TOIGC 82

“Oh, thank you so much for taking the time to see me. I’m Jeon Su-hun from Yes Savings Bank.”

Bowing at a ninety-degree angle while offering his business card, Jeon Su-hun’s posture exuded a level of deference fit for an audience with a king.

“Ah, yes. Welcome.”

Despite Jeon Su-hun’s best efforts, the recipient’s reaction remained lukewarm at best—the picture of utter disinterest.

The person putting on this chilly display wasn’t Yoongi, the behind-the-scenes power broker, nor was it Ryu Geun-tae, the president of Yaikai Department Store, or Choi Chul-gyu, who functioned as the chief of staff.

“I can’t tell you how glad I am that Manager Ma set this up for me. Thank you so much.”

The man making Jeon Su-hun sweat bullets was none other than Ma Seok-il.

Currently serving as the sales manager for Yaikai Department Store, Seok-il was the one handling the bank’s sales reps.

“I actually have another schedule coming up. I’m afraid I only have about fifteen minutes.”

Glancing down at the watch on his wrist with a furrowed brow, Seok-il made Jeon Su-hun’s expression turn frantic like a panicked pony.

“Oh, i-is that so?”

“Yes.”

A blunt one-word answer. Yet, Su-hun had no choice but to keep smiling at Seok-il, who looked roughly a decade younger than him.

“Well… uh…”

Faced with a sudden fifteen-minute limit, Su-hun hesitated for a moment before opting to dive straight into the main issue. No, he didn’t really have a choice; fifteen minutes was a tight window even just to introduce the core proposal.

“By any chance, do you have a specific interest rate in mind?”

“Hard to say. Haven’t really thought about it yet.”

“Did management happen to mention anything about it upstairs…?”

“Nope.”

For a split second, Jeon Su-hun almost blurted out, You little punk!

However, the man across from him was essentially an all-powerful super-superior. Suppressing his frustration, Su-hun forced a smile and nodded.

“My apologies. I suppose I arrived a bit too early. I should’ve come by a little later…”

Seok-il offered no reply, simply staring back at him. Misinterpreting the silence, Su-hun slapped his own forehead in an exaggerated gesture.

“Oh, my goodness! Look at my absent-minded self. I almost forgot. Manager Ma, please take this.”

“What is this?”

“It’s nothing much, just a small token of my sincerity. I hope you’ll accept it.”

“Oh my, you really shouldn’t have…”

Seok-il openly peered right inside the paper bag, and Su-hun inwardly cheered at his unabashed greed.

“This is my business card. Please be sure to reach out later. I will make sure we match terms that won’t lose to any other competitor.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Right on cue, the office door clicked open and a young female secretary from the administrative office stepped inside.

“Manager Ma, the president is calling for you.”

“Ah, right. Tell him I’ll be there in a moment.”

“Yes, sir.”

Seeing the secretary—who still carried a youthful, innocent air fresh out of commercial high school—Jeon Su-hun felt zero suspicion and hurriedly nodded.

“Oh my, and here you took the time out of your busy schedule to meet with me. Thank you so much.”

“No, not at all. I’d love to chat longer, but given the circumstances…”

“Naturally, with everything going on at Yaikai Department Store these days, you must be swamped. My phone is open even after hours, so please feel free to call me anytime. I’ll definitely be waiting for your call.”

“Right. Drive safely on your way out.”

Bowing ninety—no, a full one hundred and twenty degrees—Su-hun exited the office with his smile firmly intact.

The door clicked shut with barely a whisper.

For the next full minute, Seok-il stared only at his wristwatch. Once the sixty seconds ticked by, he stood up, opened the door, and checked the hallway.

The moment the office door closed behind him, Seok-il called into the room.

“All right, he’s gone. Come on out.”

At that, Son Min-gwan crawled out from under one of the office desks.

“Good work in there.”

“Good work? You’re the one who had a rough time crammed under there.”

Seok-il had told Min-gwan he would teach him practical sales skills and ordered him to hide in the office, which resulted in the space beneath the desk being chosen as the hiding spot.

“So, what’d you think?”

“Well…”

“Hey, it’s not like I don’t know your personality. Just speak honestly. If I’m going to teach you the ropes, I need to know what you really think.”

Finishing his sentence, Seok-il flicked open a lighter and lit a cigarette.

“From my perspective, it felt a little… excessive. Wouldn’t that have rubbed the other guy the wrong way?”

“Why should I care if he’s annoyed?”

“Well, won’t that come back to bite us when we actually start negotiating interest rates and terms?”

At Min-gwan’s naive response, Seok-il let out a hearty laugh.

“What? Pfft! Min-gwan, you’re good at sales where we have to bend over backwards, but you’ve got zero instinct for sales where we get to stand our ground.”

“Honestly… I suppose so.”

Since Min-gwan had originally been picked by Yoongi specifically for handling reporters, he was already performing at 100% of his natural capacity in that domain. However, Seok-il had entirely different ambitions.

Looking at Yaikai’s current trajectory, it was bound to easily surpass the mid-sized company Seok-il used to work for and become one of the top conglomerates in South Korea. Getting promoted solely by entertaining reporters in a company like this? That was a pipe dream.

Clenching his fist, Seok-il continued explaining to Min-gwan.

“Min-gwan, do you really think that guy who just walked out has the clout to harm us just because his feelings got hurt?”

“Well, when it comes to the contract terms…”

Seok-il cut him off.

“Of course not. For something like that to happen, Yes Savings Bank would have to be on equal footing with us. But from our perspective, Yes Savings Bank is a textbook underdog. And yet, a sales rep thinks he can cut us better contract terms just because his ego got bruised? That’s practically advertising that they don’t want our business.”

