Or contact Bill Gates and ask him to hire me as a programmer.”
“And Mark, my predictions have never been wrong.”
“Even in this crisis, you’re bragging. Anyway, if you weren’t boasting, you wouldn’t be Jeon Sung-guk.”
Mark left my office with a relaxed expression, but glanced back.
“Oh, Sung-guk. Come by my place this evening. Mi-mi is making dinner with the Korean ingredients you gave her.”
“Got it.”
* * *
Bulgogi lay beside the bubbling miso stew.
As Lim Mi-mi cooked, she kept stealing glances at Mark, who sat in the living room lost in thought.
Since leaving work, Mark had been resting his laptop on his knees, wrestling with his worries.
“Mark, what are you doing? The Restaurant Owner should be arriving soon.”
“Ah….”
Mark let out a low sigh and clutched his head.
“Mark, what are you doing on that laptop?”
“Mi-mi… I’m thinking about selling my Nokia stock.”
“Mark, I thought you married Nokia stock, not me? I figured you’d never let it go until death….”
“The truth is, FaceNote is in crisis right now. The post Sung-guk wrote spread to Wall Street too, and investment in startups like us has plummeted. The investors are supposedly pulling out….”
Lim Mi-mi stared at Mark with wide, startled eyes.
“Mark, why are you bringing this up now?”
“I just found out today.”
“Mark, if you sell that stock and put it into the company, can FaceNote be saved?”
“For now, Sung-guk will be putting all his assets into it. Even if investors pull out, that should keep us afloat for a few months.”
Mark looked ready to tear his hair out.
“Mark, you can’t just sit idle either. The Restaurant Owner is betting his entire fortune.”
Just then, the doorbell rang.
On the intercom, Sung-guk’s face appeared, large as life.
“Mark, the Restaurant Owner is here.”
Upon hearing those words, Mark clenched his fist and shouted.
“Yes, I’ve made my decision!”
* * *
“Wow, soybean paste stew and bulgogi… Lim Mi-mi, when did you learn to make these?”
“You can find the recipes online. But! I can’t guarantee the taste.”
“Where in America would you get food like this?”
As I took my seat, Mark thrust a laptop toward me.
“Sung-guk, look at this.”
“What is it?”
“I just sold all my Nokia stock!”
“What?”
Beside me, Lim Mi-mi looked at Mark with a proud expression, arms crossed.
“Restaurant Owner, Mark has made a truly great decision. He’s going to sell his Nokia stock and put it toward the company during this difficult time.”
“Mark…”
“Sung-guk, why are you looking at me like that? It bounced back last week and dropped a bit, but I barely took a loss.”
“Mark… that’s not what I meant. You should announce on FaceNote that you sold the stock! When people were betting that you and I would do something, you should have!”
I swallowed my regret.
“Jeon Sung-guk! I didn’t sell the stock because I thought it would drop. I sold it because the company is facing a crisis… to help you.”
Mark raised his voice indignantly.
“Mark, in just a few days, you’ll be grateful you sold the stock when you did.”
“Always acting so clever.”
[I just saved a man’s life, Mark.]
Lim Mi-mi also took her seat.
“Restaurant Owner, but Mark can’t lie given his nature. If he says he sold the stock because the company is in crisis, investors will flee again.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m not telling him to lie. Just post the fact—’I sold the stock!’ Then people will draw their own conclusions.”
“Sung-guk, are you asking me to admit defeat?”
“Mark, I’m saving you from a serious predicament.”
“Sung-guk, I sold it to help you.”
Even Mark, who had sold his Nokia stock, wouldn’t back down.
[I wasn’t planning to say this much….]
“Mark, Lehman Brothers will go bankrupt on September 15th. After that, the American economy will hit rock bottom. The stock market will naturally plummet vertically. Won’t it?”
“Sung-guk, what are you, some kind of prophet? Predicting the exact date?”
“Considering the overall economic situation, that’s what it amounts to. How long Lehman Brothers can hold out.”
“We’ve got exactly ten days left, so let’s wait and see.”
At that moment, a fun idea struck me.
“Mark, can I use your laptop?”
I quickly opened FaceNote and posted the number 10. Then I added an explanation below it.
– America’s bankruptcy day is now just ten days away.
The comments that flooded in were filled with content too vulgar to repeat.
– Sung-guk, please go to the hospital. America going bankrupt? That means the world is ending.
– Mark, please talk some sense into Sung-guk.
– This guy really does everything. He’s a total attention seeker.
I replied to the comments.
– An economic shock severe enough to push America to the brink of bankruptcy is coming soon. I clearly warned you.
Well, most of the replies were just curses too vulgar to mention.
* * *
Saturday, September 6th, 2009.
The planning meeting for “The Intern” began.
The existing director and writer looked at me with curiosity.
“Wow… this might be rude to say, but you’re really handsome.”
Tim Burton, who was directing, extended his hand for a handshake.
“You’re too kind.”
Showing off has its time and place….
I simply smiled.
Elizabeth Brown, the main writer, also welcomed me.
