Chapter 4.1 – Lost Child

– That Ah-jin girl seems to have gone crazy. Jin-wook, do you even know about this?

As soon as the morning meeting ended, a phone call came from Madam Shin. The moment he answered the phone; he pressed the end button. Even though he had done it unconsciously.

Only after it was disconnected did he realize that he had hung up the phone with his own hand.

Rather than anger toward his mother, it was a sense of betrayal that his wife had actually gone to find his mother. When he had said “do as you please,” she had actually gone and done it.

He wanted to chase after his wife right away and scold her. When he had told her to wait until evening, he wanted to ask her if she couldn’t wait that half day and had to scurry off like that.

Once today’s schedule was finished, it would at least put out the urgent fire, so he had planned to have a proper talk with his wife.

He had personally made a reservation at a hotel restaurant famous for its beautiful night views.

He thought his wife’s mood would improve a bit with beautiful scenery and delicious food. Then he planned to have a real conversation.

His wife would have known that he had been busy with year-end events for the past few days.

He recalled Madam Shin saying his wife seemed to have come firmly determined. It sounded as if she had been thinking of divorce for months.

He simply couldn’t understand this woman who was his wife.

This morning, she had been so grateful for just one glass of honey water he had prepared for her. Seeing her moved by just that one thing, he thought things had gotten a bit better.

Her face, blowing on the drink before sipping, had looked so youthful, and he had even thought she was cute.

But then, apparently she had said she was leaving the house. Considering her recent decisiveness, unlike her usual laid-back self, she might already have left.

Was she really not going to come back until he agreed to the divorce?

He wanted to chase after her right away, even if it meant tracking her phone’s location.

Until his secretary reminded him, he had completely forgotten about this afternoon’s meeting. Only then did he realize he had even gone ahead and booked the restaurant without thinking.

He impulsively instructed his secretary to connect him with Senior Executive Director Cha, who was supposed to accompany him to the afternoon meeting.

“Senior Executive Director Cha. Would it be possible for you to handle this afternoon’s meeting alone?”

– Excuse me, President. I’m sorry, but this time that’s impossible. You know that F Department Store has also scheduled this meeting on their end, don’t you? It was a condition that both sides bring their executive teams, but since you’ve been in charge on our side…”

“Right. That’s right.”

He tried to adjust the afternoon schedule with Senior Executive Director Cha, but it was currently impossible. It was a project they had been preparing for a year. Last year, they had to concede first place to F Department Store by a narrow margin in sales rankings.

At that time, hadn’t he resolved to definitely reclaim first place this year?

To do that, they had to move based on last year’s big data analysis results. Especially, they had to significantly boost sales from VVIPs with annual purchases of over 100 million won.

According to the analysis results, young customers in their twenties and thirties purchasing overseas luxury goods had steadily increased over the past three years. Now they had reached a level approaching half of total sales.

Accordingly, the luxury goods they were attracting were also getting younger. While bringing in emerging luxury brand stores, they had to actively pursue limited edition products.

For the past three years, he had personally worked on the ground for all of this. Whether accessible by plane or not, he went anywhere in the world without discrimination. The president himself had taken on the role of operations staff.

Thanks to such efforts, at the end of last year they secured the largest domestic stock of coats launched by C Company’s youngest-ever chief designer.

Among the top 5 department stores in Korea, DH was the only one where the president personally flew to the other side of the globe.

As a result, dozens of VVIPs lined up to buy those limited editions. Of course, except for five people, the rest had to return empty-handed, but everyone seemed excited just to have seen the actual limited edition items.

This year, competition arose with F Department Store over limited edition perfumes personally manufactured by G Company’s chief designer ahead of his retirement.

The veteran’s passion was remarkable, as he said he would come to Korea to personally tour the department store where it would be launched.

Fortunately, his DH side managed to schedule the meeting first. Although the order wouldn’t determine superiority, he still thought it was advantageous to present first.

But to think of missing such a schedule.

It wasn’t his wife who had gone crazy—it was him.

How could this happen? Because of his wife, he was becoming more insane day by day.

He sat at his desk as if dejected and glared at the mini picture frame. It was his wife who had brought the wedding photo in a frame.

Seeing his wife smiling brightly in the photo, heat naturally surged through him. Veins bulged in his clasped hands, and he found himself cracking his fingers again without realizing it.

To make such a workaholic think, even for a moment, that annual sales didn’t matter—what an amazing wife she was. The more he thought about it, the more insufferable it became.

***

A little later, Senior Executive Director Cha came to visit.

Senior Executive Director Cha, who was like a father figure, had traveled on planes with him. After joining DH as his father’s junior colleague, he had moved along with him. Due to his age, his knees had gotten worse recently, so he had instructed him to have his secretary handle approval matters as much as possible.

So it had been quite a while since he had personally opened the president’s office door and entered.

“Excuse me, President. This may be presumptuous, but how about entrusting related projects to our planning office from now on? I know very well that you’re busy with your duties as owner. I think you don’t need to worry about such matters anymore.”

He had always fulfilled his duty as a loyal subordinate, but he wasn’t someone who would give advice like this.

That’s why he didn’t dismiss Senior Executive Director Cha and pondered again the words he had just heard. He couldn’t immediately sense why he would suddenly say such things.

“I apologize if I was presumptuous. I was speaking not as a Senior Executive Director, but as someone who knew your father.”

Senior Executive Director Cha bowed his head deeply. This wasn’t simply courtesy as a subordinate to President Choi Jin-wook. It was respect shown because he knew how hard President Choi had been running all this time.

Senior Executive Director Cha believed he could understand President Choi’s position better than anyone else. Because he knew the reason why he had been so devoted to work for the past three years.

President Choi Jin-wook’s father had also lived that way.

He too had abandoned both his family and himself until just before his death, clinging only to work. It was all to gain recognition from none other than his father-in-law, Chairman Shin.

However, the results were insignificant compared to the effort he put in.

His stress must have reached its peak, but he probably had nowhere to release it. His father had struggled with having married far above his station.

In the end, he lived a life without recognition from either his father-in-law or his wife, and died from overwork.

The eldest son, President Choi Jin-wook, was continuing that unfinished task. Perhaps because they were father and son, their stubbornness was exactly the same.

Fortunately, President Choi’s abilities were outstanding, and his three years of effort, lived like thirty years, were not in vain. Having made it onto the list of the top 5 department stores was truly a remarkable achievement.

Naturally, President Choi had no personal life during that time. Since he tried to oversee not only his duties as president but also all the trivial tasks of his subordinates, it couldn’t be helped.

Even if it was unavoidable in the past due to insufficient manpower, that wasn’t the case now. Now everything was sufficiently equipped. He only hoped that President Choi would no longer treat the operation staff as if they didn’t exist.

“I understand well your intent to recommend division of labor, Senior Executive Director Cha.”

Work division was something Senior Executive Director Cha had consistently advocated for a long time. However, this was the first time it was officially accepted by President Choi.