20. The Wind Began to Blow
“Oppa. When are you coming home?”
“Soon. I’ve been busy with work, so I couldn’t get back.”
His younger sister’s voice came through the static.
“Don’t you miss me?”
“I miss you.”
“What about food? Are you eating properly?”
“Big Brother is working, so stop calling him all the time!”
“Me too, me too! Hyungnim, make sure you bring something delicious when you come!”
“Ah, stop it!”
The voices of his younger brothers, Suho and Junho, also carried over the line. His wounds had nearly healed by now, but with the ramyeon having officially launched, it was no longer an excuse—he truly was too busy to come home.
“Anyway, Oppa! Make sure you eat your meals!”
“Yeah, I got it.”
Ever since he’d called home, with their father gone, the calls came in constantly.
“Was that Gyeongseok?”
“Yes. Could you tell?”
“No. It’s just that your expression is different when she calls.”
Bak Minseok smiled faintly and set the documents down on the desk.
“The government grant of thirty thousand dollars has been deposited.”
“Yes.”
When I answered nonchalantly, Bak Minseok started to say something more but closed his mouth.
“Why?”
“I mean, it’s thirty thousand dollars. Thirty thousand! You’re not even surprised?”
“Should I be surprised?”
“It’s not that… Never mind. I’ve decided not to overthink things about the boss anymore.”
“That’s wise.”
As I said that with a smile, Bak Minseok shook his head and said, “We’ve launched large-scale advertisements on the radio and in the newspapers. As you instructed, we’ve also held several tasting events in Seoul and a few other major cities.”
“Yes.”
Even after I answered, seeing Bak Minseok still looking displeased, I asked again, “What is it now?”
“I mean… I did decide to trust you. But are we really going to succeed? It’s been a month since the launch, and there’s been no reaction at all. We’ve spent an unimaginable amount on advertising alone.”
It was an act of creating something from nothing.
Because we were selling a food product that had never existed in Korea, the initial advertising costs were unavoidable. The slow response was for the same reason.
“And that song is a bit childish… Wouldn’t it be better to change our approach now?”
The song Bak Minseok was worried about was none other than the commercial jingle.
Advertising required appealing to consumers in a short amount of time, and a jingle was the most optimal advertising tool for the current era.
In Korea, too, in 1959, the soju company Jindo had released a fifty-second commercial song called [Yayaya Yayaya Chachacha], opening the door for jingles in the commercial advertising market.
However, marketing techniques were still undeveloped, and there was a lack of data to serve as concrete evidence of success through such methods. Therefore, most people couldn’t help but see it as a waste of money.
“I like it, though?”
Right on cue, the Yeongdong Ramyeon jingle came from the radio on the office desk.
“~It’s delicious~ It’s hearty~ Yeongdong Ramyeon~ It’s spicy~ It’s convenient~ Yeongdong Ramyeon~”
It was embarrassing enough to make even my face flush slightly, but it was extremely intuitive, a simple repetition in C major that was easy to hum.
“Or how about halting production for the time being?”
Bak Minseok looked at me, his face still full of worry.
He doesn’t know the future.
That made his current behavior perfectly reasonable, but I was different.
“Hire more people. Double the production equipment.”
“Please… Boss.”
Now Bak Minseok was clinging to me as if he were about to fall to his knees.
Wasn’t his current state of mind similar to that of a loyal subject attending to a mad third- or fourth-generation chaebol heir?
“With the thirty thousand dollars allocated to us, we should be able to double our equipment.”
To Bak Minseok, I must have looked like I was firing blindly in business, while he could only look on with worry.
“Just trust me. We need to expand our equipment now. Or it will be too late.”
I smiled and emphasized it once more to Bak Minseok.
Lately, this relationship was starting to become interesting.
*
Bak Minseok had grown up under a single mother.
In this era, having both parents alive and healthy was a blessing and a fortune in itself. It wasn’t that Bak Minseok was particularly unlucky. Anyway, as the eldest son of a single mother, he had a younger sister two years his junior.
That was why Bak Minseok didn’t move near Yeongdong Foods, and also why he boarded the bus for his commute today as well.
Bak Minseok’s mother did not want to leave the house they had lived in for generations. And her reason was clear.
“If we move, your father won’t be able to find his way home later…”
Bak Minseok’s father was not dead; officially, he was listed as missing. The regrettable fact was that he had been missing for well over ten years now.
It was a lingering scar of the 6.25 Korean War.
“Minseok’s mother. Take the children and go down first.”
“Dad…?”
“Park Minseok! Wake up! You, you’re your father’s replacement now. Get a grip! Take good care of your mother and sister and go down to your aunt’s house in Busan!”
“Minseok’s father!”
When Seoul fell to the North Korean army in the blink of an eye, Bak Minseok’s father evacuated his family to Busan one step faster than anyone else. He had run a fabric store, and his diligence in starting the day earlier than anyone else was what saved his family.
Was it human greed, or the unavoidable weight of being the head of a household… The last image Bak Minseok remembered was his father’s back as he said he would follow after gathering whatever assets he could from the fabric store.
When the Korean War ended and Bak Minseok returned to ruined Seoul, holding his mother’s and sister’s hands, he had believed he would see his father soon. But Bak Minseok had given up by now. He only felt sorry for his mother, who still couldn’t let go of that thread of hope.
Bak Minseok, who took after his father’s diligence, left the house at dawn again today for work.
“Hmhmmhm~ Hmmhmmhm~”
“Hm?”
As Bak Minseok was walking through the neighborhood, a familiar melody reached his ears.
Thinking he had misheard, he kept walking.
“Hmmhmmhm~ Hmmhmmhm~ Yeongdong Ramyeon~”
He hadn’t misheard.
Focusing toward the sound, Bak Minseok saw the back of someone arranging fruit. The owner of the fruit shop, who had opened early in the morning, was humming the Yeongdong Ramyeon jingle to himself.
“Why is he singing that song? Isn’t he embarrassed?”
Bak Minseok stared at the sight for a moment, muttered to himself, and walked on toward the bus stop.
*
“Wow! What is this?!”
As soon as Bak Minseok arrived at work, he rushed at me.
“What is it?”
“On my way to work today, I saw over ten people singing our Yeongdong Ramyeon song!”
“That’s the power of advertising.”
I wondered why he was so excited. Since the song was designed to be catchy and get stuck in people’s heads, after a month of continuous advertising, it was about time for a reaction.
“Boss!!”
This time, Factory Manager Gim Chunsam, who was always neat and composed, opened the office door and shouted.
“Why is everyone like this today?”
“We’ve made it!!”
Gim Chunsam spread the newspaper in his hand wide open before my eyes.
“They’re starting the Mixed Diet Promotion Campaign!”
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