A little after three o'clock, Assistant Manager Oh Myung-joo walked into the conference room. Behind him was, Yeo Jin-Cheol, the team leader of Overseas Sales Team 1.
The moment the forty-something Mr. Yeo saw that only one intern—Yoon Dongha—was sitting inside, his face twisted in displeasure.
There was no full-time staffer present—only an intern.
"Where's Manager Lee Hyuk?"
"He won't be joining us. I'm to manage the issue first, and if anything arises, Executive Director Park Jin-hee and Manager Lee will step in."
"Step in? We all know what's going on already—what is this supposed to be?"
Yeo openly showed his irritation, grinding his molars.
The harsh rasp in his voice was notorious for silencing entire teams in the sales division.
Assistant Manager Oh flinched before he could stop himself. He glanced quickly at Dongha across the table.
But Dongha, unfazed by Yeo's threatening tone, stared right back at him with clear, steady eyes.
This intern is no joke, Oh thought, swallowing hard.
Oh collected himself and addressed Yeo.
"Please, have a seat, sir."
Yeo sat down heavily, still bristling. Oh sat next to him.
Facing the two sales staff, Dongha began calmly.
"Overseas Purchasing has no personnel who can cover Senior Associate Kim Jang-woo's sudden absence. So intern Han Yoojin and I are assisting."
"An intern is handling operations?" Yeo narrowed his eyes.
He'd covered up Oh's order-omission mistake—and now two interns had been attached to their team.
He shot a cutting glare at Oh.
Idiot.
"Yes. We're interns, and we're currently in the onboarding program. After three months, we will likely be reassigned to other affiliates."
When Dongha finished, Yeo leaned back and stared at him. Being reassigned to another affiliate? Was that a threat?
"And?"
"I don't want to enter another affiliate with the impression that Apparel—the division that contributed greatly to Samho Group's growth—is operating with inferior systems compared to other affiliates."
A faint violet sheen flickered behind Dongha's dark eyes.
It was a threat. A polite one—but a threat regardless.
Mentioning other affiliates made Yeo uncomfortable. But raising his voice at a young intern or intimidating him with rank was something even a seasoned salesperson like him shouldn't do.
A crooked smile tugged at his lips.
"Intern Yoon Dongha, let's not be too idealistic. We want to use the system too. And we do use it. Men's and Women's categories run fine, don't they? It's only Toddler orders. Ocean Bay isn't the only buyer like this. Every buyer has at least one order handled this way."
"So you're saying every buyer has such an order?"
"That's right. You can't eat only the good cuts of meat. When there are profitable orders, there will also be unprofitable ones. It's a kind of 'service order' we provide the buyer."
Dongha's expression hardened; the lingering violet faded to pitch black.
"Then this isn't caused by individual work styles, is it?"
Assistant Manager Oh jumped in, unable to hold back.
"I want to use the system too, but how can we open up an order that loses money? You want me to make the loss official?"
Dongha let out a small incredulous laugh.
"Then why accept these orders?"
"I told you—it's a service order. The buyer gives us high-margin orders, but also expects us to take low-margin ones. Instead of giving good orders to one factory and bad orders to another, it's better to give everything to one place so they can earn consistently, right?"
Oh added quickly:
"So we inflate consumption a little, or reduce it later when placing the actual order… or source fabric under cheaper terms. Things like that to control cost."
"Cheaper fabrics risk quality issues, don't they?"
Oh stiffened. Quality was a dangerous topic.
Yeo brushed a hand over his face.
"Well, what can you do? These aren't luxury goods. They're made with low-priced materials."
Dongha had heard this song before—Manager Lee Hyuk's favorite line about "cheap materials, mass production."
The issue was rotten to the core.
There was no point arguing system logic anymore.
Time to reduce Yoojin's burden.
"With mismatched data, the two of us interns can't process the orders."
"It's impossible to match everything perfectly," Oh waved it off. "Some things have to be adjusted manually. That's normal."
Dongha's gaze sharpened.
He meant: Everything has to be manually manipulated.
"So Overseas Sales maintains one set of records, and Overseas Purchasing keeps another—so they can be matched manually?"
"Oh? You're smarter than you look, Dongha." Yeo gave a pleased grin.
Dongha returned a faint smile.
"Yes. A double-ledger system for double management."
"Now hold on," Yeo wagged a finger. "The term 'double-ledger' sounds like tax evasion or something illegal. It's not like that. We don't want to do this. But what choice do we have when cost structures don't work?"
"Then may I report it to Executive Director Park exactly as you've explained?"
"Sure, go ahead. Everyone already knows. We've worked like this for over ten years. Don't report as if the problem is Sales."
Dongha's eyes darkened—exactly the permission he needed.
"Understood. Then Assistant Manager Oh—can you manage the issues for the 15 toddler orders with me and Intern Han? We've already listed the other orders based on system data, but yours cannot be worked on at all."
Oh thought about the backlog he had—SS development tasks.But FW production was more urgent. And Yeo would pressure him relentlessly until this was resolved.
"Fine."
When the meeting ended and they left the room, Dongha discreetly stopped the recording on his phone.
Recording without consent was illegal, but Yoojin would want it.
Still—would this recording even matter?
Dongha originally treated this like a game of uncovering who was at fault.But as the conversation went on, he realized the problem wasn't individual incompetence—it was structural.
If only Manager Lee's tyranny and Oh's mistakes were the cause—it would've been satisfying.
But no—Lee Hyuk, Yeo Jin-cheol, Oh Myung-joo… they were all just employees caught in Samho Apparel's larger system, forced to push through unprofitable orders as part of the cost-structure trade-off.
It meant years of staff struggling under impossible conditions.
Double management—double ledgers—were the inevitable by-product.
Would HQ know? They must.
Dongha's chest tightened.
If the system itself was the culprit, then the ultimate responsibility fell on his brother—Chairman Yoon Taeyoung.
How would Yoojin take this?
But what mattered now was to sort out the situation quickly.
Dongha sent her a message:
[Just finished meeting with Sales. Can you come to the conference room for a moment?]
*
When Dongha finished explaining why system corrections were impossible, Yoojin's eyes drooped. The clear fawn-like eyes grew faintly red with frustration.
"So there really are no principles here?"
Dongha nodded silently.
"If an order loses money, then that loss should be stated openly. Hiding bad cost structures is wrong."
"You're right. Everything you're saying is right."
He wanted to soothe her—delicately, gently—like handling something that might shatter at a touch.
"So there's no way for us to sort this out ourselves?"
"I set up a full review meeting with Assistant Manager Oh tomorrow.If we go through everything together, we can get it sorted quickly.Let's do it together."
Yoojin nodded weakly.
Fifteen orders she would need to organize and manage separately—the sheer weight of the workload made her shoulders feel like they were collapsing.
That night, until midnight, Yoojin and Dongha worked to prepare materials for the next day's meeting with the sales team.
They built a combined table that matched each item between the overseas purchasing team's order data and the sales team's order sheets.