31 days until Christmas

 Walking towards her all-time favorite coffee stand Jessica Jung couldn't help but pity the other early birds who wanted a jump start to her day. The line was always long, especially during the cold weather that South Korea harbored during this time of year but luckily she made a reservation for her to go meal every morning with the barista.

 "Perfect timing as always Miss Jung," Yoon Doojoon commented, taking her credit card and charging for her cheap breakfast. "Here's your usual Americano with non-fat milk,"

 Jessica gave a light smile to Doojoon as she received her drink. One of the things that reminded her of her home in America. "Thanks Doojoon," She walked back towards her car and started the engine. Traffic had barely started so she was safe for the long drive from the suburbs all the way to one of Seoul's best malls.

 Jessica entered through the front door of I'Park Mall to see many workers finishing the last holiday decorations indoors and out. Lights were being assembled, pointsettias all over, and plastic snowmen around the front.

 "A little to the left," she ordered as she watched one of her workers change the flag. The man obeyed her order and gave an accomplished smile. "Good."

 As Jessica continued to inspect the rest of the malls a voice called out.

 "Jessie!"

 Jessica turned around and saw it was I'Park's best hairstylist's daughter Nam Jihyun, a close friend who helped her become aquainted with the mall when she first joined. Jess gave a light wave and smiled.

 "Hey,"

 "Need a blowout?" she offered, continuing to fix the displays of hair straighteners and curling irons. Jessica sighed, she really did need a fix on her hair before work but her time wouldn't allow it.

 "Can't. I have to go to a big meeting at corporate," Right after she declined she saw Jihyun's disappointed face, Jessica was her guinea pig for trying out hairstyles since her mother thought Jihyun needed more practice before she could actually work and another opportunity for a new hairstyle seemed fitting. "But how about later?" She noticed Jihyun's eyes sparkled as she nodded. Jessica, accomplished of her behavior, walked away.

 "Good luck!" Jihyun encouraged. Jessica turned around and gave a thumbs up as she descended to the first floor. Coming right by her side was her assistant with a whimsical morning attitude.

 "Don't you just love Christmas?" she asked, clinging onto her boss's arm while admiring the beautiful Christmas decorations. Jessica rolled her eyes and shook her assistant off of her.

 "The only thing I love about Christmas is the fact that we're about to make a third of our yearly sales in six weeks, Kim Hyoyeon,"

 Hyoyeon rolled her eyes at her boss's (and best friend) attitude towards Christmas. Although Jessica could be nice and sweet, all that disappeared when it came to revenue, stocks, all mathematical things. Things that made Hyoyeon barf just by the mere thought of it. Jessica Jung was a sweetheart at home, but once things get down to professional terms she was all work and no play. "Every year around the holidays you pull this Grinch routine." Hyoyeon teased, poking her arm playfully. "But deep down, I know you are just a big softie who loves Santa and babies and rainbows."

 Jessica rolled her eyes back at Hyoyeon and scoffed,

 "You watch way too many Christmas movies." They continued walking down towards the center of the mall when she noticed the folders her assistant was carrying. "Are those the QED reports?' Hyoyeon nodded and handed the folders to her. They both looked at the Christmas tree in the center and Jessica frowned.

 "It's not straight."

 Hyoyeon turned her head to the side and smiled. "No wonder it reminded me of my ex boyfriend,"

 Time was ticking down until the doors opened and Jessica was making her final rounds of inspection for all Christmas decorations and opened stores. While crossing through the third floor she heard someone call her name. She turned around and saw it was only Kim Jonghyun with his head implanted on top of a mannequin with a sparkly sequin dress.

 "What do you think?" he asked, playing with the pink bow at the belt of the dress. "Looks good on me?"

