Is the Corporation the Underdog, or Is the Bank? (1)
"Oh my, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule. I’m Jeon Su-hun from Yes Savings Bank."
Jeon Su-hun bowed at a perfect 90-degree angle while extending his business card, his demeanor suggesting he was in the presence of royalty rather than a mere department manager.
"Ah, yes. Come on in."
Despite Jeon’s earnest efforts, the response he received was lukewarm at best. It was an attitude that screamed complete lack of interest. And the person displaying this indifference wasn't Yoon-gi, the power behind the throne, nor was it Ryu Geun-tae, the president of YK Department Store, or even Choi Chul-gyu, who acted as the chief of staff.
"I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't arranged this meeting for me, Manager Ma. Thank you so much."
The man making Jeon Su-hun squirm was none other than Ma Seok-il. Currently serving as the sales manager for YK Department Store, Ma was the one handling the bank’s sales representatives.
"I actually have another appointment coming up. I think I only have about 15 minutes."
Ma Seok-il glanced at the watch on his wrist and furrowed his brow. Jeon Su-hun’s expression turned as frantic as a puppy with its tail on fire.
"Oh, i-is that so?"
"Yes."
It was a blunt, one-word answer. Yet, Jeon Su-hun had no choice but to keep smiling at Ma, who looked a good ten years his junior.
"Um... well, you see..."
Faced with the sudden 15-minute limit, Jeon Su-hun hesitated for a moment before deciding to cut straight to the chase. No, he had no other choice. 15 minutes was barely enough time to even broach the main topic.
"By any chance, do you have a specific interest rate in mind?"
"Well. I haven't really thought about it yet."
"Did your superiors perhaps mention anything regarding..."
"They didn't."
For a split second, Jeon Su-hun almost blurted out, "You little son of a bitch!" But the person in front of him was, for all intents and purposes, the ultimate "super-gap"—the superior party. Jeon forced a smile and nodded.
"My apologies. It seems I’ve come too early. I should have visited a bit later..."
Ma Seok-il didn't respond, simply staring at Jeon. Jeon then slapped his own forehead with a theatrical motion.
"Oh! Look at me. I almost forgot. Manager Ma, please, take this."
"What is this?"
"It’s nothing much, just a small token of my sincerity."
"Oh my, you really shouldn't have..."
Ma Seok-il openly peeked into the paper bag, and Jeon Su-hun felt a surge of triumph at the sight of Ma’s blatant greed.
"This is my business card. Please, do give me a call later. I will make sure to match terms that won't lose out to anyone else."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Just then, the office door opened, and a female secretary from the administrative office walked in.
"Manager Ma, the President is calling for you."
"Ah, right. Tell him I'll be there shortly."
"Yes."
Jeon Su-hun felt no suspicion at the sight of the young, innocent-looking secretary, who had just graduated from commercial high school. He nodded first.
"Oh, you were so busy, yet you still made time for me. Thank you so much."
"No, not at all. I’d love to talk more, but given the circumstances..."
"Of course, with the current situation at YK Department Store, you must be incredibly busy. My phone is always on, even after work hours, so please feel free to call me anytime. I’ll be waiting for your call."
"Yes, get home safely."
Jeon Su-hun bowed again—this time at a 120-degree angle—and exited the office, maintaining his smile until the very end. The door closed so softly it didn't even make a sound. For a full minute, Ma Seok-il stared at his watch, and only after confirming a minute had passed did he open the door to check the hallway.
Thwack! As the office door clicked shut, Ma Seok-il shouted toward the back of the room.
"Hey, he's gone. Come out."
Son Min-gwan crawled out from under one of the desks.
"You worked hard, sir."
"Hard? You're the one who worked hard, having to crouch down there."
Ma Seok-il had instructed Son to hide in the office, claiming he would teach him "sales skills," and the space under the desk had been chosen as the hiding spot.
"Anyway, how was it?"
"Um..."
"Hey, it's not like I don't know your personality. Just be honest. If I'm going to teach you the ropes, I need to know what you're really thinking."
With that, Ma Seok-il lit a cigarette.
"In my opinion... I think you were a bit too harsh. Wouldn't he have felt offended?"
"So what if he felt offended?"
"Well, wouldn't that be a disadvantage later when we discuss interest rates and such?"
At Son Min-gwan’s naive response, Ma Seok-il let out a hearty laugh.
"What? Hahaha! Min-gwan, you're really good at sales where you have to bow down, but you're seriously lacking when it comes to sales where you need to stand your ground."
"Honestly... I suppose so."
Son Min-gwan had been handpicked by Yoon-gi specifically for entertaining reporters, so he was already performing at 100 percent of his capacity. But Ma Seok-il’s perspective was different. Looking at the current state of YK Department Store, it had the potential to easily surpass the mid-sized company he used to work for and become one of the top corporations in Korea. Getting promoted just by entertaining reporters? That was absurd.
'Sure, I could probably make it to assistant manager or manager just by entertaining reporters. I'm a manager now, after all. But if I do that, the moment the reporter-entertaining gig ends, I'll be discarded or forced to do that forever as a permanent low-level employee. I’m not going to suffer the same fate twice.'
Ma Seok-il clenched his fist and continued his explanation to Son.
"Min-gwan, do you really think that guy who just left can do us any harm just because he's offended?"
"But the contract terms..."
Ma Seok-il cut him off.
