Poor Small-to-Medium Enterprise? (3)
‘That bastard, he didn’t even know I was at YK?’
Watching Kim Hak-soo’s expression, Ma Seok-il confirmed his suspicion and clicked his tongue inwardly. ‘Back when I worked for him, he was the guy who claimed he knew exactly where every former employee was working. As expected, it was all a lie.’
In truth, Ma Seok-il had been headhunted back when he was hitting his peak performance. Someone had offered to double his salary if he moved to their company. At the time, while Ma Seok-il was great at driving sales, he had a tendency to trust people a bit too much. Naturally, he had gone to his boss for a sincere consultation.
‘Now that I think about it, this guy’s brain really works in twisted ways when it comes to stuff like this.’
Ma Seok-il had never spoken to Manager Choi, so he didn’t have his address, nor did he know which company he had joined. Therefore, his knowledge of Manager Choi’s current life was absolutely zero. In reality, Manager Choi had moved to a new company, succeeded in all his projects, and was currently working while earning 3.5 times his original salary. Of course, Ma Seok-il didn’t know that yet either.
However, Ma Seok-il could now clearly see that the "status updates on former employees" the boss had fed him and other potential defectors were all complete fabrications.
“Boss, have you been well?”
At Ma Seok-il’s polite greeting, Kim Hak-soo nodded with an awkward smile. “Huh? Uh……, ah, no, yes. I, I’ve been doing well.”
Kim Hak-soo was so flustered he was even stuttering. Seeing that, a seed named ‘triumph’ began to sprout in Ma Seok-il’s heart. ‘That’s it! This guy is in a pretty desperate spot right now, isn’t he?’
If it were Kim Hak-soo’s usual personality, he would have acted arrogant even if it meant the deal fell through. But the fact that he couldn’t act tough was proof that the factory’s situation was dire. Because of this, Ma Seok-il could instantly draw up a blueprint for how to handle Kim Hak-soo.
“Boss, have I only worked here for a day or two? Let’s get straight to the point. Are we doing the contract or not?”
“Pardon? Y, you’re going to sign the contract?”
“Isn’t that why I came here?”
Kim Hak-soo fell for Ma Seok-il’s act immediately. Of course, there was a reason he fell for it. ‘Phew, seeing him act like this, he’s probably planning to slash the unit price. Still, it’s better than no contract at all.’
In a situation where he needed to earn even a single penny, not signing a contract—even one with slashed prices—would be a huge blow to Kim Hak-soo. Thus, for the sake of his own survival, he decided to swallow his pride for a moment.
“A, alright. I must be a bit tired because I didn’t sleep well last night. I’ll start the facility tour right away.”
Watching Kim Hak-soo walk ahead to lead the way, Ma Seok-il’s eyes were filled with satisfaction. ‘This is why one must succeed.’
Kim Hak-soo, who had used him to the bone and discarded him in the past, was now speaking to him with honorifics. If he hadn’t been working at YK? This would never have happened. Therefore, Ma Seok-il inwardly thanked the real Chairman, Yoon-gi, and Ryu Geun-tae, and began to look around his old workplace.
‘The employees all look exhausted.’
With his sharp eye for detail, there was no way Ma Seok-il could miss the state of the employees, who were filled with fatigue. Because of this, when he stood at the entrance to the facility floor, he grasped the entire situation.
“Boss.”
“Yes?”
Kim Hak-soo, who had stopped right in front of the production facility entrance, turned back with the door half-open, looking at Ma Seok-il as if to ask what was wrong.
“Honestly, is there any need to check this? The facilities are all pretty much the same anyway. Let’s just get straight to the point.”
Kim Hak-soo couldn’t help but be flustered by the completely unexpected situation. “Pardon? No, but you still need to check……”
“No, I don’t think that’s necessary. The president’s office is in the same place, right?”
Ma Seok-il cut off Kim Hak-soo and headed toward the president’s office first, and Kim Hak-soo, though flustered, hurriedly followed him. Meanwhile, Managing Director Park and the other employees, who had been watching this from a distance, all plopped down onto the floor, overcome with a deep sense of despair.
“Damn it, fuck……”
The employees were seeing Managing Director Park curse for the first time in their lives.
“It’s not iced coffee?”
At Ma Seok-il’s remark about the steaming hot coffee, Kim Hak-soo gave an awkward smile. “Pardon? Ah, yes……. You always liked hot coffee, didn’t you?”
‘As if.’
Contrary to his inner thoughts, Ma Seok-il replied, “That’s right,” and took a look around the office. ‘It’s gone, just as I thought.’
By the late 80s, refrigerator penetration in South Korea would exceed 1 million units. Even now, in 1985, any middle-class family or even slightly well-off commoner used a refrigerator. However, Ma Seok-il had worked here in the late 70s. Even back then, Kim Hak-soo enjoyed iced coffee. He even kept a refrigerator in his office to do so. A refrigerator was a luxury that, by the standards of the time, only the truly wealthy could afford. Kim Hak-soo had enjoyed that iced coffee all by himself while never giving any to his subordinates, but now, in 1985, Kim Hak-soo’s office had regressed in time, and the refrigerator was gone.
‘Seriously, the company must be in dire straits.’
