Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 276

From the day Min-sun and Seok-ho visited the headquarters, Woo-jin and WJ Studio’s project preparations began to speed up.

They started getting ready for the new project, including picking the right people, checking their past work, and researching design ideas.

All preparations for the full-scale project were completed within a week, and the employees began to start the project in an orderly fashion. Therefore, when Monday arrived after the weekend, Woo-jin had to go out on a business trip immediately.

Before starting the full-scale concept design and basic design, Woo-jin always did a field survey at least once, unless there was a special reason. It was part of his design philosophy.

The person going on the field survey with Woo-jin today was Seok-hyun, not Jin-tae, because Seok-hyun was really eager to drive.

Woo-jin glanced at Seok-hyun, who was practically bouncing in his seat. “You’re practically glowing, Seok-hyun. What’s got you so happy?”

Seok-hyun grinned, humming a tuneless melody under his breath. “Happy? Why wouldn’t I be? I’m trying very hard *not* to burst into song right now.”

“Trying and failing, it sounds like,” Woo-jin chuckled, but there was no real criticism in his voice.

“Hey, a man’s gotta hum! Cut me some slack.”

Woo-jin nodded. Normally, Seok-hyun’s singing – or rather, his enthusiastic but wildly off-key attempts at singing – would have driven him mad. But today was different. Today, Seok-hyun had earned the right to be as cheerful and tuneless as he pleased.

“Hey, this car is really something,” Woo-jin said.

Seok-hyun’s eyes sparkled as he replied, “Right? Isn’t it amazing?”

“Yeah, it just shoots out when you step on it.”

“I told you, there’s a reason why I’ve been praising Porsches all along.”

Seok-hyun had ordered a Porsche last year. To celebrate his hard work for WJ Studio, Woo-jin gave him a raise.

However, because Porsche uses a custom order system, the customer had to select all the options and place an individual order. So, Seok-hyun only received his car last week. It took almost a year from ordering to receiving it.

Woo-jin decided to let Seok-hyun enjoy his excitement for at least this month. He knew that for the past year, Seok-hyun’s routine was to admire photos of the car he had ordered every day when he came to work.

“You don’t need to tell me twice.”

“So, you should buy one soon too. It’s time for you to change your car, isn’t it?”

“It’s still running fine without a single breakdown. Why would I change a perfectly good car?”

“Damn it. I shouldn’t have asked.”

Woo-jin was still driving the domestic mid-size sedan he bought a few years ago. Of course, he was a little tempted when he saw Seok-hyun’s Porsche, but he wasn’t too moved because he had so many other things to worry about.

“By the way, you’re probably the only person who buys a Porsche as their first car.”

Woo-jin stared out the window and teased him. Seok-hyun shrugged and retorted, “What about it? As long as I don’t cause an accident.”

Seok-hyun pretended to be relaxed, but he was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his palms were sweating, and he wasn’t going over 60 kilometers per hour. Woo-jin chuckled.

“Geez, at this rate, it’ll take us all day to get to the site.”

“Don’t exaggerate. I’m just driving a little more safely.”

“Yeah. Safety first.”

Even though it was past commuting hours, the Olympic Expressway was congested. It seemed to be because the Seongsu district was under full-scale construction, and part of the road was closed due to the underground construction of the Gangbyeonbuk-ro. The Gangbyeonbuk-ro and Olympic Expressway, which run horizontally through Seoul along the river, inevitably had to share traffic.

Seok-hyun and Woo-jin left the Seongsu headquarters at 10 o’clock and arrived in Magok around noon. Seongsu is in Seongdong-gu, in the east of Seoul, while Magok is at the far west end of Seoul, so they arrived quickly considering the traffic.

Seok-hyun confirmed that they had entered Magok through the navigation system, looked around, and said, “Wow, Magok? Is this really Seoul? It feels completely rural here.”

Woo-jin also looked around. After being lost in thought for a moment, he reflexively turned his head when Seok-hyun mentioned Magok. He was quite surprised.

The Magok in Woo-jin’s memory from his past life and the Magok in front of his eyes now were completely different.

“Was Magok like this in 2013?”

Even by 2015, Magok would have been a new city with gleaming new apartments. In his past life, Woo-jin had worked at a site in Magok around that time, so he had vivid memories of it. But now, in 2013, it was either rice paddies or dilapidated villa villages, or just leveling the ground for construction.

It was only natural for Woo-jin to be surprised. No matter how much Woo-jin had worked in the field, he couldn’t remember exactly when all the urban developments took place.

‘Magok Embellie started to be fully completed after 2014, I guess.’

As they entered the city, Seok-hyun began to drive even more slowly, and inside the car, Woo-jin slowly took in the scenery of Magok. Even at this time, Magok was considered the outskirts of Seoul, and there were concerns about unsold units.

