Negotiation Genius
The staff at Citrin Salon were still buzzing about the Ara they had just seen.
"Oh my god, did you see the director's client just now? I genuinely almost stopped breathing."
"Right? I've never seen anyone that beautiful in my life. She could eat most celebrities for breakfast."
"I overheard something that made it sound like she hasn't even debuted yet? Which is completely insane. When someone looks like that, you don't even feel jealous."
"What do you think she and the director were talking about, though? The director looked like she'd just seen the meaning of life."
"Better not ask right now. What time's your next appointment?"
"Five."
"Alright. Let's clean up."
"Yes."
The two of them went back to their work.
A little earlier.
About thirty minutes earlier, to be precise.
At the sudden request for a meeting, the two of them had come to the director's office.
"So. You want to use Ara as your exclusive model?"
"Yes. I'd like to propose her as a pictorial model, limited to hair and makeup salons like ours."
She said it more calmly than expected, but her true feelings were anything but calm.
I have to lock her down.
In the middle of days spent watching the shop's revenue dwindle and sketching out a future that ended in closing the doors, a hope had appeared that felt almost miraculous.
And those eyes — that beautiful yellow. They match our Citrin perfectly. This is fate.
Citrine was a jewel that glowed with a luminous yellow, a stone that symbolized wealth and glory.
She hasn't even debuted yet. Which means this is the absolute bottom of the market. A golden opportunity.
When it came to stocks, she was a reverse genius — the kind of person who could only ever draw a beautiful downward curve. And yet, despite that hopeless sense of market timing, a red alarm was currently blaring inside her head.
Please. Please. Please.
"What do you think?"
A calm voice. But desperate eyes.
Oh-ho.
Jeong Yeo-un read it perfectly.
Ordinarily, a modeling offer to a rookie was a negotiation that put the newcomer firmly in the weaker position. Rookies needed exposure — needed to build name recognition with the public however they could. But Ara's case was different.
An irregular in the rookie ranks.
This kid was just a monster.
A massive newcomer who, with zero prior credits and a single audition, had captured the hearts of masters of the craft. And on top of that, she was good at negotiating. She knew her own strengths with absolute clarity and wielded them like extensions of her own body.
Hadn't he been on the receiving end of that himself just a week ago?
Jeong Yeo-un glanced at Ara for a moment. She didn't seem to be thinking much of anything in particular. Or rather — unlike most rookies — her face simply didn't give much away.
She probably would have handled this fine on her own.
He knew that. But he couldn't just sit back. She was under his banner now, which meant he needed to show what he could do.
That way she'll work even harder for me, right? Either way, I've got ground to make up.
"I'd like to hear the terms."
First, a simple read of the other party's position. In other words: let them open. Make it clear that we are the ones holding the cards. From there, you can measure how serious they really are.
"First, a six-month contract. Pictorials refreshed monthly. And the fee would be two million won. How does that sound? Of course, studio costs, makeup, and all the small expenses would be entirely on us."
She had answered the invitation.
Well? Can you really turn that down?
She's coming in strong right from the start.
For a pictorial attached to a private salon that wasn't even a franchise, the terms were genuinely excellent. The fee was at the absolute top of what a rookie could expect. For a newcomer who hadn't even debuted, it was an opportunity you were supposed to snatch with both hands.
Which was exactly why the other party had made a mistake.
From the offer on the table, Jeong Yeo-un could already taste her desperation.
I can squeeze more out of this.
"Hmm…"
He let a deliberate pause hang in the air, feeding her anxiety.
"Director."
Then he dropped his voice, settling the atmosphere.
"First of all, these are genuinely good terms. It's not easy for a rookie who hasn't debuted to receive this kind of treatment."
And he praised her offer.
"Then—?!"
Gang Ji-yeon's face brightened for a split second before she reined it back in.
Amateur, after all.
Jeong Yeo-un was not the kind of man to miss that.
"But it's a little disappointing."
"I'm sorry? What exactly is—"
You just said it was good!
"Ara is not just any rookie."
Jeong Yeo-un pointed at Ara's face.
"She is an insanely beautiful rookie!"
An extremely childish choice of words.
"W-well, yes."
The effect was enormous.
"How many exclusive model offers do you think our Ara has already received?"
This was the first. But in negotiation, bluffing was a critical skill.
"I can't go into detail, but they've all made offers similar to yours, Director. And as you can see, she's turned every single one of them down."
Gang Ji-yeon acknowledged her own mistake.
"I see…"
There was no way to fact-check it anyway. In this moment, she was thoroughly the weaker party. The other side already knew that when they sat down at the table.
"Alright. Same terms. Three million won. How about that? For a single photo shoot, that's genuinely excellent, isn't it? I really can't go any higher than this."
Jeong Yeo-un checked the time. There was still a little room before the studio reservation, but he had no intention of dragging the negotiation out. And even if the other party had drawn a Maginot Line, lines could always be moved further back.
"Ten million won."
"I'm sorry?"
For a moment, Gang Ji-yeon doubted her own ears.
"In exchange, a one-year contract. Ten million won. And on top of that, a special discounted broadcast makeup service exclusive to Ara. How does that sound?"
"No, that's—"
How did that sound? Jeong Yeo-un knew perfectly well. At this point, it was barely distinguishable from an unequal treaty.
Of course, if you cut out all the context, sure.
"That's completely unreasonable! Paying that much to a rookie who hasn't even debuted is something I simply cannot accept! This isn't preferential treatment — it's practically a scam!"
Gang Ji-yeon's voice rose a notch.
"I imagine so."
But Jeong Yeo-un remained perfectly calm.
Expected reaction. Time to put our information on the table.
