Just Leave It to Me
Even the friends who weren’t here were excited at the news that they’d all be traveling together.
Last time, they’d only gone for two nights and three days because even the lodging fees had felt wasteful.
“If you all have the time, four nights and five days is fine too.”
“R-really? That’d be great for us. But we figured it might put you under too much pressure, oppa.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“Whoa... what is he? Sihyeon, what’s with this guy? Is he a third-generation chaebol?”
“I know, right...”
At a glance, it looked like Sihyeon herself was more flustered than her friends.
Which made sense.
Her friends didn’t really know anything about me, so the fact that I was rich probably didn’t seem all that strange to them.
But Sihyeon knew I’d been working part-time until just a month ago.
That made it even harder for her to wrap her head around.
“Then I’ll get off here and make a group chat with my friends.”
“Sure.”
As soon as she mentioned making a group chat, we got closer to home and two of them got out.
That left just me, Sihyeon, and the pretty-boy bastard.
By then, the pretty-boy bastard had gone silent.
I liked that. No matter what he said, it had never sat right with me.
Probably because we both knew we were rivals.
Rivals, huh...
Honestly, it was ridiculous. Aside from his looks, he didn’t have a single thing going for him.
Well, maybe for another girl, Soohyeok would’ve been more appealing.
But Sihyeon was different.
According to what I’d heard from my aunt, good-looking guys had been confessing to Sihyeon since she was little.
To her, they were probably all the same.
I was just the one who looked a little lacking.
She’d already been staring at my less-than-stellar face for a year, so by now she must’ve gotten used to it.
This was a competition I couldn’t lose.
“Get home safe.”
“Thank you. See you next time, Sihyeon.”
“Yeah, bye.”
In the end, the pretty-boy bastard who’d been staring out the window the whole way got off near his place.
The fact that he lived in this neighborhood to begin with meant his family wasn’t exactly poor.
After he got out, Sihyeon kept glancing at me before finally speaking up, worry in her voice.
It wasn’t an easy thing to bring up after the atmosphere we’d just had.
“Oppa, are you really okay with this...? No matter how I think about it, it seems like way too much of a burden. Honestly, including you, there’ll be six of us going on this trip... How can you possibly cover all that by yourself?”
It was a reasonable argument. The problem was that I had the money to crush that argument without even trying.
“Don’t worry about it. I told you before, didn’t I? I’m saying this because I can afford it. Thanks to this, I think I’ll be able to move out of the house pretty soon too.”
“M-move out? Already? Isn’t moving that fast kind of unusual?”
“The sooner the better. You’ve been dealing with inconveniences too.”
“...No, I haven’t. It’s not like I’m uncomfortable, and sometimes you even give me rides when it’s far.”
Don’t worry. We’ll all go together when we leave.
At her reaction, I found myself smiling without meaning to.
It felt like we’d grown a lot closer before I knew it.
This trip was the moment that would put a stake in the ground for our relationship.
When we got home, I greeted my aunt and went into my room.
Then I contacted the head secretary.
Six people.
I told him to prepare the best possible trip for Japan.
An instant answer came back.
Just leave it to us.
***
The night before, after receiving the chairman’s call, the head secretary had called a meeting with his team.
The faces of the people gathered in the conference room showed determination.
And rightly so.
DE Holdings.
It was a company whose business direction still wasn’t clearly defined.
But separate from that, its capital strength was absurdly, almost offensively, strong.
It wasn’t like they’d launched some huge business empire or anything—they were simply there to support one man.
And yet they had funds worth several hundred billion won.
Hadn’t they already sold a building for around 160 billion won, taxes included?
Just the monthly rent coming in from that alone was enough to stop anyone from worrying about DE Holdings’ payroll.
A cash-rich company.
Salaries that didn’t lose out at all even compared to major conglomerates.
And on top of that, better working conditions and a better environment than a chaebol office.
As far as they were concerned, they wanted to stay at DE Holdings no matter what.
