VIP (1)
“One watch isn’t enough, is it?”
“We don’t have enough information on the customer.”
“He bought designer shoes and a wallet as well, right?”
“Those were on a debit card, too.”
“He looks pretty young, doesn’t he?”
“Early twenties at most? You’re not telling me he’s a teenager?”
“Hmm…….”
VIP Customer Service Management Team, Hyeondo Department Store, Apgujeong.
A staff member from the luxury watch floor had just handed over the purchaser’s information. In a system where VIP performance was tied directly to the store’s bottom line, the top ten percent of customers moved the numbers far more than the other ninety. That was why the customer management team lived and died by how well they courted their VIPs—especially in Gangnam, where the competition for high-end clients was cutthroat. Landing a single new VIP could set off a windfall. Sometimes it was temporary; more often it shaped sales for years. So they staked everything on the service.
True VIPs were hardly thick on the ground. The pool of genuine upper-class clients was finite. Day after day, the team managed the ones they already had and waged all-out war to poach others from rival stores. The appearance of a completely new candidate—someone with no file, no history—had the management team barely able to contain their excitement. They put their heads together, hunting for ways to register him as a VIP.
“Where is he now?”
“Fourth floor. Golf apparel.”
“Golf wear?”
At that, a look of certainty crossed the team leader’s face.
Not a candidate.
A VIP.
The golf brands carried by the department store sat in a different league from ordinary labels. Right after buying a high-end watch, the man had gone straight to the golf floor. The path alone confirmed it: he was the scion of an upper-class family.
“I’ll go myself.”
“You, Team Leader?”
“I’ll handle it.”
“No. Something about this feels off. I’ll go.”
Park Taesu—industry veteran, personal shopper, and head of the department store’s VIP management team—felt a sharp prick of intuition. It overlapped uncannily with the day he had once picked up a VIP who had made his career. His instincts were sending a powerful signal.
He rose from his seat and smoothed his charcoal-gray suit, then adjusted the name tag on his chest until it sat perfectly straight.
“I’ll come with you.”
His deputy stood as well.
“You want to?”
“Yes.”
Yu Areum—ace of the management team, known for her looks and lively manner. She had a sharp instinct of her own; whenever she worked a client with the team leader, she always picked up on something.
They set off at a quick pace for the fourth floor.
“Is this the real deal?”
“Who knows.”
“Guess the rest of us just get to watch.”
The dozen or so staff left behind fixed their eyes on the bank of CCTV monitors, split into dozens of feeds. The personal shopper team leader only moved in person when the direct family of a top-hundred conglomerate walked into the store. Wealth mattered, but so did social standing; that was part of what made a VIP. Today he had gone out without a single confirmed fact about the customer.
“How long has it been since our team leader last found a new VIP?”
“Huh? About a year, I think? He hasn’t gone out himself in all that time…….”
Only then did the realization hit. Conversation died. Every head turned to the screens.
Cameras laced through the store let them track any target they wanted. Linked with security, the VIP team watched Park Taesu and Yu Areum move through the corridors in immaculate dress—and then:
“That’s him, right?”
“Looks like it.”
“Whoa. Those proportions? He’s a total model.”
“……He’s a celebrity.”
What first caught the team’s eye was the silhouette of a man heading toward the golf shop on the fourth floor—walking with a lofty ease that crushed every male customer he passed.
Clubs were one thing. Golf wear was another story entirely. I had none.
Tomorrow was the day. The day Pro An Hyeonju had asked me to go out for a round. There had been something in her eyes I couldn’t put a name to—some quiet, desperate need. Refusing her had been hard. So I had agreed, of course. I wanted to experience a real course anyway. Golf had long been treated as the private sport of the upper class; these days it had become essential even for ordinary people doing business.
The problem was simple. The clubs had come free. The clothes, I had never so much as tried on.
The fourth floor held more than ten dedicated golf apparel shops, stocked not only with clothing but with every small accessory imaginable.
“Hmm.”
Everything on display was luxury. Choosing any of it was harder than it looked. This was a whole region of life I had never stepped into.
