WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Regressed Assistant Manager Kim Can Read Minds ◈
Chapter 34
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“Manager Kim, line two is a dumpling factory, and line three is a bakery.”
Kang Minho covered the receiver with one hand and called to me.
Several sheets of notes listing company names and monthly usage had already piled up on the desk.
At first, we had been making the calls. But after word spread through Miseong Noodles, we were busy answering them.
“Three hundred tons? All at once?”
Choi Yeongjin rose from the chair while talking on the phone beside me.
Just then, Miseong Noodles called again.
- Manager Kim, quite a few companies around us would like to contact Taeseong Trading.
“Then could you all come over this afternoon? We can meet in person and discuss how much you need.”
- Certainly. I’ll contact them.
That afternoon, the first thing I noticed when I entered the meeting room was the people standing along the wall.
Even after Kang Minho had given up their own chair, there weren’t enough seats.
“Minho, bring some more chairs.”
“How many?”
“All the ones we have.”
While Kang Minho went to get the chairs, I greeted the company representatives.
Some welcomed me warmly, saying they had seen me on a home shopping channel or the news.
Alongside the paperwork, noodles, bread, snacks, and even dumpling wrappers appeared on the table.
“These are our products. We thought it would be quicker to show you, so we brought them along.”
Someone opened a bag of snacks, and the representative sitting next to them took one.
What had started as a meeting to sell flour had turned into a small food fair.
I began by explaining our proposed supply terms.
“For today, you only need to write the quantities you need on the letters of intent to purchase. Once we win the bid, you can check the samples and prices before deciding whether to sign a contract.”
“Then you’d better win that bid.”
The representative from Miseong Noodles pulled the document closer.
“Nothing’s changed, even after they were caught fixing prices. If we had somewhere else to buy from, we wouldn’t have to keep letting them push us around like this.”
The other representatives nodded.
“We’ll go first. If the sample meets our requirements, we’ll take 500 tons.”
As the Miseong Noodles representative wrote down the requested quantity and signed, the person sitting beside them raised a hand.
“Please give us a form too.”
“We just write down how much we want from this shipment, right?”
Choi Yeongjin and Park Soyeon were busy handing out and collecting documents.
Only after the representatives had left could I go through the letters of intent we had gathered.
Hearing the quantities over the phone had been one thing. Seeing them beside company names and signatures made me eager to secure the business.
If we didn’t want to lose these orders, we needed to find a mill quickly too.
Kang Minho handed me a shortlist prepared in advance.
“Manager Kim, what about Samjeong Milling?”
“What kind of place is it?”
“The president of Miseong Noodles mentioned it earlier. They’ve been making flour for over sixty years, but the big companies have pushed them aside. These days, they only get subcontract work.”
I marked the name Samjeong Milling on the list.
“All right. Let’s visit tomorrow.”
* * *
Early the next morning, I visited Samjeong Milling with Kang Minho.
There was no one in the office, so we followed the sound of machinery into the factory.
Wheat traveled up a conveyor and disappeared into a large machine. On the other side, white flour poured into sacks.
I raised my voice to ask a nearby worker.
“Where can I find the president?”
“Who?”
“The president!”
The old man in flour-dusted work clothes pointed at himself.
“That’s me! What brings you here?”
“I’m Manager Kim Seongjun from Taeseong Trading! We spoke yesterday!”
“Oh, you’re Manager Kim? Follow me!”
We followed President Im Deoksu farther inside, where the machinery was much quieter.
Another set of equipment stretched alongside Line One, but it sat idle under a thin layer of flour dust.
“Why isn’t this line running? Is it broken?”
“Broken? It all works just fine. We stopped it because there aren’t enough orders.”
Im Deoksu gave the idle equipment a tap with his palm.
“How much could you process in a day if you ran both lines?”
“Line One does 220 tons, and Line Two does 180. Once the maintenance is done, we can grind about 400 tons a day.”
Kang Minho noted the figures beside me.
When we entered the office, Im Deoksu made us instant coffee mix in paper cups and set them down in front of us.
“Thank you.”
“So, what brought you all the way to the factory?”
“We’re planning to import 20,000 tons of wheat.”
“Twenty thousand tons?”
Im Deoksu set down his cup.
“We can’t afford to buy that.”
“We’re not asking you to buy it. We’d like you to grind the wheat we bring in.”
“You only want us to process it?”
“Yes. We’ve already found buyers too.”
I handed him a table listing the types of flour the companies wanted.
“What about payment?”
“If we win the bid, we’ll pay for the first batch of processing in advance. After that, we’ll settle up weekly based on how much you produce.”
“Weekly?”
Im Deoksu stopped studying the specifications and looked out the window at the factory.
[What if I take this and lose even the subcontract work we have left?]
“We’d also like Samjeong Milling to handle our future shipments.”
“How can I trust that?”
I spread the letters of intent we had received the day before in front of him.
