NOVEL NEXT 80
“Phew.”
Yang Ji-a exhaled deeply, clutching her bag strap tightly. She had been staring at the doorknob in front of her for a solid 10 minutes.
‘Let’s go!’
Steeling herself, she gripped the doorknob firmly. Just as she was about to exert force to open the door…
‘W-what should I say when I go in? Hello? Is that too casual? Good day to you? Is that too stiff?’
As such worries swept through her mind, her body instantly froze.
“Ugh…”
As she was groaning softly in distress, a familiar voice rang out from behind.
“Oh? Isn’t that Deputy Yang?”
“?!”
Startled, she spun around to find Song Woo-yeon standing there with wide eyes.
“Eep!”
Caught off guard by the unexpected encounter, Yang Ji-a jumped on the spot. Then she immediately bowed her head in greeting.
“G-good day to you!”
“…? Oh, yes. Hello.”
I blurted out the wrong thing!
The two greetings she had been agonizing over mixed, resulting in an unintentionally arrogant tone. Yang Ji-a felt like biting her tongue off.
“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it that way, I, I was torn between ‘hello’ and ‘good day to you,’ and my tongue got tied without me realizing…”
“Ah, is that so? No need to be so nervous. Team Leader Roh and Deputy Park are inside today, but they’ll probably be quite busy.”
Grunt. Song Woo-yeon adjusted her pile of luggage and smiled brightly.
Her tone seemed to be trying to soothe the extremely nervous Yang Ji-a. As her tension eased a bit, she belatedly noticed the massive Styrofoam box Song Woo-yeon was carrying.
“Ah. Could you open the door for me? My hands are full at the moment.”
“Oh! Of course!”
Yang Ji-a hurriedly flung the door open and bowed her head.
“Um… Deputy Yang. If you stand there like that, it’ll be hard for me to pass…”
“I-I’m so sorry!”
Yang Ji-a moved to the side, half-sobbing. Perhaps due to her name, she resembled a trembling young lamb with moist eyes.
“Haha. It’s okay. Come on in. You probably know most of the faces already.”
Song Woo-yeon nodded slightly, leading Yang Ji-a inside.
“Team Leader Roh~. The eagerly awaited Deputy Yang Ji-a is here.”
“…! Deputy Yang!”
Roh Se-hee’s head snapped up. Her eyes sparkled with a determination not to let Yang Ji-a slip away.
Yang Ji-a also felt more at ease upon seeing a familiar face.
“Manager Roh. I missed you…!”
“Me too. Do you know how much I’ve missed our Deputy Yang? Oh, and just call me Team Leader Roh here. Titles like deputy or manager don’t mean much here.”
“Yes!”
“Of course, I still have the habit of often calling our Park Sang-won ‘Deputy Park’. Basically, we use mutual honorifics with ‘nim’ here.”
“Ah. I see. Understood.”
Yang Ji-a nodded vigorously, taking mental notes.
“Welcome, Deputy Yang~”
Park Sang-won also greeted Yang Ji-a with a bright smile.
“This is Jo I-ruk, the old hand here.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Ah, hello!”
Yang Ji-a bowed deeply.
“Our Deputy Yang will be working under me, but basically we’re all one team. So you’ll often work under Team Leader Jo’s directions too.”
“Yes! Understood.”
“I look forward to working with you.”
Yang Ji-a nodded repeatedly. Her curly bob hair swayed with the movement.
“As for CEO Song… she seems a bit busy now, so shall we greet her properly later? Though I think we met briefly at the entrance.”
“Ah, yes. We exchanged quick greetings.”
“Right. That’s enough. She’s not the type to make a fuss over such things, so it’ll be fine.”
I see. She must be quite informal. Yang Ji-a mused inwardly.
“That should be enough for introductions. How’s Hyeonmu? Did you wrap things up well?”
“Hyeonmu is…”
Yang Ji-a’s face turned blue at the mention of Hyeonmu. Sensing her struggle without words, Roh Se-hee looked at Yang Ji-a with eyes full of sympathy.
“Th-the rest of the team members are also preparing to change jobs bit by bit… So I think we might all be able to gather before long…”
“Is that so? That’s very kind. I feel like you’re going through trouble because of me…”
“N-not at all! I didn’t plan to stay at Hyeonmu for long anyway… The frequent overtime and getting caught up in office politics was too much…”
Right. That’s how it was. Roh Se-hee felt even more sorry for Yang Ji-a as she recalled their previous work environment.
Even she had been used and then cast aside due to those political power struggles. Although she left in a fit of anger, looking back now, it was a blessing in disguise.
“You’ve been through a lot, Deputy Yang.”
“M-Manager Roh… You seem to be doing well here.”
“Haha. Is it that obvious?”
Roh Se-hee grinned.
“It’s much better than working at Hyeonmu.”
No need to watch out for political strife, no pointless performance competitions, no daily squabbles with neighboring teams over whose work is whose.
“Plus, if something seems risky, the CEO fixes it in no time, like some kind of MacGyver…”
“Pardon?”
“It’s just something that happens. You’ll understand as you spend time here.”
