Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 132

Woojin was enjoying his first coffee of the morning, the sunlight warm on his face as he looked out of his apartment window. His phone buzzed, and he saw his brother Jae-yeop’s name on the screen. He answered.

“Hey, Woojin,” Jae-yeop’s voice was a little too loud.

“What’s up so early?” Woojin asked, taking another sip of his coffee.

“Listen,” Jae-yeop rushed on, “Can’t you get me in touch with Seokjung? You know, for business?”

Woojin frowned slightly. “What’s all this about?”

“Café Fresco,” Jae-yeop said quickly. “Can’t I open a third one? Like Yuria?”

Woojin chuckled. “My dear brother, we’re already planning up to the *fourteenth* cafe.”

“Damn it!” Jae-yeop exclaimed.

“Why are you suddenly so interested?” Woojin asked, amused.

“Yuria just called,” Jae-yeop groaned.

“Yeah?”

“She went on and on about how amazing her cafe is doing. Twenty minutes, Woojin! Twenty minutes of bragging!”

“Heh heh,” Woojin chuckled again. “She called me too.”

“You too?” Jae-yeop sounded even more upset.

“Last night,” Woojin confirmed.

“Ugh! My stomach is killing me!” Jae-yeop wailed. “I want to do it too!”

“Okay, okay,” Woojin said, trying not to laugh. “First, find a building for your cafe. Then we can talk.”

Woojin chuckled as he ended Jae-yeop’s call and prepared to head out. Jae-yeop was half joking, but Woojin knew his stomach ache was real.

Yuria’s Café Fresco 2nd branch, which had opened the day before yesterday, was a smash hit.

“If he heard the sales figures, even Jae-yeop wouldn’t be able to avoid a stomach ache,” Woojin thought.

Talking with Seokjung and upgrading all the menus to better quality had worked well.

The drinks, including coffee, were the same as the original cafe, but they used Seokjung’s experience from running Leon Bakery to improve the desserts as much as possible.

This cafe was in a fancy part of the city, known for people who love expensive desserts. So, making the desserts better quality was a good marketing strategy.

‘Seokjung really understands high-end dining,’ Woojin thought.

Honestly, Woojin had been unsure about the twenty- or thirty-thousand-won dessert menu.

He had never eaten such expensive desserts before.

But Seokjung’s idea made sense, and Lia also agreed.

So, he created a marketing strategy to match their ideas.

It was a big success.

‘They said the first day’s sales were very high. It’s partly because it just opened, but even I was tempted,’ Woojin thought.

Woojin had seen the sales numbers of the most popular franchise coffee shops in Korea in the information Seokjung had shown him.

The sales were about 200 to 300 million won each month.

He also said that the store with the highest sales in the country, at Incheon International Airport, had almost 500 million won in sales per month. At this rate, Yuria’s store would probably have similar sales.

Of course, even with tenants, the building would make almost 100 million won in monthly rent. But they had created a way to make much more money than that.

Also, because they were using the whole floor for Café Fresco, they didn’t have to worry about empty rooms.

If this success continued for several months, the building would be worth a lot more.

Jae-yeop had hesitated and given up when Lia said she was going to open a café, so he had every reason to be jealous.

‘It’s good if Lia does well. I’ll have to celebrate with her next time I see her,’ Woojin thought.

Humming, Woojin left the house, got in his car, and drove to the office.

Today, an important guest was coming to WJ Studio.

“Oh, so this is Woojin’s office.”

“Haha, thank you for coming all the way here. I was going to come to you.”

“Ah, no. I wanted to see Woojin’s office. It wasn’t that far.”

The guest who came to see Woojin was Bruno.

They had decided to meet to discuss the design plans for the Wangsimni Complex Mall project that Bruno had given him last Saturday.

So, Bruno came to Woojin’s office in Seongsu-dong and immediately said how impressed he was.

He hadn’t expected Woojin’s office to be so nicely decorated.

“I said before that Woojin’s office probably wouldn’t be much different from mine. I should apologize,” Bruno said.

“Yes?”

“I didn’t know you had such a wonderful interior. It’s much better than my simple office.”

“Haha, no. It’s just that this place hasn’t been used for very long, so it’s clean,” Woojin said.

Woojin felt good with Bruno’s compliments. He went into the conference room and turned on the screen that the staff had set up. He connected the computer to show the meeting materials.

Then, hundreds of drawings in a PDF file appeared on the screen.

This showed how big the Wangsimni Complex Mall project was.

The total floor space of the building was smaller than the Cheongdam Seonyoung Apartment complex, but the design work was about the same size.

Apartments are often built with the same room layout repeated many times.

Bruno looked at the screen and took a sip of the coffee the staff had brought.

Bruno’s translator, who had come with him, carefully put down his bag and sat down next to him.

“Did you get some rest last week? You must have been very busy with the Cheongdam-dong project. Because of me, you couldn’t even rest and had to start a new project,” Bruno said.

Woojin smiled slightly at Bruno’s words.

As he said, he had started a new project even before he could relax after the last project.

But this project was less stressful.

Bruno was in charge of the Wangsimni project, and Woojin was just helping him.

“It’s okay. It’s a good thing that I have work to do,” Woojin said.

