Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 113

It was Tuesday afternoon. WJ Studio was quiet, quieter than usual. Sunlight streamed through the large windows of the office, dust motes dancing in the beams.

The design and construction department, usually buzzing with activity, was completely empty. The CEO had told them to take a vacation. It was a forced vacation, a reward for their hard work on the recent project.

In the model-making department, the air was still filled with the low hum of machinery and the scent of glue. The model makers glanced enviously at the empty desks of their colleagues. But the vacation also made them want to work harder. They knew that if they increased their sales, they too would be rewarded.

Of course, they were already receiving incentives in months with good sales.

“Ugh… Mr. CEO. Aren’t you going to give me a vacation?”

Seok-hyun, who had come to the CEO’s office for a visit, asked while drinking coffee, and Woo-jin chuckled and replied.

“If this month’s sales exceed 500 million, I’ll give the model-making department a week’s vacation.”

“Huh? It’s already exceeded that.”

“I’m not talking about total sales, I’m talking about the model-making department’s sales.”

“You… you bad boss, you!”

Unlike the construction department, the model-making department made a lot of profit from each sale.

And a high operating profit margin also meant that it was difficult to increase the size of sales.

Therefore, the model-making department’s sales accounted for approximately 300 million out of WJ Studio’s total sales in October.

To get sales that were one and a half times bigger than before was, from Seok-hyun’s point of view, quite unfair.

“Why, you can do it, Seok-gu.”

“Haaah….”

Seok-hyun, who sighed deeply, continued.

“Is this like being stuck in a never-ending cycle?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think about it.”

“About what?”

“I asked for a vacation because I wanted to rest from work. But to go on vacation, I have to increase sales. So what do I do? To increase sales, I have to work overtime.”

Woo-jin chuckled and nodded.

“Bingo.”

“Hey, come on! That’s too much!”

However, despite Seok-hyun’s strong protest, Woo-jin playfully snapped his fingers.

“What’s too much? Don’t you see me, without a vacation, regardless of sales targets or anything?”

“……!”

“Even though I gave the entire construction design team a vacation, I still came to work from morning.”

“If you… if you put it that way……”

“Then what?”

“I have nothing to say, Mr. CEO.”

“Heh heh heh.”

Of course, now that the Cheonwoong contest was over, Woo-jin was much more relaxed.

But apart from that, the position of CEO was one where he couldn’t rest easy.

To organize the schedule and prepare the next tasks so that the employees wouldn’t feel lost when they returned, Woo-jin had to keep moving today as well.

Seok-hyun, who took another sip of coffee, opened his mouth towards Woo-jin.

“Hey, Seo Woo-jin.”

“What?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying since before. Take a leave of absence from school.”

“Like you?”

“Yeah. Like me.”

After work became seriously busy.

Seok-hyun had already scheduled a leave of absence from school.

The choice was not difficult because the major he originally attended did not suit him well.

‘I’ll get a diploma someday.’

However, Woo-jin’s situation was different from Seok-hyun’s.

Even if it was difficult and challenging in terms of time.

School was still essential for Woo-jin.

“I still can’t take a leave of absence because there’s a lot to learn.”

“Oh, you’re so greedy.”

“Still, thanks to the department head’s consideration, it will be much easier from next year.”

“I’m sure it will be.”

Woo-jin paused for a moment before speaking to Seok-hyun again.

“And actually, there’s a field I want to study with you.”

“With… me? What?”

At Woo-jin’s unexpected words, Seok-hyun tilted his head and asked back.

He couldn’t readily understand why he wanted to study design with him, an engineering student.

Of course, Seok-hyun was once a design aspirant, but now he didn’t have much desire to study design.

He was having too much fun growing the model-making department he was in charge of here at WJ Studio.

But the moment Woo-jin’s next words followed, Seok-hyun couldn’t help but be even more surprised.

Because what came out of Woo-jin’s mouth was completely unexpected.

“I want to learn a bit about programming.”

“What… did you say?”

Seok-hyun’s eyes widened as he asked back, but Woo-jin continued to speak as if it were nothing.

“I’m not saying I’m going to learn proper programming. How can I study that? It’s not a field that can be easily learned superficially.”

“Then what is it?”

“To be exact, I want to learn algorithms.”

“Algorithms, you mean……”

“Algorithms used in design tools. I mean, I want to study visual scripts like Grasshopper* [a program that makes it easier to create algorithms by iconizing programmed script functions and connecting the icons together] that are in Rhino.”

Rhino is a program used for 3D modeling, like 3D Max, which Woo-jin is currently learning from Professor Jo Woon-chan at school.

Woo-jin didn’t know how to use the program yet, but it was a program he would study from his sophomore year.

And Grasshopper was a plug-in program connected to Rhino, which no one at K University’s Department of Design, other than Professor Jo Woon-chan, knew how to use yet.

As of 2010, it was a newfangled thing that didn’t even have a class yet.

Nevertheless, the reason why Woo-jin wanted to study this program was, of course, because he knew the future.

‘When digital architecture starts to become popular… knowing how to use visual scripts will be a huge weapon.’

In his past life, Woo-jin had seen many special designs created using this Rhino Grasshopper in overseas design firms.

Digital designs that create special patterns or structures that cannot be drawn by hand, using calculations based on algorithms.

This was one of the biggest reasons why Woo-jin couldn’t easily take a leave of absence from school, and it was a field he definitely wanted to learn.

And Seok-hyun, who majored in computer engineering, had pretty good coding skills and also had a sense of design.

He thought that studying with Seok-hyun would create synergy.