No matter how strong your position, there was a line you still had to respect.
"Director. Do you know these three people?"
On the phone Jeong Yeo-un held out, the names of the principal production staff of the drama Forest of Crime were listed.
"Yes, I know them. They're producing a drama right now, aren't they? But why are you showing me this?"
They were famous enough on their own, and given the nature of her work — dealing with celebrities regularly — of course she would know them.
"Ara is a rookie who hasn't debuted yet, yes. But why do you think I showed you this?"
"Don't tell me…"
At this point, failing to understand would have been stranger.
"Yes. It's highly confidential, but she's cast in it. And as a supporting role with considerable weight."
Jeong Yeo-un played his finishing move. Along with it, he held out the Forest of Crime contract details Ara had sent him — a document whose facts had already been thoroughly verified, leaving no room for rebuttal.
It's not actually that confidential, of course.
But that didn't matter.
Gang Ji-yeon felt hollow. This had been a fight whose outcome was decided from the start.
If that's the case… then calling ten million won actually makes sense…
Ten million won. Given the shop's current situation, it was still an amount she could produce if she had to.
The day I crack open my savings account just got a lot closer…
That was assuming she signed, of course. Ten million won was enough to hire a model with a real name. Using that kind of money on a mere rookie was, by any normal standard, completely absurd. Which was why Gang Ji-yeon hesitated.
But the other side was merciless.
"We're a bit short on time, I'm afraid."
They would not wait for her.
"It's a shame, but if it's not possible, then there's nothing to be done. We simply didn't see eye to eye on the mutual interests."
Jeong Yeo-un gathered his pen and slipped it into his bag.
"Well then, Ara, let's g—"
"Wait! Just a moment!"
Gang Ji-yeon grabbed Jeong Yeo-un in a panic.
"Alright! Ten million won!"
In the end, Gang Ji-yeon tucked her tail.
A wicked little smile spread across Jeong Yeo-un's face.
"Haha! Are you sure you're alright with that?"
"Yes… Just… please take out that special discount clause…"
Gang Ji-yeon's final negotiation.
"Of course! Absolutely! Shall we proceed with everything else as discussed, then?"
Jeong Yeo-un accepted it far too easily.
This con artist bastard…
You little punk.
"Well. Ara, what do you think?"
Come to think of it, he hadn't asked Ara's opinion. In the end, the decision was hers.
Ara had sat quietly through a conversation that was short if you called it short and long if you called it long, watching the two of them go back and forth.
What on earth are they even talking about.
And she understood almost none of it. In this particular field, she was still a complete beginner. The only parts she actually followed were the ones involving money.
The director had been desperate, and the CEO had exploited that desperation with exquisite precision. If she compared it to the game canyon she loved so much, it was like a Bronze-tier player watching a fight between gods of the high ranks. Challenger versus Diamond, maybe. To Ara, both of them looked like they lived in the celestial realm — but there was still a clear gulf between those two tiers, and the two of them were displaying exactly that kind of gap. The kind of thing you could watch and still not understand.
Stuff just kind of whooshed past, and at some point the CEO was just toying with her.
Either way, the victory belonged to the CEO. She found herself genuinely wondering whether this was the same man who had looked like such a mark a week ago.
So… does this mean I'll only be using this salon for at least the next year?
Hair salons were the kind of place where, once you settled on one, you tended to stick with it. But Ara thought back to the treatment she'd just received — the director firing questions at her the entire time. It wasn't that she disliked it. It was just… a little much.
"Well. Ara, what do you think?"
"It's a hassle, though…"
There were moments like that. Moments when you were spacing out and accidentally let an inner thought slip out loud. Moments when, of all times, it happened to land exactly like an answer to a question that had just been asked.
Hhk—
"Huh?"
She clamped a hand over her mouth at once, but there was no taking back words already spoken. Ara carefully checked both of their faces. Sure enough, both of them looked thoroughly flustered.
Just as Ara was scrambling to salvage the situation somehow—
"F-fine!! The special discount too! I'll handle Ara personally! Free broadcast makeup for the entire contract period!! How about that!!"
Gang Ji-yeon struck first. The words came out almost like a plea.
"Sorry? Uh… yes…"
In the end, without managing a single word of explanation, Ara was simply steamrolled by the force of it and found herself saying yes.
Ugh…
She didn't actually shed tears, but she looked like she was crying.
"Ah… um… Shall we prepare the contract on our end, then?"
"Yes…"
"Understood. We're out of time, so we'll be heading out. Ara, let's go."
And just like that, leaving Gang Ji-yeon behind, the two of them walked out of the salon.
In the car on the way to the studio, a long silence hung between them before Jeong Yeo-un was the first to speak.
"Ara."
"Yes."
"I learned a lot."
"?"
She put the pressure back on someone she'd already cleaned out completely and extracted their organs on top of it.
He wasn't sure whether this was something you were supposed to say about one of your own actors, but she was a genuinely terrifying woman. No blood, no tears — a true genius of negotiation. An ordinary person couldn't even approach her level.
I'd better be careful not to get on her bad side. That said…
"I truly gained a profound insight. Thank you, Ara."
"Sorry? Uh… sure."
What is he even talking about.
Is this company actually functional?
Ara simply gave up on thinking about it.
I do feel bad for the director, though. Cleaned out for ten million plus extras…
As Jeong Yeo-un replayed the events of a moment ago in his mind, he offered Gang Ji-yeon a quiet, heartfelt condolence — the kind of consolation a man who had been fleeced for a hundred million won might offer someone fleeced for ten. His own experience, of course, had long since been completely forgotten.
And so the two of them arrived at the studio.