The Bidding War (1)
Hee-joo was in a spectacularly foul mood, waiting for her husband to come home.
That man had apparently slipped off somewhere in the middle of his trip home.
That morning, on his way to work, he'd run into Young-hoon, mentioned he might stop by for some wine (?), and told her to get all dolled up and wait for him. She'd been bubbling with anticipation! And then, an hour ago, he'd texted to say he was finally heading home.
Which meant she had to clear the obstacles off the field before the main event.
So even though it was barely ten o'clock, she'd forced the kids into bed. Then she showered, slipped into something scandalous for sleepwear, and made every preparation for the match ahead.
And this man still wasn't home.
So she sent her final ultimatum.
The message apparently scared the daylights out of Ki-jin, because he came scurrying home in a mad rush.
Left alone, Young-hoon cracked open a beer and sank into thought.
Hoo. Honestly, I have no idea how my life is spiraling these days.
All I did was go down to my hometown over Chuseok and bury a skull in a nice sunny patch of ground — and suddenly I've turned into some kind of superhuman...
Music, cooking, even literature now... My head's spinning. And it's not like I can confess any of this to a single soul.
Young-hoon was having a hard time adapting to how fast everything was moving.
But the moment he thought of the check tucked against his chest, his mood lifted.
I sold Chairman Choi three bottles of the Magic Additive wine today and collected a hundred billion won. Which makes me... a hundred-billion-won rich guy. Heh heh heh. I've got to get to the bank tomorrow, no matter what.
Wait — this check isn't fake, is it?
Nah. Come on. A man that legendary wouldn't be pulling a prank.
Better finish off the rest of this drink and head home.
Just as Young-hoon was lost in his happy daydreaming, Hee-joo was pouncing on her husband, ready to begin the match — when Ki-jin abruptly called for a timeout.
"Hey, what kind of timeout is that when we haven't even started? What, are you scared of me now?"
"Hold on, honey. The night's long anyway. Let me tell you about what happened at dinner first..."
"Which is? Out with it."
"So... I had dinner with two VVIP guests and your cousin Young-hoon today, and one of them gave us and Young-hoon a rather excessive gift."
"A gift? What is it? I thought you said you were getting a fat bonus this year. There's something else on top of that?"
"Yep. He gifted us a luxury villa in Gangnam. We're on the third floor, Young-hoon's on the fourth. We can move in starting this weekend. And guess how big it is? A hundred pyeong. Can you believe it?"
"Really? Even our current forty-eight pyeong feels roomy. A hundred? I'll die just doing the cleaning."
"Oh, come on, I'm not joking. It's a hundred pyeong, I swear. Young-hoon and I are meeting tomorrow evening at the place we'll be living. Su-jin's coming too."
"Why Su-jin?"
"Young-hoon says the place is too big for one person, so he's having Su-jin live with him."
"Well, that works out nicely. With them right above and below us, the wine will flow forever."
"You have no idea how lucky you are to have Young-hoon for a cousin-in-law. Do you know what that wine is worth?"
"How much? Last time, Young-hoon said it ran about five hundred thousand a bottle. Even if it's pricier than that, how much worse can it get? A million?"
"Aigoo, don't even get me started. Timeout's over. Match resumes, now!"
This couple was about to run a match that would last a minimum of two hours and a maximum of four.
So happy they could die. Let them die happy.
Unlike his passionately devoted cousin and her husband, Young-hoon returned home to a lonely shower.
The trouble was that darn problem of his.
Already an inconvenience with nowhere to be used, and now he'd drunk the elixir on top of it...
Well, nothing for it. The Eagle 5 Brothers would have to mobilize.
By the time he finished his shower and lay down, it was nearly midnight.
Young-hoon drifted off before he knew it.
And so another day passed.
It was Wednesday, November 8th.
Once again, Young-hoon was first through the office doors.
He pulled out his work notebook and ran through the day's schedule. Nothing special on the internal calendar — only the materials for the nationwide marketing team leaders' conference, due by end of day. He'd gotten nearly ninety percent of it done yesterday, but Manager Kim's report was still unfinished. He'd need to stay close and help him wrap it up.
As for outside commitments: in the evening, he was to take Hee-joo and her husband, along with Su-jin, to see the house they'd be moving into, then have dinner together afterward.
Though the title transfer probably isn't done yet — is it really all right to just barge in and live there? And I need to stop by the bank, too. That hundred-billion-won check has to be dealt with first.
With the other employees not yet in, Young-hoon went to the lounge, fetched a cup of coffee, and quietly savored it.
Terrible, as expected. He'd have to start mixing in the Magic Seasoning.
Just then, the phone rang.
It was President Lee Jae-man.
"Mr. Kim, good day to you."
"Ah, hello. What brings you to call, President Lee? Is something the matter?"
"No, sir. You told me not to call and not to text, but it still felt like poor courtesy to the head of the house, so I'll keep the report brief."
"Well, if you insist, I can hardly stop you. Go ahead."
"Yesterday's events went off without a hitch. Today we have five in the capital region and two in the provinces. The trouble is, the volume of event requests has suddenly ballooned, and I worry whether our girls' stamina can hold up. So far they show no signs of strain, but... Hm? Now that I think of it, that's rather odd, isn't it. The schedule is punishingly tight, yet everyone's powering through without so much as a wobble — myself included. I suspect it's the wine we drank last week."