The banks currently courting Yaikai were sending ordinary sales reps; the bank headquarters hadn’t yet mobilized their full strategic weight. Even though Yaikai was closely tied to the peak of political power and raking in massive revenue, the primary corporate clients of those major bank headquarters were still the top ten conglomerates in South Korea.

Therefore, the ones desperately clinging to a deal with Yaikai were mere foot soldiers. Seok-il had already seen right through that dynamic—mostly because he used to be a sales rep himself before moving over to handle media relations.

“So, do you plan on keeping this exact attitude with every single sales rep who comes sniffing around?”

Seok-il nodded.

“Exactly. Though my approach will change for a select few.”

“How so?”

“The ones who actually bring concrete details to the table. Stuff like specific interest rates, you know? The guy who was just in here didn’t mention rates at all. That just means he was confident he could manipulate me once actual negotiations kicked off. Arrogant bastard.”

With a click of his tongue, Seok-il glanced at the door Su-hun had just exited through.

“Now I get it.”

“How long do you think you can survive purely on reporter liaison duties anyway? Learn some real skills by my side. Otherwise, you might end up stuck as an assistant manager forever. A career assistant manager, or a career staffer. Is that how you want to live?”

“Well… actually, I’m planning on writing a novel later on…”

Min-gwan muttered that he didn’t intend to stay at the corporate grind forever, but Seok-il shook his head.

“Even if you want to write detective fiction, it’s the same story. A mystery writer can’t just be a pushover. You need to understand how villains think. What’s the fun in a mystery novel where only good guys exist?”

“Ugh!”

Struck right where it hurt, Min-gwan groaned, and Seok-il reeled in his target.

“So learn it from me. People who know when to be nice and when to be ruthless survive the world a lot better than nice guys. Especially if you want to avoid dealing with predatory publishing houses later on.”

“Mmm… I’ll try.”

“Good, that’s enough of an answer for now.”

As Seok-il wore a satisfied smirk, Min-gwan piped up again.

“By the way, what did that guy leave behind?”

“Ah, this?”

When Seok-il pulled the contents out of the paper bag, a pair of thick red long-johns fit for an elderly parent tumbled out. Unfazed, Seok-il opened the accompanying box tucked inside to find a luxury hotel stay voucher.

Seok-il felt like getting scapegoated by his old boss back at his previous company had turned out to be a blessing in disguise after all.

“Uhm… Mr. President. Manager Ma isn’t back yet, should I go check on him again…?”

Peeking through the slightly ajar door of the president’s office, the young secretary’s face prompted Geun-tae to chuckle and shake his head.

“Ah, it’s fine. I told him over the intercom that he doesn’t need to rush back.”

“Oh! I see. Understood.”

Watching the secretary close the door with a relieved expression, Geun-tae wore a warm smile.

That secretary happened to be Geun-tae’s own maternal niece. Fresh out of commercial high school, she had unfortunately landed a job at a notoriously exploitative sweatshop company and was struggling until Yoongi granted permission to bring her into the secretarial pool. Thanks to that, Geun-tae saved face among his relatives, and his niece worked exceptionally hard to repay the favor.

“President Ryu’s niece probably has no idea what’s really going on, does she?”

At Chul-gyu’s remark, Geun-tae laughed and nodded.

“Probably not. The method only works if she’s completely out of the loop.”

The most foolproof way to instantly cut short an underdog’s leverage in negotiation? An unexpected summons from a superior in a position of power.

Thanks to that tactic, Jeon Su-hun had been forced to clear out in a hurry, allowing Seok-il to skip the fluff and extract the real substance. Because of the niece’s genuine innocence, Su-hun hadn’t suspected a thing, and this exact psychological play had already been deployed successfully against multiple visitors.

The effectiveness was, needless to say, stellar. As a result, the looks Geun-tae and Chul-gyu directed at Yoongi—the mastermind behind these instructions—were brimming with deep respect.

“Oh, come to think of it, Chairman. Manager Ma submitted his entertainment and gift report. How should we handle it?”

“What’s on it?”

Sitting comfortably in the president’s chair instead of the guest seating, Yoongi listened as Geun-tae began his report in a polite tone.

“A whole variety of things. Cash, hotel vouchers, wild pine mushrooms, ginseng, red ginseng, traditional herbal medicine—it’s honestly getting hard to list them all. Some vendors keep visiting repeatedly instead of just stopping by once.”

Since gifts poured in almost every time vendors met with Seok-il, the pile of accumulated loot was growing tall enough to reach from floor to ceiling.

“Have him return the cash, and let him split the rest with Assistant Manager Son.”

“Wouldn’t it be fine for you to keep the hotel vouchers, Chairman? You barely ever rest, so taking a little vacation might do you some good.”

At Geun-tae’s suggestion, Yoongi let out a dry laugh.

“That’s like trying to skin a flea. I can check into a hotel anytime without a voucher, but Manager Ma needs a breather. Let him use them. He has to play the absolute bottom-feeder when dealing with reporters, so shouldn’t he get to flex a little power here? Just make sure the cash gets returned without fail. Other stuff can pass as corporate gifts, but taking cash at this stage invites trouble with bribery laws.”

“Understood, I’ll make sure it’s returned.”

“He’s a sales guy, so his memory for details should be solid, right?”

Swelling his chest out with confidence, Geun-tae replied.

“Of course. I don’t give Manager Ma preferential treatment for nothing.”

“Good. We’ll wrap up that topic there. Now, tell me about the banks that actually brought concrete interest rates to the table.”

Follow-up Question: Which banking institution do you think will emerge as the frontrunner by offering the most strategic terms to Yaikai?