The Effect of Connections (4)
On an early morning in Seoul, Lee A-young climbed the stairs toward the Haesol Textile design office, her steps heavier than usual.
The meeting with Team Leader Park So-yeon before work had shaken something loose inside her.
When she reached the design office, A-young sat down at her desk and turned on her computer.
While the monitor brightened, Park So-yeon’s words kept circling through her mind.
"A newly rising genius designer from Korea... minimum annual salary of five hundred million won..."
A-young held the mouse in her hand but could not bring herself to click even once, only staring blankly at the screen.
The final design files for the Tokyo line were open, but they never reached her eyes.
Instead, her mind kept calculating the enormous gap between her current salary and the figure Park So-yeon had mentioned.
Is my value really that high? Have I been working for far too little all this time?
“Team Leader, could you check this?”
Kim Ji-soo, the assistant designer at the neighboring desk, held out a tablet.
It was the lookbook draft for the Tokyo line.
A-young forced herself to focus and took the tablet from her.
“Ah, yes...”
She flipped through the screens mechanically, but her head was still full of other thoughts.
On any normal day, she would have checked every detail with care. Today, she only skimmed the pages with her eyes.
“Are you okay? You look unwell.”
At Ji-soo’s concerned voice, A-young managed a strained smile.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m just a little tired... The lookbook is good. I think we can move ahead with this.”
Ji-soo took the tablet back with a puzzled look.
The A-young she knew would have pointed out at least three revisions, but today she had not offered even a single piece of feedback.
“Are you really sure you’re okay? If you’re sick, maybe you should rest.”
“No, really, I’m fine.”
A-young turned back to her computer.
She stared blankly at the monitor, clicking the mouse for no reason, and looked so out of it that the answer was obvious.
As expected, the employees around her began whispering among themselves.
“What’s wrong with Team Leader today?”
“She’s been weird since yesterday. Think she’s got something on her mind? Or maybe she got dumped?”
“Huh? Team Leader had a boyfriend?”
“How would I know?”
“Maybe she got a headhunting offer from another company?”
“No way... seriously?”
After wandering around in a daze for quite some time, A-young finally sensed the strange atmosphere around her and realized what she must look like.
Her face burned red with embarrassment. She hurried out of the office, went into an empty stall in the restroom, and let out a long breath.
Then she took out the business card she had brought from Park So-yeon, her hand trembling as she stared at it.
On the elegant, embossed card, the words Team Leader Park So-yeon, First Headhunting gleamed.
Biting her lip, A-young wrestled with the decision.
What should I do?
After a long while, she left the restroom, checked every stall to make sure no one was inside, and, as if finally deciding, took out her phone and called the number on the card.
Only after three rings did Park So-yeon’s voice come through.
“Hello, this is Park So-yeon.”
“Hello, this is Lee A-young.”
“Ah, Ms. Lee A-young! I was expecting your call. So... have you made your decision?”
“Before that... could you send me the exact information? What kind of company is it...?”
For a moment, silence hung over the line.
“I think it would be better to tell you that in person. Corporate information is sensitive, after all. Are you free tomorrow?”
A-young hesitated.
Somewhere deep inside, an alarm was sounding, but curiosity drowned it out.
“Yes, I’ll take a day off tomorrow.”
“Good. Tomorrow at ten in the morning, I’ll send you the address. You can look forward to it.”
After ending the call, A-young stepped out of the stall and looked at herself in the mirror.
Her face was paler than usual, her eyes uneasy. She had never felt this strange looking at herself.
At Haesol Textile, she was always confident and driven.
But right now, she looked confused and anxious.
By tomorrow, everything will be decided.
*
The next morning, Lee A-young headed to the address Park So-yeon had sent.
It was in the middle of Gangnam, in front of a building that housed an upscale cafe.
Waiting for her at the entrance, Park So-yeon gave off an elegant impression in a sharp, sophisticated suit.
“A-young! You look beautiful today. This way, please.”
Park So-yeon led her to a seat by the window.
Even though it was still morning, the cafe was packed with businesspeople, so the two of them took a quiet corner table.
Park So-yeon returned with simple drinks and looked at A-young with a gentle, affectionate expression.
“You must have worried a lot since yesterday.”
“Yes... honestly, I was very confused...”
“I understand. The process of suddenly recognizing your own worth is always confusing.”
The way she spoke, as if she were an older sister looking out for her, made A-young feel almost as though they had become close.
Then Park So-yeon pointed toward the building directly across from the cafe.
“See that building over there?”
Lee A-young turned to look out the window and froze.
A thirty-story building with a large logo on its black glass exterior.
Taesung Apparel headquarters.
“Ta... Taesung Apparel?”
Park So-yeon looked at A-young’s reaction with a puzzled expression.
“Yes, that’s right. Taesung Apparel wants you as their head of design. Five hundred million won a year, and with performance bonuses, your annual compensation could exceed seven hundred million won. You’d also have the authority to directly lead a design team of ten people.”
But A-young’s expression was far from joyful.
In fact, her face went white.
Memories of the hardships Haesol Textile had suffered because of Taesung flashed through her mind like a panorama.
Taesung’s unreasonable demands, defective-product judgments, and even the spying carried out through Team Leader Jo Han-gyeol.
“Are you okay? You look pale.”
Park So-yeon’s concerned voice reached her, but A-young barely heard it.
Her mind was filled with a complicated tangle of emotions.
