Chapter 397

A semi-hilltop villa in Itaewon, located in the Yongsan District of Seoul, sits on about 800 square meters of land with a building area of over 400 square meters, and the other half is garden space.

The villa, with two floors above ground and one below, was luxuriously decorated, in a secluded location, and featured beautiful scenery.

Charles had been living in Walkerhill, and he had Amelia purchase the villa for him. It cost 5 billion won, which was not cheap.

This was in August 2008, a time when the real estate market in South Korea was in a slump, and prices had dropped considerably.

From the second-floor terrace, one could overlook Seoul, enjoy views of the Han River, and the urban nightscape of Gangnam. Son Ye-jin followed Charles to the villa and felt quite envious.

"Gangnam across the river is also an affluent area in Korea. Many wealthy people and celebrities buy properties there!" Son Ye-jin said, linking arms with Charles on the terrace.

Charles looked up at the night sky, then turned to Son Ye-jin, "Gangnam? I know. Do you have property there?"

"I'm planning to buy property in Samseong-dong in Gangnam as an investment. Right now, I have an apartment in Cheongdam-dong where I live," Son Ye-jin said. She had saved almost tens of billions of won over the past few years.

"This house in Itaewon is too expensive!"

"Don't rush. First, convert your money into dollars. The dollar is still rising. Trading foreign exchange now can make you a profit," Charles reminded her. At that moment, $1 was a little over 1100 won and had room to grow.

"Really?" Son Ye-jin, who had been with Charles for some time, knew his assets were counted in trillions. After all, 1 trillion won was less than 10 billion dollars!

"Why would I lie to you? By this time next year, you can cash out and make some money," Charles said while holding the girl's shoulder.

"If you and your manager have the ability, you can also develop East Asia Korea. Didn't I leave you 19% of the shares? You could directly incentivize through equity."

"East Asia Media just needs to control 51% of the shares. If you could go public in the future, you'd be swimming in money!"

Son Ye-jin nodded. The East Asia Korea account now had over 50 billion won, which she could invest in movies and TV shows.

...

After taking a bath, Charles went to the study to check his work emails.

27 Dresses made $80 million in North America and over $100 million globally, comparable to Cloverfield's box office. The competition between Gossip Girl's two main actresses, Odette Yustman and Blake Lively, ended in a tie.

Mamma Mia! had made $130 million in North America in a month, $440 million overseas, and was well on its way to breaking $600 million worldwide.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona had just premiered in North America.

Not long after, Son Ye-jin, dressed in pajamas, came in and asked from the doorway, "Still working?"

"Come over. Just looking at some box office numbers," Charles waved her over.

With his invitation, Son Ye-jin walked over to Charles and sat on his lap.

"Mamma Mia! made over $500 million globally?" Son Ye-jin was shocked by the box office figures on the computer screen.

$600 million was over 600 billion won!

The highest-grossing movie in Korea was The Host from 2006, which had a total box office of nearly $70 million.

"Well, Capet Pictures is one of the top three movie companies in Hollywood," Charles said, scrolling on his laptop. Nothing major was happening except that Donna Langley had just returned to the company from vacation.

"Oh, the new girl group the company is preparing will be launched at the end of the year. Among the five girls, two didn't fit. So the company picked three more to form a six-member team," Son Ye-jin suddenly mentioned.

"Are you talking about T-ARA?"

Son Ye-jin nodded. "I've seen them at the company before!"

No wonder. T-ARA debuted as a six-member group. Charles only recognized three familiar names, Park Ji-yeon, Ham Eun-jung, and Park Hyo-min. The other two, Lee Ji-ah and Yang Ji-won, were unknown to him.

Son Ye-jin continued, opening the computer and showing their profiles, "Look, these two, Lee Ji-ah and Yang Ji-won, left the group. Qri, Boram, and Soyeon are joining!"

Charles looked at the computer. "They're pretty. What about the ones who left? What happens to them?"

"They'll debut in another group. It's common practice in the Korean idol scene!" Son Ye-jin said, hugging Charles' neck.

"You don't have any thoughts, do you?"

"You're overthinking it," Charles said, slipping his hand inside the girl's pajama top. "Do you think I'd stoop to such low levels and ask them to keep me company?"

"No, I worry they might come onto you," Son Ye-jin knew Charles lacked nothing. With his wealth, talent, and handsome looks, it was easy to attract women.

"Didn't you meet with some girls at the company recently? Park Ji-yeon is underage!"

"How could I tell? I can't remember their names and faces," Charles shook his head. "But I'm interested in Girls' Generation. Could you introduce them?"

"Poaching them could undermine our competitors and weaken our enemies," Charles remembered only the names of T-ARA and Girls' Generation. Putting faces to those names wasn't feasible for him.

"Well," Son Ye-jin took a deep breath, "That group isn't doing too well this year. But S Entertainment is a big company in Korea, and Girls' Generation is their major girl group. Their members have long-term contracts."

"Poaching is almost impossible!"

Then Son Ye-jin kissed Charles deeply, not caring whether he wanted to poach talent or anything else.

Besides, was he really interested in poaching? Clearly, he was more interested in them physically, but at that moment, Charles was already lost in Son Ye-jin's fiery kiss.

As for Girls' Generation and T-ARA, these Korean girl groups were already forgotten.

*****

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