Black Label [EN]: Chapter 192

Black Label 191

192. Counterattack

Standing in front of the elevator in the office building, Jaeseung glanced at his wristwatch.

Lately, he’d been surprised every time he checked the time.

It was always an hour or two later than he expected.

Today was no different.

He’d thought it was around nine in the evening, but the clock hands showed it was well past eleven at night.

It wasn’t just the time. He was just as surprised when he checked the date on the calendar.

It had been a while since he’d returned to Korea, but he certainly hadn’t been wasting time.

He constantly reminded himself to do his best, and whenever his mind wandered, he pushed himself hard, trying not to waste even a few seconds.

Perhaps that was why.

The massive amount of schedules and work that had seemed impossible to finish was slowly coming to an end.

Of course, the end of one thing was like the beginning of another.

As soon as his schedules and work in Korea were finished, he would have to go to France to prepare for the final stages of Paris Fashion Week.

Ding-

The elevator arrived on the first floor, and a clear chime rang out.

Jaeseung finally took his eyes off his wristwatch and stepped into the elevator.

He looked in the mirror and stroked his cheeks, which had become noticeably haggard in the past few days. Then, he loosened the tie that was tightly constricting his neck.

“Hoo-”

Was it because he had to prepare for the seasons of both ‘Wall Flower’ and ‘Janel’? Or was it because he had more external worries?

This season felt particularly exhausting compared to the ones he’d experienced so far.

The more his daily routine repeated, the more his desire for rest grew. His eyes were getting more sunken, and he was starting each day in a half-exhausted state.

Just before the tightly closed elevator doors opened.

Jaeseung shook his head vigorously from side to side to clear his mind and get rid of distracting thoughts.

Just as Jaeseung took his first step out of the elevator.

“No, what do you mean all of a sudden…?”

Song Director’s voice, full of anger, began to be heard.

Turning his head toward the end of the hallway where the voice was coming from, he saw Song Director’s back as he vehemently argued with someone, his face red with anger.

“Okay, I understand…”

Just as Song Director was about to put the smartphone in his hand into his suit pocket after finishing the call, Jaeseung, who had been silently watching Song Director from a few steps away, spoke.

“Is something wrong?”

Song Director was startled, as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have, and replied with a frustrated tone, his eyes wide open.

“Ha, jeez. You scared the crap out of me.”

“Are you okay?”

“As you can see.”

“What’s wrong? The phone call sounded pretty serious.”

“Ah, that’s…”

Song Director hesitated for a moment, then began to speak with difficulty.

“I was expecting it, but now that I’m actually experiencing it, I can’t just brush it off…”

“What is it?”

“They’re not going to stay still, are they? They’re starting to ‘tame’ us.”

It was a situation no different from when they were in conflict with the now-defunct ‘Association’.

The outlets or large-scale marts where Wall Flower’s street line product stores were located were starting to bring up issues related to store withdrawals one after another.

“If you look at the companies that have brought up store withdrawal issues in the past few days, they are all companies with the same parent company as the major department store brands that colluded this time.”

“Isn’t that what we expected anyway? Besides, it’s not like we’re experiencing this for the first time.”

“It’s a decision you made with the intention of accepting it, but if all the stores are withdrawn, the impact on sales will definitely not be small.”

“Yes, I suppose so. It means that the only domestic market sales routes left are the official online shop or the headquarters’ directly managed offline stores.”

Song Director, who had taken a long breath, pressed his temples with his fingers and asked.

“Okay, fine. Just one question. What are you going to do? It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I feel like I’m going to die of frustration. I can’t even sleep properly.”

“Shall we go inside and talk? I stopped by the office to talk about this anyway.”

* * *

As soon as he entered the CEO’s office, Jaeseung picked up the stack of documents neatly piled on his desk and placed them on the side table.

Song Director stared at Jaeseung with wide eyes. It was as if he was asking, “What is this?”

“Director Song, you know that work is the best way to get rid of 잡념 [japnyum – distracting thoughts], right?”

“Huh…?”

“Take a look at it first.”

Jaeseung, who had given a short answer, tapped the file folder on top of the pile of documents a few times with his finger.

Song Director began to read aloud the large letters written on the cover of the file folder.

“Overseas department store brand supply contract?”

“Please check if there are any clauses to be revised.”

“Okay, I understand, but how…?”

“The world is wide, and there are many places to sell.”

Song Director, who couldn’t help but exclaim, “Huh…”, raised his head slightly and began to ask questions one after another.

“You’ve already secured overseas distribution routes even though the product lineup hasn’t been revealed yet? By yourself? When did you do that?”

“It’s a trade secret. I’ve only finished negotiating with a few places, but I think it’ll be roughly finished within this week.”

“Don’t do that, just tell me. How did you secure them?”

Jaeseung began to briefly explain the whole story.

As soon as he unlocked his smartphone and went into his phone book, there were countless phone numbers of buyers, business figures, and investors from all over the world, right?

