Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 100

Walking through the furniture market, you could see everything. Big stores sold lots of the same tables and chairs. People could even build their own furniture at home with simple kits. But then you saw the handmade wooden pieces. They were special, and expensive!

Compared to cheap D.I.Y furniture, the price difference could be more than tenfold.

Of course, the quality of the wood matters a lot.

But the biggest thing is the hard work and care that the carpenter puts in.

“Jaeyeop, do you know what makes fancy handmade furniture special?” Woojin asked.

“Hmm… what is it?” Jaeyeop replied.

“You won’t see any nail marks or metal showing on the parts you touch or look at,” Woojin explained.

“Umm…?” Jaeyeop seemed confused.

“Like, if you’re making a desk, you usually nail the legs to the top, right?” Woojin continued.

“Yeah,” Jaeyeop agreed.

“But there shouldn’t be any nail marks,” Woojin said.

“What? How?” Jaeyeop asked, surprised.

Woojin explained that most people would use nails to join wood, but skilled carpenters try to use as few nails or staples as possible when making handmade furniture.

“So, do they just glue it?” Jaeyeop wondered.

“We use glue, sure. But that’s not enough to hold it strong,” Woojin replied.

“So what else?” Jaeyeop asked.

“We design the wood pieces themselves to fit together,” Woojin explained. “Like a puzzle.”

Zzzzzing!

Creak!

Woojin explained that this method is called ‘joinery’. It means designing the wood so it all fits together perfectly, making strong and fancy furniture without using any nails.

He added that if they have to use nails, they use wooden nails made from carved wood to keep the metal use to a minimum.

This makes the furniture last longer and look more luxurious.

“Woah!” Jaeyeop breathed, impressed.

“That’s ‘Ibang Yeonggwi’,” Woojin explained, smiling. “It’s a simple trick to join wood, like for table corners. Makes it strong and neat.”

“Suha, Ria, come take a look,” Woojin called them over.

“Huh?” Suha asked, approaching cautiously.

“Grab a corner each,” Woojin instructed. “And push them together like this…”

Plop!

“Ooh!” Ria gasped, touching the smooth joint.

“Amazing!” Suha exclaimed, her eyes wide. “It fits like it was made to be one piece!”

“Perfectly, right?” Woojin grinned, pleased with their reaction. “Pretty amazing, huh?”

Suha and Ria were amazed by the woodworking techniques Woojin was showing them.

“Ibang Yeonggwi is often used to put a panel on top of something like a table. You can cover the joint with the panel, or even carve a groove in the panel to fit it in,” Woojin explained.

He pointed out that when connecting three pieces of wood with the Ibang Yeonggwi method, the joint is visible from the bottom.

The cast members were still amazed.

“Hey, what’s wrong with it showing a little?” Jaeyeop asked.

“It looks neat and pretty already. Can it be even neater?” Ria added.

Woojin nodded and smiled.

“Of course. That’s why there’s the Sambang Yeonggwi method,” Woojin said.

“Sambang Yeonggwi? There’s such a thing?” Suha asked, surprised.

Instead of answering, Woojin started carving the joint himself.

Creak! Creak!

The sharp chisel moved through the wood like butter, thin shavings curling away. The workshop filled with the fresh, clean scent of pine. Woojin made an elaborate joint in a flash.

The cast members and the film crew watched, completely captivated.

With a practiced hand, Woojin slotted the three pieces together. Tap! They clicked perfectly into place, forming a corner so smooth it looked like it had grown that way.

“That’s really amazing,” Jaeyeop said, impressed.

“Wow, I just thought you could glue it with wood glue,” Ria added.

“Furniture making is this difficult,” Suha commented.

Woojin smiled and added, “It’s not always better to use Sambang Yeonggwi. Even though you can’t see the joint, it’s not as strong as other methods.”

Woojin smiled mischievously and handed out the wood pieces.

He knew a lot about woodworking, but he didn’t want to bore them with too much explanation.

“Now, take one each,” Woojin instructed.

“Huh?” Jaeyeop asked.

“Why…?” Ria wondered.

“You’ve seen what I’m doing, so now you have to make it yourselves,” Woojin said.

“Gasp…!” The cast members were shocked.

The joints looked so complicated that they seemed impossible to make, even with clay. The thought of carving them directly into wood was daunting.

Woojin picked up some lumber from around the workshop, instead of using the hardwood he had bought from the market.

The hardwood was harder to work with, so he chose cheaper, easier wood for them to practice on.

“Foreman! Can I use this?” Woojin asked.

“Sure, that’s fine,” Go Jaeseong, the workshop owner, replied.

With permission granted, Woojin’s woodworking class began.

However, Woojin didn’t really plan to teach them everything about woodworking. He just thought that the cast members learning and working together would be more entertaining than watching him work alone.

That’s what PD Gong had asked for in advance.

‘We can just film a few good shots and move on to the next thing.’

But then he started teaching them how to use the woodworking equipment for joint work.

Woojin felt something was wrong. He stopped carving and looked up. The workshop was much louder than it should be.

