Chapter 6.2

The slides that Min-kyung had made on short notice yesterday while working overtime were, as always, flawless. The problem wasn’t them, but that the fashion sector was in a shitty state.

‘Fashion, fashion, fashion…’ Lee Seop frowned and tilted his head back, frustrated. Fashion and Apparel, now the parent group of TK Textiles, grew in size over several decades and then was merged into Mulsan. At the same time, the industrial divisions were incorporated into each group under TK Affiliates, one by one. Contrary to plans that wanted to focus on and expand the remaining purely fashion group, its poor performance posed a problem.

He read the slide that appeared on the screen.

Lastly, the Sales Trend of TK Fashion for this year. 

The likely final sales for this year are: 1,817.6 bil won in the first quarter, 1,842.3 bil won in the second, 1,732.5 bil won in the third, and 1,435.6 bil won in the last quarter.

These sales account for 4.7% of the sales in the Product group.

Lee Seop could feel Min-kyung’s gaze examining his face in the darkness. He clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “Tsk..”

Min-kyung took a deep breath, “Director if you look at the sales trends of the top three fashion brands in Korea, they have grown by 147% over the same period. In particular, K brand’s performance in the first quarter of this year is predicted to exceed 1 trillion won. Brand C is looking to expand into cosmetics and lifestyle, so sales are expected to increase by 300% within the next five years…”

“Why can’t we expand and anticipate? If we did and things went as expected, we would have hit 3 trillion won in sales by now.” Lee Seop gestured at the slides while Min-kyung turned on the office lights. His eyes, accustomed to the dark, narrowed while he looked at her.

Min-kyung spoke in a soft tone. “This was the idea at the electric power group coordination meeting, as well as Song Baekjae’s intention. But it’s been difficult to pull it off.”

“What?”

[Translator note: I’m putting together an org chart because this gets confusing. I’m fairly certain this is all set up like Samsung, whose business name is “Samsung C&T (Construction & Trade) Corporation,” which has 4 business groups underneath it (Engineering & Construction, Trading & Investment, Fashion & Textile, and Resort)… all these acronyms are annoying I know.]

Min-kyung smiled softly, thinking, ‘Don’t act ignorant when you know everything.’ She looked him in the eyes and said, “The Head of Fashion position is currently vacant. He resigned last month. This is an important time to settle any matters in the group and with agencies. The fashion group will become stronger if the executive director holds both the position of COO and CEO of the product division.”

“Is it possible for me to rush into that while trying to gain strength for the group?”

“Yes, it will be fine.”

“Why are you so confident?”

“Well, there are several things to consider.”

“What?”

“I’m not at the stage where I can tell you this, is something that can be approved if the executive director becomes the CEO…”

“What does that mean? Do I have to pass to push things forward?”

Min-kyung delicately avoided the question. “Sir, we have 5 minutes before the C&T executive board meeting.”

Lee Seop stood up from his seat and walked forward. Min-kyung stepped ahead of him and opened the office door for him.

As he passed by Min-kyung, he stopped, “So, once I’m promoted, where are you planning to sell me off to next?”

Even though it was a joke, Min-kyung didn’t laugh. ‘What?’ After a few seconds of awkward silence, she forced out a stiff laugh, “Ah hahaha.”

“Wait, are you really planning to sell me?”

“What are you saying? Who would want to buy the Executive Director?” 

Her statement came out as sounding to Lee Seop like ‘Who would buy something like you?’ He was impressed, and he asked, “What about me? Where is the defect?”

“No, no,” she waved her hands.

“Then?” he said, acting hurt.

“Because you’d be too expensive…”

The absurdity of the conversation made Lee Seop burst out laughing, “ Director Kang, are you messing with me?”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Executive Director.” She lowered her head and opened the door more.

Her expression was strange, and she looked a little red as if she was holding back laughter. But she also looked as though she had a plan. It seemed as if she was trying to get him to move quickly, but Lee Seop just stood in the door.

“Sir.”

“Then how much do you have? How expensive am I?” He almost added, ‘I’ll give you a discount.' but decided to not be crude.

“At least 1 trillion?”

What are you talking about? He thought before saying with a chuckle, “Oh, I think I’m worth more than that.”

Min-kyung looked at Lee Seop with a pensive expression, almost as if she really was assessing his value.

*   *   *

Haaaa, Min-kyung let out a long breath and tilted her head back. As she closed her eyes, all she could hear was Lee Seop’s voice ringing through her ears like an auditory hallucination.

~~

“Deputy Director Kang, I would like the information on the status of all overseas construction orders. I would appreciate it if you could check and update any relevant department details on the Saudi thermal power plant expansion and then the progress of the Bangladesh combined cycle power plant. Oh, and don’t forget the progress of domestic reconstruction orders. Please focus on analyzing any factors that may become issues.”

“Deputy Director, we need to organize the energy-related parts in the trade sector. If we look at it from a plant project construction, I think we can point out the parts that are being missed. What do you think?”