 Jessica rolled her eyes as she entered the boutique that Jonghyun was in charge of. "You better hurry up," she warned looking at her watch to check the time. "We only have five more minutes." Jonghyun ruffled Jessica's hair playfully, as if he was taunting her orders. Walking towards them came Kim Keybum, Jonghyun's friend and co-owner of the boutique, as he joined in teasing Jessica.

 "Oh I am loving the whole illusion today," he admired, as if he was actually hitting on her. "Who put that together for you?" Once again Jessica rolled her eyes as she muttered,

 "You guys."

 "Aww look Key!" Jonghyun cried. "She's even wearing those cute little black heels we picked out at the 75% off sale," Jessica bit her lip at the two, knowing they were about to push her to the edge but managed to cool down. She pointed her walkie talkie at the two threateningly.

 "Five minutes," she reminded them.

 Time had passed and Jessica ended up back at the main office of SM Mall Corp., the biggest mall chain in South Korea, and of course the best. She was joined by her fellow colleagues of executives from the other malls. The room was filled with discussion about end of the year plans as well as where they were going for Christmas vacation, however all that subsided the moment their CEO walked in, Lee Soo Man.

 "Today the official countdown begins," he announced. He walked around the long table and continued to speak, "35% of our annual retail profits are gonna be earned over the next six weeks." He stopped where his official chair was and looked at all the executives. "Now, is my team prepared?"

 They all mumbled yes but Lee Soo Man was not impressed.

 "Is my team ready?" he asked, his voice rising in volume. The executives responded with more energy and he seemed content. "Yeah? Well so is the competition," the word competition spiked interest in almost everyone's ears as they turned to their CEO. "Last year, our holiday sales showed a 12% decline, yet Internet sales increased 35%." He looked back at all the executives and questioned, "So how can SM Malls compete in this overcrowded market?"

 No one seemed to come up with an answer, and Jessica looked around anxiously before responding. "Incentivize customers to come to us sir,"

 "Exactly right Miss Jung," Soo Man congratulated with a proud smile. "And here's the new incentive I'm offering to each of you today, I'm creating a new position." The CEO announced, shocking the other executives. "Vice president of marketing and promotions overseeing all the malls in South Korea. The person with the greatest increase in sales by Christmas eve wins the promotion. The losers," he chuckled to himself as if it was the most hilarious thing in the world, "get nothing. You'll be lucky to keep your jobs, good luck!"

 Jessica couldn't describe the emotions coming out of her after the meeting. A new position and possible promotion? Anymore special offers and she might actually enjoy Christmas.

 "By the New Year you're going to be working here at corporate," Jessica's boyfriend, Lee Changmin, promised the moment she got out of the conference room. "With me of course, where you belong."

 "You heard?" she asked with shock.

 "I'm the VP of strategic planning," Changmin reminded her. "I know everything that goes on around here. Besides, you'll finally get to leave that vacant dump."

 "It's not a dump," Jessica retorted, not impressed by Changmin's joke. His smile disappeared as he nodded in understanding. She sighed as she continued to speak, "but it's not the suburbs either. I mean how can I compete with them?"

  Changmin looked off to the side as if he was trying to recollect statistics. "Well you do have the lowest numbers in the group at the moment," Jessica frowned,  but Changmin looked back at Jessica and grinned. "Which means you have nowhere to go but up,"

 Jessica was still in disbelief, although Changmin might be right she has a long way to go to even move to the next rank.

 "Hey," interrupted Changmin on her thoughts. "I have faith in you, you can do this."

 "A move to corporate by Christmas would be amazing," Jessica explained, "and a year earlier than I'd hope." Changmin nodded as they continued to walk towards the exit. "Do you mind if I take a rain check on our date tonight? I really need to do some research and really need to focus on the competition."

 "Sica," he called out, moving a piece of her fringe away from her eyes. "You never have to explain a work obligation to me,"

 "And that's why I love you."

 "If I get this promotion on Christmas eve I'll be a year ahead of schedule," Jessica explained to Hyoyeon as they were walking through the mall after a nice lunch break.

