The next day, I headed to the new junkyard with 20 sturdy day laborers in tow.
At first, the laborers were scared when I told them they were just there to stand behind me as a "human shield" while I talked to three gangsters, preventing me from getting attacked. But they hesitantly agreed to come along when I promised to pay them 30,000 won each under the table, on top of their regular pay, and told them they could run away if a fight broke out.
I understood their hesitation. Their bodies were their assets, and getting injured would be a major setback. I had been there myself.
"Don't worry. If you get injured, I'll cover your expenses for a month. Trust me, I'm not planning to fight. Just try to look tough and intimidating. Got it?"
We arrived at the new junkyard. Its name was "Three Brothers Resources." The gate was tightly shut, and there was no response when we knocked.
"What's going on? Are they not here?"
"Maybe they're out on a sales run?"
As we were pondering, we heard a car horn. We turned around and saw three well-built men getting out of a 1-ton truck.
Shaved heads, black suits. They were the epitome of gangsters.
As the three gangsters approached us, exuding an intimidating aura, I stepped forward with Maru, leaving the frozen day laborers behind.
The man at the front shouted,
"What the hell is this? What are you guys doing, causing a scene in front of our business?"
"Hello, I'm Park Sol from Chunha Resources."
The man seemed to recognize me.
"Ah, Chunha Resources, the other junkyard nearby? So you guys came because your business is suffering thanks to us? Well, well, if you're here for a fight, let's go!"
The two men behind him cracked their knuckles and stepped forward, and Maru, who was behind me, unbuttoned his suit jacket and was about to confront them when I stopped him with a hand gesture.
The man whistled when he saw Maru.
"Whew, this guy looks tough. Is he one of us? He's a beast."
I stepped forward and said,
"We're not here to fight, so please calm down. We just came to talk. These people are just here in case something happens. We're your guests, how about offering us some coffee?"
The man tilted his head.
"You came to talk?"
"Yes, we just want to have a conversation. We have no ill intentions. We're not here to complain about our business being affected."
He exchanged glances with the men behind him and then said,
"Then tell these guys to back off so we can go inside. It's not cool to block our gate."
"Alright, of course."
I told the day laborers to wait there while we talked and followed the three men into the junkyard.
I looked around. It was a mess of unsorted scrap.
"Hmm, they have a lot of stuff piled up…"
"But hyung, none of it is processed."
Not many items that came into a junkyard could be sold as is.
Most scrap metal needed to be disassembled and sorted by material to get a decent price. But there was no sign of any processing at Three Brothers Resources.
"This looks like…"
"They're newbies. Complete amateurs."
We took a closer look, and there was copper mixed in with the scrap metal, some pieces so loosely attached that they could be easily removed with a hammer.
"They're definitely amateurs. Hmm."
As we were observing, the man who had parked the truck opened the container door and said,
"Come on in. Let's hear what you have to say. We're busy people."
The inside of the container was almost identical to our early days at Chunha Resources. The only difference was that there were three simple beds instead of two.
But the problem was that it was early June, the beginning of summer. The sun was scorching, and the container was like an oven.
A single old fan was barely circulating the air, and with five large men crammed into the tiny 20-foot container, we started sweating profusely.
"Whew, you guys sleep here?"
"What's it to you? Just say what you have to say and leave."
I had come to satisfy my curiosity, but the stifling heat made it hard to concentrate.
"Let's talk outside. I can't stand it in here."
"It's not a good look for a man to be so indecisive."
He said that, but he also seemed uncomfortable and followed us outside without complaint. It was much better in the shade, with a gentle breeze.
"Whew, that's better."
"Spit it out."
I nodded at the man's urging and said,
"Let me introduce myself again. I'm Park Sol, CEO of Chunha Resources."
I offered my hand, and the man shook it.
"CEO? What CEO? I'm Yoo Hong-in."
"I heard that some tough guys were running a new junkyard, so I came to say hello. And I'm also curious about your impressive sales performance."
The man chuckled.
"Why beat around the bush? I know about the rumors of us threatening people."
"You got me there. I couldn't resist my curiosity and came to see for myself."
The man thumped his chest and said,
"I swear on my pride, we don't threaten anyone. What kind of world do you think this is, to threaten company owners over some scrap metal?"
"You don't threaten them? Then how did you manage to secure deals so easily? And at lower prices than the market rate?"
Yoo Hong-in hesitated and then said,
"That's a trade secret. But… I might tell you if you do me a favor."
My eyes sparkled.
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
Yoo Hong-in took a deep breath and said, his face flushed,
"Teach me… about the junkyard business."
"Ah! So you're saying you became buddies with the company owners?"
"That's right. I learned this while I was a gangster. You know, civilians are scared of gangsters, but they also secretly want to know one. Just in case they need help. It's a win-win situation for them. They get a gangster buddy for the price of some cheap scrap."
He pointed at the men outside.
"Those guys out there, they're all civilians, right? We can tell just by looking."
"That's right. They're day laborers I hired for today."
Yoo Hong-in nodded.
"See? It's good to know us. You never know when you might need some muscle. And if you're outnumbered, it's easy to hire some local thugs for a price. This is a service that civilians can't offer. You know, when men have money, they crave power."
