You Can't Have It All

Chapter 24

            “Oh my god,” Leticia gushed, “Isn’t he the dreamiest guy you’ve ever met?”

            I tried to shush her but to no avail as she continuously praised Hyun Joong, who was driving a bigger car than the taxi to take us to the heart of Seoul, where the Cherry Blossoms Hotel is located.

            “Leticia, he understands English,” I whispered to Leticia who seemed to be oblivious to my warning. I can see Hyun Joong sneaking glances at us through the rear-view mirror and smiling, but Leticia can’t seem to notice it. Sam was sitting at the front taking pictures of the bright lights of Seoul with his brand new Nikon camera that his parents bought when he passed the interview.

            “It’s okay, sister,” Hyun Joong said in Korean as I looked at him, “She is free to say whatever she wants to.”

            I smiled and nodded my head, not sure why I was suddenly feeling shy with him. Maybe because I don’t really know him or maybe because he really has a disarming smile – I don’t dare to find out further. He told us that he was friends with Mr. Juno and since he knew almost every investor in Korea, that he would be the best person to guide us. I was itching to ask him whether he had a girlfriend, but I didn’t have to when Leticia asked him herself when he took us out for dinner after checking in the hotel.

            “Girlfriend?” he said, smiling slightly, as Leticia leant closer to hear his answer, “No, miss, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

            “Oh that’s a shame,” she said, “Any girls would be lucky to have someone like you.”

            “I assure you that I am not the best guy in Korea,” he said humbly, “There are many other good looking guys around.”

            “So Mr. Kim,” I said, as he looked at me, “What are our schedules for tomorrow?”

            “First of all, I do not need you to be so formal and call me Mr. Kim,” he said as I blushed slightly, “You can just call me Hyun Joong, and our schedule for tomorrow starts at eight in the morning. I will take you to see Chairman Park Shin Woo who is the Chairman of the Korean National Bank and it will be up to you to charm him to accept your proposals.”

            I nodded my head as we continued talking about other things. Back at home, we were already trained personally by Mr. Sean on the ways to propose the business to the investors in Korea and tomorrow will be the day to practice that. We went to bed early and woke up early the next morning, not really used to the difference of time. Hyun Joong was already waiting for the three of us in the lobby as he drove us to the National Bank. He was kind enough to set-up an appointment earlier for us. As we stood outside Chairman Park’s office door, we looked at each other apprehensively.

            “Guys, this is the fruit of our one year training,” I told them as they shook their head, “We must not disappoint our company and we should do our best here.”

            “Let’s go for it,” Sam said as we nodded our heads together and stepped into the huge office. We presented our business and left Chairman Park’s office feeling relieved. One down, a few more to go. Chairman Park said that he would consider investing in the company. Our routine daily was to look for other investors, and by the time a month had passed, we only had two small investors interested and that was not enough. We haven’t reached the target as we needed a bigger investor and that means Chairman Park had to accept our proposal.

            “What are we going to do now?” Leticia moaned as we sat in our room one night, three months after looking for investors.