Byeong-jin Jo watched the side of Seong-ho’s face for a good while as he walked calmly out of the booth.

“What were you thinking, investing that kind of money in a place like that?”

“A place like that?”

Seong-ho turned his head, looked at the booth Byeong-jin had called “a place like that,” and asked.

Byeong-jin spoke in a voice only Seong-ho could hear.

“Why did you invest in a place selling used books — and a full million dollars, at that?”

Byeong-jin looked at Seong-ho as if, no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.

Seong-ho saw Byeong-jin’s expression and said with a smile,

“They say they’ll start selling new books too from next month.”

“What good is that?”

Byeong-jin, realizing his voice had risen, hastily lowered it and said,

“That or not, it’s a bookstore. Why invest in a bookstore? And not even a bookstore in Korea, but an American one… No — fine, let’s say, granting every concession, that you invest in a bookstore. Then at the very least, it ought to have a proper storefront, that’s what’s normal. But that place? Selling books over the internet? Who’s going to buy and read that?”

Byeong-jin looked at the booth Seong-ho had come out of.

The man, who’d worn a blank face until Seong-ho arrived, was now beaming, happy together with his wife.

Byeong-jin gave a wry smile at the sight of them rejoicing.

Having received an enormous investment of a million dollars, it was only natural they’d be happy, Byeong-jin thought.

“Those people, sure, they’ve every reason to be happy getting an investment out of nowhere — but you… why are you the one rejoicing?”

“Because I’m happier than those people?”

“You’re happier? You spent it on a place where you might lose a million dollars?”

“Why think so negatively? That place is going to succeed.”

Seong-ho pointed at the booth and said to Byeong-jin,

“You should shut your eyes and invest just ten million won too. Then your life might change down the road.”

“…Invest in a place with some name like a South American jungle, and my life changes?”

Byeong-jin looked at Seong-ho and knit his brow slightly.

Because he’d sensed, from Seong-ho’s expression, that his own thinking might just be wrong.

“Byeong-jin.”

Seong-ho draped an arm over Byeong-jin’s shoulder.

“I think of you as more than a friend. So when there’s something good, I have it in my heart to want to do it together with you.”

“Well, I feel the same way about you…”

Byeong-jin said, looking at Seong-ho’s face, close enough to touch.

Seong-ho walked through the convention center with his arm around Byeong-jin’s shoulder.

“That’s why I’m telling you. There’s a good place, so let’s go together. That place is absolutely going to succeed. So let’s invest together. Not even a lot — just ten million won. Even ten million won will change your life. Trust me and invest.”

“My life changes, huh…”

Byeong-jin turned his head and looked at the booth again.

Seong-ho was not the sort of man to drag a friend into something dangerous.

And yet here he was, saying it would change his life and telling him to invest just ten million won.

Byeong-jin still didn’t trust the couple who’d set up the shabby booth with the South American jungle name.

But he had faith in Seong-ho, who was telling him to invest in that shabby company.

“All right. When you’re throwing yourself into a pit of fire, I, as your friend, can’t just pretend I don’t see it.”

“It’s not a pit of fire, I told you.”

“Sure. Whatever it is. It’s not like ten million won is going to be the death of me… Fine. I’m in too.”

Byeong-jin, who until moments ago had been asking why invest in a place selling used books, made up his mind to go along with Seong-ho.

Seong-ho patted the shoulder of Byeong-jin, who’d decided to join in.

“You’ll absolutely never regret it. And I won’t let you regret it either… Ask Dae-su too. What he wants to do.”

“No need to ask. If we say we’re in, that fellow will absolutely come along too.”

Perhaps recalling Dae-su Park’s face, Seong-ho smiled and patted Byeong-jin’s shoulder once more.

“Good. Then I’ll put up ten million won for Dae-su’s share first, so when you get back to Seoul, collect the money from Dae-su and hand it to me.”

“Got it.”

Seong-ho patted Byeong-jin’s back and walked on ahead, saying,

“There’s plenty of other places to see, so let’s look around quickly. From tomorrow we’ll have to mind our own booth too, so today’s the only time to see other places.”

Seong-ho walked toward the next booth at a brisk pace.

