Peninsula: 72 Hours of Blind Dates

Tehran Road, the headquarters building of the Kakao Group.

15th floor, AI R&D center.

Before 9 a.m., when it was time to start work, the employees gathered in the break room chatted while making coffee.

"nmixx really invested a lot in their comeback support this time."

"The group leader is a fan of nmixx, so he probably participated in the support activities as well."

"I don't know, but it's been more than half a month now. There are Nmixx support signs everywhere in subway stations, bus stations, and KTX stations."

"Is it returning tomorrow?"

"This morning, on my way to the company, I heard someone at the subway station say that the nmixx album has officially gone on sale."

Kwon Ji-ho stretched his neck and walked to the coffee machine, saying, "Everyone on the street is talking about nmixx now. It seems that nmixx has completely gone viral."

The employee asked, "Senior, we've also made contributions, so the team leader, who was in charge of the second quarter's KPI bonus assessment,..."

Li Shiyan arrived at the company, holding an iced Americano. Curious about her colleagues' conversation, she went to the break room. Hearing someone ask about KPI bonuses, she replied, "When did our department start linking KPI bonuses to idol comebacks? Our team leader hates the blurring of public and private matters."

The employee who asked the question was embarrassed. He had just joined the company in February of this year and was considered a newcomer.

I assumed that Han Hee-joon had participated in the purchase of nmixx's new album, and since I often heard my colleagues talking about Han Hee-joon and Oh Hae-won, it was almost certainly an insider's accurate information that Han Hee-joon and Oh Hae-won were dating.

The employees are so supportive of Han Xijun's girlfriend; what if Han Xijun slacks off on his KPI assessment? This is how they repay everyone's support.

But thinking about it, that seems unlikely.

The quarterly bonuses for AI R&D departments are not a small amount; as long as the KPI is within the acceptable range, they can receive bonuses exceeding 1000 million yuan.

The minimum score is B; so far, no employee has been eliminated for a C or D score.

Good morning, team leader!

The group quickly dispersed.

As usual, Han Xijun walked straight to his personal office after entering the main office.

Baek Eun-hee waited at the door, asked Han Hee-joon if he wanted green tea, and then began to prepare.

Before 9 a.m., everyone was in work mode.

As soon as Baek Eun-hee left Han Hee-joon's office, a nearby employee gestured for her to look at the computer. In the Kakao chat room, an employee asked Baek Eun-hee about KPI assessments.

Baek Eun-hee typed a reply on the keyboard.

When the tea was brought in, Baek Eun-hee reminded Han Hee-joon of the scoring sheet for the KPI bonus assessment. Han Hee-joon said that he had already sent it to the Human Resources Department via email, which meant that the scoring and evaluation were completed.

As for the outcome, Baek Eun-hee was also unclear.

Inside the office.

A sip of hot green tea.

Clicking on the time and date in the lower right corner of the computer screen clearly shows that the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday is in two days, on the 10th.

Han Xijun spent last year's Mid-Autumn Festival at the company.

He has other plans for this year.

Han Hee-joon is very concerned about the pre-sale of nmixx's comeback album. He asked about it yesterday, posing as a fan to nmixx's manager.

This is also why Han Hee-joon asked Oh Hae-won's manager in the dormitory whether they knew about their relationship.

Han Hee-joon was indeed very confident and didn't see Yoon Ji-hoon, who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as a threat. But confidence doesn't mean you can do nothing.

Yoon Ji-hoon also participated deeply in nmixx's comeback promotion as a fan, and made a really big contribution. As other staff members have mentioned, there are a lot of people talking about nmixx on the street lately.

So Han Hee-joon also wanted to do something, but within reasonable limits.

So Han Hee-joon contacted nmixx's manager.

The agent was flattered and initially thought it was a conman impersonating Han Xijun.

It was only after a video call that she confirmed it was indeed Han Xijun who had contacted her. She cautiously asked Han Xijun why he had contacted her, and Han Xijun expressed his desire to do something as a fan.

For a moment, even the manager couldn't think of anything Han Xijun could do.

After all, this guy really has a lot of influence whenever he does anything. And thanks to Han Hee-joon, the trending topics and other promotional effects of nmixx in the early days of their debut were all brought by Han Hee-joon.

The agent said he would have to ask the manager.

I replied to Han Xijun later, saying that I didn't need Han Xijun's help with anything, and I was very grateful that Han Xijun offered to help nmixx.

Then we talked about album sales figures.

Pre-orders are booming, growing even faster than their debut album sales. Conservative estimates suggest the album is very likely to sell over 40 copies in a week of pre-orders, an absolutely remarkable achievement for a new group.

Based solely on album sales figures, without any inflated figures, the Nmixx group rose from newcomers to become a top-tier female idol group.

If they can win first place on a music show, it will further solidify their position, making them a star right from their debut, just like their labelmates, ITZY.

not enough.

Han Xijun felt it wasn't enough.

But he wouldn't spend his own money to buy albums and pile them up.

Colleagues at Kakao Group's AI R&D Center all contributed.

Han Xijun had considered promoting Kakao Group internally, but the company was not as large as outsiders thought. All departments combined only had about 3000 employees, which was a drop in the ocean.

Only the sheer number of employees in traditional conglomerates like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, and SK can make a difference.

Unfortunately, Han Hee-joon didn't have the ability to get the employees of these large conglomerates to spend money to buy nmixx albums.

I've checked online.

A girl group whose album sells over a million copies will definitely be considered top-tier. Very few girl groups have ever achieved this; the previous example is YG Entertainment's Blackpink. ITZY, the senior group of MNIXX, released their album in July, which has already sold close to a million copies, a very high achievement.

Ring ring.

The cell phone rang.

Han Xijun glanced at the incoming call information on his phone screen, picked up his phone, walked to the window, and answered the call.

"Hee-joon ah"

"President-nim"

"The shareholders of the computing power platform company you led the team to build have reached a conclusion, and they will provide you with 3000 billion h yuan in support."

"not enough"

"Use it for now, and we'll add more once we've reached a result with SK Group."

We finished talking about work in just a few words.

Then Kim Bum-soo changed the subject, saying, "I heard about nmixx at the airport when I came back from China yesterday."

"Huh?" "Your girlfriend's group is known to many people in China."

Han Xijun knew that Kim Bum-soo was going to China to hold a meeting with Alibaba on online payments, so he didn't quite understand when Nmixx was suddenly mentioned.

Kim Bum-soo said, "I wasn't trying to help you or your girlfriend, I just mentioned it casually. I guess there should be good news."

"What good news?"

"I mentioned it briefly when I was having dinner with the president of Orion in China."

That's completely irrelevant.

Han Hee-joon even suspected that Kim Bum-soo was still drunk from last night.

Ding

SMS notification tone.

Han Xijun held his phone up to his eyes and looked at it. It was a message from Wu Haiyuan.

This was also the first time since the two had known each other that Wu Haiyuan had taken the initiative to send a message to Han Xijun before 9 a.m.