Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 186

November 11th

October had been a whirlwind month. Woo-jin had expected calm, but then the Bellostones and KSJ Entertainment project exploded into life.

There were moments of frustration, like untangling legal contracts, and moments of smooth progress, like when everyone agreed on the design direction.

By the end of October, they had finished the main parts of the project.

This included agreements with the three companies, and partnerships with the Seoul Design Foundation and the Korea Creative Content Agency. Everything was moving forward as planned.

October had thrown unexpected chaos into Woo-jin’s schedule, but November was already marked in his calendar as a month of deadlines and events.

So-yeon called, “Oppa, are you almost ready?”

“Meet me downstairs at the company entrance around 12:30,” she added.

“Okay. Is Jayden there?” Woo-jin asked.

“No. Jayden is probably on his way too.”

“Will there be enough space in your car?”

“Three people are riding in a four-seater sedan, so of course there’s enough room,” Woo-jin replied.

“I meant, is anyone else going with us? I have one more person on my side.”

Woo-jin was curious. “Huh? Who’s that? Someone else is coming?”

“You’ll see when you see them. I’ll hang up now?”

“Oh? Oh, uh… okay.”

Woo-jin smiled as he ended the call. Today felt special, a real milestone. Today was the day the nursing home in Suyu-dong, Gangbuk-gu, was finished—his first building.

He repeated the words in his head, a small thrill running through him. *My* building. He pictured the clean lines, the way the light would fall on the facade. Would it look as good in real life as it did in his mind?

Of course, he knew it wasn’t *only* his creation. Jayden’s sketches had shaped the front of the building, So-yeon’s design sense had influenced the colors and inside feel, and Cheonwoong Construction had done the actual building. It was a team effort.

He’d seen it during the final inspection, almost finished. But seeing it truly *complete*, with all the final touches, would be different. He imagined the landscaping finished, the entrance sparkling clean, ready to welcome residents.

With a thrilled heart, Woo-jin tidied up his desk and headed to the parking lot in the elevator.

Ding!

In the parking lot, Jayden greeted Woo-jin. “Hey, bro. Why are you so late?”

“I’m not late,” Woo-jin replied.

Seeing Woo-jin answer so curtly, Jayden pouted and grumbled. “Woo-jin is too prickly.”

Woo-jin looked at Jayden’s dissatisfied expression and felt something was off. Jayden, who usually dressed well, looked like he had put extra effort into his appearance today. He was even wearing a suit, which Woo-jin had never seen him wear.

“By the way, why are you so dressed up? Why the suit?” Woo-jin asked, surprised.

Jayden nonchalantly retorted, “Woo-jin, aren’t you dressed too much like an old man?”

“It’s just ordinary casual wear for someone in their early twenties.”

“Then is it because Woo-jin is an old man that it feels that way?”

“I’m asking why you’re so dressed up, stop talking nonsense.”

Jayden cleared his throat. “Today is the day this Jayden makes his debut as an architectural designer, Woo-jin.”

“Um… that’s true. But?”

“If we have a completion ceremony, won’t a lot of reporters come?”

“What?”

“SPDC is a very famous competition, you know.”

“Yeah.”

“Jayden, the youngest winner of the SPDC and the architectural designer of Dodam Nursing Home!”

“Everyone will probably want to interview me.”

“Hmm……”

“In that sense, it’s basic etiquette to go wearing nice clothes, Woo-jin.”

“Okay. Great, Jayden.”

“Foolish Woo-jin will probably regret it.”

“Well, maybe?”

At Jayden’s very Jayden-like words, Woo-jin sighed deeply and shook his head. He felt sorry for pouring cold water on his overly serious expression by saying that it wouldn’t happen, so he didn’t particularly think about retorting.

‘He’s really excited. It won’t be that special, though… Well, there’s no need to disappoint him in advance.’

Of course, reporters would come as Jayden said. After all, SPDC was a well-known competition. But realistically, except for one or two interviews, it was clear that there wouldn’t be any special events.

Woo-jin had experienced countless completion ceremonies in his past life.

Thinking that Jayden, who was too dressed up, was a little embarrassing, Woo-jin started the car.

Vroom-

But when he drove the car out of the parking lot, Woo-jin had no choice but to be embarrassed once again because of two facts.

The first was because there was another person who was as dressed up as Jayden…

“What’s with today? Are you Jayden too?” Woo-jin asked So-yeon.

“Oh, come on. Why are you picking a fight with me as soon as we meet?” So-yeon retorted.

Jayden exclaimed, “Good heavens! Why is someone who only wore tracksuits on blind dates suddenly wearing a dress?”

“When did I ever!” So-yeon fired back.

“And what’s with those shoes that look like they’re about to break? You look taller than me now? Did you even have shoes?” Jayden teased.

“Ugh… Jeez. Jayden, can’t you hit this oppa just once?”

The second was because there was one more guest than he had expected.

