"nakamotors' impossible ascension..." jaehyun read out loud holding in a scoff. "what is this shit title...?"

the ceo of jung corporation clicked on the link he had just read, making a whole newspaper article pop in front of his eyes on the screen of his office computer and allowing him to quickly read the many lines of text displayed in front of him which told the story of his rival.

at the age of 26, jung jaehyun was the ceo of the family company, a year after taking over the family business because of his father's retirement.

jung corporation had been created decades ago, by one of jaehyun's ancestors with the aim of providing quality vehicles for people who needed it. at the time, the company had been an immediate success, allowing it to forge its name in the list of the legends of automobile. and now, decades later, the company was still lead by the jung family, transmitted from father to son with generations passing, and with the same aim as before.

the company had grown so well in the past, its ceos successfully buying and selling other brands to make profit and develop, and this allowed them to become one of the most important actors of the automobile industry worldwide.

jaehyun had been immersed in this world since forever thanks to his parents and his grandparents who knew very well that he would then become the next ceo of this corporation. since he was young, jaehyun was trained to become a great leader, and he cannot remember the number of times he spent afternoons in his father's office, simply observing him and his behaviours towards other businessmen. he had studied in the best business schools the principles of economy, management and marketing until he knew them by heart and could analyse any geopolitical situation from an economic perspective. additionally, he had always been eager to learn more about the automobile world and its potential to the point he now knew it like the back of his hand.

and after years of training and observing, jaehyun had one onle concern: becoming the next ceo of jung corporation. he too wanted to make his name a renown one, like his father his grandfather or his great-grandfather and to be at the head of a business that had grown so big that it outperformed each and every of its competitors.

jaehyun had begged his father to give him this position since he was twenty years old, but at that time, his father didn't judge him to be ready to take his place. jaehyun had to work harder for the next five years, still trying to make his father change his mind, but to no avail.

but thankfully, on jaehyun's 25th birthday, his father made him the best present he could ever have done: retiring and making him the next ceo of jung corporation.

he had now been the ceo of the family business for a year, ruling the company while following the steps of his ancestors, and adding a touch of youth and renewal to the traditional way of dealing with business. and with his lead, the company continued growing impressively, even better than jaehyun had expected in the beginning. and so, just like his father, grandfather or great-grandfather, jaehyun had thought he would manage this company without a problem, keeping its advance on other businesses and perhaps bringing it further.

but this was before the apparition of another corporation which crashed all of jaehyun's plans: nakamotors, or the automobile company of the self-made man yuta nakamoto, which had appeared less than a year ago, and which had grown faster than any other company before, to the point it was now almost outperforming jaehyun's company.

"yuta nakamoto, this name meant nothing a bit more than a year ago, and yet, today, it is impossible to take interest in the automobile industry without hearing about his name..." the ceo read the first lines of the article before letting his eyes roll to the back of his head in annoyance. "embark with us on a road trip to discover with us the story of a young and handsome 27-year-old self-made man who will revolutionise the future of the automobile industry."

before he could read further, and risk to want to punch his computer, jaehyun decided it would be better to close the tab and keep his mind away from the irritating thought of this man.

"pff... 'young and handsome' asshole, yeah." jaehyun muttered, his arms crossed over his chest. "and he's not that special. i'm a 26-year-old successful man, i'm younger than him." he continued, his brows furrowing more with each of his words. "and what do they even mean by 'revolutionising the future of the automobile industry'? there's nothing to revolutionise, everything has been done already and- "

the ceo stopped himself and a ding came from his computer signalling that he had received an email.

pushing his jealousy to the side, the ceo clicked on the mail coming from their american subsidiary, revealing a long and polite mail indicating that he would find attached to the message the market analysis he had asked for days before.

jaehyun opened the document, passing the first few pages quickly before he could read the heart of the report and understand what was going wrong with this american subsidiary.

and let's say that what he read surely didn't help him relax and relativise.

"56% OF OUR SALES HAVE SHIFTED TO NAKAMOTORS?!" the ceo yelled, his eyes wide in anger as he read the same sentence over and over again in disbelief.

because yes, he couldn't believe that after decades of being the leader in the automobile industry, jung corporation had a competitor that stood up to them. and even worse, that this happened right after jaehyun had taken over the company and wanted to show his father that he too could rule a business and lead the leading company in automobile.

but now that another actor was threatening to outperform them, he wasn't so sure about it anymore.

☏

"so, what's the planning of the day, taeyong?" the ceo of nakamotors asked, his foot kicking the side of his desk to make himself turn on the swivel chair he was sitting on.

"well..." the secretary clicked on their schedule, making colourful squares appear on his screen. "not much today. an online meeting with a potential provider at 10. then, lunch with the marketing team, and the last meeting you have is concerning the congress we're hosting in a few days."

"oh, god..." yuta groaned. "i had forgotten about this congress... i still didn't prepare my speech..."

"you still have time, don't worry." taeyong shrugged. "i have a one-to-one meeting with the caterer to make sure we are on the same page."

"please don't forget to tell him not to cook tuna. ew, i hate tuna." the ceo asked with a funny face.

"yeah, i know." taeyong chuckled slightly. "no tuna."

"great." yuta let out a long sigh. "then i guess i still have half an hour to start writing my speech." he groaned. "why me, seriously?"

