Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 111

Usually, when there’s a competition, people tell everyone about it to get lots of entries.

But this design competition for the Cheongdam Seonyoung Apartment project by Cheonwoong Construction was different. It was secret and not advertised to the public.

From the beginning, Cheonwoong secretly invited only talented design companies.

The reason for this secret competition was easy to understand. Cheonwoong wanted to win the Cheongdam Seonyoung Apartment project. Other companies also wanted to win. Cheonwoong thought if they made the design competition public, their rivals would see their ideas. This would hurt their chances of winning.

If they had a public competition, everyone would see the winning design. Then, Cheonwoong’s rivals would know their design ideas.

The secret design competition deadline for Cheonwoong Construction was yesterday. Today was November 1st, a new month, and a day for new beginnings.

Cheonwoong had invited seven companies to compete, some from other countries. Five companies sent in their designs before the deadline.

Kyungwan arrived at work and checked his email. He smiled when he saw the list of companies that had sent designs.

‘Of course!’ he thought, nodding. WJ Studio was at the top of the list.

Kyungwan chuckled softly. “Let’s see what you’ve come up with.”

He was most excited to see WJ Studio’s design. After all, it was his family’s company.

But Kyungwan didn’t want to be unfair. He just wanted to give WJ Studio a chance. He knew the best design for the company had to win.

“‘Of course, I really hope WJ Studio’s design is the best,’ he thought to himself.”

Even though Kyungwan was in charge of the competition, he didn’t get to decide who won. He had only one vote, just like everyone else on the team.

Kyungwan clicked on the first email, then the next, opening all five designs. He printed them out and got ready for the morning meeting.

The morning would start with a meeting for his team. Then, in the afternoon, there was a bigger meeting with all the important managers. The whole day would be focused on these design competitions. It was a very important day for the company.

Yoo Jiheon, the head of Management Team 1 at Cheonwoong Construction, had not been in a good mood lately. He was in a bad mood because his boss, Director Jung, had told him some bad news.

[Director Jung:] “Yoo Jiheon.”

[Yoo Jiheon:] “Yes, Director?”

[Director Jung:] “It’s not looking good for your promotion this time.”

[Yoo Jiheon:] “What? What do you mean?”

[Director Jung:] “You know what I’m talking about.” (Director Jung sighed.)

[Yoo Jiheon:] “Is someone else already picked for the job?”

[Director Jung:] “No, it’s not that.”

[Yoo Jiheon:] “Then what is it?” (Yoo Jiheon felt his heart sink.)

[Director Jung:] “You saw the company’s financial report for the last three months, right?”

[Yoo Jiheon:] “Yes, I did.”

[Director Jung:] “Your rival’s results were just too much better than yours.”

[Yoo Jiheon:] “Hmm…” (Yoo Jiheon felt a knot in his stomach.)

[Director Jung:] “If it was closer, I could have helped you. But the difference is too big. There’s nothing I can do.”

Yoo Jiheon was the boss of Management Team 1, with the title of General Manager. He was hoping to get promoted to a higher position called Managing Director in the upcoming promotions.

This year, Director Jung, his boss, was also getting promoted to a higher rank, Senior Managing Director. This meant Director Jung’s old job would be empty, and Jiheon wanted to take it.

And in fact, until the beginning of this year, Jiheon had been confident. He was sure that the vacant position would be his.

“Haa…” Jiheon sighed. He wasn’t just being arrogant. He had good reason to be confident. He was the most experienced and respected General Manager at Cheonwoong Construction.

Also, Director Jung had been his boss for a long time, ever since Jiheon was a junior manager. Jiheon thought that if Director Jung supported him to take over his old job, he would easily get promoted.

Actually, unless something unexpected happened, Jiheon was almost guaranteed to get the promotion. So, hearing this bad news was a huge shock. It felt like a lightning bolt out of nowhere.

“Damn it!” he thought angrily. “I thought this was finally my time.”

Yoo Jiheon had been working at the company for many years. If he didn’t get promoted this year, he would probably have to retire next year.

Missing this promotion this year meant he would almost certainly have to retire.

What made him even angrier was that he knew who Director Jung was talking about as his “rival.” It was someone who had been doing incredibly well for the past year.

“Even if he’s doing a bit better, is the company really going to ignore me and promote that young Park Kyungwan?” It had to be Park Kyungwan, a younger colleague with much less experience.

“Hoo…. I admit that Kyungwan is talented….”

What Yoo Jiheon disliked the most was that Kyungwan was still young and had fewer years of experience.

It wasn’t just jealousy that a younger colleague was getting ahead. Jiheon himself had climbed up the ranks faster than many older colleagues.

But what Jiheon thought was unfair was about chances. Park Kyungwan was young and had many years left to work. He would have plenty of chances to get promoted later, even if not this year. But for Yoo Jiheon, who was close to retirement, this was almost his last chance.

But the company didn’t care about Jiheon’s personal situation.

“Ha, this is so unfair,” he muttered to himself. So, that afternoon, Yoo Jiheon was in a terrible mood as he walked to the meeting room.

