Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 284

The morning light started to fill the room as the blinds whirred upwards.

Sunlight streamed through the window bars, painting stripes of light across the modern, grey carpet of Woo-jin’s office. He sat by the window, the city of Seoul stretching out below him, a sprawling green space of Seoul Forest visible in the distance. Steam curled from his mug as he took a slow sip of warm coffee, the rich aroma briefly filling the air.

It looked like any other morning at WJ Tower, the CEO’s office quiet and calm. But Woo-jin felt the weight of the night before pressing down on him. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, a clear sign that sleep had been a distant friend. He was truly exhausted.

“Hoo. At least the coffee is waking me up a bit,” Woo-jin thought.

Usually, he would have happily come to work and enjoyed his morning coffee, but today was different. He hadn’t actually left the office.

He simply hadn’t gone home.

“Whew,” Woo-jin sighed.

Woo-jin, sipping his coffee by the window overlooking the sprawling Seoul Forest, glanced back at the monitor.

And at that very moment…

Ding-

A small message appeared on Woo-jin’s monitor.

[Sent.]

The file just sent from Woo-jin’s computer was the design competition file for the project, completed overnight.

The night felt strange to Woo-jin. It felt both very long and very short because so much had happened.

So much had happened overnight, but in the end, all the designs were finalized and sent before the competition deadline.

Woo-jin’s expression was quite complex as he checked the message.

Usually, finishing a big project would make Woo-jin feel happy and relieved. But not this time. He felt different.

‘Did I do the right thing?’ Woo-jin wondered.

At this moment, among the WJ Studio employees who participated in this project, Woo-jin was probably the only one feeling troubled.

The Golden Print was Woo-jin’s homework alone.

Of course, the homework was finished in one way or another, and there was nothing more Woo-jin could do.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t completely shake off his worries until all the results were in; it was inevitable.

Knock knock-

As Woo-jin was thinking, Jin-tae, who had stayed up all night, knocked on the CEO’s office door and peeked in.

“Boss, you still here? Seriously, you need to get some sleep!” Jin-tae said.

“I’m so tired I might fall asleep at the wheel, gotta grab a taxi.”

“Oh, I’m about to leave. Are you heading home now, Hyung?” Woo-jin asked.

“Yeah, I’m dead tired,” Jin-tae replied.

“I feel like I’ll get into an accident if I drive, so I’m taking a taxi.”

“Okay, get home safe,” Woo-jin said.

After Jin-tae left for home, Woo-jin turned off his computer and tidied up his desk to leave as well.

But the thought of going home made his eyelids feel heavy again.

‘Thank goodness it’s the weekend tomorrow…’ Woo-jin thought.

Click-

“Good morning, Manager. I’m finally heading out. Thanks for everything,” Woo-jin said.

“[Yes, thank you for your hard work, CEO. Have a good weekend,]” the manager replied.

“Then please take care of things today,” Woo-jin said.

Woo-jin picked up the phone and called the secretary’s office before heading to the elevator to go home.

Ding-!

As the elevator descended, a word Min-sun had said to him at dawn echoed in his mind as he closed his eyes.

[There’s no such thing as a perfect design, CEO.]

[There’s only the best possible design.]

Min-sun’s words to Woo-jin, who was struggling between ‘design perfection’ and ‘functional convenience’, made Woo-jin feel a little lighter.

The days after sending in the design went by quickly.

More than a month had flown by.

But not much had changed during that time.

As the competition was so large in scale, the results had not yet been announced, even as July was coming to an end.

The schedule was a little more delayed than originally planned, but Woo-jin decided not to get impatient.

He had done his best, so he would just wait for the results.

In fact, he didn’t even have the mental space to anxiously await the competition results.

WJ Studio, which had grown to the level of a decent mid-sized company, had many other things to deal with besides the Magok project.

Monday, the third week of July.

Today, Woo-jin was meeting a welcome person for lunch after a long time.

Creak-

“CEO Seo! Over here, over here!” Im Soo-ha called out.

“Oh, Noona!” Woo-jin replied.

“Wow, why does it feel like it’s been so long?” Soo-ha asked.

“Well, it really has been a long time,” Woo-jin said.

“Really? When was the last time we saw each other?”

“At the Millennium Love after-party?”

“Oh? Is that really the first time since then?”

“It’s really the first time since then.”

“Heh, I’ve been a bit out of touch.”

“Yeah, stop pretending to be so busy, Noona. Or, it’s not pretending, are you really busy?”

“What, how busy could I be compared to CEO Seo? Hee hee.”

The two, who had become so close that they didn’t feel awkward even after a long time, began to chat as soon as they met.

“Well, it’s been a while, but I don’t think I need to ask about Noona’s recent activities,” Woo-jin said.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Soo-ha asked.

“Who doesn’t know about Im Soo-ha these days?”

“Eh. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Hannam-dong Romance is the hottest video content since Millennium Love, isn’t it?”

“Hee hee. The project did pretty well.”

“None of my employees haven’t seen it, really.”

Hannam-dong Romance, the movie that made the actress ‘Im Soo-ha’ a national treasure in Woo-jin’s previous life, with ten million viewers, was released in May and June, when Woo-jin was incredibly busy with the Magok project.

