Chapter – 60
“Assistant Hong.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
While she was working as usual, Team Leader Yoon called out to Haena.
“The proposal has been approved. They’re telling us to send it over to Carmel now. It came back with a comment note stating that the Chairperson, in particular, has high expectations for this.”
Finally. She already knew it would pass, but still…
“And normally, for a project of this scale, Manager Jang should be teaching you the ropes while doing it… but since Manager Jang is currently tied up with another assignment, I’ll be stepping in with you. That’s fine, right?” “Yes, of course.”
Either way didn’t matter to her. Team Leader Yoon was someone whose inner thoughts were impossible to read, making her a bit difficult to handle, but Haena would just have to adapt.
“Then, we’re going to send the proposal to Carmel…” “?” “You know someone there, don’t you?”
Haena subtly avoided her gaze. From Baek Do-yoon’s side, she had received a reply saying, ‘I won’t help you. You’ve already lost my trust.’ As for Baek Jae-hyun… he had given her a rather suspicious business card, but judging by his nuance when he spoke, it didn’t seem like a personal acquaintance. It felt almost as if he held some kind of weakness over them… It wasn’t that she couldn’t utilize it… but it felt unnecessarily dirty, so she didn’t want to. Pass on that one too. So in the end…
“Yes. There is… one person I know.”
She had already asked a manager she had a previous connection with to arrange a meeting.
“Then contact them, and once the business meeting is fixed, give me a notification.” “…Yes.”
Seriously, I just can’t get used to that half-English, half-Korean way of speaking. After nodding her head, Haena contacted someone. In truth, the meeting had already been scheduled, so she just had to pretend she was making the appointment now and tag the Team Leader a few hours later.
Haena: Did the matter with Madame Han get resolved?
The person she contacted was none other than Jae-hyun. It was because it should be around the time Baek Jae-hyun was coming out after meeting the Chairman and his wife.
Jae-hyun: Yeah. (Cute puppy emoticon)
He even uses emoticons that look exactly like him. Haena chuckled. Ah, right, there was one more thing to let him know.
Haena: Adam is coming that day. Haena: They reached out to R.S., so for now, Adam decided to come as the representative. Haena: We thought that would be a better way to avoid suspicion.
Before long, a reply came back.
Jae-hyun: Confirmed. Jae-hyun: I’ll contact Adam and tell him about the precautions.
Perfect. If it was Baek Jae-hyun, he would handle it on his own. Now, all that was left was the meeting with Carmel.
The meeting with Carmel took place shortly after. Haena and Team Leader Yoon arrived first and were waiting in the private room of a restaurant near Carmel Korea’s headquarters.
“Did you two know each other from before?” “No. I just happen to know them through mutual acquaintances.” “Ah. It must be nice to have such a wide network.” “It’s not actually that wide.” “If Assistant Hong’s network isn’t wide, then someone like me should just go die.” “….”
Let’s not talk back further.
“How long are you planning to stay?” “Pardon?” “I mean at Cheongyeong. You aren’t going to stay here for the rest of your life. I know you’re only staying for a short while before leaving.” “….”
While that was true… she didn’t particularly want to talk about it. Especially not to someone at the team leader level. This kind of behind-the-scenes gossip was meant for someone around Assistant Manager Lee’s level, not something she wanted to pour out to a team leader.
“If it makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to say.” “…I’m planning to stay for about a year. It would be troublesome if I caused any more inconvenience.”
With her putting it that way, how could she not speak? Haena eventually confessed.
“Is that so? You’re staying for quite a short time. Are you joining Hongil straight after you’re done?” “…For now, that’s the plan. Will you be staying at Cheongyeong continuously, Team Leader?” “No. I’ll probably work here for about three more years and then switch jobs.” “Ah, do you have a separate plan…?” “It’s nothing like that. I just feel like if I stay here too long, I’ll die before my time. They overwork people way too much here. My kids have all finished college, too. It’s about time I live a moderately relaxed life.”
H-Her kids are college students?! She didn’t look like it at all! Exactly how young is her appearance? Haena desperately tried to steady her wavering gaze.
“Why are you looking at me with such surprised eyes?” “Oh, no. It’s just… you look so incredibly young…” “It’s because I got married early. Hoho. Assistant Hong, you’re fated to get married at a young age too, aren’t you? What of it.” “Ah, um. Right.”
She couldn’t exactly say, ‘Absolutely not,’ to someone from Cheongyeong.
“Aha. I guess it isn’t true?” “No. It is completely correct. I should get married quickly and become a devoted wife. That is my fate. Hahaha.” “That really doesn’t suit Assistant Hong at all.” “….”