Ma Seok-il thought back to his earlier realization and smiled triumphantly. ‘If that’s the case, I can squeeze him even harder.’
Ma Seok-il, who had taken a sip of coffee, was sitting in the seat of honor. Kim Hak-soo’s face twisted and then smoothed out for a brief second at Ma Seok-il’s attitude of deliberately crossing his legs and leaning back in his chair. However, Ma Seok-il had no intention of calling him out on it. Because he had a plan.
“Anyway, to make a deal, we need to set a unit price…… Actually, while this production run is short-term, depending on how it goes, we could trade consistently. After all, once you make the mold, production is just a matter of stamping them out, isn’t it?”
Kim Hak-soo’s eyes lit up at the bait of a continuous transaction. “I, is a continuous transaction also possible?”
“Of course. If the product sells well, we’ll naturally go into reproduction, and if there are no defects in the product, there’s no reason not to keep trading with a stable factory.”
Since his situation was already desperate, Kim Hak-soo leaned forward and gave a servile smile toward Ma Seok-il. “You don’t have to worry about that. As you know from working here, our factory’s defect rate is at a very low level, isn’t it? You can trust us.”
“Well. That’s something I’ll experience for myself later. For now, we need to decide on the unit price.”
Ma Seok-il slashed the unit price to the absolute maximum he could, and Kim Hak-soo, thinking of future deals, had no choice but to accept it while biting the bullet. Of course, the contract wasn’t finalized; it was just a verbal agreement for now. They agreed to sign the formal contract in ten days, and their conversation ended. Ma Seok-il then left the office. However, Ma Seok-il had a separate plan.
“Miss Lee.”
On the way home from work. Hearing her workplace title, Lee Da-hae, the accountant at Seonggang Trading, was startled and looked around. “Miss Lee, it’s me. Don’t you remember?”
“Oh……, Assistant Manager!”
Lee Da-hae recognized Ma Seok-il, who had been kind to her when she had just graduated from commercial high school and started working at Seonggang Trading. “I went to the company, but I didn’t see you. Were you in the office?”
“Yes. I had work the boss assigned me. Did you come today?”
“Yes. Didn’t you hear that someone was coming from YK?”
Only then did Lee Da-hae clap her hands without realizing it. “Ah! That was you, Assistant Manager! The factory was buzzing today. People were cursing the boss out like crazy, too.”
“Everyone was complaining that they’d cleaned until their backs broke for nothing, right?”
“Oh? How did you know?”
Ma Seok-il gave a triumphant smile at the surprised Lee Da-hae. “I deliberately didn’t look at it so the boss would get cursed at. Miss Lee, do you have time right now? I have a serious proposal for you.”
“A proposal?”
“It won’t be bad to hear it. If you haven’t had dinner, how about some udon at a street stall? Or maybe we could have some Ssanghwa-cha?”
“Then let’s go to the tearoom.”
“Good, let’s go.”
Ma Seok-il and Lee Da-hae moved to a nearby tearoom and ordered Ssanghwa-tang. With the Ssanghwa-cha, topped with a floating raw egg yolk, in front of each of them, Ma Seok-il opened the conversation first.
“Miss Lee, about the proposal I mentioned earlier.”
Calling unmarried female employees "Miss Lee" or "Miss Park" was essentially the social norm at the time. In this day and age, he would have called her "Ms. Da-hae," but it was just a social title with no ulterior motives from Ma Seok-il.
“Yes, what is the proposal?”
“Are you thinking of changing jobs?”
“Yes! I am!”
Lee Da-hae was an employee with a fair amount of intuition. That must have been how she survived under Kim Hak-soo while venting her frustrations. Ma Seok-il had come as a YK executive, and he was asking her about changing jobs? She at least had the ability to sense that this was an opportunity.
“I’m glad we understand each other quickly. As I said earlier, to explain in more detail, I’m working as a Section Chief at YK Department Store. Of course, I also handle work related to the YK Group.”
“You’ve really become very successful. YK Department Store……, I’ve really wanted to go there at least once, but it’s a dream I can’t even imagine with my salary.”
“That’s why you should go now. If you’re okay with it, I want to invite you to join YK as an employee. Are you interested?”
Lee Da-hae bowed her waist so low she almost hit her head on the table. “I definitely want to go!”
“No, well, you don’t have to say it like a private in the army. Anyway, you’re interested, right?”
“Yes! Really, I want to go so badly. You know the company could go bankrupt at any moment, right? I don’t know when my salary might be delayed, and the boss keeps making me do bad things, so I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
“Come to think of it, I barely saw any of the employees I used to know. It seemed like Managing Director Park was still there, but didn’t he tell you about me?”
“Ah, he was promoted to Managing Director. He left work early today because he was tired.”
“No wonder I didn’t see Managing Director Park among the people leaving.” Ma Seok-il nodded for a moment and continued, “Miss Lee, then can you bring Managing Director Park here at this time tomorrow?”
“Are you going to scout Managing Director Park, too?”
“It’s not just that level.”
Ma Seok-il smiled and told Lee Da-hae part of his plan. A moment later, Lee Da-hae began to laugh out loud. “I’ll definitely bring the Managing Director here tomorrow!”
When it comes to screwing over someone you truly hate, everyone acts with genuine sincerity.