PROMPTS

Of Mergers and Marriages - 10

Since the marriage was already tagged as a "business deal", Yoon Se-Ri lost any excitement she had in planning for the wedding thinking that she might as well leave it to her father's team. Her only conditions were:

(1) the color palette will be for her approval;

(2) she will choose her wedding gown;

(3) keep sequins at a minimum.

From what she heard, Kim Joo Won agreed to these terms with a minor amendment for number 2 -- that he also gets to choose his suit. She sighed but agreed. It was only fair.

Since the engagement party, she had not seen or talked to Kim Joo Won. When she received the boxers she ordered for him, she deferred sending it to him until a couple of days later. Was she doing the right thing? Sure she wanted to make nice, but boxers? Really, Se-Ri?

Finally, there was no point in delaying further... and she had no intention of keeping those in her drawers for any longer.

She immediately got a call when he received it.

"YOU'RE THE BEST FIANCEE EVER!" he happily yelled into the phone. He said it so loudly that Se-Ri had to move the handset away from her ear. "This is fantastic! Do I wear it for our honeymoon?"

"Well, uh... we never discussed a honeymoon so... it's up to you when you'll wear it," she replied, uncomfortable telling him when he should wear her gift, but feeling good about his reaction.

She could still hear Kim Joo Won chuckling on his end of the call. She could almost imagine him checking the stitching closely.

"By the way, I saw your store display. It's looking good. There's a lot of interest already," Kim Joo Won told her, changing the topic.

"Good, good," Se-Ri replied, pouting slightly. "The problem is the store near us is planning a sale on the day we open so we're worried that it might take away our opening day sales."

She had first heard of the plan this morning from her marketing team and it annoyed Se-Ri to no end. Unfortunately, they had limited space and there was no way to ensure the customers went into her store instead of the one right beside hers, without physically pulling them in.

"Hmm... I see," was all Kim Joo Won said, making Se-Ri feel like she was out of line for sharing her thoughts.

"Anyway, sorry I blurted that out. We'll handle it and make sure you get the target revenue for our stall," she ended.

Less than an hour later, Mr. Hong knocked at her office to say, "Mr. Kim has asked all the signages at his mall to put on announcements of our opening day! On the day itself, special attendants will be assigned to escort customers that will visit our stall."

"Really? And we don't have to pay anything for the additional advertisement?" Yoon Se-Ri wondered.

"No, Ma'am," Mr. Hong confirmed.

"That's, uh, very kind," was all Se-Ri said, her mind already racing.

Why did he do it? That was nice. Now our marketing needs to level up and bring in warm bodies to the mall. Kim Joo Won was nice. Horrible fashion sense... but nice.

When Mr. Hong left to go to another meeting, she picked up her phone and sent a message.

Thank you for the marketing boost.

He replied almost immediately.

Anything for the woman who gives me sparkly red boxers. Give me a full sequinned suit and I just might fall in love with you.