He didn’t even want to work anymore. And to make things even worse, the person leading the meeting was Park Kyungwan – the same person who was taking his promotion!

He walked heavily into the room.

Jiheon opened the conference room door and walked slowly to a seat in the corner. He sat down heavily.

He was here because the meeting was on his schedule. He hadn’t even looked to see what it was about.

He knew it was an important meeting. Many important people were there, from team leaders to top managers.

“I’ll just waste some time and leave,” he thought.

Jiheon got to the conference room just before the meeting was supposed to start.

Less than a minute after he sat down, the large conference room was full. Every seat was taken.

As the managers came into the room, a young assistant started giving out meeting papers to everyone.

“Here you go, sir.”

The assistant handed him the papers.

“Thank you,” Jiheon said. He took the papers and looked at them without much interest. Then he saw the title: **Cheongdam Seonyeong Apartment Project: Design Competition – Overview**. Jiheon’s eyes suddenly opened wide.

“Wait… what?” Jiheon finally understood what the meeting was about. He remembered a story Director Jung had told him.

“[There’s only one chance left for you now.]”

“[What is it?]”

“[Director Park has to completely fail with this Cheongdam Seonyeong project.]”

“[……!]”

“[The CEO thinks this project is Director Park showing what he wants. If Park does badly here, he won’t get promoted, no matter how good he was before. That’s how the CEO works.]”

To be honest, when Jiheon heard this from Director Jung, he wasn’t thinking clearly. He was too shocked. His mind was spinning and empty.

But now, as he held the meeting papers in this meeting, Jiheon started to think clearly again.

“If Jewoon or SH beat Park Kyungwan badly in this project, will I get another chance?” Jiheon’s eyes, which had been dull, now showed a spark of hope.

He didn’t have a clear plan yet for this project. But now he had a real reason to pay attention to the meeting.

Jiheon sat up straighter and looked hard at Kyungwan. Kyungwan was walking slowly to the front of the room.

“Okay. I can’t give up now,” Jiheon thought. He bit his lip without even realizing it.

He wished he had looked carefully at the design ideas that came in his work email this morning.

Later that morning, Kyungwan went to a meeting. This meeting was for a special team, called the TF team. The team was put together just for the **Cheongdam Seonyeong Apartment Project**.

Kyungwan had chosen every person on this TF team himself.

This meeting was like a practice meeting. They needed to get ready to talk about everything at the bigger meeting in the afternoon.

Important managers and other staff would see the designs in the afternoon meeting. But Kyungwan and his team were the most important people for this project. They needed to understand all the designs very well.

Many top managers would be at the afternoon meeting. So, it was very important for Kyungwan to explain the designs clearly.

“Okay, everyone knows what to do next, right? I don’t need to explain again?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Of course.”

“We need to look at all five design ideas and write down what’s good and bad about each one by this morning.”

“Yes, sir!”

“We will have our own opinions, but try to use facts as much as possible. Okay?”

There were only five ideas in total. That’s not many, but half a day wasn’t much time to look at them carefully.

So, Kyungwan and his team started to look at them very carefully.

“Is APC Architecture the best one?”

“APC is good, but I think Kratika Studio is the best.”

“Oh, is that the company Daniel Jacob started last year?”

“Yes, sir. Daniel Jacob was even almost won the Pritzker Prize last year.”

“I don’t remember those things… but I know Daniel is a really great designer.”

As they started talking about the designs, they mentioned the names of the big companies that entered the competition. But no one mentioned WJ Studio.

And that made sense. Only Kyungwan and Jaejoon on the team knew about WJ Studio.

WJ Studio was still a new company. Most people didn’t know it.

WJ Studio had helped with the Clio brand before. But it made sense that no one thought the company that made the model would also enter the design competition.

So, for everyone else on the team, it made sense to look at the design from the small company ‘WJ Studio’ last.

“Heh heh. Just like I thought, everyone is looking at the foreign companies first.”

But Kyungwan picked up WJ Studio’s idea first, not like the others.

It wasn’t that he thought Woojin’s WJ Studio was definitely better than the famous foreign companies. He was just very interested in Woojin’s design and really excited to see it.

Woojin always surprised him when things like this happened.

“Wow. The summary is very well done…’ Kyungwan nodded and turned the page. But then – “……!” – Kyungwan’s eyes opened wide as he looked at the next page.

The picture on the page was in full color and showed the outside of the building. It was so amazing, it took his breath away when he first saw it.

Also, the design was new and different. It wasn’t like any normal apartment he had seen before.

“Yes. This is what I expect from Seo Woojin.’ Of course, even though the outside picture looked great, the rest of the design might not be as good.

If the rest of the design didn’t match that great picture, it would just be a nice picture and nothing more.

But even so, WJ Studio’s design had something special. It was very attractive and you noticed it right away.

That was definitely a good thing and worth extra points.

So, Kyungwan started to look at WJ Studio’s idea very carefully. He was really looking forward to it. As he kept reading, Kyungwan’s smile got bigger and bigger.