~~

I was clear that this was all the material needed for work, and Lee Seop’s attitude when requesting was polite and gentle. But she didn’t want to understand the true hidden meaning behind that sugary smile. She wanted to leave with her head raised proudly.

Every time Min-kyung did what she was asked to do and pushed work for Lee Seop, the intensity of the work he threw back at her doubled.

‘You asshole.’ Min-kyung took off her glasses and pressed on her tired eyes.

A vibration forced her to open her eyes to look; it was an unexpected caller.

“Ah.” Min-kyung adjusted her posture and sat straight to check the name on the caller ID again. [Director’s Mother]

It was so unexpected that she almost jumped out of her seat when she reread the name. The intel that she had learned in the public relations office about Lee Seop’s mother, Lee Seon-ae, also known as Vice President Tae Seo-woo’s wife, was replayed in her mind.

If she had left out all the suitable modifiers and only focused on the things to be mindful of, Min-kyung would have called Lee Seon-ae a meticulous perfectionist. She was a 100/100 point daughter-in-law, so even Chairman Tae Si-hwan had nothing poor to say. She was the type of person who never made mistakes and never tolerated mistakes, not only within the family but also with people under her. She also held special affection for her son, Tae Yi-seop.

As the call connected, Min-kyung subconsciously lowered her head and greeted his mother on the other end, “Good Evening.”

– Is this Deputy Director Kang Min-kyung? Right? This is Tae Yi-seop’s mother.

“Yes madam, this is Kang Min-kyung.”

Are you busy? Are you able to talk for a moment? If not, please let me know of a more convenient time, and I will call you back.”

Min-kyung checked her watch, then replied, “It’s okay right now. What’s going on?”

– Yi-seop says he will be coming home today. Then, Deputy Kang will come here tomorrow before work. So, I would like it if you could come earlier before Yi-seop comes down to have breakfast? I have something to show you and a favor to ask. I’m sorry for adding to your busy morning schedule.”

“No, it’s okay; I will see you tomorrow morning, madam.”

After hanging up the phone, Min-kyung thought about her schedule and what time it would be best to go there and wait. She said she had something to show her, and she had a favor to ask. Also, it seemed his mother wanted to avoid Lee Seop noticing by meeting before his breakfast. So if they took 20 minutes before he came down, then Min-kyung calculated she’d have to leave an hour and ten minutes earlier than usual. Min-kyung sighed and patted her shoulder as the fatigue set in.

Even though it was past the end of the work day, Min-kyun’s fingers were busy dancing about her keyboard. She didn’t know how many calls she made or how many times she bowed to departments today to collect the relevant construction and trade data for the report. There were also errors in the final materials given since the request for them had been so urgent.

Even for lunch, she only had two chocolate bars and milk. All day, she was rechecking the standards, receiving raw data, and comparing them one by one, which became tediously repetitive. Just as she pressed save, her text app notification flashed on her phone. It was Hyunseong.

[Min-kyung, are you off work? Can you talk?]

Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t been able to talk to Hyunseong since the fake date with Jeong Jong-woo. Over the past ten days, Lee Seop’s workload increased, and so the amount of work he threw at her in retaliation was enormous. She had to stay in the office over the weekend to finish some work. 

Even if she used the excuse that she didn’t have time to do anything, the fact that she didn’t take any time out to contact him and at least thank him for his help was discourteous. She looked at the time—it was already 6:20—and pressed the call button.

Speaking as apologetically as she could, “Hyunseong oppa, I know I said I would contact you that weekend, but I’ve had so much work to do that I forgot. I didn’t even text a hello, so couldn’t try to have even explained what happened that day…”

Hyunseong let out a good-natured laugh.

– I don’t think you have anything to explain. Se-ah already did.

“That’s true, but Jeong Jong-woo is your friend. I’m sure I’ve made it difficult for you now.”

– That’s still up to Se-ah to take care of. And Jong-woo hasn’t said anything to me. Se-ah told me she had just recently made a business trip to Europe, and it was a good trip.

“Yes, she left last Thursday and came back yesterday, Tuesday. Anyway, I’m glad you had no trouble with Jeong Jong-woo. Aren't you still busy with work these days, so...” Min-kyung hoped to end the call soon, but Hyunseong babbled.

– No overtime today for me! If you have time tonight, would you like to have dinner together?

“Dinner?” Min-kyung looked at her computer screen to estimate her work, “I need at least another 40-50 minutes to finish my work.” 

“If you don’t mind eating a little late, I’m fine with it. I skipped lunch today, so I’m hungry. What do you want to eat, oppa? I’m fine with whatever… Yup… So if you come over here, why don’t we go to a Chinese restaurant nearby? They’re good at quick service…”

Min-kyung was starting to search for nearby restaurants on her browser when her eyes got wide in surprise. ‘When did the door open?’