Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 95

Woo-jin sighed and rubbed his tired eyes as he walked to his car after school. Everywhere he went this morning, people had stopped him. In the hallway, classmates shouted, “Hey, Woo-jin from the TV show!” During class, they whispered questions and pointed at him. Even his professors smiled and made jokes about it. It was all because of the TV show, , that had been on last night. Everyone, it seemed, had watched it.

“Ugh,” Woo-jin groaned as he got into the driver’s seat. “I’m already exhausted, and the workday hasn’t even started.”

He knew it was good that so many people were watching his show – more viewers meant more success for WJ Studio. But that didn’t make him feel any less tired.

“Hoo.”

Seeing Woo-jin sigh deeply while holding the steering wheel, So-yeon, who was sitting in the passenger seat, giggled.

“You’ll make the ground sink, Oppa (what So-yeon calls Woo-jin, like ‘older brother’ or ‘friend’).”

“Is this the hardship of celebrities?”

“Celebrity, my foot. Don’t exaggerate.”

“Tch.”

There was a simple reason So-yeon was in the car.

Woo-jin’s office was practically right next to So-yeon’s house.

So, So-yeon was hitching a ride with Woo-jin on his way to work.

Thanks to this, So-yeon’s dismissal time was much earlier than in the first semester.

And in the back seat of Woo-jin’s car sat a noisy Englishman, who was grumbling as if he had a lot of complaints.

“I think Woo-jin has caught the celebrity bug, So-yeon.”

“I guess so.”

“Why did those stupid KBC people scout Woo-jin instead of this Jaden, I wonder?”

The reason he was probably unhappy was that all the attention from everyone at school was focused solely on Woo-jin.

“Jaden, why are you even in my car?”

“Because I’m number three at WJ Studio.”

“Who are number one and two?”

“Woo-jin, Seok-hyun. I’m right after them.”

“What about Jin-tae hyung (what Jaden calls Jin-tae, like ‘older brother’ or ‘respected older friend’)?”

“Oh, Shit! I think I miscounted.”

“I should tell Jin-tae hyung.”

“Don’t do that, Woo-jin. Would you be so disloyal?”

Jaden’s house was far away, but for some reason, he always tried to get a ride in Woo-jin’s car whenever it was dismissal time.

Even though he wasn’t really working part-time at WJ Studio after the start of the semester, Jaden still came all the way to Seongsu-dong, where Woo-jin worked.

Once, Woo-jin had asked him if he wasn’t annoyed by clocking in at WJ Studio every day.

Jaden had replied like this back then.

“[WJ Studio can’t function without this Jaden.]”

“[So, do you understand now? How kind this Jaden is.]”

Woo-jin, suddenly recalling Jaden’s answer, couldn’t help but sigh deeply again while driving.

If nonsense was this creative, it should be recognized as some kind of art.

Screeeech!

Arriving in Seongsu-dong, Woo-jin stopped briefly on the main street near So-yeon’s house before heading to the office building.

“So-yeon, you’re getting off here, right?”

But for some reason, So-yeon shook her head.

“No, I want to go to the office today for the first time in a while.”

“Really? What for?”

“Just because. I have something to do.”

“Hmm…?”

Woo-jin was a little puzzled, but he nodded and headed back to the office.

He figured she was going to say hello since she knew a lot of people at the office now.

‘Everyone’s busy anyway, so they probably won’t even properly acknowledge her greeting…’

So, Woo-jin parked the car in the office parking lot and went up to the 14th floor with So-yeon and Jaden.

WJ Studio had never been idle since its establishment.

Since the CEO, Woo-jin, was constantly bringing in work, it was impossible to be idle.

But even so, these days were so busy that they couldn’t even be compared to the past.

The employees in the construction part, where work had been pouring in recently, were even busier than the model part, which had somewhat stabilized.

“Oh, Jin-tae hyung! Did the meeting go well?”

Jin-tae, who discovered the two burdens(?) trailing behind Woo-jin, chuckled and greeted them.

“Yo, Jaden! So-yeon’s here too?”

“Yo Bro! You were waiting for this Jaden today too?”

“Hello, Oppa. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Jaden, you came on Friday too, why are you here again today?”

“If this Jaden isn’t here, Jin-tae hyung will be sad.”

“I told you to take your nonsense to the moon, didn’t I?”

“Damn it. Jin-tae hyung doesn’t know Jaden’s value.”