Is that an insult or a compliment? Haena silently rubbed her nose.
“Don’t be like that, Assistant Hong. You must become the boss of Hongil. Become the boss and make sure to recruit me. Offer me double the salary and give me stock options. Okay? You’ve seen me work, right? I’m good at my job.” “A talented individual like you, Team Leader Yoon, should play in a bigger pond rather than a small sea like Hongil.” “Ah, so I’m not to your liking?” “It’s not that. You are very much to my liking, but I just wonder if a place like Hongil could dare to accommodate someone like Team Leader Yoon.” “Is that so.”
Team Leader Yoon smiled brightly.
“But it seems you do have the intention of becoming the president of Hongil, right?” “!”
Ah. She had been trapped. Haena adjusted her expression. As expected, the experience of someone at a team leader level couldn’t be underestimated.
“Don’t worry. Do you think I’m the type to run straight to the President and tattle? I don’t like the higher-ups. I just like money.” “….” “But you made a good decision, Assistant Hong. Rather than rotting away as an elegant lady of Cheongyeong, being the boss of a large company like Hongil suits you much better.” “…Really?”
“Yeah.”
Team Leader Yoon took a sip of water before continuing her words.
“The higher-ups of our company are famous, aren’t they? For never letting women do company work.” “….” “Thanks to that, it wasn’t easy for me to climb up to this position either.”
That was true. That was why she could absolutely never work out with Baek Do-yoon. If she married Baek Do-yoon, Cheongyeong would probably just throw her some foundation or art museum and tell her to devote her full efforts to supporting her husband. And they would set up a puppet at Hongil to control it as they pleased.
Because they had always been that way. It was the same in the original novel, too.
That was why Cheongyeong needed new blood.
“Ah, looks like they’ve arrived now. It was a productive conversation.”
“Me too.”
The two smiled at each other, and immediately after, the door opened. Then, a sophisticated middle-aged person who practically advertised ‘I work in the fashion industry’ to anyone looking, along with a relatively younger person, walked in. Let’s see. The older one was a director-level leader from the marketing side. The younger one… she wasn’t sure of the rank, but they were likely underneath him. From now on, she had to stay sharp.
“Hello. I am Yoon Ji-young, Team Leader of PR Team 1 from Cheongyeong’s Planning and Coordination Office. And this is Assistant Hong Hae-na.”
Starting with Team Leader Yoon’s greeting, a quite meticulous meeting began.
After appropriate greetings were exchanged, the director from Carmel’s side officially opened his mouth.
“By the way. The other contents were standard proposals we usually receive, so they weren’t that surprising… but pointing out our new upcoming line and asking for it to be donated this time was quite surprising. That was a bag that hasn’t been disclosed to the public yet. Whose idea was that between the two of you?”
“That was our Assistant Hong’s idea. Assistant Hong?”
At Team Leader Yoon’s glance, Haena immediately tensed up slightly and spoke.
“Actually, a while ago, I attended Carmel’s private viewing event. Since it was a preview event for the new line, I was able to catch a glimpse of the new products in advance. Among the explanations I heard there, the statement, ‘Carmel aims to deliver a message through this new line—featuring practicality and diverse designs—that we no longer simply pursue pretty designs,’ was very memorable to me.”
“….”
The people from Carmel were listening to Haena’s words with more intense concentration than ever before.
Even though their expressions were calm, a glimpse of interest could be seen in their eyes, allowing Haena to realize this was a green light.
“I thought that launching a new line targeted at career women meant choosing a strategy to increase accessibility to the high-end brand. If so, I judged that our event would be more helpful to that strategy. A large number of the most successful career women from various fields are participating in our event. If such people carry that bag, I am certain there will be a clear promotional effect.”
“There’s no need to beat around the bush. There was an article recently, wasn’t there? Stating that although Carmel Korea made record-breaking sales in Korea, the donation amount was somewhat low in comparison. Our side is also aware of this issue. So while we were contemplating it, we saw the proposal you sent and liked it quite a bit. It caught our eye because instead of simply proposing a donation, you presented a direction that would be mutually beneficial. It was very good.”
“Thank you.”
Since compliments should be well-received, Haena flashed a confident smile.
“Furthermore… it’s a proposal sent by none other than Assistant Hong Hae-na. We couldn’t help but look at it closely.”
“!”
“We have always been grateful for the fact that your father increased jewelry sales in Korea by 200 percent. Who knew that ring would blow up like that? The headquarters was also heavily surprised that such a high-end line achieved such massive results.”
Wait, why is my dad suddenly being brought up here?
A cold sweat broke out on Haena’s back.
