Abandoned

"Director Oh, when is the bidding taking place?" Someone asked from the audience, drawing her attention back to the main topic.

"In three days."

Slowly calming her tensed nerves by releasing deep breaths, she continued to give them insight as to the information they needed to prepare a proposal.

Just then, the project manager walked in through the doors, bowing his head slightly to apologize for the lateness before going to take one of the seats in the front rolls.

"As I said earlier, we have less than 24 hours to finish up the proposal and submit it to President Kim.

J Group's new project is a fifty-storey skyscraper hotel that will be located in G city, which is quite an expensive location. The cost of labour would be high over there.

But their main interest lies in the quality of our proposal and a reasonable budget to back it up."

Looking at the project manager, she posed an assignment she already knew the answer to.

"Project manager, at the end of this meeting, I would like you to give us the budget for this project which includes the cost of labour, cost of raw materials, our fee plus the profit, and the shortest time it would take us to finish it."

"Director Oh, J Group didn't give any limit for their budget?" Someone in the audience asked.

Another person replied in Ji-Soo's stead.

"How can they do that when they are trying every means to garner attention for themselves?"

If J Group had given a range for the budget they would work it, that would have reduced the number of architectural companies, joining the bid.

Because they had a huge project which they could use to attract the best companies in and out of the country, they decided to take advantage and turn them into competitors amongst themselves.

By sticking to their plans, they would be like a smear of honey attracting the ants to it. The bigger the noise that was made about them, the more attention everyone would have on them, and the more potential investors they would get.

That was their goal.

During the course of the meeting, Ji-Soo gave them more insight into the structure of the skyscraper and other important little details they all had to note.

The high-end finishings, the square-foot tprint, the kind of architecture that was required and the site characteristics.

Several questions were raised by the staff that would be putting heads together to work on the project and Oh Ji-Soo answered them all.

When the discussion ended, Ji-Soo turned to the project manager, "Project Manager."

Taking the cue, the older man went on to do his part of the job.

"If we break projects into sections of models, it would take us 2 years to complete the building. As for the budget, we would be needing from $300M."

Talking a bit about it, Oh Ji-Soo concluded the meeting.

"I need all of the department heads here to gather and work on this proposal along with your teams. The final result should be submitted before 5 pm. Don't accept any other work today apart from this."

Walking back to her office, Ji-Soo felt tired already after talking for so long, but she was only getting started.

Knowing the amount of work they had at hand, two minutes break wasn't even possible.

To make sure she wouldn't have much to redo after the proposal was submitted to her by the project manager, she took it upon herself to work between two places.

Taking some of her stuff with her, she went down to the 20th floor where a working station had been prepared for her, to sit and work with them.

The Project manager and other departmental heads under him, also left their offices to join the others in the large office space.

As time went on, Ji-Soo left her desk to check on the ongoing work before returning to her desk.

Over time, she did this repeatedly while giving pointers, making some corrections and also answering her boss's call in between.

As if Kim Ju-hun hadn't given her enough work, he called her private line more than twice after failing to reach her through the landline in her office.

The first time he called, he scolded her for leaving him hanging and after swallowing the insults, Ji-Soo was finally able to breathe some fresh air.

The second time, he gave her some notes for the building plan.

Unknown to him, she very much wished that he would not bother her anymore.

By 5 pm, the work was still not done, only two departments were done with their own parts hence, they were allowed to leave.

After another hour had passed, more of the staff started to leave, but Ji-Soo remained at her desk, going through what had been submitted to her.

But some minutes later, there was a need to speak to President Kim which prompted her to leave for her office.

Picking up the landline, she put a call through to his office but after several rings, no one answered.

Left with no choice, she reached the landline of his personal assistant and soon, the call was answered.

"Ms. Helen, I've been trying to reach President Kim but no one is answering."

At the other end, the woman chuckled lightly. "President Kim clocked off work an hour ago and I was about to do the same before your call came in. Is there any problem?"

'What!'

Hearing that the man messing with her entire existence had since clocked off work, Oh Ji-Soo was left speechless.

"No, it's fine. Goodbye."

Getting off the phone with Ms. Helen, she slammed the telephone on its holder.

"I thought his office was his living and brooding space?" Mumbling to herself, she walked out of her office and returned to the 20th floor in rage.

Oh Ji-Soo almost went berserk. She couldn't believe that boss was this sly.

After giving her this big work, he abandoned them and retired for the day without saying anything. And tomorrow, he would expect the proposal to magically appear before him.

What a shameless boss!