“Woojin,” Jaeyeop asked, holding up a piece of wood. “Do I cut this part like this, at an angle?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Woojin started, “but…”

Jaeyeop, Suha, and Ria were all practicing with more energy than Woojin expected.

‘This isn’t how it’s supposed to be…’

Was this a fun TV show, or a serious woodworking lesson?

The three of them were hammering away with such passion that it seemed they had forgotten the camera was even rolling.

Woojin was a little confused. He quietly turned his head to look at PD Gong.

He raised his eyebrows, silently asking a question.

‘Is this okay?’

He thought that if they filmed like this, they would be stuck filming until dawn. If he properly taught woodworking and showed every step, it would take much longer than he planned.

PD Gong saw his question and just nodded and mouthed back, “It’s fine,” with a small smile.

“……”

Woojin glanced at the clock on the workshop wall and sighed.

“Hoo.”

He didn’t know what PD Gong was thinking, but he had a feeling today’s shoot was going to be a marathon.

The cast members were really focused on sawing the wood. They were all working hard together, while the filming crew, including the director PD Gong, were moving around them.

“Director! Pull the angle back a bit more.”

“Make it look a bit more like a documentary…!”

“Hye-young, your camera keeps following Woojin.”

“Good. Keep this shot until I tell you to stop!”

Of course, this was all planned.

When Woojin had first told her about the work, PD Gong had made her own plans for filming.

‘I’ll edit it to show Woojin’s amazing woodworking skills. Then, I’ll show the others using his wood to build things. I think it will make a good show.’

But her plans started to change just 30 minutes into filming.

It started when Suha suddenly ran to the van to change into a simple tracksuit.

‘Huh? You really don’t have to go that far…’

Suha, now in a tracksuit, began woodworking with more passion than anyone else. Jaeyeop and Ria, inspired by her, also started hammering even more enthusiastically.

Woojin had planned to show the cast less in the early parts, where he would show off his advanced woodworking.

Gong Jin-young hadn’t expected the three of them to be so excited about this hard task.

‘Hmm… it would be a shame to cut all of this out…’

is a TV show where people do fun things.

But Gong Jin-young thought that it was more than just a show for fun.

Of course, she didn’t think having fun was bad.

But to make special, she also needed to focus on ‘interior design’ more.

Houses are important to everyone. More than anything else, our homes affect our lives.

There are useful and amazing things about our homes that we don’t know.

She wanted to share this information through the actors and make the viewers feel happy and satisfied as they watch.

That was the special thing about that PD Gong wanted to show.

And she was thinking about this.

The fact that the actors were really working hard at woodworking was great!

Of course, Woojin’s amazing woodworking skills would also get people interested.

But the audience might relate more to the other actors than to Woojin.

If Woojin’s woodworking was just an amazing skill from an expert.

Then the work of the three actors, who were just normal people like the viewers, would be more real and interesting.

‘I need to edit this to make it really exciting! I should film it all in one go and take it to the editing room.’

Of course, since they had never done this kind of work before, the three actors made a lot of mistakes while woodworking.

“Aah!”

“The corner is broken! What do we do!”

“It’s okay, sis. This is just practice wood anyway.”

“Agh. I could have done it well… What a waste.”

But even those scenes were fun to PD Gong, and she decided to trust her feelings.

‘I was going to make just one episode with today’s filming… Should I split it up and make it two episodes?’

As the filming went on, PD Gong felt even more sure about her decision.

The cast members were still working hard, but they also started to joke around and be funny again.

“Hey, Woojin. I don’t think the wood glue I just used was for practice wood…”

“It’s okay, hyung. We can pay for it with your appearance fee.”

“You little…!”

And there was one more thing.

Im Suha’s personality was becoming clear in a surprising way.

“Sis! Do you have the piece you cut out earlier?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Make three of those and bring them to me.”

“Okay! You can count on me!”

Suha, who had seemed less noticeable than Jaeyeop or Ria, had started to show her true personality. She was becoming like Woojin’s helper.

“Suha is really like Woojin’s helper, isn’t she?”

“Huh…? What do you mean?”

“You know, like in martial arts movies, they call their helpers ‘Suha.’”

“Haaa…”

“Ugh, seriously, oppa, please… stop with the dad jokes!”

“I’m a natural-born dad, what can I do.”

Suha, who had been a feminine actress wearing a flowing dress at the start of filming.

She was showing surprising skills, even more than Jaeyeop, who was a man, and had started to properly act as Woojin’s assistant.

Because of this, the filming was going very smoothly.

And most encouragingly, the cast members were having fun without realizing how much time had passed.

Everyone was tired because the filming took longer than expected.

But other than that, it was a fun shoot and no one complained.

So PD Gong could smile.

Even though she knew she would have to spend several nights in the editing room with today’s footage.

‘It’s okay. As long as we can keep the viewers watching…!’

PD Gong stopped thinking about editing for a moment. Her eyes went to the middle of the set.

In the center, Woojin was still working hard. He was the one who had started all of this.

A warm smile was already on PD Gong’s face as she looked at him.