The Center of the Storm (2)
A chicken stew specialty restaurant in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
Known for its quiet setting, lovely scenery, and excellent food, the place had just finished serving two middle-aged men, who now sat across from each other with faces that had gone hard in an almost imperceptible way.
They were Choi Min-sung, the head of Pacific Industries, and Park Jong-woo, the head of Blue Sky.
“Hoo... can this really be right? If they won’t take the money, shouldn’t we rethink this?”
Even though it was broad daylight, Park Jong-woo was drinking soju with the leftover sauce from the meal and voicing his worries, his face flushed red.
“In my life, I’ve never seen people who hate money,” Choi Min-sung said. “From what I hear, the new Defense Minister came in and started cracking down hard on DAPA, saying corruption would be punished severely. That Colonel Mok bastard probably couldn’t take it because of that. And I checked, and of all things, he was right in the middle of a promotion review too...”
But even after Choi spoke, Park could not hide his unease.
“Whatever the reason, isn’t it still true they didn’t take it? Then aren’t we screwed?”
“Let’s wait for now.”
Park’s face twisted as he picked up his soju glass, set it down, then picked it up again.
“I thought it’d all be over once we handed over the money, but if that doesn’t work... shouldn’t we change the plan?”
“Change the plan... then how about we try this?”
After a moment’s thought, Choi Min-sung slowly leaned his upper body forward.
Park tilted his head and focused.
“What method...?”
“If it won’t go through at the lieutenant colonel level, we go higher. I heard there’s Brigadier General Won Cheong-gyu in DAPA procurement, and that he likes golf. No matter how much of a soldier he is, he doesn’t only use military-exclusive golf courses. We can find out which course he uses in no time, and if we grease the right palms there, what can some little lieutenant colonel do about it?”
At that, Park Jong-woo brightened at once.
“Oh-ho, that’s a great idea. Take him to a room after golf and add a woman, and the job’s done.”
“Hahaha! Exactly. Has there ever been a soldier who didn’t fall for that? They’re all the same. Don’t worry too much. I’ll find out as fast as I can where Brigadier General Won Cheong-gyu plays golf.”
The two men forgot their worries and drank the rest of the soju, dreaming of a rosy future.
But then,
“What the hell is this?”
Choi Min-sung, working in his office, stared at the monitor with his mouth hanging open.
The screen he was looking at was the page for a DAPA bidding announcement.
[Defense Acquisition Program Administration Notice No. 2023-Military Uniform(A)-001]
The Ministry of National Defense Defense Acquisition Program Administration hereby announces the selection of a contractor for the supply agreement of new Air Force and Navy combat uniforms (2023-2028) as follows.
Project Overview
Project Name: Development and Supply of New Air Force and Navy Combat Uniforms
Contract Period: 5 years (extension to be reviewed if necessary after the initial contract)
Expected Volume: 150,000 sets annually for the first year (subject to increase or decrease later)
...
“We’re fucking screwed...”
Buzz.
Right on cue, his phone vibrated.
It was Park Jong-woo from Blue Sky.
With trembling hands, Choi answered the call.
[We’re in big trouble! Right now...]
Park’s panicked voice spilled through the line.
“I checked too. You’re calling because of the DAPA notice, right?”
[What... what do we do now?]
The world went dark for Choi.
He had just been about to look into the golf course Brigadier General Won Cheong-gyu frequented and start working him over, and then DAPA had dropped this announcement out of nowhere.
He hadn’t imagined it would move this quickly.
“The notice is out, but we still have time. You know it’s not like every bidding notice means they’ll do the numbers perfectly, right, Mr. Park? I only just saw it myself, so let me check the details for a second.”
Forcing himself to stay rational, Choi Min-sung read the notice closely.
And then he found something very important.
“Ah, I found it. Did you see item (d) among the main requirements? It says that if Haesol Textile’s patented technologies, like Dual-Tex, are used, the company holding the technology, meaning the patent holder, must cooperate and the royalty rights must be clearly defined. And when I downloaded the detailed section and checked, it says 7%! Seven percent of sales means any business would have to think twice. Nobody’s going to jump in lightly, so let’s not get too excited.”
[R-really?]
“Of course. Who would rush in carelessly? Anyway, don’t worry too much. Are you free today?”
[Huh? Free? Yeah, I am.]
“Then make time and come up to Yongsan right away. We need to go to DAPA or the Ministry of National Defense and get our position across. If we have to, we’ll tell them we’ll take 5%.”
[Good. I was going to take it if it was 5% from the start. It was you, Mr. Choi, who said no!]
That sudden reversal of blame made Choi’s temper flare, but he had no energy left to fight over the phone, so he swallowed his anger.
“I’ll see you later, then.”
After hanging up, he printed out the entire notice and headed to Yongsan.
But as if by design, neither the Ministry of National Defense nor DAPA would meet with them.
“Are we really done for?”
With a miserable expression, Park Jong-woo shot Choi a resentful look and then disappeared in a hurry.
He was probably heading off to try to grab the hem of some DAPA or Defense Ministry official’s trousers, if he could just get near one.
With the life drained from him in front of the main gate of the Ministry of National Defense, Choi Min-sung bit down on a cigarette.
Then he glared at the guard approaching the gate, and with no other choice, flicked the butt away and left.
*
The first floor event hall of Mirae Department Store’s main branch, which usually hosted competing cosmetics brands, had undergone a sudden transformation.
That was because today was the special promotion event celebrating the official domestic launch of GyeolBit bedding.
If it had been ordinary bedding, they might have only been given a small booth, or perhaps not even the first-floor event hall at all, but this time a set had been installed that looked like a grand showroom.
