Chapter 76

“Oh my god! This guy doesn’t have any sense of security about his computer. How can’t an experienced man like Kyungsu adhere to the basic rules of computer security? He should set the example by keeping the basic rule, which he doesn’t, and that’s why our company is not doing well,” Daeyong complained about Kyungsu who left the office without turning off the computer.

Daeyong approached Kyungsu’s computer to turn it off. Kyungsu had actually shut it down, but for some reason, it hadn’t completely shut down due to some programs still running. When Daeyong looked into it, he found some programs related to animation.

“What the heck is this? Was he working on something?”

Daeyong pushed the cancel button and opened the program.

It was an animation. The motion of the characters was very awkward, and the picture was also very rough. It was sort of a draft animation, but not only were the characters unfamiliar to him but also the contents. It was something that Kyungsu had never reported to him before.

“What the heck? Had he been working on animation of his own without letting me know?”

Daeyong suddenly frowned his face. Kyungsu got paid for his work at Imagingpia, not for his own personal work. Then he got paid while working on his own animation? Of course, he might have offered a surprise gift to Daeyong after he was done with it, but it could not be a good excuse. A good animation was the product of a team, not someone’s personal efforts, and coherent cooperation among team members could guarantee a good animation artwork.

Suddenly, Ahn felt greatly betrayed by Kyungsu, “How can he do this to me? I treated him well as he was old and a parent of several children.”

Though Daeyong was much upset, he executed the animation program. It had no title. The contents were about the waste dumped in the garbage.

To his surprise, the contents made Daeyong’s widen. He checked it first, standing before the computer, and now he was examining it while sitting in Kyungsu’s chair.

When the animation was at an end, Daeyong murmured before he knew it, “Hummm…this is great.”

It had a strong power of drawing one’s attention.

Of course, there was room for improvement as the motion was unnatural and the picture was rough, along with the awkward expressions of the characters.

Except for that, the animation was attractive enough to draw the people’s attention. Suddenly, Daeyong felt some sort of optimism. The only thing that bothered him was that the animation was just one episode. It looked like it was a sample based on the initial planning.

What should I do with this, by the way? Daeyong asked himself.

The best scenario would be for Kyungsu to report to Daeyong directly about it. In other words, Kyungsu would come to see him one day and confide to him, “This is a secret project I’ve been working on”.

However, the chances were very slim that he would do so.

The next best would be for Daeyong to ask Kyungsu about it. In other words, Daeyong would press on him to reveal it as he had already watched it on his computer, but there was one thing that bothered Daeyong, which was Kyungsu’s potential resignation.

As the company ran into financial difficulties, many of the staff at Imagingpia left, and Kyungsu might follow suit.

The current animation of Kyungsu’s might be something he was working on with that in mind. In other words, he might have already signed a contract with another animation company.

If Daeyong ordered him to submit the animation work, Kyungsu could quit immediately. Though Kyungsu would leave, after all, Daeyong didn’t want to lose that animation work on his computer.

Even though Kyungsu made the animation, he used the company’s computer, and accordingly it would belong to the company’s ownership. If Daeyong had it copyright registered, it would be the production of Imagingpia.

Even though the animation had only one episode, Daeyong saw no problem at all. It had all the components like the original intention and atmosphere, characters, etc. Once it drew the public attention, it would be a breeze to turn out similar animations.

Come to think of it, he found out there was a public contest on animation going on at the moment. It was a contest hosted by the Environment Ministry with the theme of ‘environment protection.’

If I change the storyline of this animation to fit the contest theme and refine its awkward parts, it could get the prize.

The problem was whether Kyungsu had it copyright registered already.

Daeyong was confident Kyungsu had not yet because the picture of the animation was rough enough to pass as the work of an animation club of a middle or high school kids.

Then it would be a race against time. Who would have the copyright registered first would be the owner of the animation.

Daeyong turned off Kyungsu’s computer, and took out the USB, putting it in his pocket.

Hummm…As he left the USB inserted here, he might as well think he lost it.

And then he left the office.

***

The bus Hyunwoo drove stopped at the parking lot of the university where the animation artwork exhibition was taking place. It was a big bus owned by the House of Happiness.

When the door opened, Hyunwoo got out first and helped other get out, including his half-paralyzed father Duyoung Jang and other seniors.

When all of them got off the bus, there were thirty-four people in all.

Hyunwoo called Jungah, and soon, she came running toward him with hair flying behind her.

“This way, Uncle Hyunwoo.”

“We’re a bit late, aren’t we?”

“No. You must be hungry. Actually, we’re frying vegetable pancakes at the moment. Come with me quickly.”

“Pan-fried vegetable pancakes?”

“As you said you’re coming with the seniors, we prepared lots of pancakes for them. I can’t guarantee the taste, though. Hohoho..”

Jungah’s face was all smiles as she was so happy to see them.

Given that it was very far from Ansan city to Seoul, the capital city, Jungah was very thankful that they took the time out to come to her exhibition over the weekend and that Hyunwoo had brought more than 30 people to the exhibition.

There were various ways to judge a person. Some judged it by money, or knowledge or looks.

The most salient among them was connection and network. When there was an event, some people can bring just five while others can mobilize fifty. After the exhibition was over, Jungah’s friends will judge her differently.

“Please come this way.”

They crossed the campus, following her.