Byeong-jin followed after him, muttering to himself.

“First he goes to a company with a South American jungle name, and now he’s off to some strange place I can’t even make sense of. Goo…? How do you even read that?”

Byeong-jin put on a baffled expression and followed after Seong-ho.

And so the two of them bustled busily through the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Byeong-jin approached the side of Seong-ho, who was inspecting the Ilhyeon Electronics booth.

And he spoke to Seong-ho in a low voice.

“You didn’t get scolded by your wife?”

“Scolded? Why would I get scolded?”

“Do you know how much you’ve spent over two days? A full five million dollars. Five million dollars. Doesn’t it cross your mind — what if the companies you invested in run off with your money?”

“Why worry about that? We wrote up all the contracts through a lawyer before handing anything over — what’s there to worry about?”

“Then what about them going under?”

“Going under?”

Seong-ho, who’d been looking at the Ilhyeon Electronics products displayed at the show, turned his head toward Byeong-jin and gave a small laugh.

“If anything, I’m worried the stakes I invested in over these two days might come back too large.”

“Th… that so?”

Byeong-jin faltered for a moment at Seong-ho’s answer and shook his head.

Following Seong-ho, Byeong-jin too had invested fifty million won.

To him, fifty million won was an enormously large sum, but compared to the five million dollars Seong-ho had invested, it was no more than a drop in the bucket.

But watching Seong-ho, more composed than himself who’d invested fifty million won, Byeong-jin could only shake his head.

“Never mind worrying about me — worry about things here.”

Seong-ho raised a hand, inspected the products laid out inside the booth, and said,

“They’re arranged far too strangely and shoddily.”

“Strangely?”

Byeong-jin turned his head and examined the booth.

And he said to Seong-ho in a low voice,

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

He asked Seong-ho, thinking that if it went according to plan, a shoddy arrangement was surely a good thing.

Seong-ho shook his head at Byeong-jin.

“Even so, there’s a minimum line to keep. Right now it just looks too amateurish.”

Seong-ho shook his head and called the branch head.

“Branch head. Could I see you for a moment?”

Seong-ho called over the Ilhyeon Electronics U.S. branch head and shared his views on the booth arrangement.

And after instructing him to reference other booths’ arrangements and lay out the products in a somewhat better direction, he left the booth.

“Head Kim.”

Seong-ho, on his way to the booth where Ilhyeon Electronics’ mobile phones were displayed, met a reporter with an ID card around his neck and a camera in his hand.

“Hello. I’m reporter Chang-jin Park of Daehan Economy. Would a brief interview be possible?”

At the reporter requesting an interview, Seong-ho nodded and gestured.

“Would it be all right if it’s just for the walk to the mobile phone booth?”

“Of course. That’s plenty.”

Reporter Chang-jin Park hastily pulled out a notepad and immediately launched into his questions.

“I heard you’re aiming for the top technology award, top design award, and innovation award at this electronics show — how is it? How likely do you rate your chances of winning?”

Seong-ho glanced at the reporter, who’d gone straight to asking his chances of winning point-blank, and answered with a slight smile.

“There are over a hundred home-appliance companies gathered here. The American and Japanese appliance companies competing with us alone number more than twenty. When you consider the countless products they’ve put forward… I think winning an award won’t be an easy thing for us.”

“Even so, back home they’re rating the chances very highly. Are you perhaps aware of that?”

“I’ve gratefully heard that’s the case.”

Seong-ho bowed his head toward reporter Chang-jin Park.

And, lightly taking Chang-jin Park’s arm, he said,

“I dearly hope so too, but… even if we don’t win an award, I ask you for a good article.”

“Yes. Don’t worry. Though I have no vote, I’ll be cheering from afar, doing everything I can for our Korean company to win an award.”

“Thank you.”

Seong-ho bowed his head slightly and stopped his steps in front of the mobile phone booth he’d just arrived at.

And, turning slightly, he looked at reporter Chang-jin Park and said,

“Ah, right. Have you by chance visited our showroom in the city?”

“I haven’t been able to yet. You installed five whole showrooms, they say?”