"That’s obviously nonsense. For that to happen, Yes Savings Bank would have to be an equal trading partner. But from our perspective, Yes Savings Bank is strictly the underdog. If a sales rep lowers contract terms just because they're in a bad mood? That’s basically advertising that they don't want to do business."
The bank staff currently approaching YK Department Store weren't exactly the main force from the bank's headquarters. While YK Department Store was closely linked to the center of power and generating significant revenue, the main trading partners for bank headquarters were the top ten conglomerates in Korea. Therefore, the ones desperate for business with YK were merely individual employees. Ma Seok-il had already seen through this. After all, he had been a sales rep before he started entertaining reporters.
"Then, do you plan to maintain this attitude with all the sales reps who come by in the future?"
Ma Seok-il nodded.
"Exactly. However, my attitude will change for a select few."
"How so?"
"The ones who bring up concrete details. Like interest rates, for example. The guy who just left didn't talk about rates. That means he thinks he can manipulate me once we get into actual negotiations. Arrogant bastard."
Ma Seok-il clicked his tongue, looking at the door Jeon Su-hun had exited through.
"I understand now."
"How long do you think you can live just by entertaining reporters? Learn the skills from me. Otherwise, you might end up as an assistant manager forever. A permanent assistant manager, or a permanent manager. Is that how you want to live?"
"Um... actually, I want to be a writer later..."
It was his way of saying he didn't intend to stay at the company for long, but Ma Seok-il shook his head.
"Even if you want to write mystery novels, it's the same thing. To write mystery novels, you can't just be a good person. You have to understand the villain's mindset. What fun is a mystery novel where only good people appear?"
"Ugh!"
As Son Min-gwan groaned at being hit in his weak spot, Ma Seok-il pulled the harpoon even deeper.
"So learn from me. The person who knows how to be kind when they should be kind, and evil when they should be evil, is the one who lives better in this world. Especially if you don't want to end up with a predatory publisher later."
"Hmm... I'll try."
"Good, that's enough of an answer for now."
As Ma Seok-il wore a satisfied expression, Son Min-gwan spoke up again.
"By the way, what was that thing he gave you?"
"Ah, this?"
Ma Seok-il pulled the contents out of the paper bag. It was a pair of red long johns that parents might wear. However, Ma Seok-il wasn't disappointed in the slightest; he opened the box to find a high-end hotel voucher inside.
"Wow, I never thought I'd be on the receiving end of something like this. I was always the one giving."
Ma Seok-il thought that perhaps taking the fall for his boss at his old company had turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
"Um... President. Manager Ma isn't coming, should I go back...?"
Ryu Geun-tae smiled and shook his head at the face of the female secretary peeking through the slightly open door of his office.
"Ah, it's fine. I told him over the intercom that he didn't need to come."
"Oh! I see. Understood."
Ryu Geun-tae wore a warm smile as the secretary closed the door, looking relieved. The secretary was none other than Ryu’s niece. She had been struggling at a "black company" (exploitative workplace) immediately after graduating from commercial high school, so Ryu had gotten her a job in the secretary's office with Yoon-gi’s permission. Thanks to this, Ryu had been able to save face among his relatives, and his niece worked incredibly hard to repay him.
"I bet President Ryu’s niece has no idea, right?"
At Choi Chul-gyu’s words, Ryu Geun-tae nodded with a smile.
"I suppose so. It’s a method that works best when the niece doesn't know."
The most certain way to instantly shorten the "underdog's" time in a negotiation is a call from the "superior" boss. Thanks to this, Jeon Su-hun had been forced to leave his seat quickly, and Ma Seok-il had been able to skip the useless stages and get straight to the meat of the matter. Especially because of the niece's expression, Jeon Su-hun had no idea he’d been played, and this method was already being used effectively on many others, not just Jeon.
The effect was, naturally, excellent. That was why the expressions of Ryu Geun-tae and Choi Chul-gyu were filled with respect as they looked at Yoon-gi, who had instructed them to use this method.
"Come to think of it, Chairman. Manager Ma has reported the list of gifts. What should we do?"
"What’s on it?"
Yoon-gi, who was sitting in the president's chair rather than the guest table, asked, and Ryu Geun-tae began his report in a respectful tone.
"It’s diverse. There’s money, hotel vouchers, pine mushrooms, ginseng, red ginseng, herbal medicine... it’s hard to even list them all. Some companies visit multiple times, not just once."
Since there were definitely cases where they showered Ma Seok-il with gifts every time they visited, the pile of gifts Ma was currently receiving was enough to reach from the floor to the ceiling.
"Have him return only the money, and tell him to share the rest with Assistant Son."
"Wouldn't it be fine for you to take the hotel vouchers, Chairman? You rarely get any rest, so it might be good for you to go on a retreat."
At Ryu Geun-tae’s words, Yoon-gi burst into a laugh.
"I’d rather not squeeze the blood out of a flea. I’m someone who can go to a hotel even without a voucher, but Manager Ma needs to think about these things, so just let him use them. Ma Seok-il lives as a total underdog to reporters, shouldn't he be allowed to act like a 'gap' for once? Just make sure he returns the money properly. Other things can be passed off as gifts, but money at this stage becomes a headache if it gets tied up in bribery."
"Yes, I will convey that he must return it for sure."
"He’s a sales rep, so his memory should be sharp, right?"
Ryu Geun-tae puffed out his chest as if confident.
"Of course. I’m not favoring Manager Ma for no reason."
"Good. Then, let's leave it at that. Tell me about the banks that mentioned specific interest rates."