Corporate Villain
Copyright© 2025 by K.W
Chapter 34
“The registered vehicle has entered.”
It was past 9 o’clock.
I turned off the phone I was looking at and got out of bed when I heard the car entry notification sound coming from the first floor.
Usually, it takes about 5 minutes from the time the notification of a vehicle entering rings until the executive opens the front door.
I put on a cardigan over my pajamas and went downstairs.
“Did you have dinner?”
“I don’t want to think about it.”
There was no separate green onion kimchi.
Literally, he came in looking like green onion kimchi.
As if he couldn’t even muster the strength to carry his bag, he took off his shoes, entered the house, and immediately dropped the bag onto the sofa with a thud! Then he collapsed right next to it.
For a moment, I wanted to cover his skirt area, which was barely revealing his legs under something like a blanket, as if I didn’t care or it didn’t bother me at all how casually he had fallen.
“Then go wash up and sleep quickly.”
“I can’t.”
Even sprawled out on the sofa, he seemed to have the strength to shake his head.
The executive shook his head from side to side and managed to get himself up.
“Why? Do you have more to do?”
“No matter how long I hold the managers and have a meeting, no answer comes out. What kind of hint could you give me in this situation ... That was all I could think about during that frustrating meeting.”
If there’s Hermès for leather luxury, and Patek Philippe for watch luxury, then there’s Graff for women’s jewelry brands.
I heard that Graff contacted us today.
They said they would withdraw the brand from the Daeyoung duty-free shop at Incheon Airport.
That’s all I know too.
“It’s been the most frustrating and inconvenient since you went to Mulsan. If you were here, I could just ask you what you think on the spot, but now I can’t. Do you have about an hour?”
“Not just an hour, I have three hours, and it doesn’t matter, but the situation hasn’t been resolved?”
“What time is it now?”
“It’s 9... 10 minutes past.”
“Go up first. I’ll just take a quick hot shower and come right up.”
Graff.
From the executive’s perspective, it must be a real sore spot.
Why is Kang Moon-jung called the little Kang Ki-young?
Just 2 years.
As the head of distribution operations, moving up to executive director, it took just two years to create today’s Daeyoung Hotel.
It was a decisive moment that earned the executive the nickname “Little Kang Ki-young,” as Daeyoung Hotel, with its brand alone, crushed the formidable foreign franchise brands that had been dominating the hotel sector.
Using his connections, he swept up all the weddings of the children from domestic conglomerates, shaping the hotel’s image, and at the same time, successfully promoted the Daeyoung Hotel brand abroad by sponsoring international events in Korea whenever they occurred.
But where there is success, there is also failure.
It’s true that the executive led many projects to success in distribution, but there were also quite a few that failed spectacularly.
One such case was the entry of the brand Draup into the airport duty-free shops.
How should I put it ... It’s like being constantly dragged around by the brand, right?
Eventually, Draup cited sluggish sales as an excuse and conveyed to Daeyoung Distribution their intention to withdraw from the airport duty-free shop, considering their brand image.
Personally, I think this is the time to either break up with Draup or really tighten the reins, but then again, what is that ... as if it’s that easy.
The third floor, turned into a conference room.
Before the executive arrived, I had prepared a cup of coffee brewed with a Marco machine, setting it on the table to spread the aroma.
Soon, the executive, having finished his shower, came up to the third floor, cutely inserting his hands into the pockets of his pajama top, almost like a penguin.
Now, his bare face seems more natural and more Kang Moon-jung than the one with makeup.
“Coffee at this late hour?”
“It’s because it’s late at night. The CMG group located in northern Italy. The world’s top-rated coffee machine brand born there, the luxury Marco. If you’re interested, let me know. I’ll brew you a cup.”
Already exhausted from finishing a relay of meetings and heading home at this hour, the executive feigned throwing a Kleenex tissue at me from the table, asking why I had to make him laugh.
“Take it easy, take it easy. Even if the merchandise side offers to put in the machines at the same margin, how can you expect the franchisees, whose stores aren’t even two years old, to change their coffee machines? That’s not possible. It’s too hard.”
“But if you taste the coffee brewed with the luxury Marco, the world’s top-rated coffee machine brand born from the CMG group in northern Italy, don’t you think your mind might change a little?”
In the end, the executive was caught in a big laugh, twisting his body in annoyance at being caught laughing at such a ridiculous joke.
“Hehehe. Ahhh ... stop making me laugh! I’m really serious today!”
At times like this, Kang Moon-jung is quite simple.
Just a little joke like this and she quickly regains her energy.
I know better than anyone when and what kind of humor to insert to lighten the executive’s heavy mood.
At times like this, it’s better to start with a light joke to change the mood before diving into serious business talk.
“What is it? What’s so serious?”
“Why ask when you know everything? Ah, what should we do about Draup?”
I ponder the situation.
The methods must have already been devised by the distribution managers, experts, and the competent.
But it means none of the methods were realistic or effective.
How could I find a method that even the experts couldn’t?
In such cases, it’s not about finding a method, but making the executive realize what he truly wants to do.
“Do you really want to catch it?”
A tactic I often use.
I keep asking questions.
Then, within the questions I pose, the executive finds the solution himself.
Over time, we’ve faced obstacles head-on and cleared them together, step by step.
“You call that a solution?”
“Then try cajoling like giving candy to a crying child.”
“That will only spoil them more, you know.”
“Then just say, ‘I understand, let’s withdraw.’ What’s the problem? We have Chaumet, Boucheron, Chloé ... all of them. What’s the issue?”
“It’s because Draff completes the line. Are there any other department stores in Korea that have secured the golden line of Chaumet, Boucheron, Chloé, and Draff besides us, Daeyoung? There are only two places in all of Asia, including us. And withdrawing from duty-free shops means withdrawing from our department stores too.”
“So, go ahead. Withdraw from duty-free? Okay. Pull everything out. Just go for it. We’ll deal with the aftermath later.”
“What if we can’t recover? If we let go of Draff, Taekyung will be like, ‘What a treat!’ Right? Currently, only we and Taekyung handle Draff. It’s only a matter of time before they get the buff from Draff and take over Chloé as well. Then, it won’t be Daeyoung but Taekyung who will be the only department store with the big four jewelry lines. Do you think I can stand that?”
“Draff never expected dramatic sales from duty-free shop entries in the first place.”
“What reason can’t we find?”
“So, what was Draff expecting when they allowed Daeyoung, not Taekyung, to enter their duty-free shop?”
This is where a question mark inevitably arises.
I don’t know either.
I’m just crafting fundamental questions to help the executive assess the situation more objectively.
“What were they expecting when they chose Daeyoung Distribution?”
The executive repeats my question to himself, as if talking to himself, and smacks his lips.
“Both Draff and we ultimately need each other’s image.”
What does he mean?
“We needed the image of a department store that secured the second golden jewelry line in Asia with Draff following Chaumet, Boucheron, and Chloé...”
Exactly.
There was never a plan to generate significant sales with Draff.
“Draf is...”
Why? What’s the matter? Why did you stop talking all of a sudden?
“Why? Is there something that suddenly came to mind?”
The executive’s eyes began to shine.
As if he had never collapsed onto the sofa like a wilted radish, his eyes sparkled brightly.
“Just a moment.”
I’ve never caught anything, what do you mean ‘just a moment’?
The executive suddenly made a snapping sound with his fingers.
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