Now in July, it was a huge hit, just as Woo-jin knew it would be.

Of course, there were some differences from Woo-jin’s previous life.

No, looking at the changed future, it was quite different.

‘I was worried that Noona might be harmed because the future changed because of me,’ Woo-jin thought.

In Woo-jin’s memory, Hannam-dong Romance was originally supposed to be released in 2012.

But for some reason, the release schedule kept getting pushed back from the end of the year, and so it was released almost eight months later.

It wasn’t just the release schedule that was delayed.

Two supporting actors who played quite important roles were also played by different actors than Woo-jin remembered.

So Woo-jin was very worried.

Of course, now that worry had turned out to be nothing more than a needless concern.

‘Even if he changed things, some things were still meant to happen,’ Woo-jin thought.

Anyway, behind all that, the reason Woo-jin had come to meet the busy Soo-ha today was not just for personal reasons.

Im Soo-ha was becoming a top-tier actress as Hannam-dong Romance took off.

Today, Woo-jin was here to use this top celebrity connection, Im Soo-ha.

The food was served as the two chatted happily, and their conversation continued as they took spoonfuls.

“By the way, CEO Seo,” Soo-ha said.

“Yeah?” Woo-jin responded.

“You said you had a favor to ask Noona?”

“Ah, I do.”

“What is it? I almost forgot while we were talking about other things.”

“Don’t worry. Even if Noona forgot, I wouldn’t have.”

WJ Studio had two important schedules ahead of them.

One was the competition announcement for the project, which Woo-jin couldn’t control.

The other was the opening of the model house for the brand, a project Woo-jin had been preparing until just before coming here today.

And the project for which Woo-jin was trying to use his celebrity connection, Im Soo-ha, was, of course, the latter.

He was planning to ask Im Soo-ha, who was currently enjoying her best days, to be the promotional model for Arco, WJ Studio’s first own brand to be launched soon.

At this point, bringing in the star Im Soo-ha, who many big companies wanted to work with, as a promotional model was not easy even for Woo-jin.

But connections were not there for nothing.

First of all, Soo-ha herself was one of Woo-jin’s closest friends, and even the CEO of her agency was one of Woo-jin’s closest aides.

“What is it? What difficult favor are you going to ask that you’re being so hesitant?” Soo-ha asked.

“I’m not being hesitant. I have something to show you first to explain,” Woo-jin replied.

“Huh?”

“Here, take a look at this first.”

What Woo-jin handed to Soo-ha was none other than the promotional brochure for .

A thick brochure containing all of Woo-jin’s essence on the design of ‘housing’ architecture, refined and refined over the past year.

This brochure, packaged in luxurious leather like a limited edition hardcover book, was a thick book with as many as 100 pages.

“Wow, what is this? You know I’m allergic to books?” Soo-ha joked.

“Ah, this Noona, really. It’s not that kind of book,” Woo-jin chuckled.

“What is it then?”

“It’s a brochure for a residential brand I’m launching.”

“Residential… brand?”

“You’ll know once you open it, so let’s talk after you read a little.”

Woo-jin handed her the brochure and began to watch Soo-ha’s expression with expectant eyes.

Soo-ha wasn’t the first potential consumer to see this Arco brand brochure, but it was still exciting and nerve-wracking to show it to someone, especially since it was a brand targeting the upper class.

Moreover, he had to propose to Soo-ha to be the promotional model, so he was even more nervous.

“Cheongdam Arco…? Is it an apartment?” Soo-ha asked.

“More like a luxury town house than an apartment?” Woo-jin clarified.

But the tension on Woo-jin’s face quickly dissipated the moment Soo-ha turned the first page.

“Huh…? A town house in Cheongdam-dong? Is that even possible?”

“I was lucky enough to meet a great landowner.”

Soo-ha, her eyes fixed on the bird’s-eye view on the first page, couldn’t turn the page for a long time with a dazed expression.

“Wow… This is crazy. Awesome… Are you saying a house like this is being built in the middle of Gangnam?”

“Hehe, would I lie to you, Noona?” Woo-jin responded.

And after a while, Woo-jin couldn’t help but chuckle at the first words that came out of Soo-ha’s mouth, because those words were exactly what Woo-jin wanted to hear.

“Give me a unit too,” Soo-ha exclaimed.

“It’s more expensive than you think?” Woo-jin teased.

“I probably make more money than you think?” Soo-ha retorted playfully.

“I’m planning to start recruiting customers from now on, so it’s not difficult to give Noona a unit…”

“How much is it?”

“It depends on the size, but the size you’re looking at right now is about 4 billion won?”

“Gasp.”

“The size is in the 70-pyeong range. What do you think, customer?”

Of course, Soo-ha now has the ability to pay for this price range.

But having the ability to pay and being burdened are two different things.

“A friend discount. Is there anything like that?”

“Let’s talk more after you’ve seen more? You’ve only seen one page, one page,” Woo-jin said.

“Ahem. Okay. Don’t scold me.”

Soo-ha, who had become quiet again, began to turn the pages slowly, and Woo-jin watched with shining eyes.