Woo-jin shook his head at the irony of feeling a reverse sense of time.

‘Once the Magok New City is completed and the convention center comes in right after… it’s going to be quite a sight.’

Magok is not just a residential complex like a typical new town. As the Magok Industrial District, many business facilities, starting with large corporations, will soon be moving in in large quantities. It’s not just a bedroom community, but a complete new town.

Woo-jin felt even better at the thought of designing the convention center that would be a part of it and began to burn with even more determination. After all, if he fails to win the competition, it will only be a fleeting dream.

While Woo-jin was lost in thought, Seok-hyun, who had been wandering around for a while after getting lost, was able to arrive safely at the site. Fortunately, Seok-hyun’s Porsche was still safe.

“I think I’m getting carsick.”

“What?”

“If you want to become a true Porsche owner, you need to practice driving a little more.”

Seok-hyun was slightly offended by Woo-jin’s joke. “Your carsickness isn’t because of my driving skills.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s just your weak mental strength that’s the problem.”

Woo-jin was speechless.

“The stiff suspension and ride quality are the destiny of a sports car for driving feel.”

“Are sudden stops and sudden starts also part of the driving feel of a sports car?”

“Shut up.”

“Anyway, let’s do the survey since we’re here. I just hope we don’t get lost on the way back.”

“We’ll see.”

The place where they parked and got out was a vast, leveled development site. It was a wilderness where even the fences were not properly set up, perhaps because the development plan had not been fully finalized.

Whirr-

With the noisy airplane sound overhead, Woo-jin took out his smartphone and unfolded the map he had saved.

‘The sound is quite loud, probably because the airport is right next door.’

Even within this large site, the convention center will be built on only a part of it. However, because the site of the convention center was so large, it didn’t take long to find it.

“It’s over there,” Seok-hyun said.

“Oh, I thought you get lost easily… You found it okay?”

“No, I didn’t get lost!” But Seok-hyun, who found the first location, had a slightly disappointed expression.

“By the way, if it’s like this, wasn’t it pointless to come all the way here?”

Woo-jin tilted his head. “Why? What do you mean?”

“No, if it was just an empty field like this, I don’t think we needed to come all the way here.”

“Ah?”

“The field survey is to help with the design, right?”

“That’s right.”

“But at this level, it’s no different from looking at an aerial view.”

Woo-jin chuckled. He knew Seok-hyun might think that way. But Woo-jin had expected the approximate scenery before they left, so he wasn’t disappointed at all. Besides, unlike what Seok-hyun said, there was plenty to gain from the field survey.

“Seok-gu.”

“Yeah?”

“A field survey is to collect information about the field, right?”

“Isn’t it?”

“I came out here to see things that I can’t see on maps or photos.”

“For example…?”

Woo-jin thought for a moment. “All the processes of coming here in your car are part of the field survey…”

“Ah?”

Whirr-!

“The airplane noise that you hear once in a while is also something you can never know from photos.”

“That’s true.”

“Well, the design will come out somehow without a survey. And that design may be a good design.”

Seok-hyun waited for Woo-jin’s words instead of answering, and Woo-jin slowly continued to speak. “But if you don’t miss even the small details, you can build architecture that blends in better with the environment and space.”

“That’s a great saying.”

Seok-hyun answered sincerely, and Woo-jin smiled and looked around again. He felt a sense of excitement when he thought that great buildings would be built on this vast site.

Woo-jin began to walk slowly along the edge of the site, and Seok-hyun followed behind him.

‘Still, I’m a little disappointed that the surrounding area is all a construction site. I need to know what the nearby buildings look like to come up with a more suitable design…’

Woo-jin unfolded the map he had prepared and tried to imagine what it would look like. He couldn’t know the exterior design of the nearby buildings yet, but the map showed at least what the purpose of the buildings being built near the convention center was.

If it wasn’t specialized architecture like the convention center that Woo-jin was trying to design now, he could imagine the exterior and purpose to some extent. He tried to visualize the buildings in his head as much as possible and apply them to the site.

‘Still, seeing that about half of the nearby land has been excavated… there won’t be many sites where the convention center construction will be delayed.’

Woo-jin opened the notebook he had brought and diligently drew and wrote down the images that came to mind. He also tried to apply the reference images that he had prepared for the design concept meeting to the space and reviewed the idea sketches he had drawn over the weekend.

Woo-jin forgot that his legs were hurting as he walked around the large space, busily moving his pen. And after this process, an image began to form little by little in Woo-jin’s mind.

‘Okay. Open the main gate towards the relatively open space, and move the parking lot entrances and exits to the outer edge of the block to prepare for traffic.’

Lost in thought about the space layout, Woo-jin was soon drawing a floor plan on his notebook.

And then, at that moment…

Scritch-

From Woo-jin’s notebook, which had only neat rows of thin black lines, a faint golden light began to flow out.