Chapter 3

Sunghoon stood, not knowing what to do. The person across from him could not stop fidgeting with his pen. This happened every month on the days chairman Man-geun Kang visited CEO Taemoo’s office. It was practically a tradition.

“Sir,” Sunghoon carefully opened his mouth. There was no reply. “Ahem. Sir?”

Taemoo finally gave Sunghoon a look, but without stopping whatever he was doing. Sunghoon knew exactly how Taemoo was going to respond.

“The chairman is here, sir,” he said.

“I know,” came the same old response.

“Sir, the chairman is here to see you.”

“Okay.”

Taemoo only gave short and uninterested responses as he continued to work for five minutes straight. He was a serious work addict. And chairman Man-geun Kang…it seemed as if it was his hobby to bother Taemoo, his grandson, even though he had plenty of other things to keep himself busy.

“Sir….”

“You naughty boy! How much longer are you going to make me stand here!”

The door burst open as chairman Kang lost his patience and entered the room. Taemoo finally relented and offered up his attention.

“Welcome.”

“How dare you ignore me?” blustered the chairman.

“I would never do that, sir.”

“Then why did you make me stand in front of the door when you knew I was here?”

“I didn’t know you were here, sir.”

Chairman Kang glared at Sunghoon. “You useless idiot. You didn’t tell him I was here?”

Sunghoon looked to Taemoo for some response to this unfair attack. Taemoo ignored Sunghoon and continued to look at Chairman Kang with a frown.

“What brings you here?” he asked.

“Why, is there a reason for me not to be here?”

“It’s not a place you should be, grandfather.”

Chairman Kang knew Taemoo did not want him to be there. “I am the chairman,” he huffed.

“That’s your title, but in reality, you’re not.”

“How dare you ignore me? I am the one who built this company from scraps!”

“If you insist, then please actually help us run our business by doing something with Manager Ahn.”

Manager Chul-gyu Ahn was a nuisance to the company. He swung his title as one of the founders around, and caused a scene with his co-founders. When Taemoo’s father, Sung-jong, was stepping down, Manager Ahn had given him a lot of trouble. Chairman Kang knew one of the reasons why Taemoo’s father stepped down and left Taemoo in charge was because of Manager Ahn, but he never seemed to do anything about it.

“Why are you whining?” snapped the Chairman. “Take care of it yourself! That’s called leadership.”

“If you aren’t going to help out in running the business, please stay out of it completely,” Taemoo shot back.

“Don’t talk to me like that! I have enough shares to own this business.”

“Our company is not even big enough to talk about shares.”

It was true. As they were a mid-sized company, it really meant nothing to talk about shares. Still, Chairman Kang could not keep his nose out of the company, and used his title, which was only given to him out of respect, as an excuse.

“Are you not even going to offer me to sit down? Where are your manners?”

“You are already sitting down.”

“Ahem!” The Chairman grumbled to himself, then looked at Sunghoon. “Get me a cup of tea!” he demanded.

“What would you like?” replied Sunghoon.

“Sunghoon is not a waiter.”

Taemoo spoke sternly. Though Sunghoon should have felt thankful, he knew Taemoo did not go out of his way for him. Taemoo had only interjected because he did not want the Chairman sitting around his office any longer.

“Then should I pour myself a cup in your office?”

“Please go to the Grace Café, if you like.”

“No, I don’t like the owner there anymore.”

“Why? She’s not into you anymore?”

“Hey!” Chairman Kang was offended. Sunghoon quickly sprung into action.

“I’ll bring the tea.”

“Forget it,” snapped Chairman Kang. “I don’t want to hear Taemoo nagging me anymore. He’s too overprotective of his people.”

Chairman Kang looked at Taemoo with scorn.

“It really wasn’t him trying to protect me…” Sunghoon thought to himself.

“I have your blind date,” Chairman Kang abruptly brought out the news. Taemoo frowned for a second and put down the documents he was looking at.

“I’m busy,” he said

“You don’t even know when it is.”

“When is it?”

“Now.”

Taemoo wanted to talk back to Chariman Kang but he knew there was no point in doing so. He knew Chairman Kang was not playing around. The older man seemed to enjoy the situation as Taemoo squinted in agony.

“You’ve arranged it on such a busy day.”

“Are weekends too busy for you? Should I change it to a weekday?”

Chairman Kang was not going to back down. A very evil-looking smile split his face.

“You know I always get rejected on blind dates,” Taemoo objected.

“Do you get rejected, or do you reject them?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Chairman Kang ignored Taemoo and continued to speak. “She’s 27. Her name is Youngseo Jin.