“After putting in all this work to find buyers, why would we stop at one deal? We’ll come to Samjeong Milling first for our next shipment too. We’ll put the processing fee in the contract. We won’t try to cut it later just because the volume increases.”
Im Deoksu checked the companies listed on the letters one by one.
“All these people really said they’d buy from you?”
“As long as we meet their conditions.”
He put the letters down with a bitter smile.
“So we’re all places the big companies have pushed aside. My factory included.”
That brought a bitter smile to my face too.
“Hando Trading told us to stay in our lane.”
“To them, I’m probably just an old man who doesn’t know his place and refuses to give up.”
“Then let’s see what companies that don’t know their place can do together.”
Im Deoksu chuckled.
“You’re a spirited young man. You remind me of myself thirty years ago.”
“Do I? That’s quite a compliment.”
He carefully examined the specifications and letters of intent again.
“All right, let’s do it. We’re doomed either way if things go on like this. Better to get the machines running than leave them idle and wait.”
After going over the processing fees and payment terms again, we agreed to sign the final contract if we won the bid.
On our way out, he called over a worker.
“Start checking Line Two again.”
As the workers opened the covers on the idle equipment, Im Deoksu gripped my hand firmly.
“That machine and I still have plenty of life left in us. Just bring us the wheat, Manager Kim.”
His grip was strong enough to make my finger joints ache.
I gripped his hand firmly in return.
* * *
As soon as we returned from Samjeong Milling, Park Soyeon asked,
“How did it go? Will they do it?”
“Yes. We’re going with Samjeong Milling.”
Only then did Park Soyeon let out a long breath.
“What a relief. People keep contacting us to buy flour, and I didn’t know what to tell them.”
Kang Minho opened a notebook and began copying Samjeong Milling’s processing capacity onto the whiteboard.
While Song Jaepil worked out the mill’s production and shipping schedules, the rest of us added up the quantities requested by the companies that had sent letters of intent.
After checking the final document, Park Soyeon turned the calculator toward me.
“Manager Kim, we won’t be able to fill all these orders.”
I compared the figure on the calculator with the amount of flour we could get from 20,000 tons of wheat.
Not all of that wheat would become flour, so we wouldn’t have enough to fill every request.
Even after Daejin Milling and Hanmi Milling had pulled out, we had ended up with more buyers.
“Mark the companies that can wait for the next shipment.”
“Yes. So we’ve found buyers for everything, right?”
“And a place to process it.”
Park Soyeon looked at the stack of documents and muttered,
“But if we do all this and fail to win the bid, it’ll all be for nothing.”
“Did you hear that, Manager Kim? Assistant Manager Park raised the red flag this time.”
“What? A red flag? What’s that?”
“You know, a bad omen.”
Park Soyeon gave Choi Yeongjin a look of disbelief.
I looked around at the team.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get that wheat, one way or another.”
“It’s strange. When you say it, Manager Kim, I really feel like it’ll happen.”
Park Soyeon glanced at Choi Yeongjin.
“Your words carry weight, unlike someone else’s.”
“I hope that someone isn’t me.”
“Who knows?”
Park Soyeon smiled and returned to the paperwork.
I checked the remaining documents on my desk too.
As I matched each company’s products and quantities, the end of the workday drew near.
On the whiteboard, only the delivery date for the company requesting 300 tons remained blank.
“Assistant Manager Choi, when does the company asking for 300 tons need it?”
“I’m about to call them.”
Just as Choi Yeongjin was about to dial the client’s number, a text arrived.
After reading it, Choi Yeongjin let out a quiet sigh.
Park Soyeon asked without looking up from the documents,
“Is it the woman you met on that blind date?”
“Yes. She says she’s waiting on the first floor.”
“Oh, you said she works nearby, right? I’m jealous. You can meet as soon as you finish work.”
Despite those words, Park Soyeon looked rather sulky.
“What’s there to be jealous of? That makes it more uncomfortable.”
“You should go, Assistant Manager Choi. I’ll check with the company.”
Choi Yeongjin looked back and forth between the phone and the paperwork for a moment, then made a call.
“Mina, I’m sorry, but please go on without me today. I still have work to finish.”
Park Soyeon pretended to read the documents while listening closely.
After hanging up, Choi Yeongjin immediately dialed the client’s number.
“Hello, this is Assistant Manager Choi Yeongjin. I’m calling to confirm the delivery date for the 300 tons you requested.”
I hadn’t expected Choi Yeongjin to put work ahead of a date.
When the call ended, I spoke up.
“She was waiting. You could’ve left first.”
“It’s fine. I’d feel worse going off to have fun while everyone else was working.”
Park Soyeon couldn’t resist joining in.
“Be honest. Isn’t it because you don’t really like your blind date?”
“Well, that could be part of it.”
[...That’s a relief.]
Pretending I hadn’t heard Park Soyeon’s thoughts, I opened the next letter of intent.
Even as I checked the requested quantities, I kept wondering what price Hando Trading would bid.
If necessary, I intended to meet Kwon Dohun in person.
