WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Second Life of the Trade King ◈
Chapter 28: Underdog (3)
──────
It was Wednesday afternoon.
The telephone on the desk in Yeongdo Trading's office rang. Yoon Seo-young picked it up neatly and listened for a moment, then covered the receiver and looked at me.
“President, it’s Manager Cho Seong-hun from Il-sung Corporation.”
When I turned my head, Seo-young widened her eyes and silently mouthed, “Il-sung Corporation,” once more.
Busan might be a major city, but a direct call from an employee of Il-sung Group, South Korea’s largest conglomerate, speaking with a Seoul accent, seemed enough to make her heart race.
With a quiet chuckle, I slowly set down the Han-il Feed payment documents I had been holding and took the receiver.
“Yes, this is Kim Hyun-woo.”
“President Kim, this is Cho Seong-hun from Il-sung Corporation. Have you been well?”
“Yes, Manager. I’ve been well. I hope you’ve been well too.”
“Ha ha, getting by, thanks to you. President Kim, would you happen to have time this weekend? I’d like to come down to Busan and have some tea with you.”
A laugh slipped out of me.
His reason for coming was obvious.
“That sounds good. How about Saturday lunch? Come to the office.”
On the other end, Cho Seong-hun briefly caught his breath before continuing.
“The office? Wouldn’t it be better to meet somewhere more comfortable? I could reserve the lounge at Busan Chosun Beach Hotel.”
“No, Manager. Please come to our office. A hotel would be too much for me, and since you’re coming all the way to Busan, let’s meet at the Yeongdo Trading office. I’ll treat you to a meal afterward.”
He was not insisting on Busan Chosun Beach Hotel because he truly valued me and wanted to entertain me.
He wanted to show off Il-sung Corporation’s financial power and make me submit to them naturally.
Even if the intention had been sincere hospitality, people often became overwhelmed by the prestige Il-sung Corporation displayed and began to shrink back on their own.
That was why the venue mattered so much in negotiations. It could not be overlooked.
Calling him to my office also showed that I had no desire to accept anything from Il-sung Corporation.
In other words, I had subtly made a preemptive refusal from the start.
As expected, Manager Cho paused when he caught the meaning, then smoothly continued.
“Ha ha, understood. I’ll come to President Kim’s office. I’ll see you Saturday at ten in the morning.”
“Yes, Manager. I’ll be waiting.”
When I hung up, Seo-young opened her eyes wide.
“A manager from Il-sung Corporation is coming to our office?”
“Yes. Saturday morning.”
“Wow...”
As a twenty-one-year-old accounting clerk from Busan Girls’ Commercial High School, the idea of a department manager from Korea’s largest general trading company coming to our office must have felt unreal.
She looked a little dazed, then quickly regained her capable expression.
“I’ll prepare drinks. But President, should I get Bacchus or tea?”
“It’s fine. Put out whatever you want. There’s no need to go out of your way for him. And... don’t try extra hard just because that manager is coming Saturday. You know what I mean, right?”
Her big eyes widened, then she straightened her posture and nodded.
“Yes, President. Understood.”
* * *
Time passed quickly, and Saturday arrived before I knew it.
I stood in the Yeongdo Trading office, looking down at the Busan Port docks.
A bulk carrier loaded with corn from Australia had been docked there since yesterday, and Han-il Feed trucks stood in a long line, waiting to receive their cargo.
Just looking at it made me feel secure. All of that was money.
As it neared ten, I heard a knock at the door.
The man who entered was Manager Cho Seong-hun of Il-sung Corporation’s Food Ingredients Division, whom I had met before at Busan Chosun Beach Hotel.
“Welcome.”
“It’s nice to see you. You have a fine office.”
As if it was.
He must have been so surprised by how shabby it was that the compliment slipped out.
With a faint smile, I gestured to the old sofa.
“Please, have a seat. We have coffee and Bacchus...”
“Bacchus sounds good.”
Seo-young set a bottle of Bacchus in front of him. As he leisurely opened it, he looked around the office.
He had probably guessed our sales scale, but he could not have imagined we were such a tiny company with only one employee.
That would make things even more complicated in his head.
After all, they had been soundly defeated by a company like this in front of the Canadian Wheat Board.
As he drank his Bacchus, he looked at me with an intrigued expression.
“This is truly impressive.”
“What is?”
“Making annual sales of one billion won from such a small office at your age is impressive enough, but then you tried to win over the Canadian Wheat Board... and it seems you’re almost succeeding.”
“Well, we won’t know until it’s over.”
He gave a strange smile.
“How did you get into this? It can’t have been easy just to learn that an opportunity like this existed, much less jump into it.”
“My father was in the trading business. He had a trading license, too.”
“Oh... So that’s how you started.”
He looked around the office again.
It probably still seemed absurd to him.
The president was twenty-seven, and the accounting clerk over there, darting her eyes around, looked barely into her twenties.
“President Kim, there’s something I’m curious about.”
“Please, go ahead.”
“What’s your goal?”
He was not even a senior from school, yet he suddenly asked about my goals in life?
It was no different from asking how large I intended to make this business.
“I want to build a global trading company.”
I answered honestly.
Schools always went on and on about how people should dream big, so there was nothing strange about saying it.
The problem was that everyone usually laughed at it.
But Manager Cho Seong-hun did not laugh.
That made me slightly wary.
He had failed to laugh at the point where he should have.
“A global trading company...”
Watching him murmur those words, I became certain.
He had come thoroughly prepared today.
“President Kim, since I came all the way to Busan, I’ll speak frankly.”
His posture shifted slightly.
“Yes.”
“I was deeply impressed by your presentation at the Busan hotel. To be honest, our department also thinks highly of you, President Kim. And... our vice president has taken an interest in you as well.”
