Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 180

The whirlwind of the Spain project had finally settled. With Mateo and his team back home, Woo-jin could finally return to his normal, busy life.

Of course, even when things were normal, he was as busy as ever.

He was glad he no longer had to sleep on a small bed at the office. Those days of working all night were finally over.

‘Ugh… It’s a miracle that I even managed to meet the schedule,’ Woo-jin thought.

Woo-jin’s body was stiff every morning, even after returning to his daily routine, because he had handled such an enormous workload that he could count the number of days he went home in fifteen days on one hand.

But even so, Woo-jin felt fortunate to have participated in this project.

Thanks to this project, he built closer relationships with the prominent designers Bruno and Mateo.

And the project itself was more and more to Woo-jin’s liking as it progressed.

Mateo was a designer who worked much better with him than Woo-jin had initially expected.

‘If it had been a solo project by WJ Studio, it certainly wouldn’t have been easy to achieve that kind of scale in the design,’ he mused.

Even more exciting was the invitation to EAC, a world-renowned architectural design conference in Europe. He was invited under the names of the two masters, an achievement that even Professor Jo Woon-chan would envy.

[Yes, you worked hard, Woo-jin. I saw the perspective views and bird’s-eye views you sent, and they turned out really great,]

Professor Jo said.

“It’s all thanks to Professor’s help, of course,” Woo-jin replied.

[Haha, don’t mention it. Our Seo Woo-jin is really amazing. When I was your age, I was busy studying English and adapting to studying abroad,]

Professor Jo said.

“I’m just a particularly lucky person. Haha,” Woo-jin responded.

In this project, Professor Jo Woon-chan was one of the biggest hidden helpers.

If Seok-hyun was the biggest helper who helped Woo-jin create the raging waves into an algorithm, Professor Jo Woon-chan was the one who gave the greatest advice in turning the design into an actual constructible design.

Professor Jo Woon-chan had already successfully fabricated a structure as large as the San Mames Stadium in the design process of the 3D non-standard building, DDP.

There were only a handful of architectural designers with this kind of experience in the entire world.

[Anyway, I’m glad to hear that the client was very satisfied,]

Professor Jo said.

“Mateo asked me to be sure to convey his thanks to you, Professor,” Woo-jin said.

[Hehe. Really? If I go to England in November, I should get a meal,]

Professor Jo replied.

“Are you coming to EAC, Professor?” Woo-jin asked.

[You rascal, are you looking down on your teacher too much? I was originally planning to attend the conference. I just wasn’t invited by Bruno or Mateo like you…]

Woo-jin had a pleasant conversation with Jo Woon-chan and hung up the phone.

He deliberately didn’t tell Jo Woon-chan that he might be giving a short presentation at the conference.

It was Bruno and Mateo’s suggestion, so it would likely happen, but he didn’t want to get ahead of himself since he hadn’t received confirmation from the EAC organizers yet.

‘Well, it wouldn’t be bad to surprise them then,’ he thought.

When he arrived at the office and sat down in the president’s office, the first thing that caught Woo-jin’s eye was a mountain of approval documents.

Originally, WJ Studio, which Woo-jin operated, had all approvals done by electronic signature, but some of the approval documents coming from Sungjin Construction were still in analog format.

Unlike Woo-jin, who came from the much smarter year of 2030, Sungjin Construction, which had a long history since the 1980s, had many outdated systems.

Woo-jin was gradually correcting them one by one and absorbing them into WJ Studio.

‘Once this year’s year-end tax settlement is over, I need to make sure to improve the system next year,’ he thought.

Woo-jin carefully examined each file and concentrated on finishing the work.

Just as he had finished checking all the documents and stamped them, one of his employees spoke.

“President! Aren’t you going to have lunch?”

“Go ahead and eat. I have some things to do today,” Woo-jin replied.

“Ah, I see. Enjoy your meal!”

All the employees left their seats for lunch, and Woo-jin, who had finished his work, slowly packed his bag and got up.

‘I still have some things left to do… But I should leave work today,’ he thought.

Woo-jin glanced at the clock pointing to 12:30 and happily left the office and got on the elevator.

It had been a long time since he had left work this early.

There was, of course, a reason for him leaving work early.

“Woo-jin! Are you done?” Seok-gu asked.

“Yeah. Let’s go now, Seok-gu,” Woo-jin replied.

“Okay! I’ll be right out!” Seok-gu said.

Today was the day Woo-jin moved for the first time since his regression.

A gleaming turquoise skyscraper shot up from the ground, a modern jewel standing tall amongst the older, worn-down houses near Seoul Forest.

, the first premium mixed-use building built in Seongsu-dong, had already started moving in from September.

However, due to an unexpected project, Woo-jin had been so busy for a while that he was finally able to move into his new home in October.

He had not sold the Jugong apartment in Gaepo-dong.

The Jugong apartment, which contained Woo-jin and his mother’s memories, was left under his mother’s name.

It was scheduled to become a shiny new apartment around 2019, taking care of his mother’s retirement.

“Wow. The world has really gotten better these days. Moving is so easy. The center just takes care of everything?” Seok-gu said.

“Bloody Hell! Since everything is being done by a packing company anyway, why did you even call this Jaden?” Woo-jin asked.

When Jaden, who had arrived late, joined in and started making noise, Woo-jin’s spacious new home became even noisier, even though all the employees of the moving center had left.

“We need someone to eat Jajangmyeon with after the move,” Woo-jin said.

“What?” Seok-gu asked.

