Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 232

July 2012.

The City Hall building shone like a giant mirror in the July sun. It was brand new, finished just two months ago in May, and still smelled faintly of fresh paint and polished floors. Almost every city department had moved into this gleaming new building.

Because of this, today’s important event, the “Seongsu Strategic Redevelopment Zone Integrated Design Presentation” – a plan to rebuild an old part of the city – was happening in the City Hall’s main conference hall.

Woo-jin had visited this City Hall several times before, but it felt new to him.

“No matter what the design was like,” Woo-jin thought, “a new building always felt clean and good.”

At the entrance, Woo-jin showed his name tag to a staff member, who then led him and his team to the conference hall.

The conference hall was near the entrance on the first floor, so it was easy to find.

As he walked in, Woo-jin noticed a large screen and looked around the room.

“I think I’m starting to feel a little nervous…” he thought.

A pleasant sense of excitement bubbled up inside him, and Woo-jin walked forward, following the city hall staff.

The conference hall was much bigger than the one at AA School, where he had given the EAC presentation. But he wasn’t as nervous as he had been then.

Today, he felt confident because he had designed this event himself.

Woo-jin found his assigned seat, sat down, and stretched his fingers.

There were still ten minutes before the presentation began, so he had time to relax. He put his bag down and looked around.

“Are there five presenters including me today?”

He saw five seats marked for presenters. Two of them were empty, on either side of Woo-jin.

Woo-jin greeted one of the presenters who was already there.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Seo Woo-jin from WJ Studio.”

The man seemed surprised to be greeted by Woo-jin.

“Oh, nice to meet you. I didn’t know CEO Seo was also participating in this competition.”

“Yes, I’ve been working hard on it,” Woo-jin replied.

But the man looked gloomy.

He spoke again, sounding sad, “We’ve also worked hard, but… I wonder if it was all for nothing.”

“Excuse me?” Woo-jin asked.

“Ah, never mind. Anyway, nice to meet you, CEO Seo.”

Woo-jin was confused by the man’s reaction, but he soon understood why. He overheard the man talking to another presenter next to him.

“Should we just leave without presenting?” one asked.

“We’ve come all this way… we should present and leave,” the other replied.

“Hmm…”

“Anyway, we can’t win, but they say it will be posted on Seoul City’s social media. It would be a disgrace to the company if we didn’t participate at all.”

They seemed to know that some people had unfair advantages in this competition.

“Hmm… Even if you find out late, if you’re in this kind of competition, you’ll have connections to the association, even if it’s through middlemen,” Woo-jin thought.

Woo-jin sighed without realizing it.

He was disappointed that people with connections had ruined the competition to help themselves.

“Seriously, what is this?”

When Woo-jin first started this project, he had been excited about the presentation.

He had thought that seeing the designs from different design firms would help him learn, no matter who won.

But now, because someone had spoiled it, he couldn’t look forward to it anymore.

Woo-jin didn’t like that at all.

“Those association guys… That’s why there’s no progress.”

Woo-jin looked at the empty seats next to him and shook his head. He guessed that one of the missing people was the insider chosen by the association.

“The other person might have heard about the insider and decided not to come,” he thought.

Soon, Woo-jin found out he was right.

“Haha, hello. I’m Kim Jun-ho, the CEO of Leeho Design Office,” a man said as he sat in the last seat.

He was on Woo-jin’s right and greeted the other presenters with a smile. But the others, except for Woo-jin, didn’t seem happy to see him.

Woo-jin could tell that they didn’t like this man.

He realized that this latecomer was the association’s insider.

“Hmm. Leeho Design Office, huh… I’ve never even heard of them before,” Woo-jin thought.

But unlike the others, Woo-jin didn’t feel annoyed. He smiled and shook the hand that Kim Jun-ho offered.

“Nice to meet you, CEO Kim. I’m Seo Woo-jin, the CEO of WJ Studio.”

Kim Jun-ho looked surprised to hear Woo-jin’s greeting.

“Oh…! You were on that show, …!”

“Haha, that’s right.”

“You look younger in person than you do on screen.”

“Thank you,” Woo-jin said.

But then, Kim Jun-ho’s smile changed slightly.

“Let’s do our best today. I never thought I’d get to see a presentation by an architect recognized by the EAC right in front of my eyes,” Kim Jun-ho said with sarcasm.

Woo-jin chuckled at Kim Jun-ho’s tone.

“Haha. I’m looking forward to CEO Kim’s presentation as well,” Woo-jin replied.

He could sense Kim Jun-ho’s complex emotions.

“What a small mind…” Woo-jin thought.

Kim Jun-ho was jealous of Woo-jin’s title as an EAC presenter and his public recognition. At the same time, he looked down on Woo-jin.

In his eyes, Woo-jin was just a lucky kid who had appeared on TV and thought he was talented.

“Cocky bastard,” Kim Jun-ho thought.

He believed that Woo-jin’s title as an EAC presenter was just a fluke, gained through connections with the European Architectural Association.

“But this is Korea. I’ll teach you a lesson today,” Kim Jun-ho thought.

Kim Jun-ho shook hands with Woo-jin, but inside, he was planning to beat him in terms of skill and connections.

Woo-jin didn’t care about Kim Jun-ho’s thoughts. He hoped that Kim Jun-ho’s presentation would be good.

