Chapter 91: The Mayor’s Wife (1)

Kang Ra-Eun either went to her university lectures or fulfilled her company duties whenever she didn’t have drama shoots scheduled. It was currently summer break for university, so she decided to finish the work needed for the promotion event in advance that was set to release in the latter half of the year.

Ra-Eun looked through the female sportswear that would soon be released. She was going to be wearing them for today’s photo shoot.

Do Hye-Yeong, a director of Levanche who would be acting as Ra-Eun’s assistant, said to Ra-Eun while showing her today’s schedule during the photo shoot.

“The photo shoot will likely finish at around 5 PM. I will let the photo shoot director know if you need to leave earlier.”

“No, it’s okay. It doesn’t matter if it takes longer, so please tell him to make the photo shoot as high-quality as possible.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Time was not of importance; only results were. Not only that, but she couldn’t not be concerned about it since her company sales were on the line.

Ra-Eun had never owned a business; she had been a full-time employee right up until her death. Hence, she had come to realize how difficult managing a business was as of late.

Ra-Eun walked to and stood in the middle of the studio after changing. Despite the tight-fitting clothes she was wearing, she was not embarrassed in the slightest due to her fine figure sculpted through exercise. She did not mind wearing such clothes that accentuated her figure as long as they did not reveal too much skin.

Ra-Eun tied her hair up to give off a more sporty look, exposing her slender neck. The photographer gave an OK sign as he looked at her through the camera.

“That’s good, Ra-Eun. Let’s have you take some natural poses,” he stated.

“Can I do as I like?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Of course! Just do whatever you think feels right.”

Ra-Eun used to feel extremely pressured when she was asked to do such a thing because she had never been in a photoshoot before. However, she had gotten used to posing in front of a camera after entering her third year as an actress.

Her cleavage was slightly revealed as she slightly bent over. She couldn’t bend over too much since the photos would be rated R if she did. There certainly were disadvantages to having a voluptuous body at times like these. She posed as wholesomely as she possibly could while taking such things into account.

The photographer’s speed at pressing the shutter increased due to Ra-Eun’s SSS-tier excellence as a model.

“Oh! That’s a great pose! Let’s do that again, but facing this way! Yes, marvelous! Yes!”

The shutter sound filled the entire studio. Park Seol-Hun smiled satisfyingly as he watched the photo shoot from the back. He approached Ra-Eun during her break time and gave her a big thumbs up.

“Looks like this one’s guaranteed to be sold out as well! Fantastic!”

Seol-Hun could already hear their company sales skyrocketing from the thought of Ra-Eun in Levanche’s sportswear taking the whole page of their promotion banner. Any product that Ra-Eun wore had a 99% chance to be sold out, earning her the nickname ‘Sold-Out Goddess.’

Ra-Eun laughed at Seol-Hun’s elated face as she cooled herself down with a mini fan.

“Don’t get too conceited, mister. You shouldn’t let your guard down.”

“Yeah, I know, but I can’t help being happy.”

No matter how exceptional their competitors’ models were, they could never surpass Ra-Eun. They would need to spend abhorrent amounts of money to bring in stars even more famous than Ra-Eun, but would that even be cost-effective? It would depend on the resulting sales, but it would not be easy to pull off.

On the other hand, Levanche had the massive merit of being able to make use of the card that was Kang Ra-Eun anytime they wanted, obviously because Levanche was owned by her. They were able to save lots of money from the chairwoman herself being a model for their products. Levanche would no doubt come out as the winner in a battle of models. Not just that, but Ra-Eun could also bring in other famous actors as models through her connections.

“You remember that Je-Woon sunbae is going to be the menswear model, right?” Ra-Eun inquired.

Seol-Hun nodded, “Of course I do. We’ve even set up a date for the shoot.”

There was no way the company sales wouldn’t skyrocket when the leader of the most popular boy group in Korea was going to be a model for Levanche.

“All you need to do is to manage the company, mister. I’ll take care of the marketing side.”

“Leave it to me.”

Seol-Hun was glad that he had cooperated with Ra-Eun. He recalled the first time he had met her. He had been nothing but skeptical when a high school girl who he had never met before suddenly offered to start a business with him. But now he had no choice but to acknowledge that he was lucky to have met her.

“But why are you here, mister?” Ra-Eun asked.

There was no need for Seol-Hun to be at the photo shoot studio, since Director Do Hye-Yeong was already here. He was not here just to see her.

“I’m here to talk about what we’d discussed over the phone,” he remarked.

“What was it again?”