He was suddenly buttering me up?
From the weaker side of a negotiation, flattering the other party was basic negotiation strategy.
Conversely, flattering the person you wanted to negotiate with meant admitting that you were in the weaker position.
Manager Cho might not have realized it himself, but he was revealing just how desperate he was.
Of course, that was knowledge I had gained through years of corporate life in my previous life. If I had been an ordinary twenty-seven-year-old who knew nothing, I would surely have been grinning from ear to ear.
How proud and thrilled would someone in this era feel to hear that a vice president of Il-sung Corporation had noticed them?
“Really? I’m grateful that the vice president sees me so favorably. That is high praise for such an inadequate company.”
“President Kim, I don’t mean to boast, but our company has certain assets. Il-sung Corporation has a global network built over decades, along with business connections throughout Korea’s food industry. You may be a step ahead of us when it comes to the Canadian line alone, but when we look beyond that to the entire grain market, we hold plenty of cards that could help you.”
In short, he meant, “No matter how capable you are, you can’t do it alone.”
“Oh... impressive.”
What I meant was, Yeah, I get it. You’re a big shot.
“So, we would like to build a cooperative arrangement with you, President Kim. However, as Korea’s largest general trading company, we would appreciate it if you could take care of a few formal matters.”
All that nonsense he had laid out beforehand was the introduction. This was the real point.
He called them mere formalities, but he had come all the way to Busan and flattered me just to obtain them.
“What sort of matters do you mean, Manager?”
When I politely asked, he leaned slightly forward and replied calmly.
“For example, even if you secure the Canadian line, there will still be much to handle within Korea. Relationships with Korean flour mills, unloading and storage at Busan Port, and securing business connections throughout Korea’s food industry. There are many areas where our company’s infrastructure could be helpful.”
He sounded so warm that if I were sick in bed, he seemed like the kind of person who would be first at the door with cold medicine.
“Specifically?”
“Let me give you an example. When transporting grain from Busan Port to Incheon Port, using one of our contracted carriers brings the per-ton price about fifteen percent below the market rate. We handle such a large volume every year that the carriers match that price for us. If you use that line with us, Yeongdo Trading’s transport margin will increase accordingly.”
He looked ready to bring porridge along with the cold medicine.
“Oh, really?”
“And when it comes to business connections with Korean flour mills, even if you bring Canadian wheat in directly, Korean flour mills still have to accept it. You saw Hanseong Flour Mills at the meeting, so you can guess how that will go. But what about the other mills?”
“...”
“Il-sung Corporation has done business with those companies for nearly thirty years. We have connections from department managers all the way up to company presidents. If you borrow our network when you go out to make sales, work that normally takes six months will be finished in one.”
He was tempting me as though he would even change my towels through the night.
No friendship offered favors like this unless someone was deeply in love.
“And...”
Even this was not the end?
As I looked at him in surprise, he dealt his trump card like a man pulling out a bouquet he had prepared in advance.
“Our company has a Grain Division in addition to the Food Ingredients Division. It mainly handles feed grain, importing corn, sorghum, and soybean meal, the residue left after oil is extracted from soybeans, from the United States and Australia every year. Since you have an Australian supply line, I think we may be able to work that together as well. If your Australian supply line is combined with the Grain Division’s volume, wouldn’t the prices we receive from Australian exporters fall another step?”
Now he was saying he would not even let water touch my fingers.
Anyone else would be too excited to sleep.
“Wow... Is that really possible?”
“Of course. If your company joins hands with ours, Yeongdo Trading could establish itself as one pillar of Korea’s grain market. For Yeongdo Trading to reach that position on its own, it would take at least...”
He looked around the office once more, then awkwardly continued.
“Ten years.”
In truth, ten years was a short estimate by normal standards.
He was saying that a company with one young president and one accounting clerk could grow into a trading firm worth tens of billions of won within ten years.
“Then it sounds like a good opportunity.”
“Of course it’s a good opportunity. Anyone would be desperate to seize an opportunity like this.”
Finishing in one year what would take ten was attractive to anyone.
It was, in fact, an attractive offer.
But I had to judge whether it was genuinely attractive or merely packaged to look attractive.
A fifteen percent transport margin? Good.
Korean flour mill connections, cutting six months down to one? Good.
Combining our Australian supply line to lower prices? Good.
All of it was good, but the moment I accepted it all, Yeongdo Trading’s sales, logistics, and business connections would all run through Il-sung Corporation.
We would effectively become a subcontractor.
The moment Il-sung Corporation’s network was removed, Yeongdo Trading would become a company that could no longer function.
And this was the same method American grain majors like Cargill and ADM had used in the 1980s to bring small companies in Southeast Asia and Latin America into their own trading networks. I knew that better than anyone.
Most importantly, these promises were only promises.
If a president or another decision-maker changed, even all these rosy promises could scatter like a dream.
“Then what exactly are the formal matters you need, Manager?”
A faint smile formed at the corner of his lips.
“Two things. First, when an official announcement is made, we would like Il-sung Corporation’s name to come before Yeongdo Trading’s. To outsiders, it should appear as though Il-sung Corporation is leading the arrangement. Second, in dealings with the Canadian Wheat Board, rather than negotiating alone, we want you to make sure there are meetings where we participate as well.”
In other words, if I would only put out the fire at their feet, they would promise me the stars and moon in the sky.
But he did not know.
Had they waited quietly, things might have been different. But now that they had come at me like this, I could not work with them.
“All of that sounds good, but there is no result yet... Isn’t it possible that both our company and Il-sung Corporation could fail?”
“...”
“It’s only a guess, of course.”
For the first time, the smile vanished from his face.
If he was quick, he would have found the barb in my words.
Yeongdo Trading might choose another company as its partner.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