The softly lit space, with its gentle piano melody and faint fragrance drifting through the air, gave the impression that an upscale hotel suite had been lifted whole and placed inside the department store.
At center stage sat a neatly made bed dressed in the newly unveiled Harmony pattern bedding.
The design, with its beige base and subtle blue embroidery in balance, was so refined that it was hard to look away once your eyes landed on it.
Set up this lavishly, it was inevitable that anyone visiting the department store would stop and look.
“Oh my, it’s so pretty.”
“How can a blanket be this nice?”
“What did you say? Five hundred? Gasp...”
People kept admiring the quality of the bedding, only to become even more shocked once they heard the price.
So the ordinary customers who came into the department store could only look once and move on.
The staff had expected that reaction all along.
Even a million won for one blanket would already be hard for ordinary people to imagine, and five million was on a completely different level.
And yet, perhaps because today’s promotional event had spread by word of mouth, quite a few people were lingering instead of walking away.
“So it’s come to Korea too, not just Europe.”
Even someone who had seen GyeolBit bedding in Europe had come by.
“What kind of fabric is this?”
“It’s a French linen blend made of linen, modal, and cotton, so it has a warm yet soft texture. And because it breathes well and doesn’t trap heat, even customers who run warm won’t wake up sweating when they use this blanket.”
Nodding at the department store employee’s explanation, one middle-aged woman took in the texture of the blanket and opened her wallet with startling ease.
“This one set... it can be delivered to my home, right?”
“Yes. If your home is in Seoul, a department store employee will deliver it directly. And since this is a one-week promotional event, we’re also giving a 10% department store gift certificate bonus. If you take the receipt up to the 10th floor, you can exchange it for a 500,000 won gift certificate.”
“That’s great. Please ring it up.”
It had only been about ten minutes since the promotion started, and the first customer had already appeared.
The staff were still dazed.
If it had been a famous luxury bag, five million won wouldn’t have been surprising, but spending that kind of money on bedding was a different matter entirely.
What followed was even more astonishing.
So-called “real rich” customers, decked out in luxury necklaces and designer bags, exchanged knowing looks and chatted naturally about how the weather was turning cooler and it was time to replace their bedding.
And there was one employee leading this remarkable promotional event from the front.
Cha Hee-ju. She handled customers with astonishingly deep knowledge of GyeolBit bedding, meeting each person’s eyes and speaking with a soft smile so effortlessly that the staff could hardly believe she was the daughter of the department store president.
After running the promotion for quite some time, Cha Hee-ju spotted a man entering.
It was Jung Seung-hyun, the head of Haesol Textile.
When Seung-hyun, dressed in a neat navy suit, caught her eye from a distance, he gave her a faint smile.
She had already told him how things would unfold, but seeing it in person at an official promotion event gave it a different feel.
“You’re here, Representative. The response is hotter than you expected, right?”
As she came over to ask, Seung-hyun looked around and sent the setup an admiring glance.
“Yes, this is really beautifully done. The display is excellent too. The customer response looks good at a glance, but are people actually buying?”
“Of course they are. If there weren’t any purchases, my face would be paler than that color over there right now.”
Hee-ju pointed to the blue pattern on display at the event hall.
“That’s a relief. If sales weren’t coming in, I’d have been worried too.”
“Anything works out if you prepare properly. I should be thanking you for making such perfect bedding. Ah, how’s Lesser Factory doing? It got better after Saet-byeol’s ad, right?”
“Yes. I felt it even when Saet-byeol first uploaded that video to social media, but once the proper ad started running, the impact was on another level. This is why everyone spends money on advertising, I guess.”
“Haha, probably. People don’t pour money into ads for nothing. And you should eat with Saet-byeol again sometime.”
“Pardon?”
“What are you so surprised for? You can eat with an advertiser.”
Come to think of it, it wasn’t wrong...
“You’re buying this time, Representative. You’re working so hard to sell blankets for Lesser Factory, so you’re not going to tell me to pay, are you?”
“Oh, no, of course not. I’ll pay. I’ll get you the most expensive one.”
He had somehow ended up making plans for another meal with two women, but watching customers spend money as if under a spell from the bedding made Seung-hyun think coming had been the right choice. A warmth filled his chest.
*
“Heh heh... those fucking bastards...”
Kim Tae-young, president of Daeyang Trading, was laughing like a madman at his monitor.
Then he shouted toward the outside.
“Still not done?”
“Almost done!”
Soon after, a man in his mid-thirties, wearing a suit, rushed into the office holding a stack of approval documents.
“Here it is.”
Kim Tae-young opened the approval folder the employee handed over, scanned the contents, and asked, “What do you think if we win this?”
“If it’s locked in for five years and we get both the Air Force and Navy, then even with a 7% royalty it won’t be a massive loss, since we can bring the unit price down. Profitability can be secured. The one uncertain point is that this calculation assumes the cost of making the functional fabric developed by that place called Haesol Textile is similar to the cost of making ordinary combat-uniform fabric.”
“Then that’s a problem, isn’t it?”
“I couldn’t confirm it for sure, but since it’s said to be similar to the fabric used for the Lesser Factory brand, I checked their website myself. For a functional fabric, it’s surprisingly cheap. Compared to our existing cost, it looks like maybe 20% at most.”
“As much as 20%...”
He thought it over, but there was no other way, and even so, it was better than nothing.
If they took it now and turned it over, profit would still come in one way or another.
“Okay. Send the mail.”
“Understood.”
After the employee left, Kim Tae-young glared once more at the DAPA notice.
“You bastards were struggling just to save your own skins... go ahead. Let’s see you die.”