They had talked about so much stuff that she couldn’t remember. Seol-Hun concisely summarized the reason for her.

“About taking over Lestea.”

“Oh, that?”

There were two ways for a company to grow as a business. One was to grow by raising their sales independently, and the other was to grow by taking over smaller companies through mergers and acquisitions. Ra-Eun was planning on making her company even bigger by using both strategies.

Lestea was a relatively well-known sneaker manufacturing company, but had been getting less relevant due to their inability to compete with other famous companies. Ra-Eun had been thinking of acquiring the business to conquer even more of the sporting goods market, and Seol-Hun used to sell shoes as well in the past.

“Their chairman decided to sign the contract,” Seol-Hun mentioned.

“Really? I thought it’d take a while, but I guess it got resolved better than I’d expected.”

“Well... I guess so,” Seol-Hun answered reluctantly.

Ra-Eun noticed his attitude and asked, “What? Was there a problem?”

“It’s not really a problem, but it’s just about the one who made it happen... It was that gangster boss.”

Ra-Eun was shocked that Ma Yeong-Jun was the one who had clinched the contract.

“That mister? How?”

She had warned him not to go to the meetings. However, there were certain circumstances to the matter.

“Lestea was blatantly trying to feel us out, so I was getting a bit annoyed. We had a meeting about how to handle it, but that gangster boss suddenly said he’d give it a shot, so...”

“So you let him?”

“I thought it’d work out one way or another, so I let him do what he wanted.”

However, it had actually worked. Seol-Hun had been more bewildered than happy after getting the news that Lestea would sign. He asked Yeong-Jun what he had done for them to have a change of heart, and Yeong-Jun answered...

“He said he investigated Lestea’s chairman and all their executive members, and something about everyone having at least one skeleton in their closet,” Seol-Hun stated.

Yeong-Jun and his men specialized in getting something on someone and threatening them with it.

“And he apparently said it straight to the Lestea chairman’s face and asked him whether he wanted to experience a social death or hand over his company while we’re still offering good conditions. Their chairman then handed the company over.”

“Handled like a true gangster,” Ra-Eun expressed.

It certainly was not a good method, but...

‘There are times when such measures are necessary.’

This was exactly why Ra-Eun had decided to take Yeong-Jun and his men under her wing. She had been worried if the beasts that she had bought lost their fangs after playing around in their pen for too long, but she had now realized their beastly instincts were as strong as ever.

‘Good. Never let go of that ferocity.’

After all, there would be many times when she would need their help in the future.

***

Ra-Eun’s drama shoot schedules had gotten tighter as

Waitress?

was slowly proceeding to its latter half. However, there was one thing that she couldn’t forget to do.

Ra-Eun arrived at her old home and the first thing that she saw once heading inside was her older brother walking around in only his underwear.

“Even if this is your home, you should at least wear some clothes, don't you think?” Ra-Eun nagged.

Kang Ra-Hyuk responded lukewarmly, “You don’t even live here anymore, so it doesn’t matter, does it? I like how freewheeling it is to walk around the house like this.”

“You can freewheel when you get your own place.”

Ra-Hyuk was planning on moving near Ra-Eun’s place around winter break, and would stay here until then.

“But what are you doing here? You didn’t even tell us you were coming,” Ra-Hyuk asked.

Ra-Eun usually called before visiting her old home, but she did not have the leeway because she had a late shoot today. She had come without even removing her makeup.

She took out something after telling Ra-Hyuk to wait.

“Here.”

Ra-Hyuk was in surprise as he stared at the small gift box Ra-Eun took out from her handbag.

“Is this... my birthday gift?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Today was Ra-Hyuk’s birthday. He was a sad excuse for an older brother, but was still an invaluable supporter and a reliable ally to Ra-Eun. She was only able to become a successful celebrity and a well-off businesswoman because of Ra-Hyuk’s help.

“Can I open it?”

“Do as you like. It’s yours.”

The gift was small in size, but not in the slightest in terms of its value.

“Th-This is... a Rolex!”

It was a leading name in luxury wristwatches that boasted prices up to the ten million won range.

“I never thought there would be a day where I would get a watch like this as a gift.”

Not only was Ra-Hyuk surprised since he thought he wouldn’t ever come to own such a luxurious watch, but he couldn’t help but be happy that it was filled with his little sister’s love.

“Thanks, Ra-Eun. It sure is nice to have a well-off little sister.”

“Shut up. You’d better not lose it, or I’ll kick your ass.”

Despite her pottymouth, Ra-Hyuk could only see her as his precious and cute little sister today.