Even though the campus was not that large, it was very well planned and cared for. All the fences were covered with red roses, and other flowers like satuki and royal azalea blossomed here and there, adding to the excitement of spring.

There were many families visiting the campus at the moment, and all of them were looking at Hyunwoo’s group because of the strange composition of its thirty-four members.

Everybody tilted their heads, commenting, “Looks like they came here from the senior center.”

“I see some students among them. Are they from a church?”

“Where are they going? Is there an event going on?”

They focused on the movement of Hyunwoo’s group and soon found that there was an artwork exhibition happening at one corner of the campus.

“They have some event over there.”

“Shall we go there and see it?

They cleaned up the remains of their visit and then headed to the exhibition, following Hyunwoo’s group. The exhibition, prepared near a small pond, showed a variety of animations. Most of them were characters in frames, and there were some turning on their monitors on the grass.

But as the saying, ‘a loaf of bread is better than the song of many birds,’ the aromatic vegetable pancakes stimulated their sense of smell.

The old women were the first to react, “What is this smell?”

“Wow, it’s green-onion pancake! And makgooli rice wine, too! It looks delicious.”

“Please have a seat and try this. You can have makgooli and soft drinks, too, as you like it.”

The students participating in the exhibition were very sociable. They stood up and helped the old people to move to the vegetable pancake area.

“Can we try this?” said the old men.

“Sure, sir. We prepared them for you, as we heard you were coming here.”

“Okay, let me try some. Wow! So delicious!”

Hyunwoo’s parents also enjoyed the pancakes along with the seniors. As they traveled with the seniors for many years, they mingled with each other like family members.

One of the seniors waved to Hyunwoo and said, “Hey, Hyunwoo, come here and try this.”

Hyunwoo just smiled at him because it would at least take 10 minutes for him to try one.

“Let me take a look around here and try it later, sir”

“Okay, then.”

Looking at them, Hyunwoo felt satisfied, I think I did right to bring them over here.

And then he watched the animation works on display slowly.

Before he knew it, Jungah approached him and said, “Thanks so much, uncle.”

“Hahaha. You keep telling me thank you when I didn’t do anything.”

But Hyunwoo’s remarks like that made her think more deeply about her gratitude to him.

Without his help, Jungah would not have gone to college. She would most certainly have given up her dream of being a graphic designer. And that meant she would have ended up frustrated. However, Hyuwoo’s decisive help made her overcome it and survive.

She had studied hard in high school. After she went through a crisis in her life, she felt that the only way to get out of her poverty was to study hard. Her teacher took special care of her, so that her classmates could not harass her.

Thanks to such care, she made big progress in her school as well as her art classes, which eventually helped her get admission to Seoul Imaging University with a full scholarship. That alone was something like a lifelong favor she had to pay back to Hyunwoo.

And today, Hyunwoo mobilized a large number of people on her behalf. She was almost moved to tears by his hospitality.

“Wow, you guys are really capable! I can tell this surely is the work of college students.”

Hyunwoo was admired at the various artworks. And Jungah, brushing off her idle thoughts, said with a broad smile, “These are our seniors’ works. They are the best drawers of our animation club.”

“I see. By the way, where is your artwork, Jungah?”

“This one”

Jungah guided him to her work, which was lacking in details compared with the one he just watched, but the expression of the character were pretty alive, perhaps because of the color impressions. The drawing wasn’t great, but it had an aura of brightness and great mood.

“Oh, it looks great,” said Hyunwoo, looking at Jungah’s work.

While looking around the exhibition, he stopped before one artwork that was displayed completely apart from other works at the exhibition.

At a glance, it didn’t look like a serious work. In other words, one couldn’t feel the author’s sweats and toil in the work. If somebody else spent a week to work on this, he might have spent less than one hour on it. And the animation work was very rough, but Hyunwoo felt this was the best of all the animation works on display at the exhibition.

It personified an animal, but the expression and the motion of the character were pretty much alive and funny. It had no background, but the expression and the motion itself clearly showed what kind of mindset the character had in the given situation.

The more he looked at it, Hyunwoo had no choice but to giggle at it. At the moment Hyunwoo felt the author of the work must be a master in this field.

“Do you know what grade is the author of this work?”

“Well, it’s a graduate’s work.”

“I thought so. He must be really capable, right?”

At his asking, Jungah stared at him wide-eyed, as if she was surprised.

“Yes, even in your opinion, it looks great, doesn’t it?”

Hyunwoo nodded his head, saying

“Looks like he drew it roughly, but it has all the important contents in it. It looks like a drawing by someone who secluded himself.”

“Wow! That’s what I thought. The moment I noticed it, I thought the same. But others look at it differently,” said Jungah.

“Differently?”

“Yes, some of my seniors say the author has a great sense, but they stop short of saying it’s great. In my view the author must be a genius.”

Jungah let out a sigh, as if she thought it was regrettable that they didn’t appreciate the real value of the work, and said, “I hear that the author of this work has not found a job yet.”

She continued, “Maybe it’s not his major.”

“What’s his major then?”

“Image editing, I think. He used to work for a contract company specializing in animation programs, but as the company was not doing well, its president fired him, I hear.”

“If he is really capable, he will find a job easily.”

“I wish he could. I really feel sorry about his situation. Oh, there he is! Looks like he just had a lunch somewhere.”

Hyunwoo turned his head toward that person.

There was a young man in shabby clothes walking toward them. His face, seen through his long hair, showed that he was exhausted.

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