Office Worker 5
The Sleeping Dragon
“Team leader, which side will you choose?”
“Which side do you think I should choose?”
At my mischievous question, Manager Ma spoke with a serious expression.
“The first is the BO Food line, our commerce holding company. In commerce, there is the chairman’s daughter, Kim Ji-young. The accounting team and HR are under her. However, since there was no direct line of importance in the MD division, any strong one can be seen as a competitor, but no sides.”
“Then the second one?”
“The side of CEO Jung Geun-young, who was the executive director of BO Foods. Did you know that Jung Jin-taek, the team leader of Fresh Foods is the CEO’s son?”
Jung Jin-taek, team leader of the Fresh Foods team. Since it was my first day, I couldn’t remember everyone. It was a hectic day so I just greeted everyone.
“No, I didn’t know. But isn’t CEO Jung’s side too small?”
“No. The logistics and CS teams can all be viewed as CEO Jung’s side- And the 3rd director, Choi Goo-yeol. You must know him even if I don’t tell you about him, right? All the strategic planning team members are divided into two sides. In the MD division, the team leaders such as Kim Tae-ha, Jang Sun-young, and Kim Minjung are members who worked together in the US.”
“And the rest of the chain market is on whose side?”
“Yes. Yes. General Manager Cha Ki-young brought half of the MD division along with design and development teams.”
“Then people in the chain market need to be seen as the CEO’s line.”
CEO Jung Geun-young insisted on acquiring the chain market.
Of course, simple-minded Cha Ki-young must have brought everyone over to CEO Jung’s side.
However, manager Ma shook his head.
“Nope.”
“Then?”
“General… the general manager is always walking between two different sides, never picking one. So he is the hottest person in the company.”
General manager Cha Ki-young?
That couldn’t be. Something felt ridiculously wrong. Cha wasn’t the kind to have a skill for such a thing.
“That is shocking but, manager, do you believe me?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Although the power within a small company is small, you have a good reputation in the industry, and success stories, so I think that we can overcome every obstacle now. And seeing how director Kim called for you, I am sure that you will become the new sleeping dragon.”
“Sleeping dragon? Wah, I guess even the manager doesn’t have a good eye when it comes to people.”
“Not at all. My eyes never betrayed me. When I was in BO Foods, I knew that Choi Taehyung, Director Park Chang-yeon, and Kim Jaewon would get recognized.”
“…”
“I think I am betting my luck on a certain sleeping dragon this time. If Team Leader doesn’t abandon me… Then obviously, a chance will come.”
What could be more fun than talking about politics in a company?
All the members lifted their glasses as they listened to him. Manager Ma, who looked around the table and put the glass near his mouth, spoke in a low voice, “Daesung, who voluntarily transferred to the special sales team and even Kim who passed over to our team without even giving us an announcement, they both have the same thoughts as me.”
Assistant Kim Kyung-il nodded silently, while Kim Daesung lowered his chopsticks and opened his mouth, “I originally wanted to work under Team leader Won.”
“That… That is true. Even Yeondu is lucky to come into the team which has a sleeping dragon… and Lee Woojin, this spy! You get over to that Chain world right away!”
At manager Ma’s provocation, Lee Woojin once again cried out.
“I am not! I don’t even like him!”
“Who will believe you!”
“I haven’t even been there for long!”
“Ah, really!”
“Be careful around me or I will end you!”
An hour had passed.
Lee Woojin and Ha Yeon-du were sent home first. Assistant Kim Kyung-il, Kim Daesung, and Jang headed to a nearby beer house along with the others. As soon as manager Ma sat down, he chugged down the beer saying that it tasted good.
He should have been drunk…
In the end, he did get drunk and began to sleep and snore on the table.
“I’ll take Mr. Ma and head home. We will leave first.” Assistant manager Kim Kyung-il said and asked to leave first, normally I would have let him.
After reading Mr. Ma’s memories, I didn’t want to do that.
“I’ll take him, you can go.”
“No. It is your first day, go back home and take a rest.”
“it is really fine. It’s still 10 o’clock. Assistant Kim. It will take a long time for you to drop off Manager Ma.”
Assistant manager Kim’s house was in Seongsu and Kim Daesung’s house was in Gyuri, Gyeonggi. It would take them more than an hour to go back to their homes if they decide to drop Manager Ma who lived in Sinrim.
“Yes, but…”
I smiled and put a hand on Manager Ma’s shoulder who was slowly leaning away.
** *
An old five-storey apartment in Sinrim.
Manager Ma’s house was on the topmost floor. I had to go up using the stairs with him on my shoulder.
Going up those stairs was like staying in a sweat bath.
“Third- ugh… let’s go to the third floor, ugh! Ugh!”
The manager kept on muttering something in his drunk state. He was already sleeping.
If I knew that things were going to turn out like this, I would have left him to Kim….
Ding dong! Ding dong!
When I pressed the bell, a woman in her forties wearing a cardigan and was barefooted opened the door. She took Manager Ma, who was leaning on my shoulder, and with a sad expression, “UH! He did it again… ugh… I am very sorry.”
While I was leaving, she called out, “Wait a moment.”
“What?”
“I’ll bring you a towel to wipe off the sweat.”