But, of course, Seok-hyun didn’t know anything about Grasshopper.

He knew about Rhino because it was a 3D program often used in product design and model making, but Grasshopper was a program that had only been serviced by Rhino for less than a year.

“Grasshopper? I’ve never heard of it before? Visual script?”

“Well, it’s still a bit far off for now, so just know that.”

“Damn it. Where do you find out about all that stuff?”

“The CEO originally knows everything.”

“Did Jaden’s way of speaking rub off on you?”

“I don’t think you’re the one to talk.”

“Hoo…….”

Woo-jin and Seok-hyun chuckled and laughed while facing each other.

Sitting face to face like this during work and talking about work was also a small pleasure that could energize their daily lives.

But such a break, of course, couldn’t last long.

Seok-hyun had to move again because of the model work that was nearing its deadline.

Woo-jin also had a dinner appointment.

“Okay, shall we get up now?”

“That’s right. You said you were meeting that Manager Park today, right?”

“That’s right. We’re having dinner together.”

“I wonder if he’ll bring the contest results…”

“Well. I’ll have to go and see.”

Since it had only been two days since the contest deadline, Kyung-wan probably didn’t call to talk about the results yet.

But he was secretly hoping for it.

‘Hoo… I’m nervous for the first time in a while.’

And Seok-hyun was also looking forward to the results of the Cheongdam apartment project contest.

Seok-hyun had seen all the drawings that showed how the apartments would look from above and from different angles of the Cheongdam Seonyeong Apartment designed by Woo-jin.

If the design team won this project, Seok-hyun would be making the magnificent apartment complex model that he had seen in the bird’s-eye view.

‘I really want to work on that…….’

No matter how well the details are captured and how good the model-making skills are, the final quality will inevitably vary greatly depending on the basic design.

And in that respect, the model work for this Cheongdam Seonyeong Apartment reconstruction was a design that could create the best portfolio for the WJ Studio model team.

In addition, due to the special nature of the expensive area in Cheongdam-dong, it was a good opportunity to promote WJ Studio’s models more widely.

Therefore, it was only natural that Seok-hyun was eyeing it.

“Go there and try to be very nice to him.”

“What’s ‘butter him up,’ you’re so old-fashioned.”

“I’m saying, please win the project.”

“I want to, too, you rascal.”

Woo-jin narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth again.

“Seok-gu, are you only interested in the small rewards?”

“Crumbs, you say!”

“A Cheongdam Seonyeong model should easily fetch 100 million… are you trying to raise sales to 500 million with this…….”

“Huh? Um……. That’s…….”

Seok-hyun, who had been hit right on the mark, turned his head away, feigning ignorance, and Woo-jin poked Seok-hyun’s side, took out the coat hanging on the hanger, and put it on.

Seeing him like this, Seok-hyun had a simple and cute side.

“Even if we win it, the sales won’t be recorded this month. You know that, right?”

“What?! Why!”

“There’s something you’re misunderstanding. Even if we’re selected as the winner of the contest, there’s another mountain to climb, you idiot.”

“Um……?”

“Cheonwoong has to be finally decided in the members’ vote, then we can make the model, you fool.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

Seok-hyun looked a little embarrassed at the unexpected obstacle.

Seok-hyun had been working in the industry for over half a year now, but he still didn’t know much about areas other than the model-making department.

Woo-jin continued.

“So, once we win the contest and the bidding is over, it’ll be at least December.”

“Ugh.”

“Winning the bidding and securing the Cheongdam Seonyeong project… whether this project is recorded as 100 million or 200 million in the model-making department’s sales, it has nothing to do with your vacation. What I set as a condition is the November sales.”

“Holy s***!”

Leaving Seok-hyun with a sad expression, Woo-jin grabbed his bag and left the CEO’s office.

“Still, I’ll meet Kyung-wan today and ask if there are any other projects we can take on. I know there are a few in the metropolitan area.”

Hearing Woo-jin’s last words, Seok-hyun bowed 90 degrees in the direction he was leaving.

“I believe in you, Mr. CEO!”

“Our Seok-gu is flexible. His waist folds like a flip phone.”

“I’ll work hard!”

“Heh heh, see you later. I’ll call you after the meeting.”

With Seok-hyun’s cheerful send-off, Woo-jin quickly took the elevator down and started the car.

It was a little earlier than the after-work rush hour, so the traffic in Seoul wasn’t too bad.

He was able to arrive at a restaurant in the city, where Cheonwoong Construction was located, in less than thirty minutes.

The restaurant that Woo-jin entered after entrusting his car to someone to park his car was a fancy Japanese restaurant where he had first started talking about business with Park Kyung-wan.

‘It feels like that was just yesterday… I’ve come a long way already. Seo Woo-jin.’

Woo-jin entered the restaurant with a new feeling, and when he gave Kyung-wan’s name, the employee kindly guided him to his seat.

And there, Park Kyung-wan, who had arrived earlier, greeted Woo-jin with a smirk.

“Can’t you move faster, Mr. Seo?”

“Did you come early?”

“I didn’t want to work. So I came out a little early.”

As Woo-jin sat down, Kyung-wan ordered food.

The two of them always ordered the same menu when they came here, so the order didn’t take long.

Kyung-wan drank his tea loudly.

Kyung-wan, who was watching the employee pour tea for a moment, opened his mouth towards Woo-jin with his unique sly expression.

“Mr. Seo.”

“Yes?”

“Why do you think I asked you to meet today?”

Woo-jin’s heart began to beat a little faster.