You know Youngjin Group, right? I’ve helped Chairman Jin there a lot in the past. It turns out he has one daughter.”

Youngjin Group was a livestock company. They were a sturdy business with several franchisees across the industry. Taemoo had, in fact, met Chairman Jin before through business with Chairman Kang.

“They are a good company to emulate. You’ll learn a lot from them, too, Taemoo. Also, they are very wealthy.”

“Do you want me to get married, or are you selling me off?”

“What’s the difference? Just get married.”

“I don’t want a marriage like that, sir.”

“Then what kind of marriage do you want? Are you seriously trying to find true love? I can tell you now there’s no chance of that!” The Chairman shook his head. “To marry the woman you love…don’t waste your energy on it. You won’t find one in this lifetime.”

“But an arranged marriage is-”

“Don’t worry. I heard she’s very pretty and likable. So, hurry up-”

“I’m not going.”

There was tension in the air. Sunghoon watched the two as Chairman Kang broke the silence with a fake cough.

“Sunghoon!”

“Yes, Chairman.” Sunghoon politely inched closer.

“Get me the bone broth soup from across the street. Scratch the tea. I’ll just have dinner here. Don’t forget to turn the TV on for me.”

Taemoo gave a frown. He knew Chairman Kang was going to sit around for hours finishing a whole series of his favorite TV show. He also knew Chairman Kang was going to bother him until he did what the older man wanted him to do: His favorite meal and TV. The only thing worse than that was fishing.

Taemoo really didn’t want to go on this blind date, but he knew he had to in order for Chairman Kang to leave. Rather than wasting time, he decided it would be faster to just go on the date. He stood up.

“Where is it?”

“Not that far from here.” Chairman Kang gave a satisfied smile.

***

“Uh, don’t you think this is a bit too much?”

“No, this is the bare minimum in becoming a femme-fatal.”

Youngseo was eagerly shaping and adding padding inside Hari’s bra. She didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping, adding one after another. Even though Hari objected, she had no intentions of taking them out

.

Youngseo, is this what you really think I was lacking the whole time?

“We’ve already got a full face of makeup. I think this is way too much.”

Hari looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was tightly slung back in a ponytail, her eyes were darkened with eyeshadow, and her lips were painted blood red.

“There needs to be a balance between your makeup and your breasts.”

Youngseo kept fiddling with Hari’s bra. Hari gave Youngseo a glare.

“Mine aren’t small, you know.”

“Okay.”

Hari stopped Youngseo. “Hey, I’m a C cup.”

“Okay. Okay. Turn around.”

Youngseo turned Hari around towards the mirror. Hari’s breasts seemed as if they were going to burst out of her already-revealing dress. This was the figure of her dreams. Sure, she’d had full breasts before, but she felt more confident with her new hourglass shape, and struck a couple of poses.

“How do I look?”

“Damn! Sexy as hell.”

Even though Hari felt that it was all a bit too much for the occasion, she wasn’t against it. She’d always wanted to try on a bold look, and she felt the rush of euphoria.

“What a transformation. No one is going to know that you’re Hari.”

“I bet even my family won’t even recognize me.”

“Today, you are not Hari Shin. You are me. Youngseo Jin. Don’t make that mistake today! If you do, my dad is going-”

“I know, I know.”

“Other than that, just go out there and have fun. Be the crazy girl that you’ve wanted to try being.”

Though she laughed along with Youngseo at first, Hari soon became worried.

“Are you really sure? Even if I make a fool of myself with your name?”

“I’ve always been a fool out there anyways,” Youngeso smirked. “They always end up getting offended and leave. It really messes with their egos when I show no interest in them, and they pretend as if they had no interest in me from the beginning.”

Youngseo gave out a sigh of disgust and put her hands around Hari’s cheeks. “Don’t worry, and just be the crazy girl.”

“Okay. Any information on this guy?”

“I’m not sure. I heard he’s the CEO of some company.”

“How old is he?”

“I don’t know his name, age, background…I don’t know anything.”

Hari took a step back. “You know absolutely nothing?”

“I’ve been on too many of these dates! It’s hard for me to remember who’s who, now.”

“I still need to know who he is,” Hari objected. “He’s going to know my name.”

Hari looked at Youngseo with disappointment in her irresponsibility. Youngseo held on to Hari’s shoulders.

“What are you so afraid of? I’m telling you, it’s fine.”

“Everything you are asking me to do is scary.”

“You do need the money, right?” Youngseo asked, slyly.

“Yes! But still…”

“I will not disappoint you on that front.”

Hari collected herself, then offered up a confident nod.

“I will try my best!”