Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 35

This building was in a part of the city known for being very rich. Even in this wealthy area, this street was known as the most expensive and fancy.

“Alright, materials coming in!”

“We need to start construction on the third-floor consultation hall first, so please load all the set items into the freight elevator.”

“Compressor! Get the compressor up here too!”

The sounds of metal hitting metal echoed through the air – CLANG! BANG!

Chunwoong Construction’s Cheongdam promotion hall was located about a 5 to 6-minute walk from Cheongdam Station.

Also, it was in a fancy area with nice houses, next to a park. This made it a perfect place to show off expensive things.

It was a luxurious and tranquil location where even the noise from the main street was hardly audible.

However, this neighborhood, which had always been quiet, had recently become noisy.

“We’ll have all the third-floor framework painted by the end of today.”

“The ‘electrical team’ will be coming in soon! Hurry up and nail in all the studs before they get here!”

This building was last used to show off fancy apartments in Seongsu-dong. That was a few months ago. Now, the Cheongdam promotion hall was being changed again, for the first time in a while.

“Foreman, it seems we can’t catch a break.”

“You’re telling me. How did they know we were coming in now?”

Kim Kwan-hong, who was carrying his equipment into the construction site, was a veteran electrician with over 10 years of experience.

In carpentry, he was as skilled as a foreman, like a man named Kim Jin-tae.

However, unlike carpentry, where quite a few people moved as a team, electrical teams were often deployed as small, elite groups.

Due to the nature of electrical work, having many people involved didn’t particularly help with efficient construction.

Therefore, the number of people who came to the promotion hall for electrical work was only three, including the foreman, Kim Kwan-hong.

“By the way, this construction is quite a bit larger than expected, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I thought there wouldn’t be much electrical work for a promotion hall interior… but they’ve torn down all the interior walls, haven’t they?”

Usually, a construction company’s promotion hall is almost always used as a model house for newly built complexes.

Therefore, even if the interior is changed, there weren’t actually many large-scale constructions.

Since the purpose was the same from the beginning, the structure wouldn’t change, which meant that the finishing material work was almost everything.

So, Kim Kwan-hong, who came to the Cheongdam site today, had taken a stroll with a very light heart.

He was planning to finish all the necessary electrical work neatly within half a day, leave work early, and have a drink of soju.

Since Kim Kwan-hong usually finished most day jobs within half a day, it wasn’t such an unrealistic plan.

At least, Kwan-hong had thought so until he saw the actual site with his own two eyes.

‘Ugh. If I’m not careful, I’ll have to be stuck here all day today?’

Kim Kwan-hong shook his head without even thinking. *Oh no,* he thought, *this is going to take all day.*

Usually, when walls were erected, the electricity had to go in with them.

As a veteran technician, Kim Kwan-hong could get an estimate just by looking at the roughly structured framework.

“Hey, I think we’ve gotten ourselves into something.”

At Kim Kwan-hong’s words, his assistant, Park Kyung-pil, nodded with a gloomy look.

“I know, Foreman. At this rate, it seems tougher than most officetels……”

“Ugh.”

However, even if the site was tough, they couldn’t just cancel a contract that had already been signed.

Kim Kwan-hong could only quietly pray that the carpentry foreman who would be in charge of this site today was a skilled person.

‘I hope it’s not some frustrating old-timer who has only accumulated years without any skill…….’

Electrical work always comes after carpentry. Even if the electricians are fast, they can’t put wires in until the walls are built.

So, no matter how quickly and well Kim Kwan-hong did his job, if the carpentry team’s skills were poor.

He would have to plop down on the construction floor with his tools in hand, spending meaningless time.

And that kind of situation, where his hands were idle but he couldn’t leave work, was the type of workplace that Kim Kwan-hong hated the most.

“Ah, Foreman, you’re here!”

A young man who had spotted Kwan-hong upon arriving on the third floor approached him with a bright smile and greeted him.

Kwan-hong knew this young man.

‘Woo-jin. Was it Seo Woo-jin?’

This was the very young man who had come to him directly to give him the job, the representative of WJ Studio.

And no matter how young the other person looked, he was his employer and the representative of a company, so Kwan-hong politely greeted him back with respect.

Of course, he hadn’t even imagined that Woo-jin’s age would be in his early 20s.

Kim Kwan-hong, a little out of breath from carrying his tools, said, “Mr. Seo? Didn’t expect to see you here so early. Ready to get started then?”

“Of course, Foreman. I was just finishing the framework construction and getting ready.”

Kwan-hong didn’t know what role this young man named Woo-jin played on the site as a representative.

He had only received the job, and he hadn’t heard any separate explanations about Woo-jin.

Therefore, in the next moment, he couldn’t help but be quite surprised.

“I believe so. Haha. Then, could you perhaps bring the carpentry foreman over here? I’d like to hear a general briefing before we start work.”

At his request to bring the carpentry foreman, Woo-jin suddenly pointed to himself.

“Why look for him far away?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ll give you the briefing. I’m in charge of overseeing the carpentry work today.”

“……?!”

Kim Kwan-hong’s eyes widened in shock. His calm face suddenly looked worried.

‘What? He’s not joking, is he?’

He had been worried about working with a꼰대 foreman who was only old and experienced but lacked skill.

But he had never even imagined that a mere stripling would be playing the role of carpentry foreman.

He wasn’t the type to easily have prejudices against any situation or person.

But no matter how he thought about it, this was not it.

‘Hoo. Should I just pack up and leave right now, saying I can’t do the job? How am I supposed to react to this?’