 "Yeah well I'm already a year ahead of schedule to eat my weight in kimchi, so we'll both probably have something to celebrate."

 "I have a lot to go before we can even celebrate," Jessica said doubtedly. "I've got those sharks from the suburbs breathing down my neck. How can the girls from Incheon compete with the people who vacation in Paris? Especially when our working class has been hit so hard?"

 "I understand," Hyoyeon agreed when they stopped at the carousel marked right in front of the food court. "Remember when that was filled with little kids?" Jessica nodded when a funny memory appeared in her thoughts.

 "I also remember you throwing up on Lee Junho after scarfing down that ginormous banana split sundae," Jessica teased, trying to contain herself from laughing hysterically.

 "I thought that one was in the vault!" Hyoyeon whined.

 "I just need something that makes I'Park a destination for holiday shopping you know?" Jessica elaborated, continuing her conversation from earlier. "Something that inspires people to come to the mall from all around the city, maybe even the suburbs. Something that makes people want to open their wallets and spend their hard earned money."

 "Oh!" Hyoyeon cooed, obviously not paying attention to her boss anymore.

 Jessica looked towards Hyoyeon's direction and saw a shirtless man passing out papers in front of a store. She crossed her arms and frowned. "Isn't it a little too early for that?"

 "It's never too early in the day to look at hot shirtless men."

 "Not that you ," Sica retorted. "I mean holiday sales, we haven't even put up Santa's Village."

 "Well clearly it's working," Hyoyeon concluded as she dragged her friend inside the store. Jessica examined and noticed shirtless men walking around, the women practically buying anything that was hung on their arms which they also d as well. Hot guys were everywhere with women following their every footstep, it really showed how desperate a girl was.

 "Oh hey girls!" Key called out from the busy cashier counter. "Checking out the merchandise?"

 Hyoyeon looked at a long hair and hairy chest hottie and smiled. "Most definitely."

 "Well if you just look to your left Choi Minho will help you out." Hyoyeon shifted to her left as fast as she could and gave a flirty smile at the young man. He arrived holding a dress and held it up for her to see.

 "Annyeong noona, have you seen our new line of sequined party dresses?" he asked. "They're only 130,000 won each."

 Hyoyeon, hypnotized by Minho's words, could barely speak. "I-I'll take three."

 Jessica jumped to Hyo's rescue and stopped Hyoyeon for spending her pay check any further. "She's fine, thank you." she turned her attention back to Hyo and almost screamed at her. "Three? And he called you noona."

 "Well he can call me whatever he wants,"

 "Guess it's true what they say, really sel-" Jessica froze. Her mind was flowing with ideas on what to do with the topic and she just couldn't contain herself. She turned to Hyoyeon and grinned like her face was about to melt. "That's it!"

 That night Jessica dedicated her time to examine multiple Christmas themed magazines, flipping through ads with a Christmas theme, elves with bikinis on, and of course shirtless men.

 She spent hours searching through the magazines, trying to find some inspiration for this marketing plan. It was a big risk what she was doing, but if she just found the way to connect Christmas with it then it'd be an automatic promotion for Miss Jung.

 This Christmas meant so much to Jessica. If she gets enough she'll spend more time with Changmin, Hyoyeon will get her executive job, and most of all she'd be achieving the impossible for a lady at her age. She needed to find what she was looking for but she just couldn't put the pieces together. They were just so fragmented.

 After another mug of coffee Jessica was about to pass out from exhaustion. She wanted to give up and call it a night but another part of her strived for her to keep going, as if the answer was right in front of her waiting to be acknowledged.

 That's when Jessica looked at a cut out of Santa Claus as jolly as he can be, then folded him up to chin. She looked around the ripped magazine pages and saw a perfect six-pack body. After much thought, she placed Santa's face on top of the body, and that's when she knew exactly what was going to happen.

 And this plan was definitely going to work.