There would be no hiding those thoughts from me.
* * *
On the morning of the day before bidding, Kang Minho answered an internal call.
After asking the caller to repeat something, Minho turned toward me.
“Manager Kim. Manager Kwon Dohun from Hando Trading is here.”
“Those stuck-up bastards from Hando Trading came all the way here?”
Oh Sangcheol sounded puzzled.
In the industry, they had the image of a dinosaur that swallowed everything in its path.
“Want me to come with you?”
“It’s all right. This was something we’d have to face sooner or later.”
“All right. You must really be bothering them if they’ve come to see you like this.”
As I walked to the meeting room with Kang Minho, I recalled my encounter with Kwon Dohun in the restroom.
This was someone who openly talked down to anyone they considered beneath them.
Click.
When I opened the meeting room door, Kwon Dohun was the first person I saw.
Not a hair was out of place, and their tie knot sat neatly in the center of their shirt collar.
It was the same flawless appearance I had seen in the restroom.
Another Hando Trading employee sat beside Kwon Dohun.
“Manager Kim. We meet again.”
Kwon Dohun held out a hand with a bright smile.
[Do I really have to come all the way here to meet these people?]
The young employee sitting alongside offered a greeting too.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Choi Changgi from Hando Trading’s Logistics Team.”
“Nice to meet you.”
I told Kang Minho to ask Song Jaepil to join us.
A little later, once Song Jaepil was seated, Kwon Dohun began.
“I thought you’d just buy the wheat and resell it. But you’re planning to have it processed and sell the flour yourselves. Not bad.”
“I doubt you came all this way to compliment us.”
“You’ve bitten off far too much, Manager Kim. I came to offer you a way out.”
Kwon Dohun slid a thin proposal toward me.
It stated that if Hando Trading won the bid for the 20,000 tons of wheat, they would pass 5,000 tons on to Taeseong Trading at the winning bid price.
“I’m only being this considerate because it’s you, Manager Kim. You understand what I mean, don’t you?”
I almost laughed at the word “considerate.”
Cutting us off from Hanmi Milling and Daejin Milling hadn’t stopped me, so now they had come with 5,000 tons as bait.
“Wouldn’t 5,000 tons be enough for your first grain deal?”
“And in return, we withdraw from the bidding?”
“You catch on quickly. There’s no need for us to drive the price up for no reason.”
“No, thank you.”
Kwon Dohun’s smile froze for a moment.
[I offer them a full 5,000 tons, and they reject it without a second thought?]
But then Kwon Dohun folded both arms and leaned back in the chair.
“You seem to think this will be easy because you’re new to the field, Manager Kim. The wheat business isn’t that simple. Once you deduct processing and transport costs, you’ll be lucky not to make a loss, never mind a profit.”
As though waiting for that cue, the logistics employee beside Kwon Dohun opened a cost breakdown.
“Once you add port storage fees, transport to the mill, and the cost of delivering the processed flour in separate lots, you’ll see that our offer isn’t bad.”
“When you’re too focused on selling, you don’t notice these things until later. And by then, you can’t exactly send the goods back.”
Without being asked, Song Jaepil placed their cost breakdown beside our freight rate sheet and quickly looked through it.
Kwon Dohun glanced over.
[As if they could understand it just by looking.]
Song Jaepil returned to the first page and spoke.
“You’ve estimated the costs too high.”
“Sorry? Which part?”
Song Jaepil pointed to the small-lot delivery costs.
“You’ve calculated separate deliveries for every company.”
“Combining shipments would make it cheaper, of course. But their delivery dates are all different.”
“We have a quote based on that schedule.”
Song Jaepil slid a copy of the quote across the table.
“It’s lower than the costs you’ve brought us.”
The logistics employee looked between the two tables and started tapping on a calculator again.
“If even one of those dozens of companies goes off schedule...”
“We’ve accounted for changes to delivery schedules too.”
After spending some time checking the figures, the logistics employee took both hands off the calculator.
“...If you group the deliveries by region, I suppose it would come to this amount.”
“Then your calculation that we’ll make a loss changes too.”
Kwon Dohun was still smiling, but the look directed at Choi Changgi was icy.
After checking the name on the freight rate sheet, Kwon Dohun spoke.
“Assistant Manager Song Jaepil, was it? You’re very... thorough.”
[Some no-name bastard of an assistant manager has the nerve.]
“Oh, thank you.”
Unable to hear those thoughts, Song Jaepil smiled awkwardly and bowed.
I pulled the freight rate sheet back from in front of Kwon Dohun.
“It seems you don’t need to worry about us.”
“Well, then. You intend to see this through to the end.”
I asked Kwon Dohun a question.
“If you’re willing to give up 5,000 tons, you must be planning quite a high bid.”
“Far higher than Taeseong Trading could ever dream of matching.”
[A hundred and thirty-two dollars per ton. Taeseong Trading could never match that price.]
“And you, Manager Kim?”
I grinned.
“I’m just staying in my lane.”
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