President Lee Jae-man seemed to marvel at his own observation, asking and answering himself in turn. Then he recalled the matter at hand and resumed his report.
"We heard from PD Jang Won-seok at MBS yesterday. He called about the girls' appearance on MBS Radio's Pleasant 2 PM this Friday, and I told him we'd prepare thoroughly with no delays. I still can't believe A Loving Heart is holding an all-kill on the music charts. It's surreal that it's keeping the top search rankings, too."
"You're working hard, President Lee. Please pay special attention to the girls' health, and take the long view — don't push them too hard. Ah, and about Friday: after the radio appearance, please avoid booking any evening events if you can. I'd like to have one dinner with the girls that day."
"Understood, sir."
"And let me know when the office relocation and the dorm move can happen."
"Yes. I'll report when we meet on Friday."
"All right. Then — fighting out there today."
By the time the call with President Lee ended, the other employees had trickled in.
Thankfully, Deputy Hong was on leave through today, which meant one less sight of that loathsome face.
Then, out of nowhere, Young-hoon found himself wondering what exactly the man got up to on his days off.
At that moment, Park Dae-ri came over and nudged him, coffee in hand.
"Ever since yesterday lunch, no other coffee tastes right. You got any of that herbal powder left?"
"Told you yesterday — I barely got my hands on any. I'll try to score more when I go home for the holidays."
"Got it, my beloved coworker."
"By the way, Deputy Hong's on leave until today, right? What do you suppose that bastard gets up to?"
"He said he had family business, didn't he?"
"Pull the other one. Do you have any idea what kind of household that guy comes from? If there were actual 'business' at that house, it'd be all over the news by now. Our Manager Kim is surprisingly naive. Must be all that Gangwon-do countryside in him."
"Hey, where'd the country-bumpkin thing come from all of a sudden?"
"Well, what else would you call a country bumpkin? A gentleman farmer?"
Just as the two were horsing around and shoving each other, Deputy General Manager Cho walked into the office.
Cho Cha-jang was practically a living clock.
He arrived and left at exactly the same times every day. He used to put in overtime at the office too, but ever since he started running around with Deputy Hong, his disappearing-early habit had shot up dramatically.
The moment he arrived, he summoned Manager Kim and asked about progress on the report for Friday's nationwide marketing team leaders' conference. Finding no issues, he nodded along in quiet approval.
Then he ordered Lee Ji-young to go fetch him a coffee.
Most companies were shifting toward a culture where everyone — rank notwithstanding — poured their own. LK Electronics was changing too, but certain executives at team-leader level and above still had the habit of sending their female staff on coffee errands.
Cho Cha-jang sipped his coffee as he worked through his email and approval documents. His expression today was calm.
Which meant the office atmosphere would be calm as well.
As with every organization, the mood of a workplace rose and fell with the daily whims of its team leader or department head. When an executive sneezed, the department head below him caught a cold, and the team leader below him came down with full-body aches. Naturally, the lowly foot soldiers like Manager Kim were hospitalized by the time it trickled down.
But with Cho Cha-jang looking so placid, the day looked likely to pass quietly.
Of course — provided nothing unexpected happened.
At that very moment, the phone rang at Deputy Hong's desk.
With the man absent, Young-hoon reached over and picked it up.
It was President Park of New Seoul Distribution, Deputy Hong's assigned dealership. New Seoul Distribution was one of the top five dealerships handled by Marketing Team 3 — not a company you could afford to dismiss lightly.
"Oh? Manager Kim's picking up? Where's Deputy Hong gotten to? His phone's been switched off since yesterday."
"Good day, President Park. Deputy Hong is on leave due to a family matter."
"That boy seems to be on leave every day of his life. All right, then what do I do? Who am I supposed to talk to?"
"Then tell me, sir."
"Will do? I raised this with Deputy Hong before and never got an answer. There's a tender notice out — Hankook University is replacing all the aging air conditioners in its lecture halls and offices with ceiling-type heating and cooling units over winter break. The contract's worth over ten billion won, so we want in on the bid. But corporate has to send us our bid price or we can't even participate. The deadline is tomorrow."
In that instant, Young-hoon felt the unmistakable sensation of having stepped in dog mess.
Major tenders like this came with a mountain of things to manage — and while winning the bid made it all worthwhile, losing meant even more work on the back end: failure-reason reports, paperwork, the whole slog. And now he was expected to take on the affairs of a dealership that wasn't even his account. With every passing second, Deputy Hong grew more loathsome in his eyes.
He'd have to see the scale of the university tender to know for sure, but replacing HVAC systems across lecture halls, faculty research offices, and administrative buildings would run at least several tens of billions of won. And according to President Park, this one topped ten billion.
This was a genuinely massive tender.
As far as LK Electronics was concerned, Samjung Electronics was a rival so fierce that losing even a game of rock-paper-scissors to them was unacceptable. The two companies fought bloody battles over every scrap — and to think the bid documents were sleeping in a drawer of Deputy Hong's desk. It was enough to make his head explode.
And if they couldn't even enter the bid? That wasn't negligence anymore. That was dereliction of duty.
If any senior executive or the top brass found out about this, Marketing Team 3 would be reduced to a smoking battlefield in a single heartbeat.