Seeing Kwan-hong, who was flustered and whose earlobes had turned red, Woo-jin could tell roughly what he was thinking.

But Woo-jin ignored it.

After all, in this kind of situation, showing his skills was much more certain and clear than making excuses.

Woo-jin, who had unfolded the detailed design drawing in front of Kwan-hong, skillfully marked it with a red highlighter and began to explain the work.

“We’ll be nailing it out, one by one, from the inside to the outside like this.”

“To work as efficiently as possible, the carpentry team 1 will be passing by adding the panels only on one side.”

Kwanhong pointed to the unfinished ceiling. “So, the other carpenters will put the ceiling panels on after we finish the wires? They’ll close it all up?”

Woojin nodded. “Exactly. We do the wires, they cover it up. Like putting a lid on a box.”

Kwanhong leaned back against a stack of wood, finally feeling a bit calmer. *Okay,* he thought, *maybe this Woojin isn’t completely clueless.*

‘Hmm. So, he’s not a complete dimwit, is he?’

Woojin’s explanation was clear and to the point. He seemed to know how to build things efficiently.

‘Alright. Even if his carpentry skills aren’t perfect, it’s worth trying as long as he doesn’t cause problems.’

Woojin finished explaining the work in about ten minutes. After that, Kwanhong asked a few questions, and then they started the electrical work.

“You need to keep up. I want to finish by five o’clock at the latest so we can all go home,” Woojin said confidently.

Kwanhong was surprised by Woojin’s confidence, but he nodded and replied.

“Please, I hope you can. Electrical work is usually faster than building the wooden frames, right?”

Woojin smiled and answered back playfully.

“Does it seem that way?”

“It must have been someone who didn’t know what they were doing.”

Kwanhong watched Woojin get ready to work, feeling annoyed already.

‘I don’t know why he’s so confident, but… should I try to prove I am better than him today?’

For Kwanhong, ‘proving he is better’ wasn’t a big deal.

It meant working as fast as Woojin and pushing him to work even faster.

He had always beaten his rivals this way when he competed with other foremen, and he thought it would be the same this time.

‘He needs to be shown who is in charge in front of the other carpenters….’

However, once they started working, Kwanhong couldn’t carry out his plan at all.

Or, more accurately, he didn’t get the chance.

“Suntae, just 3 millimeters more to the left!”

“Stop!”

Tap- Tap tap-!

“Okay! We’ll sand it later, next section!”

It was as if Woojin had a super accurate measuring tool in his head; he worked incredibly fast.

‘What? Is he even doing it right?’

Kwanhong and his assistant were working faster than ever, but they couldn’t keep up with Woojin’s speed.

Even more surprising was that the walls and structures looked very neat and precise.

‘Crazy. Was he born with carpentry skills…!’

But Kwanhong, who was proud, wasn’t scared by Woojin’s skills.

Instead, he tried hard to keep up with Woojin, wanting to show off his own skills.

Creak- Clang-!

“Hey, Kyungpil! Let’s do it all at once!”

“No, foreman, you’re going too fast….”

“Just do it! Can’t you see we need to hurry?”

“Aargh, this is intense!”

Because of this strange situation, the electrical work at the building went very quickly.

They finished the electrical work on more than twenty walls and the ceiling work for many LED lights in just one afternoon.

This was work that would normally take more than two days.

“Huff, huff. It’s done, foreman!”

“Whew, we didn’t miss anything, right?”

“I don’t think so.”

Kwanhong wiped the sweat from his face and looked around, feeling surprised.

He had been working so hard to keep up that he didn’t realize how much they had done.

‘Wait. This is actually the work for tomorrow….’

Kwanhong looked at the clock on the wall.

[17:25]

There were still about 30 minutes until 6 p.m., but he felt like something was unfair.

‘If I was being paid for each job… I could have left an hour ago, right?’

He felt like he had been tricked by Woojin and his work had been used.

‘Damn it!’

But even so, Kwanhong didn’t dislike Woojin, who was smiling and greeting him politely.

“You worked hard today, foreman.”

“Representative Seo, you too.”

Of course, disliking and ‘resenting’ were a little different.

“You’ve done enough work, so even though there’s still some time left, you can leave early.”

“Great. I was going to leave anyway.”

“Please help us out tomorrow too.”

“I don’t plan on doing more than I need to, like today.”

“Hahaha.”

Woojin knew what Kwanhong meant and laughed, and Kwanhong shook his head and laughed too.

“Anyway, see you tomorrow. If you keep working this fast, we can finish the electrical work two days early.”

Woojin smiled and replied to Kwanhong’s comment.

“Don’t be too upset, foreman.”

“How can I not be upset when I am upset?”

“Even if we finish early, I’ll pay you the full daily wage, so please work as fast as you can, like today.”

Kwanhong’s eyes widened at Woojin’s words.

He had often finished work quickly and been paid for each job, but he had never been paid the same amount even when the work was done faster.

“……?! Is that really true?”

“Why would I lie about that?”

Woojin, remembering Kyungwan’s kindness, knew how much this would motivate the workers.

And Kim Kwanhong was just a normal worker.

“Al, alright! If that’s true… we should finish it three days early, not just two!”

Woojin felt even better at Kwanhong’s reaction and quickly cleaned up the site.

“Everyone, let’s stop here for today! You’ve all worked hard.”

“Thank you, Representative!”

“See you tomorrow!”

And the construction site of WJ Studio, just like this day, began to move smoothly towards completion day by day.