They were people who had already tasted bitterness at conglomerates and been pushed aside by office politics.
But there was one problem.
When the hell are we actually going to do real work...?
Was I always this useless?
I never imagined I’d end up hoping someone would give me work to do.
The problem was that what they were doing at DE Holdings was extremely minor.
So minor, in fact, that it had started making them uneasy.
They were worried that because they couldn’t prove their value, the company might not renew their contracts.
In that situation, after a long time, the chairman’s instructions finally came down.
Of course, they were a little detached from the company’s usual growth direction.
But that wasn’t the point. At the very least, it was a chance to prove why they needed to stay at DE Holdings, and to prove their worth.
Their enthusiasm was incredible.
“First of all, unfortunately, there’s no first-class route from Incheon to Osaka. If you want to travel even more comfortably, we could charter a private jet... but honestly, business class would probably be more convenient.”
“I agree. As much as the transit is a shame, I think it’d be better to put the focus on setting up the best possible accommodations. Let’s book a hotel that offers car service first, and then...”
“Based on the limited information we have, I believe the party is split by gender. First, we need to find out whether the chairman’s group intends to stay in one room, and whether there are any restrictions on expenses.”
“Given the chairman’s personality, there probably won’t be any restrictions... but you never know. We should prepare for both possibilities and put together an itinerary with absolutely nothing lacking. We need to make sure the reservations go smoothly too...”
It was different from usual. Everyone was actively putting forward ideas.
This wasn’t about competing against one another. It was about sincerely focusing on one goal, and if something in someone else’s idea seemed lacking, they jumped in without hesitation.
They set aside other people’s feelings for the moment and focused only on the objective.
That one objective was simple.
The chairman had to be satisfied with this trip.
Because that was the same as proving their own value.
“I’ll contact the high-end restaurants in Osaka, Japan. If reservations aren’t possible, I’ll offer extra money if I have to...”
“I’ll handle activity bookings so the chairman can really enjoy himself.”
“I’ll make sure there are no issues with business-class seats...”
“I’ll prepare everything in advance so there’s no inconvenience with the accommodations.”
“I think it’d be better to split into two vehicles for transport. Ahem. This is a personal matter, but I think we should make this part absolutely clear. If there’s any woman the chairman especially likes...”
“Right, because then we can make sure the two of them stay together throughout the whole process...”
Ideas flew back and forth.
It didn’t matter whether they were official or personal.
If it was for the chairman’s satisfaction, that was enough.
They’d been pushed out by office politics, yes, but their skills were top-notch.
That was why the head secretary had personally interviewed them and even checked their reputations through his own network before bringing them in.
The lights in their office hardly ever went off.
All because they were making travel plans.
***
The day after I’d told everyone about the trip, six people had been added to the group chat.
Sihyeon, her three friends, the pretty-boy bastard, and me.
Anyway, that pretty-boy bastard seemed to have an absurdly high opinion of himself, because he’d set his profile picture to a photo of his own face.
Men should know how to be solid, like me.
Mine was just the default profile picture.
The kids who’d been added to the group chat were clearly excited, already looking forward to the trip.
Honestly, I was a little excited too.
It would be my first time on a plane.
I wouldn’t look awkward, would I?
No, it’d be fine. A few of the secretaries were coming along too, helping from as out of the way as possible.
Pretty reassuring.
I’d heard that even third-generation chaebols couldn’t just go around living comfortably and having fun if they wanted to inherit a company.
Of course, people who’d already given up weren’t much of an issue.
And apparently those people also ended up with less money.
Maybe the number of people who just played around and did whatever they wanted, while still having personal assets over 300 billion won, could be counted on one hand—including me.
That wasn’t arrogance. It was just an objective thought.
I didn’t know if it was really a mistake.
They all seemed to be worried about my money in their own subtle way.
Well.
Looks like I’m almost at 100 billion won.
Now that March was almost over, this investment was nearly up a full 100 billion won in profit.
And not even close to the profit-taking price I’d predicted.