“Sir.”
A courteous male voice came from behind me. It didn’t sound as if it was meant for me—especially here, where I didn’t know a single employee.
“Sir.”
Again. Curious, I turned.
“Are you talking to me?”
A man and a woman stood watching me. Neat faces, neat clothes, neat posture: department store staff, clearly. The man looked late thirties; the woman, late twenties or early thirties. Both of them were strikingly good-looking. Both smiled as they looked at me.
“Yes, sir.”
“What…… is this about?”
I asked the two strangers calmly.
“Here—my card.”
The man offered a business card with careful formality.
Park Taesu
Team Leader, VIP Customer Service Management Team
VIP customer management?
This was my first visit to a department store since the regression. I hadn’t even registered as a member. There was no reason these people should know me. In my past life I would have taken that card with both hands, bowed under the weight of the honor. My position was different now. Understanding their intent, I opened my mouth slowly.
“And?”
The unshaken retort made Park Taesu flinch.
The young man in front of him was anything but ordinary. In all his years at the store, Park Taesu had served tens of thousands of customers and kept a private catalog of their types in his head.
This is no ordinary person.
A serious VIP prospect—the first in a long while who actually made him tense. The man looked very young, early twenties; at a glance you might almost mistake him for a high school student. Not a single blemish on his skin, the way rich kids often were. The quiet air of breeding around him made that background feel like fact. He was nothing like the flash-in-the-pan sons of Gangnam new money. He carried an upper-class aura those people could never fake. There was a reason such heirs were nicknamed lion cubs and tiger cubs: no one else could imitate that presence.
It wasn’t even the atmosphere of a judge’s or prosecutor’s household. The children of Supreme Court justices and prosecutors general didn’t radiate this either. Only families with deep, stable wealth, long-held honor, and real power produced it—the so-called chaebol houses of Korea, and among them only those ranked roughly in the top fifty, houses with real history. He neither dismissed the people in front of him nor treated them with special reverence. That calm in his eyes was the tell. An ordinary customer would have fussed over the card. A true future VIP’s answer was simply: And?
“You seem to be shopping. We can be of help.”
“We’ve come to assist you.”
Park Taesu recovered with a smile. Yu Areum chimed in from the side. To Park Taesu’s eye, the customer clearly needed guidance—but barging into an upper-class shopping session was the last thing you did. Their shopping was closer to art appreciation. The children of those houses had their own routines, moving by clear private intent rather than by other people’s gazes.
“…….”
The future VIP regarded the two of them briefly.
“All right.”
The answer came back cooler than expected, without a single wasted word—the mark of someone raised in a distinguished house.
“Thank you. We’ll take the best possible care of you.”
Park Taesu gave a short bow, satisfaction and gratitude tucked into the gesture.
“I’m Deputy Manager Yu Areum. Sir, would you like any help with the golf apparel?”
The shopping ace who had been standing quietly at Park Taesu’s side stepped forward. Clean looks, clear diction—clients trusted her. She had chosen her moment well.
“Yes.”
“Do you have a brand you usually prefer?”
“First visit today. I’m heading out for a round tomorrow.”
“I see. Congratulations.”
Yu Areum’s face lit with a bright smile.
The team leader got tense. That means there’s something here.
Her dream was to become a personal shopper herself. Park Taesu was headed for the executive track soon, and more than a few people had their eyes on his seat—a position that paid over a hundred million won a year plus a three-percent sales commission. In a good year the take ran into the hundreds of millions. Land one VVIP and you never had to worry about your salary again. That was how the management team’s pay structure worked.
Yu Areum studied the man in front of her carefully. VIP prospect or not, his looks were on another planet. Model-tall, flawless skin, a frame that looked lean and solid at once. The face and presence were the kind no woman could ignore.
“Would it be all right if Deputy Yu assists you?”
Park Taesu took a step back. Today, an introduction was enough.
“Yes.”
Another short answer.
“If anything is inconvenient, please contact me at once. Enjoy your shopping.”
Park Taesu offered a brief nod and was turning away when—
“Ha Taewoong??”