Chapter 123: Beauty Trap (2)
Kang Ra-Eun tilted her head in confusion as Park Seol-Hun’s gaze was fixed on her.
“Why are you looking at me like that? You’re making me uneasy.”
Her uneasiness was right on the mark.
“Because Chairman Joo’s weakness has to do with you,” Seol-Hun stated.
“Me?” Ra-Eun responded as if Seol-Hun was speaking nonsense.
“Well, you see...”
Seol-Hun flashed back on his memories of yesterday’s meeting to give Ra-Eun a more detailed explanation.
***
Seol-Hun met Chairman Joo Jae-Eon with Director Do Hye-Yeong. The entire Korean clothing industry was on full alert regarding who would take over Entre Happy. Seol-Hun had scheduled a meeting with Chairman Joo exactly because he wanted to participate in the takeover battle as well.
“You must be busy lately from having to take so many calls, Chairman Joo,” Seol-Hun stated.
“I sure am.”
Jae-Eon was laughing, but it was not genuine. He was an outstanding fashion designer, but his talent in corporate management was not as great as his talent in design. There was no way that he was happy as the chairman of a company when he had ultimately come to the difficult decision to sell his company.
“Do you have any plans after selling your company?” Seol-Hun asked. He was curious about Director Joo’s future aspirations.
Jae-Eon took a moment to think about it.
“I haven’t thought of anything in detail yet, but I’m thinking of taking a short break.”
He had been far too busy going back and forth from Korea to overseas. At least, that was what he had thought. He had barely spent a day or two of rest per year. Hence, he was planning on taking this chance to go on a break to recharge.
“Then will you be leaving the fashion design scene altogether?” Seol-Hun asked.
“No. Like I said before, I’m coming back after just a short break. However, it won’t be as a company chairman, but most likely as a freelancer.”
“That’s a relief. You’re one of the fashion designers that I personally respect the most. I was so worried that you’d retire.”
Seol-Hun was being sincere. Jae-Eon was able to sense this and lightly laughed.
“Thank you. I’m getting invigorated already just from the fact that there’s someone who thinks so highly of me.”
“It’s not just me, but most likely everyone in the Korean clothing industry respects you. So, please don’t beat yourself up too much from this failure. I don’t usually tell this to people, but I’ve actually failed in six business ventures.”
Jae-Eon’s eyes widened.
“Really? How unexpected. I thought you were someone with massive talent in business because you’d raised Levanche up to soaring heights in such a short period of time.”
Seol-Hun might not even be alive at this moment if Ra-Eun had not saved him. Simple regards were now over; it was time to get to the main point at hand.
“I’m not entirely sure what you think of Levanche, but if you are willing to give us Entre Happy, we will do our best to run the company in a way that doesn’t greatly deviate from the direction you wished it to take,” Seol-Hun reassured.
“It makes me happy to hear you say that,” Jae-Eon smiled weakly.
Seol-Hun knew very well how much Jae-Eon loved his company. That was why he had planned to show the chairman the appeal of Levanche by using that love. However...
“People from other companies also told me that they’d grow the company while fully preserving the identity of Entre Happy,” Jae-Eon remarked.
“I... see.”
Levanche’s competitors also seemed to have come up with the exact same plan as Seol-Hun. Now that it had come to this, he needed to create a new weapon that could grab Chairman Joo’s attention. However, it was an extremely difficult task to come up with such a weapon on the spot.
They had spoken for over an hour without much progress. He and Director Do Hye-Yeong exchanged glances as the director checked the time. She was telling him to decide whether or not to take the battle into overtime. Seol-Hun nodded, and Hye-Yeong decided to respect his decision.
“Chairman. It’s almost time for dinner, so why don’t we have a meal together? I know a good Chinese restaurant,” Seol-Hun asked.
“Chinese? That sounds good!”
Seol-Hun and Hye-Yeong had already investigated Jae-Eon’s food preferences, so they had chosen Chinese without hesitation. And like they had expected, Jae-Eon showed a positive response.
~
On their way to the parking lot, they met someone completely unexpected.
“Oh my! Is that you, Chairwoman?”
They had never thought to meet Ra-Eun in a place like this. Seol-Hun introduced Ra-Eun to Jae-Eon.
“This is Chairman Joo Jae-Eon of Entre Happy.”
Jae-Eon opened his mouth as if he had been waiting for the chance, “My name is Joo Jae-Eon. I had no idea that I would be meeting you in this way, Miss Kang.”
.
His tone of voice was far higher than when he had talked with Seol-Hun and Hye-Yeong for the past hour. Just like a person’s expressions, their tone of voice could give away how they were feeling. Seol-Hun instinctively realized from how Jae-Eon was acting in front of Ra-Eun.
‘Could he be Ra-Eun’s fan?’