He was right. Even if they never actually resorted to violence, knowing gangsters and having access to their help could provide a sense of security.
And there was also the bragging rights. Imagine casually mentioning at a drinking party that your friend is a high-ranking member of a gang.
"We even had a case yesterday. A guy's son was being bullied at school, so my buddies and I went there and pretended to be his uncles. Those high school kids were scared shitless."
I see, that could be useful.
"That's a very creative sales method. But you said you wanted to learn about the junkyard business? I can teach you, but I'm curious, how did you end up in this line of work?"
Yoo Hong-in's expression turned gloomy.
"These days, even gangs are trying to go legit and enter the corporate world. Some are successful, some fail… Anyway, that's not important. The gang I was in, we successfully went legit."
"But why?"
"Once a gang goes legit, they don't need low-level thugs like us anymore. We become useless, good-for-nothing salary thieves."
He continued, fuming with anger,
"We spent our lives fighting for the gang, and now they're a corporation, and they just discard us? Those bastards."
"They don't need thugs when they become a corporation?"
"Of course they do! Gangs usually enter the construction industry, and you definitely need thugs in construction."
"Then why?"
"I told you, right? The gangs that failed to go legit? What happens to their members? Even gangsters need money to survive, so when the gang loses its money, they leave. So now there are tons of unemployed gangsters. The ones who saved some money or found a sponsor might be loan sharks or something. But the ones with no money and only know how to fight, what can they do? They become hired muscle. So even corporations, instead of paying monthly salaries, just hire those guys when they need them. And guys like me are out of a job. The gangsters are screwed."
Yoo Hong-in sighed and continued,
"So my buddies and I, we needed to make a living. We heard that junkyards are a cash business and very profitable, so we jumped in headfirst. But we didn't know anything."
"I see. Thank you for sharing your story. I'll teach you about the junkyard business."
"Thank you, brother."
Yoo Hong-in was so grateful that he even called me "brother."
"Before that, how about joining me for a drink at our company?"
I showed the three gangsters around Chunha Trading.
Yoo Hong-in was amazed that his "brother" was the CEO of such a large company and laughed heartily, saying he should try to stay on my good side. I called Team Leader Park Jong-bum, and the six of us – Maru, me, and the three gangsters – sat on the sofa in my office, drinking soju for hours.
We promised to teach them about the junkyard business at Chunha Resources, and the drinking session ended.
After the gangsters left, Maru asked,
"They're our competitors, are you sure it's okay to teach them our know-how so easily?"
"They would have learned it sooner or later anyway. It's just a matter of whether they learn it from someone or through experience. And…"
My eyes gleamed.
"Don't you think we can use those gangsters someday?"
"How about hiring them? I'm not comfortable with having more competitors."
I had lost interest in Chunha Resources, but Maru seemed attached to it, as it was the first business we started together.
Park Jong-bum shook his head at Maru's suggestion.
"Chunha Trading is a corporation. Hiring gangsters would be a negative. It's better to do business with them like any other company and maintain a good relationship so we can use them when needed."
I agreed with Park Jong-bum.
"That's right. Why hire them when we can just have them nearby and use them when we need them? We can just pay them when the time comes."
"I guess you're right. My thinking was short-sighted."
I shifted my gaze from Maru to Park Jong-bum and asked,
"By the way, Team Leader Park, how's that task I gave you coming along?"
A week ago, I had asked Team Leader Park Jong-bum to find a way to dispose of the discarded circuit boards that were piling up in the computer assembly factory.
It had been three weeks since he joined the company, and his learning ability was astounding. I had given him the task without much expectation, but he had exceeded my expectations once again.
"Yes, I had a meeting with Korea Smelter. They said they can process the discarded circuit boards."
I asked expectantly,
"Go on."
"But there are so many miscellaneous components attached to the boards that the only way to make a profit is to remove them all."
The smelting process involved melting down the scrap in a furnace and separating the materials.
The capacity of the furnace was fixed, so the fewer types of materials in the scrap, the lower the processing cost.
That's why junkyards meticulously sorted the scrap by material and delivered them as single-material batches to get a better price. But discarded circuit boards contained too many different materials.
"Aluminum, plastic, iron, nickel, copper, silicon… the list goes on. Even if we remove all the detachable components, the volume is still large compared to the weight, so the profit margin wouldn't be great. Even if we processed them, we would only get about 500 won per kg, the price of copper, at best. After paying the smelting fee to the smelter, we wouldn't even cover the transportation cost."
Hmm, I had already looked into that. I hadn't had high hopes and thought it was a good learning experience for Team Leader Park Jong-bum. As I was about to end the conversation, he said something unexpected.
"So, I was wondering if you could send me on a business trip to Japan. There's something called urban mining in Japan."
"I looked into that too, but I heard it's not commercially viable yet."
Park Jong-bum shook his head.
"Commercial viability depends on whether it's profitable or not. From what I've gathered, the technology itself is complete. But it was probably abandoned because the supply of discarded circuit boards was too low and it wasn't profitable. But the situation is different now. It's the information age. With the increasing popularity of personal computers, the number of discarded computers will skyrocket. And so will the number of circuit boards. There's a limit to what we can find out in Korea. I want to go to Japan and investigate myself. If this is successful, it could be a new source of income for the company."