Mr Arrogant CEO

Episode 2 - Nice to meet you 'Sorry' Kid

Monday 19th September 8:40 AM.

The sun shined brightly coating the whole capital in a blanket of golden light. The buildings of the Digital Media City sparkled like bright lights. The long sparkling buildings reminded him of the same that he saw back at home in London. He smiled as he took in the fresh autumn air, which was still damp and somewhat warm. 

James pulled out his phone from his suit jacket and managed to connect to the Seoul Wifi. He pulled up Kakao map which told him the directions to the company building. He continued to take in the sights around him until he arrived at the company entrance. 

James looked up in amazement to see a tall glass building with the words written in Hangul, Hanyang Electronics.  James was approached by a petite woman, wearing a pink blouse and what seemed to be paired with white suit pants and a white handbag on her shoulder. 

"You must be James, right?" She asked in Korean.

James nodded "Yes that's me”.

The woman bowed in response and proceeded to introduce herself.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Choi (Chweh) Hyewon, I hope you received my email when you landed?" She said smiling brightly.

James nodded in response. Hyewon gave him a brown envelope that contained all sorts of freebies including some office essentials such as a pen, notepad, and a planner that all had the company name and logo engraved on it. 

He also received a welcome pamphlet, that was written in Korean. James stared at the pamphlet. 

"I know from the Korean test scores you have finished the highest level of Korean, but if there is anything you don't understand. Just tell me. Being a foreigner who is fluent in Korean, and being a native Korean are very different, right?" She chuckled.

James smiled in response and was guided into the building. James walked into a grand lobby, that had a fountain that stood in the centre and classical music that blasted throughout all the speakers in the lobby.

"This looks like a hotel. not a company?" James muttered to himself before heading down to the Hwanggeum lecture hall.  He opened the wooden door to see a hall full of Korean people. In this crowd, he knew he would stand out like a sore thumb. 

James walked down the stairs to find an empty seat, next to a young man who had a slim but muscular physique, with small bangs lightly combed to the side. 

"May I sit here?" James asked quietly. The man nodded and smiled.

"Are you an exchange?" The man asked.

James shook his head. "No, I am a regular employee”. 

The man's eyes opened in disbelief. "Really? Wow, you are the only foreigner here?" 

The man turned around to check if that was the case before returning his gaze to James.

He extended his hand out to introduce himself. "Nice to meet you, my name is Hangyeol. If my name is too hard you can just call me Han". 

James and Hangyeol shook hands and started to discuss small talk, about their life stories. A few moments later, Hyewon started to approach the stage and began tapping the mic. 

"Ah..Ah... Can everyone hear me well?" She asked the audience.

"Yes". they all shouted.

"Hello, welcome to your orientation, my name is Choi Hyewon and I am the personal assistant and head coordinator of Hanyang Electronics. If you have any problems, please don't hesitate to come to my office”.

Hyewon begins flicking through the slides, talking about topics such as the history of the company, their vision, and the rules and regulations of the company. 

"I understand we also have one foreigner amongst us who will be working with us in the company," Hyewon announced. Suddenly all eyes diverted onto James. 

James hated the spotlight, but what was he to expect being the only foreigner amongst a sea of Koreans. His face blushed red and proceeded to sink into his chair.

Hyewon smiled on stage, "Well please come to my office so I can help you with your application for the ARC”. 

She then turned to face off stage before returning her gaze to the audience. 

"Now may I introduce our CEO, Lee Dongmin". The whole audience started to cheer, as a tall muscular man, started to walk onto the stage. He was wearing a black suit and a white shirt that seemed to complement the definitions of his torso. Along with jet black hair that seemed neatly combed back.

He walked up to the podium. "Hello and welcome to Hanyang Electronics. I am your CEO...of course". 

The audience chuckled. James's eyes grew wider as he could not believe who was standing on that stage. It was the guy from the airplane that scolded him for apologizing too much. He was the CEO? Why was he in economy class?  James began to ponder.

The CEO continued to talk for what seemed like hours about legislation and company policies, before bowing and exiting the stage. 

Hyewon appeared on the stage and began to announce that the presentation was over. 

"Now if you would like to gather in your groups for the company tour". Hyewon announced.

Confused, about the group situation James walked down to the stage and approached Hyewon.

She smiled and looked at him. "How can I help you, James?"

"I can't seem to find my group..." He replied.

With a puzzled look, she quickly took out her small notepad that had the information of all employees and their groups. 

"Ah... You are not in a group". She answered.

James looked puzzled. 

"You are not in the group because I decided I wanted to give you the tour myself”. She said smiling at him.

"Ooh...". He said chuckling.

"Yes, so sorry I thought it would be less overwhelming if it were just you and I, you know how Korean's like to get curious around a foreigner. I was worried they may say something to upset you, or you may feel left out of the group”. 

Hyewon reached out her hand to pull James up on to the stage, and they headed to exit the lecture hall through the back entrance.

Walking through the dark, James accidentally bumped into a man, who was texting on his phone. 

"Sorry,". James said while bowing. 

"Oh Mr. Lee, we are so sorry. We didn't see you there". Hyewon quickly apologized. 

She then started to introduce Mr. Lee to James. He then raised his hand to signal Hyewon to stop rambling.

"Yes, I know him. He's the one that wouldn't stop apologizing on the plane last Friday." Mr. Lee responded.

James's face went pale, and his lips sealed shut. He did not know what to say, all he knew was that he was not allowed to say the words 'Sorry'.

Mr. Lee extended his hand out to shake James’s hand.

"Nice to meet you again, 'Sorry' kid".

Mr. Lee’s grin was quite charming, and he had quite a charismatic voice. James smiled and responded with a simple "Nice to meet you too".

Hyewon wrapped her arm around James's shoulder and guided him out the door. 

She quickly turned back and said farewell to Mr. Lee. Hyewon shut the door behind her and they both started to laugh. 

"Oh my god, so you already met our CEO?". she said walking alongside James.

He nodded and replied. "I honestly didn't expect him to be the CEO. I mean, don't CEOs normally fly first class?”.

She laughed and shook her head. "Our CEO likes to save money in any means possible. If there were a third-class where you had to stand up for the rest of your flight or sit on the floor, he would buy that ticket. I'm sure of it”.

She then proceeded to start James's personal tour and started to talk about every little detail about the company. What was important information, was just white noise to James. All James could think about was Mr. Lee. Especially his smile.