“It still looks like the same old story, but… Still, I hope the presentation isn’t too shabby,” Woo-jin thought.

Woojin would be very unhappy if the presentation was bad and only depended on the association’s support.

Whirr-

As Woojin thought about this, the screen, which had been completely dark, lit up brightly.

The presenter walked onto the stage and began speaking into the microphone.

“Welcome, everyone. I’m Ko Seung-cheol, and I’ll be hosting today’s integrated design competition presentation for the ‘Future City Design Project’.”

He briefly explained the day’s event.

Then, the event officially began.

From the back of the hall, several camcorders started recording the event in high definition. The hall was filled with people, all focused on the presentation.

Meanwhile, in another part of Seoul, a famous actress named Suha was having a very different morning.

Suha, who had become very popular since 2010, was currently filming a movie.

It wasn’t a film with a huge budget or a famous director, but the story and the cast made it a project that Suha absolutely loved.

So, even though she was very busy, Suha was always happy.

She was doing what she loved, filming a project she adored.

And she was earning enough money from it. Her current life was what she had always dreamed of when she was just starting out and struggling.

Also, in just a few days, she would own her first home.

This house was very important to her.

It was the first house she had signed a contract for when she started to become known with her work.

It was the first house she had contracted for at the turning point of her life.

So, even when she didn’t have enough money to pay the extra money needed for the apartment renovation, Suha didn’t sell this house, and even took out more loans.

The fact that she would soon be able to move into her cherished first home made her even more excited.

“Hee hee.”

Seeing Suha smiling in the van on the way to the filming location, her manager, Song Jiho, who was driving, teased her.

“What’s got you so happy?”

“Don’t talk to me, Oppa. I’m touring our house right now.”

“What? Isn’t it still being built?”

Even when Jiho asked, Suha didn’t look at him and kept her eyes on her smartphone.

“I’ve already saved the model house images on my phone.”

“Hey, is the model house your actual house? You still have those pictures?”

“Eheheh. I’m moving soon! Moving!”

Watching Suha being so happy, Jiho chuckled.

Having worked with her for almost eight years, Suha was like family to Jiho.

“I’m jealous, Im Suha. I should have bought an apartment back then, too.”

“Why don’t you apply for an apartment now, even at this point?”

“Can’t you give me a cheap lease on your house?”

“You can’t be serious!”

“You have a house in Cheongdam-dong, too!”

“That one’s still far from being finished.”

“When you move there, can I get the lease on your Mapo house?”

“Hmm. I’ll think about it.”

After a short argument, the car became quiet again.

Suha, who was tired of looking at the model house pictures, turned on the SNS app she had recently become addicted to and started browsing her feed. She was looking at pictures of her beautiful kitchen and cozy living room, imagining her life there.

Facebook, which had recently become popular, was interesting to browse through her acquaintances’ feeds, and getting more followers was also quite fun.

Jiho glanced at Suha’s phone screen and started to nag.

“If you upload another embarrassing picture on SNS, you’re really dead, you hear?”

“Ah. I get it, really. I feel like I’ve heard that a hundred times already.”

“I feel like I’m getting stressed every time you turn on Facebook. I don’t know what kind of accident you’ll cause again.” Jiho worried because Suha had problems with social media before.

“What am I, a child?”

“You act like a kid!”

“Haa….”

“Can’t you just delete the Facebook app?”

“No.”

“Why!”

“It’s fun! I love sharing stories and connecting with people.”

“…….”

Jiho, who had been arguing with Suha, sighed deeply and grabbed the steering wheel again.

It hadn’t been long since SNS had become popular, but many celebrities had already damaged their image because of it.

As her manager, Jiho couldn’t help but worry about the unpredictable Suha.

Jiho, who was holding the steering wheel, checked the navigation system and spoke to Suha again.

“We’ll be there in 10 minutes, Im Suha. Get ready to get out.”

“Okay.”

“I said 10 minutes? You have a lot to do to fix your makeup and get ready!”

“Ah, I get it. Just a moment.”

Jiho, listening to Suha’s answer, tilted his head.

Usually, when she said that, Suha would put her phone away and do what she needed to do, but today she wasn’t even listening and was staring intently at something.

So, when the car stopped at a light, Jiho peeked at what Suha was looking at.

If she was distracted by some useless SNS, he was planning to snatch her phone away.

But a moment later.

Jiho, who had checked Suha’s smartphone screen, couldn’t help but tilt his head.

The video playing on her smartphone was something he hadn’t expected at all.

“Hey, what is this?”

“Huh?”

“What are you watching right now?”

“Ah……. This?”

“The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s official SNS account? Why are you watching something like that?”

On Suha’s smartphone screen, a video of some kind of design presentation was playing.

The account streaming this video was the official SNS account of the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Suha chuckled and answered Jiho, who was tilting his head.

“Ah, this. Woojin asked me to give it some likes.”

“Woojin, you mean… CEO Seo Woojin?”

“Yeah. He’s doing some kind of design presentation in Seoul today, and he asked me to share the video and give it some likes.”

“Ah, I see.”

“But as I was watching it, I kept watching. Woojin just started his presentation.”

“Really?”

“There are quite a few people watching it together right now.”

“What are you so interested in?”

“How many people?”

“The live viewership is over 50,000?”

Golden Print