Anger at herself, a sense of betrayal, and above all, deep disappointment.
“I... I’m sorry. I’m going to have to refuse the job change.”
A-young stood up abruptly, not even having taken a sip of coffee.
“Wait! If it’s the conditions you don’t like, we can negotiate further.”
“If it’s Taesung Apparel, I’m not interested in any condition.”
There was iron in A-young’s voice.
“A company that made life so difficult for Haesol Textile is trying to recruit me now? That’s really funny.”
“Ms. Lee A-young, I don’t know what happened, but business is business. There’s no need to mix in personal feelings...”
“I don’t want to talk any more. I’m sorry.”
A-young left the cafe.
The spring breeze brushed her cheeks, and everything suddenly came into sharp focus.
Maybe they had valued her highly, but the thought that sabotaging Haesol Textile was part of the salary package made her furious.
As she walked, she remembered her time at Haesol Textile.
President Jung Seung-hyun, who had given her a chance when she knew nothing at all.
Thanks to his trust and support, she had grown into a designer. She could never betray a company like that.
Maybe this was the kind of thing I needed all along.
Suddenly, A-young felt her heart grow light.
The confusion that had weighed on her seemed to clear all at once.
*
In the first-class cabin of a Korean Air flight bound from Paris to Seoul, Seung-hyun savored a glass of champagne while gazing at the clouds outside the window.
Following Antoine’s advice, he had chosen first class this time instead of business class.
It cost enough to make his hand tremble, but it was worth every won.
“Sir, your meal is ready.”
The flight attendant spoke politely as she set the table.
A three-course in-flight meal was served, and each course came with a matching wine.
Seung-hyun was impressed by the taste of the food and the quality of the service.
The people who make luxury goods have to understand the value of luxury goods.
Antoine’s words lingered in his mind.
It was not just the food and wine that came with the service; even the way the staff treated the passenger was folded into the price of the ticket.
As the long flight of more than ten hours carried him as comfortably as if he were lying in bed, he found himself wondering if this was the power of money.
After fully experiencing first class, Seung-hyun arrived in Korea, dumped his luggage at home without much care, and headed straight to the company.
“Sir, welcome back.”
“Yes. I learned quite a lot. How is the company?”
“Nothing major has happened. The goose you ordered should arrive in Busan in about a month. We can cover the gap with existing inventory until then, and after that we should also be able to handle the quantity ordered by The Peninsula Tokyo without any problem.”
“Good. I actually stopped by Paris before coming back.”
“Paris?”
Hwang Seok-jae had already been wondering why the young president, who should have returned after finishing his business trip, had not come back when expected.
They had managed to keep in touch about work now and then, so he knew there was no need to worry about anything serious.
Still, since he could not exactly ask the president why he had not returned, he had assumed he must be sightseeing in Europe on the way back.
But when Seung-hyun mentioned Paris, Hwang Seok-jae listened carefully.
“While I was there, I met Antoine, the chairman of Loro Piana, and he introduced me to a member of the French National Assembly who sits on the Defense Committee.”
“Ah... then...”
“That’s right. He was telling me to try selling combat uniforms in France too.”
“This is excellent... hahaha!”
Hwang Seok-jae burst out laughing when he heard not only that Seung-hyun had landed a goose-farm contract on the trip, but also that there was a chance to negotiate with the French military.
“What do you think?”
“Of course it’s a good thing!”
“But I...”
“What is it?”
“I’ve set this in motion, but I keep wondering whether the return is too small for the amount of effort it takes. I thought about it on the plane, and the French military is a lot smaller than the U.S. military.”
Only then did Hwang realize what the young president had been worrying over.
“Ah, I see. As a licensing deal, it would be...”
“Right. If it were the U.S. military, we’d be talking about a net profit of ten billion won a year, but for France it might be... one-third, maybe one-fourth of that?”
“That sounds about right.”
“On the surface, it’ll probably look like a big deal and get a lot of attention, but when I think about it, it feels like there isn’t much substance.”
Hwang Seok-jae smiled faintly and said, “If it stopped at combat uniforms, then yes. But if you think of combat uniforms as nothing more than an advertising effect, it changes quite a bit. Like the Mil-Spec effect: Lesser Factory made to the quality good enough for French soldiers to wear.”
“Ah, so you mean French market entry.”
“Exactly. Then the story changes entirely.”
Seung-hyun nodded and smiled with satisfaction.
“On that note, I’ve been thinking about something else too. Our organizational structure still feels like it belongs to the days when we were just running a factory. We’re going to be closing in on one hundred billion won in annual sales soon. We need an organization that matches that.”
Hwang Seok-jae nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. As the company grows rapidly, the organization also needs to be reorganized systematically. I think it’s time we took on the shape of a global enterprise.”
“Then could you put together a proposal for restructuring the organization accordingly? Of course, if we’re reorganizing, we’ll need to renegotiate salaries too.”
At the young president’s words, Hwang Seok-jae felt both proud and deeply moved.
After being pushed out of a conglomerate and leaving with no real future in sight, he had come to a small company and helped turn it into something far larger. Now, with a chance to become an executive again, he felt an emotion he could hardly put into words.
“Yes, understood.”
“And especially Lee A-young. She’s practically our lead designer for Lesser Factory, so take good care of her.”
“Of course. Naturally.”
The two men smiled brightly at the rosy future unfolding before them.
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