She gently laid down Manager Ma in the room and brought a dry towel.
I took the towel and brushed my head and smiled. She took my hand and placed something in it.
“You must have had a hard time, so take the taxi.”
I opened my hand and a finely folded green note worth 10,000 won caught my eyes.
“It is fine. My house is nearby.”
“Ugh… Don’t say that.”
She must have thought of me as Manager Ma’s subordinate.
Well, it was natural to assume that when a young man would bring her husband home.
Placing the 10,000 won bill into my pocket, I lowered my head.
“Thank you. Mr. Ma’s wife.”
“Ma’s wife… You seem a lot younger than him, how old will you be this year?”
“29.”
“Such good time. At that age, he was a bachelor too…”
“No way. You have to be kidding?”
“Hohoho. Thank you for today, go back safely.”
“Yes, you too, please rest well.”
** *
The next day, Manager Ma, who came to work approached me and lowered his head, “I am very sorry, Team…”
“Your wife is such a beauty, you know?”
At my words, Manager Ma bowed a little more, “I am sorry. I heard from my wife…”
I asked him to raise his head.
“Manager, please don’t do this anymore.”
“I can’t. Did my wife say anything?”
“There was one thing.”
“Huh?” Manager Ma was genuinely shocked.
I patted his back and smiled, “I got 10,000 won as taxi fare last night. Let’s buy 2,000 won worth of coffee later.”
Listening to that, Manager Ma smiled in relief.
** *
At the meeting room at 2 PM, General Manager Cha Ki-young opened his mouth as he looked around at all the team leaders of MD.
“There are only two weeks left to open. Is everyone preparing well?”
“Yes!” Lee Jin-Seong, of the home appliance team, and Choi Chongyeon of health food responded loudly. Team leader Jung Jin-Taek crossed his legs while he sat on the chair.
With an arrogant expression befitting the position that of a CEO’s son, he raised one of his hands.
“Ugh… General manager Cha.”
“Yes?”
“This time, I am importing potato cubes from Vietnam.
“What now?”
“I got a sample product, and it seemed to be great. How about buying it?”
“Ah… is that so? How much do you want to buy?”
“8 tons.”
8 tons was too much.
Due to the nature of the sweet potato cubes, they cannot be stored for more than a week, even when frozen.
“It is fine team leader Jung, that sounds great.”
Ugh…
After all, Cha is that kind of a person. Weak to the strong and a bully to the weak. He was considered a strong man in this company.
With a cold expression, Mr. Cha turned his head towards Kim Tae-ha, and spoke, “Team leader Kim Tae-ha, did you check the frozen food items from BO Foods?”
“Yes, we checked it over.”
“How much was it?”
“There were around 27 kinds of dumplings, pizza and cheese sticks.”
“You made a list, right?”
Kim Tae-ha immediately handed the list to a member in front of him.
General Manager Cha slowly began to check the list and after that passed it over to deputy head Park Dae-young. Deputy head Park Dae-young looked over it and with a stern face, suddenly pointed to one side of the document.
“Team leader Kim. Remove Tteokgalbi.” (E/N: Tteokgalbi is grilled short rib patties.)
“Why?”
“You want to sell this? This?” He only wanted to say something. It wasn’t like a product description page he was looking at to stop it.
And lastly…
“Are preparation going well for team leader Won?”
“Yes. It is working out.”
“At the opening day, Naver is said to be running the ads. Were you informed of it?”
Nope, I didn’t hear it.
Nobody even mentioned it to me.
“No.”
“You didn’t hear? Naver main board DA at 12!” (T/N: DA is Display Ad.)
Naver’s time advertisement.
It wasn’t a random timed ad, but a fixed one…
Advertising costs over 30 million won during low traffic times and exceeds 5,000 in high traffic times.
If it was 12, it would have been around 500 million… Kim Tae-ha, who was shocked, asked Mr. Cha, “When? This is my first time hearing this!”
If Kim Tae-ha didn’t know, it meant that the other team leaders might be unaware too.
A rough idea.
It was to make others prepare some product in a hurry. It was to pressure us…
But I already guessed that such situations would come out.
“It is good. Then Mobile too is going to have DA, right?”
At my question, General Manager Cha paused before he answered, “Uh… yes?”
“How much is our buying budget?”
“Buying budget?”
“We are going to advertise during such times, but should the products go out for sale?”
“What are you planning?”
“To the first 10,000 people, on a first come first serve basis, will get it for 100 won. Of course, only the quality products.”
This was how commerce worked.
Most consumers get into such products and if the reaction from the consumers is good, we could end up dominating real-time search. Of course, products that get sold at noon need to be attractive and a two-week period for product choosing and preparation is too tight.
“Then there could be over a total of 120,000 possibilities for products.”
“Of course. Please hold over 1.2 billion won for expenses.”
“Expenses… How about we get a rough list and talk it over then?”
“Sounds good to me.”
After the anxious meeting, Kim Tae-ha came to my side, “Can you pull it off? With barely 2 weeks left?”
“Huh. Some can be picked up in no time. There are several places where the factory product rates are dropping.”
“If there is anything I can help with, let me know.”
“Yes, Sure.”