"because you're a successful self-made man. not everyone has the talent you have."

nakamotors was born a bit less than a year ago straight from nakamoto yuta's mind. the japanese male had always been passionate about cars, motorbikes or anything that had wheels and rolled on the road, and since young, he had tried to develop innovative ideas that could improve the automobile industry.

participating in countless of innovation congresses during his business studies, yuta was finally able to present one of his progress ideas in a congress: a car that used the outside elements as a fuel.

at the age of 20, yuta highly congratulated by an innovation jury for his idea of going towards fuel-free cars. imagine a car that could use the outside elements to work. similarly to the way electricity is created – whether it is with solar panels, or with the force of water currents or the wind – why wouldn't cars work naturally too?

yuta had imagined this car, with all sorts of equipment which transformed the energy received into power that made the car work.

solar panels fixed on the roof and the bumper would be able to capture solar energy and convert it into power.

fans located in the ventilation systems would be able to generate more power whenever the car would roll and the speed would create this windy feeling.

small gutters that would be able to collect water during rainy days and put it under enough pressure to create hydraulic power.

in other words, at the age of 20, yuta had found a way to reduce pollution caused by people using cars and prevent the planet from facing an oil penury soon, all thanks to a car whose main source of power is nature.

and after 6 years of thinking deeper and deeper about this innovative project, something that he had thought of simply to participate in this innovation congress and that he never believed would become real one day, the idea revolutionized completely the automobile market.

the japanese male soon found the right engineers to make his ideas come to life, and so, when he was 26, yuta sold his first car and founded 'nakamotors', the pioneer of road to fuel-free cars.

the cars yuta created in collaboration with a great team of engineers weren't fuel-free cars; not yet. in fact, they were still powered by fuel, but required considerably less fuel than traditional cars. this first model that yuta's company proposed was simply a greener alternative to polluting cars, a way to pollute less, a step closer to fuel-less cars which could perhaps appear in the next decades, when technology will have evolved more.

for the future, yuta planned on making the cars requiring less and less fuel until the day they would become completely fuel-free. but he was not sure how to make this happen right now, so he just patiently had to wait and trust his engineers and collaborators.

nevertheless, his innovation immediately seduced millions of people. months after its creation, nakamotors became the subject of hundreds of articles in many countries, more and more people taking an interest in the eco-friendly alternative of a polluting car. idols worldwide started to get themselves nakamotors cars, showing their millions of followers the important of being aware of the situation the world is in and the need to preserve it as much as possible. and then, waves of worried people came, increasing considerably the demand in more eco-friendly cars, making yuta's newly founded company grow impossibly bigger in a record time. at some point, the demand became so high that the male was pushed to create subsidiaries in other countries to make sure to produce enough cars for everyone.

and so, days before celebrating the company's first birthday – a celebration held at nakamotors' headquarters a few days later, with many other actors from the automobile industry – here was yuta, challenging jung corporation, the traditional leader in the automobile industry, something neither him nor anyone thought possible.

jung corporation had been present on the automobile market for so long, and it had been the corporation to constantly innovate and create better cars. it was such a giant that no one could even think of replacing them. and yet, yuta was not so far from succeeding.

"taeyong."

"hmm?" the secretary hummed, keeping his eyes on the screen of his computer.

"i don't know how to start my speech."

taeyong sighed. "just write what inspires you. it will be fine, don't worry."

"but..." yuta groaned, placing his elbows on the glass table and resting his forehead against his palms. "can't i hire some writer or anything to write it? at least it will be well-written."

"i believe the journalism team could check the speech out after you wrote it, but i promise you it would be better if you write it. what would the other ceos think if you end up giving one speech a way, and then becoming a totally other person when talking face to face with them?" taeyong explained, now looking at his boss that he had been trying to convince to write the speech for the past weeks.

another groan slipped past yuta's lips as he thought about taeyong's words.

he knew that his secretary was right. there was no way he was going to ridicule himself by doing a brilliant speech and then not being able to talk to them in person. but this meant he had to write his own speech, and he was shit at that.

"or..." the secretary spoke again, making yuta face him immediately with a bright smile, hoping for a useful solution that he could adopt not to appear ridicule. "...you could prepare nothing and improvise. let your heart talk and hit them straight to their own."

yuta's previous smile morphed into a frown as he sighed loudly. "taeyong, it is no secret for you that i can't talk to others like that without preparing anything."

"well, you are a ceo now, you will eventually have to." taeyong replied. "the others are doing so."

"yes, but the others are real ceos." yuta tackled back. "they were born for it and most of them got the business from their family. i'm not like them. i'm just a random ass boy who studied business, who was passionate about cars and who succeeded. but i don't have it in my genes."

taeyong sighed, smiling his boss a small smile.

"look, yuta, it's not because you weren't born as the heir from a big ass company that it means that you are less likely to become a great ceo. forget about your weaknesses and focus on your strengths."the secretary spoke wisely. "who knows, you already revolutionised the automobile sector, but what if you were able to revolutionise the way to be a ceo too?"

there was a small silence during which yuta seemed to be deep in thought, biting the side of his cheek as his lips formed a pout.

"you think so?" the ceo asked, glancing at his secretary.

taeyong knew everything about him. he knew him better than anyone, perhaps even better than his parents. and if he was saying such things, it was surely because he knew yuta could do it. he would never otherwise.

"i know so." taeyong approved. "and i know that you are going to kill it at the congress next week."