“Yes. As it happens, I plan to accompany the Chairman to the showrooms after the awards ceremony ends, so would you like to move together with us then?”

“If so, that would be wonderful for us.”

Chang-jin Park answered as if he’d been waiting for exactly that.

Because moving together with Ilhyeon was a better thing for them than moving individually.

“Then could you pass word along to the other reporters as well? As you can see, both I and the staff are so busy…”

Seong-ho pointed at the frantically busy interior of the booth.

The inside of the booth, a blend of customers, investors, and spectators, looked hectic at a single glance.

Chang-jin Park caught Seong-ho’s meaning and nodded.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get word out to everyone. You said after the awards, right?”

“Yes. We’ll move immediately after the awards ceremony ends.”

“Understood.”

“Then I’m counting on you. I’m busy, so I’ll take my leave…”

Seong-ho gave a farewell of seeing him when they moved to the showrooms and went into the mobile phone booth.

“If we win an award at the ceremony and put a scene of crowds gathered at the downtown Los Angeles showrooms in print, sales at the booths should climb a bit, wouldn’t they?”

Reporter Chang-jin Park, thinking he’d better hurry and relay the plan to the desk back in Seoul, moved off.

Over the course of a week, the electronics show proceeded breathlessly.

The CEOs of world-famous appliance companies came out to announce their companies’ plans, and many firms poured out new products, showcasing the flow of the world appliance market to the show’s visitors and to people around the world.

Among them were Ilhyeon Electronics’ new products too.

Ilhyeon Electronics, which showcased its newly released TV, washing machine, and refrigerator as its mainstays, also unveiled a new mobile phone off to one side, drawing people’s attention.

But the attention wasn’t as great as expected.

Rather underwhelming, for all the fuss…

Reporter Chang-jin Park felt the mood that had run through the convention center over the past week and tilted his head.

Among the Korean reporters, an unease had spread at the atmosphere so utterly different from when they’d first arrived.

“Still, we just need to win an award.”

A fellow reporter who’d come to Los Angeles with him said that even so, if they just won an award, everything would be resolved.

“Yes. We just need to win an award… but will we be able to win one?”

Chang-jin Park, seated in a chair, said to his colleague from a seat in the awards hall — the highlight of the electronics show.

“When we first came here, Ilhyeon Electronics winning seemed a given. That’s why we, and you too, dispatched reporters in person…”

“Right. There was news that a win was likely, so we hurriedly dispatched. Otherwise, how could we have come to Los Angeles in a situation like this?”

“Exactly. But have you ever thought about that?”

“That? What do you mean?”

The colleague seated beside him sent Chang-jin Park a look asking what he was on about.

“The thing is…”

Just as Chang-jin Park was about to speak, the awards ceremony began with dazzling lights.

The loud voice of the emcee working up the mood, along with the lights, drowned out the voice of the person sitting beside him too.

I really don’t know where the story even came from — that Ilhyeon Electronics winning was likely.

It was a rumor that had suddenly spread among the reporters out of nowhere.

And to that rumor, Ilhyeon Electronics and Ilhyeon Group had given no reaction at all.

So the press, taking it as fact, had made a fuss and come all the way here.

But the mood they saw and felt firsthand was different.

Seeing that mood, Chang-jin Park came to wonder just where the story that a win was likely had started.

“The ceremony’s started, so let’s talk later.”

His colleague spoke with his mouth alone and raised a hand to convey that they’d talk a little later.

And, pulling out his notepad, he prepared to write down the list of awards about to be announced.

Chang-jin Park too set his curiosity aside for the moment and shifted his gaze to the platform where the awards ceremony had just begun.

The emcee spoke of the new products applying new technologies that had drawn many people’s interest at the show, one by one.

And, playing a highlight video, he lifted the mood of the crowd.

After this roughly twenty-minute video ended, the highlight — the awards ceremony — unfolded in earnest.

Chang-jin Park, using the faint light as his lamp, wrote down the main awards in his notepad.

The names of world-famous appliance companies were written next to the major awards.

And finally, next to the title of Worst Technology Award, the name of Ilhyeon Electronics was written in the notepad.

(End of Chapter 163)