The Most Beautiful Moments In Lifeᵖᵗ¹ // OT7 BTS FF x OC

51. Competition

Saturday, 25th. April. 2015 

Kai dropped me off at work early seeing as there was a meeting being held before opening to announce the fortnightly sales rankings. I had a feeling I'd rank well considering the amount in the payslip Koh had given me this morning. But compared to how much the others made, it was still uncertain just how I'd place. And again, it was only for two weeks. This was more of a forecast for how my monthly sales have been so far. What was more significant was the monthly performance. Despite the other girls here essentially being my competitors, so far none of them had openly said they were competing with me.

I made my way down the hall and upon entering I saw the entire cast of girls gathered, settling down on the couches in the center of the lounge together. A light chatter in the room. They must have been waiting for the meeting to begin. I noticed they had posted the rankings on the wall, so I took a second to check.

Aera
Lily
Sephora
Mia
Jia 
Wyniee
Venus
Hina
Emi
Soo Young

Fifth. That was pretty amazing, considering I'd only been here for such a short amount of time. I really had the boys to thank for it, seeing as they were the ones that came to visit me the most.

Haru was nearly ready to begin the meeting, so I went over and squished in between Wynnie and Lilly. Sephora perched herself on the armrest beside us. Everyone quietened down as Haru finally came over and pulled up a chair and joined us.

"Does anyone else feel frustrated?" There was a mixture of sighs, and some girls gave a nod or muttered a yes to the question he'd posed.  "When the rankings come in and Aera is making so many sales, isn't it frustrating?" He took a pause, but went on. "Basically, that kind of frustration is very important as a hostess."

Aera, the girl who had placed at number one, and the only girl with fiery red hair in the room, shuffled her chair around a little as though she had something she wanted to say. "Haru, if I may?" Haru gave her a nod and sat back, so she cleared her throat with a small cough and began addressing the room.

"So, this new client of mine. I met him two weeks ago, but he's spent 20,000 on me already. The first time we met, he happened to be a 'first time' customer. I really thought he was just going to be an occasional customer, but the guy took a liking to me and nominated me. Then he started coming here and spending money." After she was done, Haru took it upon himself to speak again.

"You girls have the chance to serve customers every time they walk in for the first time. You stand a very reasonable chance of getting nominated too." I listened as he continued on. This was the first time I'd heard him speak so seriously.

"You don't have time to worry about the guy or how he is doing. Worry about yourself instead. In my opinion, it's not cool if you girls worry about such things." There was mostly silence in the room. Everyone seemed to take in his pep talk.

"Seriously. If you care about the guys, then you should be more concerned with yourself and take it more seriously when it's the first time for them. Because it would be more embarrassing if you weren't selling, right?" He was making a lot of valid points. It is definitely embarrassing if you're not making sales. "You'll be more ashamed of yourself for not selling than you are of obsessing over guys' feelings."

I didn't think this much applied to me, but maybe it did. It sounded like perhaps some of the other girls weren't pushing their sales as hard as they should be. I understood the hesitation. If you have feelings for a customer, you find it harder to coax them into spending. And if that customer is someone you knew before you started working here, then it's not like the relationship was strictly business.