“Donald just pushed you in at first, so I had some reservations. But after looking into your background, I was completely won over. I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ll do.”
“It’s an honor just to participate in this meeting.”
“Well then, shall we get started with the actual meeting?”
Tim led the meeting to begin.
“First, I’d like to keep the first episode light. What do you all think?”
“Since most of our cast members are elites—from chaebol heirs to others—I was thinking we could use that to our advantage.”
“Actually, I’m of the opposite opinion.”
When I raised my hand, everyone’s attention turned to me.
“Since we have so many people who’ve never gotten their hands dirty, what if we did an episode that shows them the fruits of hard work?”
“What kind of thing would that be, Sung-guk?”
“For example, running a food truck business, competing to generate the most sales, and then donating all those profits. A food truck is a business, after all. The person operating it has to handle everything from actual cooking to marketing.”
“That sounds good. What do you all think?”
Once Tim agreed, there was hardly any opposition.
“It seems perfect for the first episode. Since the first challenge is usually a team event, we can start from choosing the food and see their teamwork. It’ll be fun watching chaebol heirs sweating while they cook.”
Elizabeth Brown also strongly agreed.
“Sung-guk, the next episode is about finding a new office according to the FaceNote CEO’s request, right? Do you have any direction in mind?”
“While we’re searching for a new office, we’ll also be hiring more employees. What if we request a building and interior design that allows all employees, regardless of position, to freely share ideas?”
Tim Burton fell into thought, then looked at me.
“Sung-guk, I follow your FaceNote account.”
[I have hundreds of thousands of followers.]
Tim Burton continued.
“But the way you appear today and the way you appear on FaceNote are quite different. Not in a bad way… On FaceNote, you write with such certainty that the United States will face bankruptcy within the next ten days. You don’t hesitate to write sharp commentary in the comments either. So until I met you today, I imagined you had a style like Charlie Jobs or Donald Trumpet.”
[You’re absolutely right, Director. I’m acting right now. By the way, did I mention I was a very famous child model in South Korea?]
Tim Burton smiled slightly and looked into my eyes.
“Sung-guk, since it’s your first day, you’re hiding your true self a bit, aren’t you?”
“Director, but why are you curious about that?”
“Actually, it occurred to me when you mentioned hiring FaceNote employees. What if we did a spinoff of The Intern—a program about hiring FaceNote employees? Of course, you’d have to play the role of Donald.”
“Oh my! Director! That’s such a great idea!”
Elizabeth Brown responded enthusiastically.
“Our main writer thinks the same way. Sung-guk, what do you think?”
“Then I don’t have to shout ‘You’re Fired,’ right?”
“Of course not. Then I’ll submit a real proposal and push forward with it right away. Of course, we’ll pay you appearance fees too. It won’t be as much as Donald, but it’ll be a substantial amount.”
I crossed my arms and nodded.
Advertising FaceNote and earning money. Plus, this proposal could project an image of a thriving company even during the recession and attract more investment. There was no reason for me to refuse.
“Sounds good, Director. Please proceed!”
* * *
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008.
Five days before Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy.
The spinoff of The Intern that we pushed forward in the planning meeting—The Intern: Get Hired at FaceNote!—was confirmed for broadcast in the first half of next year.
My appearance fee was set at one million dollars per episode—less than the current Donald Trumpet’s rate, but still over a billion won in Korean currency.
We agreed to receive thirty percent of the season’s appearance fees upfront as a signing bonus, with the condition that I actively participate from the planning stage of this program.
I sat in the living room at home and reviewed the contract.
Mark, who had come to our house to discuss it, stared at me with wide eyes.
“Sung-guk, are you really going to host The Intern?”
“We’re going to hire FaceNote employees anyway. Why not use this opportunity to promote and kill two birds with one stone! Plus, with my appearance fees, investors won’t abandon us for a while….”
“Do I have to appear too?”
Mark absolutely hated being in front of the camera.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but we’ll need scenes like meetings where we decide who to eliminate. You could play the good guy then, and I’ll be the villain. How about it?”
“Uh… I think I could manage that much.”
Mark suddenly touched his belly with his hand.
“Mark, what’s wrong?”
“Should I lose some weight….”
“Well, would losing weight really make a difference?”
“Sung-guk, when you say something true with such an unfazed expression, it hurts.”
“That’s my concept in The Intern.”
“It’s not a concept—that’s genuinely who you are. You spout harsh truths with a perfectly blank expression.”
“People always seem to hate it when someone tells the truth.”
I let Mark’s words go in one ear and out the other.
“By the way, Jeon Tae-guk is learning bulgogi well from Mi-mi, isn’t he?”
“But Sung-guk… are you really okay leaking this? The other contestants still don’t know what the first mission is. That’s unfair, isn’t it?”
“Mark, the most important thing is winning by any means necessary.”
Mark shook his head disapprovingly.
People often say that the process matters more than the result. But that doesn’t apply to Donald Trumpet’s Intern.
[I have backing, so I absolutely have to win!]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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