“Haha, that’s right. If you have a lot of work as an architect, it means you’re very good,” Bruno said.

When the meeting was ready to start, Bruno’s expression changed.

“Then, shall we begin?”

“Excellent, Bruno.”

Woojin started talking. He told the stories he had planned, one after another.

Woojin had spent days looking at Bruno’s design. He had seen it quickly before Christmas, and then spent two full days recently doing a deep analysis. ‘Bruno is truly amazing,’ Woojin thought as he studied it. The design was creative and well-structured, just as you would expect from a world-famous master.

‘If they build this mall in Wangsimni like this… it will be incredible.’

Looking at the design also made Woojin sure about something he had suspected. When he first heard Bruno was involved in the Wangsimni project, he had a bad feeling. He suspected there might have been corruption in the design competition before.

‘Bruno’s design was rejected before, and they chose that old-fashioned building instead? That doesn’t make sense.’

Maybe this was a guess. But in Woojin’s past life, Bruno never worked on another project in Korea after the Glacial Tower. Woojin thought this might be why. Bruno probably saw the building that was chosen instead of his design and was very disappointed.

Woojin thought he was right about this. ‘Of course, some parts of Bruno’s design might not be perfect for Korean malls… but even so, it would be a landmark if they just used this design…’

But Woojin couldn’t talk about corruption at the start of the meeting. It hadn’t happened yet. So, he began by talking about the design itself, which was the reason for the meeting. He would deal with the corruption problem later.

“Looking at your design, Bruno,” Woojin said, pointing to the plans, “you’ve got this great big courtyard in the basement. The idea is to use the natural light from the glass roof, right?”

“That’s right, Woojin.” Bruno nodded, leaning forward. “About thirty percent of the space is underground or partly underground. This courtyard helps us make that space feel like it’s on the ground floor, full of light and air.”

“Then,” Woojin continued, feeling a bit bolder, “what if we made part of the south wall glass too, like the Glacial Tower?”

“Oh ho, this part you mean?” Bruno tapped the blueprint.

“Yes. That way, people coming in from outside can see right into the courtyard. It would make the space much more interesting, I think.”

“Great idea!” Bruno exclaimed. “We’d need to check the structure, of course, but if we can do that, it would definitely make it even more beautiful.”

Woojin’s ideas were mostly to make Bruno’s already great design even better.

Of course, Bruno didn’t accept all of Woojin’s suggestions, but he generally received them positively. It could be said that Woojin’s insight into design had developed that much.

“Haha, I think I made the right decision to come here today.”

“You flatter me, Bruno. Rather, I think I learned a lot while analyzing Bruno’s design.”

The two men’s heated meeting continued for nearly two hours without a break. The WJ Studio employee who had come in to record the meeting was amazed by their passion.

“The area around Wangsimni is mainly composed of university districts, Bruno.”

“Yes, I am already well aware of that from my preliminary research. That’s why I was thinking of decorating the stores with a younger, street outlet atmosphere.”

“I’d like to point out one thing that Bruno might have overlooked in that regard.”

“Oh ho, is there something I didn’t discover?”

“The current Wangsimni has a floating population mainly composed of university students and young people… but things will be a little different when this building is completed.”

“How will it be different?”

“The Wangsimni New Town broke ground a while ago.”

“……!”

“From here to here. There will be a huge apartment complex of enormous scale.”

Woojin pointed to a map of Seoul hanging on one wall of the conference room and continued.

“Most of Seoul’s major corporations and financial companies are concentrated in Gangnam, Jongno, and Yeouido. And Wangsimni is located in an excellent location that can be reached from these areas in a short amount of time.”

It might have sounded like a story that was a bit off-topic from architectural design, but Bruno listened intently to Woojin’s story.

“Because of this, the Wangsimni New Town will be transformed into a residential area favored by quite a few high-income earners.”

“You’re saying it’s a new town with excellent work-life proximity?”

“That’s right, Bruno.”

“We may need to adjust the target age group for the shopping mall design a bit higher.”

Woojin nodded with a pleasant expression at Bruno’s understanding, who understood everything with just a hint.

“That’s exactly right. I expect the main consumer base of this Wangsimni complex mall to be young couples spanning the 30-40 age range.”

Bruno, listening to Woojin’s story, had a very satisfied look on his face. This was exactly what he had expected from Woojin. These detailed insights into ‘location’ and ‘culture’ that would be difficult for a non-local to know.

So, towards the end of today’s meeting, Bruno formally proposed to Woojin.

“If my work is selected in this competition, I would like to work with WJ Studio from the detailed design stage.”

“Haha, aren’t we already doing that?”

“That’s not what I mean. I mean I want to formally sign a contract.”

Woojin’s eyes widened at Bruno’s words. In fact, he had assumed that after winning the competition, Bruno would naturally work with his design office headquarters in his home country. But apart from being surprised, there was no reason to refuse such an attractive offer.

‘I have one more reason to get rid of those stinky trash somehow.’

Woojin smiled and shook Bruno’s wrinkled hand.

“Thank you, Bruno. You won’t be disappointed.”

Perhaps because the motivation had become greater, Woojin’s mind began to spin a little faster.