“That’s Jaden’s role. It’s a very important job,” Woo-jin replied.

“To eat Jajangmyeon deliciously in front of Woo-jin?” Jaden asked.

“That’s right,” Woo-jin confirmed.

Jaden, who frowned once at Woo-jin’s cheap pronunciation, started jumping around.

“Damn it! Calling out high-class manpower like Jaden for this kind of thing!”

But Jaden was always bound to be subdued by Woo-jin as usual.

Woo-jin now had one powerful weapon to control Jaden.

“If you don’t want to eat Jajangmyeon, you can go home. But I might not take Jaden with me when I go to the conference in November,” Woo-jin threatened.

“No way. That can’t happen, Woo-jin,” Jaden replied.

“Why?” Woo-jin asked.

“England is this Jaden’s country! My house is there!” Jaden exclaimed.

“Holy…….” Seok-gu muttered.

“If you feel wronged, just eat Jajangmyeon quietly. Jaden,” Woo-jin said.

Watching Woo-jin speak with an indifferent expression, Jaden plopped down on the sofa with a resentful expression.

“……. The generous Jaden will put up with it just this once,” Jaden grumbled.

Watching him, Woo-jin couldn’t help but smile.

“The opportunity to sit on newspaper spread out in the living room of a 45th-floor apartment overlooking the Han River and Seoul Forest and eat Jajangmyeon is not that common, you know,” Woo-jin said.

The move was all over, but Woo-jin’s mother, Joo-hee, had not yet arrived at the new house.

Today was the last day of business for her Sujebi Kalguksu restaurant in Gaepo-dong.

There was almost a year left until the new store that was scheduled to open in the WJ Studio’s new building.

With Woo-jin’s strong insistence, Joo-hee decided to take a break from work for a while.

Woo-jin wanted his mother to rest and recover her energy until the new building was completed.

‘I wish she would just rest… But she’s not the type to do that,’ he thought.

Anyway, for that reason, eating Jajangmyeon in the spacious living room of the nearly 60-pyeong apartment was only Woo-jin and three energetic young men.

Jaden was already excitedly slurping Jajangmyeon and chattering away, as if he had never been dissatisfied. The smell of the noodles filled the air, and the sound of slurping echoed through the apartment.

“Woo-jin, when you go to England, you have to follow this Jaden around,” Jaden said.

“What are you talking about?” Woo-jin asked.

“It means that the generous Jaden will be playing the role of a guide,” Jaden explained.

“A guide……?” Woo-jin questioned.

“Don’t tell me you were just planning to go to London, attend the conference, and come back?” Jaden asked.

“I think that’s probably what will happen with the schedule……?” Woo-jin responded.

“Holy! That can’t happen, Woo-jin. You have to watch at least one Premier League game,” Jaden exclaimed.

“I agree with Jaden, President. If you don’t watch at least one soccer game, you can’t come back to Korea,” Seok-gu added.

“Car key or Premier League? Choose, Seok-gu,” Woo-jin teased.

“Bloody Hell!” Seok-gu exclaimed.

He was hanging out with his two friends and talking nonsense as usual.

Woo-jin had a more carefree and pleasant expression than ever before.

When he cleared his head and chatted with his friends, he could feel a different kind of happiness that he couldn’t feel when he was working passionately.

So, after cleaning up the Jajangmyeon he had eaten, Woo-jin, along with his two friends, installed the computer in the room first.

And played a game with them for the first time in a while.

Perhaps an everyday life that is too ordinary for a college student in his early 20s.

But for Woo-jin, it was like a small escape.

“Jaden. Don’t tell me you lost to Woo-jin?” Seok-gu teased.

“No way,” Jaden retorted.

“Oh, Jaden, is that a ‘Defeat’ I see flashing on the screen? Fancy losing to Woo-jin!” Seok-gu said.

“Jaden is……,” Woo-jin chimed in.

“Generous?” Seok-gu finished.

“Damn it. I’ve just been too negligent in gaming because I’ve been studying modeling,” Jaden grumbled.

As they bickered while playing the game, his mother, who had closed the store and left work, also came home.

“Oh, Woo-jin, you were here? Seok-hyun, you were here too?” Joo-hee asked.

“Ah! Hello, Mother!” Seok-hyun greeted.

“Oh. Mom’s home?” Woo-jin said.

And when she discovered the lanky Englishman, she couldn’t help but look a little embarrassed.

Seok-hyun, who had been Woo-jin’s friend since childhood, was familiar with Joo-hee, but she had never seen Jaden before.

“Who is this friend……?” Joo-hee asked.

And Jaden gave her a very strong first impression.

“Hello. I’m Woo-jin’s bosom buddy, Jaden,” Jaden announced.

“Huh……?” Joo-hee responded, confused.

Jaden, who understood the word ‘bosom buddy’ to mean something like ‘Best Friend’, gave everyone a big laugh.

“Woo-jin. Did you ever make a foreign friend when you were young?” Joo-hee asked.

“Ah, that’s Mom……,” Woo-jin started.

Seok-hyun, who had a dumbfounded expression, started laughing while holding his stomach.

“Keuheuheuk……!”

Jaden, not knowing what was going on, scratched the back of his head with a red face.

“He’s a classmate I became friends with at school. His name is Jaden… He’s just a little eccentric,” Woo-jin explained.

Joo-hee eventually burst out laughing, perhaps because she found Jaden’s bewildered appearance cute.

In this way, Woo-jin was able to spend a friendly day from the first day in his new home.