He just took the time to make phone calls whenever he had some free time while working on his schedule and talked about the products for this season. That was all.

To put it simply, all the contracts piled up between the two of them were contracts obtained based on the trust and faith placed in the name ‘Lee’.

“Director Song.”

At Jaeseung’s low voice, Song Director stared intently at Jaeseung instead of answering.

After a moment of silence, Jaeseung slumped down on the sofa opposite Song Director and continued in a rather eerie tone.

“From the beginning, I’ve never worried about whether I’ll win or lose this fight. I’ve only worried about how to set up a *pan* [판 – a game or situation] to punish those nasty bastards.”

“…”

“These contracts are just a stepping stone. Even if I secure overseas routes a little faster, it doesn’t mean that all the losses caused by the domestic distribution route blockade will be covered, right?”

Song Director swallowed hard and spoke with difficulty.

“What’s the next plan?”

“We have to counterattack.”

They’re going to try to strangle us by completely withdrawing the small number of street line stores? That’s a clear miscalculation.

If it had only been collusion, he would have forgiven them with a generous heart after some time had passed and supplied the products after some adjustments.

However, now that they have resorted to such petty measures, mobilizing all the means and methods at their disposal…

It seemed that his thoughts could only turn in a more cruel direction.

In that case, he had no choice but to mobilize all the means and methods at his disposal to deal with them decisively.

* * *

Choi Yu-hoon, the head of ‘World Department Store’, who was busy with his work, picked up the phone that suddenly started ringing.

“Yes.”

The clear voice of his young secretary began to be heard over the phone.

-I’m calling to inform you that a guest has arrived. It’s CEO Lee Jaeseung of the brand Wall Flower.

Choi Yu-hoon, who asked back, “Who? Lee Jaeseung?”, gave a bitter smile. What should he say? He felt inwardly pleased, but on the other hand, he felt quite empty.

He seemed to have secretly hoped that they would not surrender until the end, now that he had revealed his fangs.

It was because he wanted to beat them to a pulp until they foamed at the mouth and collapsed. Choi Yu-hoon snorted once and said.

“I’m busy right now, tell him to wait.”

-Yes. I understand.

Of course, even if they came with a white flag in hand, he had no intention of meeting them right away.

He was going to make them wait for days, a few hours a day, so that they would be completely defeated.

“If you say something you can’t take responsibility for, you have to take responsibility.”

The moment President Choi Yu-hoon, who had muttered quietly, put the phone back in its place, the phone started ringing again right away.

At the same time as President Choi Yu-hoon picked up the phone, he asked in a rather excited tone, “What is it this time?”

-I’m sorry. I’m calling to inform you that we have a call from Team Leader Lim Dong-bin.

“Okay. Connect me.”

In less than a few seconds, the voice of Team Leader Lim Dong-bin, who was like his executive secretary, began to be heard over the phone.

-Sir, I think there’s a bit of a problem with this Wall Flower case.

“Oh, you frustrating friend. What’s the problem? Right now, CEO Lee Jaeseung of Wall Flower has come to see me and is waiting to meet me.”

-Then I think it would be better to bring him in right away. Finding a suitable compromise now…

“What? Bring him in? What are you talking about! You son of a bitch, aren’t you paying attention? What nonsense are you spouting?”

-I’ll organize the data and go up right away. However, public opinion is not good. I think it’s best to quickly resolve and defuse the situation…

President Choi Yu-hoon immediately slammed the phone down and grabbed the mouse right in front of him.

The few words that Team Leader Lim Dong-bin had said seemed to be stirring wildly in his head.

Data, public opinion, resolution, defuse the situation…

As soon as the internet portal site was turned on, President Choi Yu-hoon’s face turned white. It was because of the ‘real-time popular search terms’ listed at the top of the site.

President Choi Yu-hoon immediately called his secretary and said in an extremely urgent tone.

“Tell, tell Lee Jaeseung to come in! Right now! Tell him to come in right now!”

Before long, the door of the office opened, and Jaeseung, dressed in a neat suit, appeared.

As soon as Jaeseung stepped into the office, he sat down on the sofa as naturally as if President Choi Yu-hoon’s office was his own living room.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Jaeseung.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Shouldn’t we skip the pleasantries?”

Jaeseung, who asked bluntly, pointed to his wristwatch with his fingertip and added, “I don’t have much time.”

President Choi Yu-hoon said with a humble smile.

“First of all, thank you for waiting, and I’m sorry. By the way, I don’t know where to start…”

“That’s what I mean. I never dreamed you’d make me wait. Actually, I don’t have much time, and I didn’t visit with the intention of having a conversation with you, President.”

Jaeseung smiled and added after finishing his words.

“I think you don’t know what kind of person I am, so I came to let you know a little.”

Thanks to Jaeseung’s few words, the air in the office became extremely heavy.