“It’s been a while, Woo-jin,” Bruno said with a smile.

“Bruno!” Woo-jin exclaimed, surprised.

Ahn Jung-muk, the chairman of the Seoul Design Foundation, was in a very good mood today.

The SPDC competition was very important to the Seoul Design Foundation, and today was a big day for it.

“Chief Kim,” Ahn Jung-muk began.

“Yes, Chairman,” Chief Kim responded.

“You said you went on a preliminary field trip last week, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. There were materials that needed to be set up in advance during the event preparation process.”

“How was it?”

“What do you mean?” Chief Kim asked.

“I’m talking about Dodam Nursing Home. I’m asking if the building was built nicely.”

The SPDC had produced numerous entries so far, and in each session, it naturally selected one grand prize winner. But even so, the number of buildings actually built through the SPDC does not even reach ten in total. Despite receiving the grand prize, it was often difficult to reach the construction stage with the level of work of undergraduate students. Even the buildings that were built were mostly small-scale public facilities.

Such a large project with a construction period of more than a year had never been successful before.

So, Jung-muk had been eagerly waiting for today’s event. Today’s event was likely to be a very good opportunity to greatly enhance the status of the SPDC competition.

“I was just about to tell you… I was really surprised when I went there that day, Chairman,” Chief Kim said.

“Oh, really? How was it?”

“I thought it would be a bit rough because it was built with the winning entry of an undergraduate student… but the exterior alone is very unique and impressive.”

“Heh heh, really?” Ahn Jung-muk chuckled.

“To exaggerate a little, it felt like seeing a landmark in a foreign tourist destination.”

At Chief Kim’s praise, Jung-muk smiled pleasantly as if he had been praised himself. The final presentation that Woo-jin had shown at the competition last year still remained vividly in his mind.

“The design was certainly unique,” Ahn Jung-muk said.

“Oh, have you already seen it, Chairman?”

“No, I judged this work when it was presented.”

“Ah…!”

“You probably didn’t know because you transferred here this year, but last year’s SPDC was a real 난리도 아니었다네.”

“It must have been.”

“This is a bit of a sorry thing to say… but because my standards were so high last year, this year’s winning entries felt terrible.”

“Certainly, there were no works among this year’s winning entries that were eye-opening.”

“It’s a shame.”

“The grand prize winner was 괜찮았는데, but the working team said that construction would be difficult.”

“Difficult? That’s a very generous expression.”

“Pardon?”

“How can you construct that geometric shape?”

“Is that so? I don’t know much about architecture…”

“They just formally posted the bidding announcement. Probably no construction company will bid.”

“I see.”

Jung-muk, who got into the car driven by Chief Kim, looked out the car window and fell into thought. He had a feeling that the preparations made by the foundation for today would not be in vain.

‘I even mobilized my connections to invite people… I’m glad I don’t think I’ll be embarrassed.’

Until now, the Seoul Design Foundation had always held a small event at the completion ceremony of the winning entries. But the event prepared by the foundation this time was on a different level than before. Previously, they had a formal completion ceremony with minimal procedures and then called a few reporters to write articles.

This time, however, the powerful figures of the foundation, including Jung-muk, mobilized their connections to plan a very large completion ceremony. Even among the VIPs who were scheduled to come to today’s event was the newly appointed Mayor of Seoul.

Gu Yun-kwon, the Mayor of Seoul, who was very interested in architecture and design, to the point of advocating the slogan [Design Seoul] during his inauguration. At the first meeting with him after his inauguration, Jung-muk had brought up the story of this nursing home, which would be completed this year. At that time, he showed great interest and was invited to today’s completion ceremony.

‘I didn’t even think he would come to the completion ceremony himself…’

Thanks to this, the event prepared by the foundation today was much larger than the level that Ahn Jung-muk had initially planned. The weight of the event itself was bound to change just by the fact that the Mayor of Seoul was attending.

‘The moment the Mayor comes, political figures will follow like a string of sausages… There’s no need to worry about 화제성.’

Jung-muk, who drew a happy picture in his head, checked the outside of the window again and opened his mouth.

“The traffic is a bit heavy.”

“That’s right, Chairman. But we’ll arrive soon as soon as we get out of the arterial road, so we won’t be late.”

“Haha. We won’t be late. I’m just wondering how much of the 감동 I felt last year will be expressed in the completed building… That’s what I’m getting more and more curious about.”

The closer he got to the nursing home, the more Jung-muk’s expectations grew. This expectation was not only due to the design aspects of the building. Perhaps what he was most looking forward to was meeting Woo-jin, the director of this design.

‘The collaboration offer related to the Living Fair that came in a while ago… I can talk about it in detail once I see his face today.’

A pleased smile appeared on Jung-muk’s face as he thought of Woo-jin. Perhaps today was the day a designer with global potential would make his first public appearance, through the Seoul Design Foundation’s SPDC.