Roh Se-hee shook her head.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear, as they say. Just as Roh Se-hee finished speaking, Song Woo-yeon burst through the door, shouting:
“Everyone, could you come to the conference room?”
“Yes. Understood.”
“Okay~”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and jumped up from their seats, heading to the conference room. Roh Se-hee led the bewildered Yang Ji-a inside.
‘W-what’s going on? A sudden meeting?’
Wondering what this was all about when she had just arrived, Yang Ji-a awkwardly took a seat in the corner.
Just as she was beginning to suspect that holding meaningless meetings might be this CEO’s hobby…
“Ah, Yang Ji-a-ssi. Perfect timing.”
Song Woo-yeon’s direct mention of Yang Ji-a almost made her choke on her own saliva.
“Y-yes?”
When she finally gathered her wits to respond, she was met with Song Woo-yeon’s beaming face.
“We needed someone to look at this from a third-party perspective.”
“Ah, yes. If you need my opinion, I’d be happy to…”
“It’s nothing major. This is a new menu item for our Bingwa.”
Song Woo-yeon pointed to the Styrofoam box on the table as she spoke.
“Ah! So what you brought earlier was…”
“That’s right. It’s a new menu item that’s about to be released, but since we don’t have an ice machine in the office, I went to the Bingwa kitchen to make it. I’m thinking we should get one installed here soon.”
So that’s what it was.
I had been wondering why she was carrying around a Styrofoam box.
“You might have heard, but we’ve got a competitor now. There’s a place called ‘Bingsang’ across the street, a copycat business… Well, it’s problematic in many ways.”
“Oh. I see.”
“There aren’t many ways to respond as the ‘original’ in this situation. We could hang a banner saying ‘This is the original, eat here,’ or…”
Song Woo-yeon gestured behind her with a smile.
“We could release a new menu item they can’t keep up with.”
So it was quite an important matter. Not just an ordinary new menu item, but one for a showdown with a competitor.
And to ask for her opinion at such a crucial moment! Yang Ji-a unconsciously gulped.
“Take a look. Now, for our new menu item~”
Song Woo-yeon grasped the top of the Styrofoam box. Dry ice vapor seeped through the gaps.
Whoosh!
As the Styrofoam box was lifted,
The highly anticipated new menu item revealed itself.
At first, no one could quite tell what it was. All they could see was melon flesh protruding from a melon rind.
It took a moment to realize that this was a melon lid covering the bingsu beneath.
What a destructive visual!
“It’s Whole Melon Snow Flower Bingsu.”
Song Woo-yeon’s voice narrated. Yang Ji-a couldn’t take her eyes off the bingsu.
“There’s bingsu inside. At first, we’ll serve it whole so people can admire it and take photos, but if they want, we can cut it up for them. When cut… it looks like this.”
Song Woo-yeon swiftly diced the melon into cubes. In an instant, an appetizing melon bingsu was created.
“Everyone, have a taste.”
Yang Ji-a also tried a spoonful of the sample offered. It’s delicious! Not only did it look good, but the balance of flavors was fantastic.
“So. What do you think?”
She grinned nonchalantly.
Even though she had just presented a bingsu that Yang Ji-a had never imagined in her life.
“This should make people want to come take photos, right?”
“…Yes. Of course.”
Yang Ji-a pushed up her glasses as she spoke.
“Even I wanted to take a picture right away. You’re amazing. I’ve never heard of or seen such an idea. I know Bingwa was launched this summer, but did you save this ace up your sleeve to reveal now? It makes sense. When the injeolmi bingsu was first revealed, it was shocking too, but if both had been unveiled simultaneously, one of them might not have received as hot a response as it did. In that sense, right now, at the height of summer, is the perfect timing to… Oh!”
Yang Ji-a’s face turned bright red.
“I-I’m sorry! I tend to talk a lot when I get excited…!”
“Hahaha. It’s fine.”
Song Woo-yeon laughed a beat late.
“That means you like it, right? It’s the highest praise. Thank you.”
“N-no, not at all. Your foresight is truly remarkable…”
“Hmm. There’s not much foresight to speak of. I’m a bit embarrassed.”
Song Woo-yeon scratched the back of her head with an awkward smile. Huh? Why is she reacting like this? I thought she’d be more proud.
As Yang Ji-a tilted her head in confusion, Roh Se-hee resolved her doubts from the side.
“It was just one day, Deputy Yang.”
“Pardon?”
Roh Se-hee continued in a half-exasperated voice.
“The time it took to come up with this new menu item. Originally, Bingwa had no plans to release a new menu.”
“?!”
“But as I mentioned earlier, because we suddenly got a competitor… And our CEO only found out about it yesterday.”
One day.
A new menu item created in just one day? A menu of this caliber?
As Yang Ji-a gaped in disbelief, Roh Se-hee shrugged.
“I told you, didn’t I? You’ll understand as you spend time here.”
Are all geniuses like this? Haha…. At Roh Se-hee’s deflated voice, Yang Ji-a found herself staring blankly at Song Woo-yeon.
Genius.
The embodiment of that word stood before her eyes.