He was far too ecstatic to just be happy from seeing a celebrity. His hand gestures were also far bigger than before, and most of all, his gaze stood out the most. He continued to only glance at Ra-Eun as if he had committed a grave sin. It was possible that he couldn’t look at Ra-Eun straight because he liked her for real.
‘This could be...’
Seol-Hun was a businessman. Businessmen needed to be quick-witted. To confirm his suspicions, Seol-Hun purposefully brought up Ra-Eun as soon as they got in the car.
“What did you think of our chairwoman after seeing her up close?”
Jae-Eon responded as if he had not yet gotten over his excitement, “She’s far more beautiful in person! To be honest with you, I’m a huge fan of Miss Kang. I’m even #492 in Club Allegiance.”
Jae-Eon smiled awkwardly. The member number of Ra-Eun’s fan club, Club Allegiance, was given in the order of entry; the faster one applied to the club, the lower their number was. A triple-digit number meant that he had been a member of Ra-Eun’s fan club since very close to its formation.
It was checkmate as soon as Seol-Hun found out about Jae-Eon’s member number.
Seol-Hun remarked with a meaningful smile, “I’m sure our chairwoman would love to hear that.”
He fell into deep thought about how to make good use of this newfound weakness of Chairman Joo.
***
Ra-Eun was surprised to hear such a thing about Jae-Eon after getting the entire story from Seol-Hun.
“I didn’t think Chairman Joo was the type to be interested in celebrities.”
He was such a famous fashion designer that he was bound to have met celebrities all the time, so he did not seem like the type to proudly call himself a fan of any particular celebrity. However, Ra-Eun’s expectations of Jae-Eon seemed to have been very off the mark.
Seol-Hun said while shrugging, “It was checkmate as soon as we found out his member number was in the triple digits.”
“I guess so.”
Even Ra-Eun rarely met people who called themselves her fans with member numbers in the triple digits.
“What exactly about me charmed him enough for him to join my fan club?”
Ra-Eun could not understand in the slightest. Seol-Hun chuckled from how little awareness she had.
“Are you seriously asking that?”
“Yeah. You tell me, mister.”
Seol-Hun sighed and recited each and every one of her charms that he could think of while suppressing his embarrassment.
“The top reason’s gotta be your face. You’re extremely foul-mouthed, but I gotta admit your face is top-tier.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Anything’s a compliment if you end with something nice.”
Ra-Eun grasped the public’s attention with just her face ever since her debut. Seol-Hun could think of a few more of her charms.
“And then there’s your figure. As someone working in the clothing industry, any clothes you wear become a work of art. You could say that you perfect any clothes that you wear.”
“What’s with you all of a sudden, mister? It’s so unlike you.”
“You asked me to tell you your charms.”
Even Seol-Hun was extremely embarrassed from saying things like this.
“Lastly... your personality, I guess.”
“Personality?” Ra-Eun asked.
“You’re extremely pretty and feminine on the outside, but the gap that forms from that and your unexpectedly manly and tough actions makes you charming. At least, that’s what I’ve heard people say.”
Ra-Eun had never reflected objectively on herself. She had always simply done as she wanted to do, but that had instead been right up the public’s alley.
“Not just that, you have a solid character. There has never been an actress as individualistic as you.”
Ra-Eun also strongly agreed in that sense.
“Chairman Joo might have also fallen for that side of you. No, I guarantee that he has. He even had that card of yours in his wallet,” Seol-Hun stated.
“What card?” Ra-Eun asked.
“You know. That photo card with you on it that they gave out to customers who ordered pizza from the chain you modeled for last time.”
“Oh, that.”
Their sales had once multiplied tenfold because of that. Ra-Eun had also gotten a few of them, but now they were probably stuck somewhere in the corners of her home.
“So? I get that Chairman Joo likes me, but what am I supposed to do?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” The corners of Seol-Hun’s mouth soared. “You have to seduce him.”
One of Ra-Eun’s eyebrows violently twitched. Seol-Hun’s brand-new strategy, also known as...
“You’ve heard of the beauty trap, haven’t you?”
It was the worst possible plan from Ra-Eun’s perspective.
***
The beauty trap, also known as the honeypot, was the 31st stratagem in Wang Jingze’s Thirty-Six Stratagems in which enemies were seduced with beautiful women. There was no way Ra-Eun did not know of it. Her expression was already getting worse.
Seol-Hun had already expected her to react like this.
“Just think about it. Our company will grow by leaps and bounds if we absorb Entre Happy. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. You know that, don’t you?”
She did. It was because she knew all too well that it was a problem. A beauty trap, of all things? Her mind was scrambled as if she was absolutely hammered with alcohol.
To be honest, there was no question about what to do. As her company grew, so would her wealth and influence. She had no choice but to do it.
‘This is all for my revenge.’
In the end, Ra-Eun made the difficult decision to harden her resolve.
“Goddamn motherfucking-ass son of a bitch!!! Fine, I’ll fucking do it!”
She just needed to endure it this one time.
Probably.
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