As Jin-tae’s scolding(?) began, Jaden subtly averted his gaze and pretended not to notice.

Jin-tae was Jaden’s only natural enemy at WJ Studio.

Woo-jin, watching the scene with a smile, hung his coat on the hanger and opened his mouth towards Jin-tae.

“Then, hyung, let me catch my breath, and shall we start our meeting?”

“Everyone’s already prepared. I’ll set up the conference room, so come over there in 5 minutes.”

“Okay!”

After Woo-jin asked him, Jin-tae immediately went to the conference room and began preparing the meeting materials.

And Jaden and So-yeon also left Woo-jin’s office together, as if they had made a promise.

“Are you guys going to the model part?”

So-yeon answered first to Woo-jin’s question.

“No, we’re not going.”

Woo-jin looked puzzled.

“You’re not going? Then what are you going to do here?”

Woo-jin’s question was natural.

Since all the employees of the construction part would be away from their desks in 5 minutes for the meeting.

He couldn’t understand what the two of them were planning to do in the empty office while everyone was in the meeting.

But Jaden and So-yeon nodded as if it were obvious.

And then, as if they were really settling in, they even took out their laptops and connected the power cords.

The place where the two of them set up was the bar table in the empty lobby.

Only then could Woo-jin realize.

So-yeon and Jaden, who were taking the same general education class, had decided to use the lobby of WJ Studio as a luxurious group project location.

“What, did you guys come here to do your homework?”

To Woo-jin’s question, Jaden nodded with a very confident expression.

“This Jaden is specially using this empty lobby that no one else uses.”

“……”

“That’s right, Oppa. It’s a waste if this expensively done interior is always empty, isn’t it?”

Woo-jin, lost for words, shook his head and rummaged through the documents on the table.

When he thought about it, this quiet and pleasant lobby was a more comfortable place to do homework than most cafes or business rooms.

Judging by the way they were spreading all their stuff out in the lobby, it seemed like the two of them would be here until the meeting was over.

Woo-jin chuckled at their appearance and passed by them with the meeting documents in his hands.

“Alright. Well, it’s not like using it won’t damage it… Let’s have dinner together tonight.”

Jaden’s face lit up as he asked back.

“Woo-jin, it’s the company card, of course, right?”

“That’s right. It’s the company card. Everyone except you is planning to eat together.”

“Holly shit!”

Jaden grumbled from behind, but Woo-jin didn’t pay attention and headed to the conference room.

In Woo-jin’s hands as he entered the conference room were printed blueprints.

“Wow, our conference room is quite crowded now.”

Woo-jin, having confirmed the presence of about ten people sitting in the conference room, sat down in his seat with a proud expression.

Then Jin-tae, who was next to Woo-jin, smiled and said.

“From next month, there will probably be about five more people, CEO.”

“Were they good people who were selected?”

“Yes. Everyone is motivated, and their experience is good… There are also two new recruits, and they seem to be really good people who were selected.”

Woo-jin and Jin-tae, who had been talking comfortably until just now, spoke to each other in formal language.

Nevertheless, the conversation between the two was very natural.

Of course, it wasn’t natural from the beginning.

When Jin-tae first called him CEO, saying that he had to use formal language in front of the employees, Woo-jin was also very awkward.

But looking back, from a long-term perspective of growing the company.

Woo-jin had recently been feeling that Jin-tae’s story was right.

Whatever Woo-jin’s actual mental age was, it was an undeniable fact that he was twenty-two years old now.

In this situation, if Jin-tae treated Woo-jin comfortably during work, the employees would also unconsciously become aware of the fact that Woo-jin was young.

But thanks to Jin-tae, who always treated him with respect when there were employees present, none of the employees at WJ Studio thought that Woo-jin was young.

Woo-jin was just a capable CEO to the employees of WJ Studio.

Woo-jin asked, “Everyone knows what we will talk about today, right?”

“Yes, CEO!” someone said.

“Of course!” said another.

Everyone looked at Woo-jin with bright eyes. Woo-jin gave the employees the designs he had brought.

The blueprints were, of course, all the same, and in the corner, the project name was specified.

And as the meeting began, Woo-jin’s eyes became sharper than ever.

It was to the point where he felt like a completely different person from when he was joking around with So-yeon or Jaden.

“As I mentioned at the meeting last week… The design we have to propose this time must be, in a word, the perfect luxury.”

The project that Woo-jin considered the most important at this point.

And if they could succeed.

A huge project that could take WJ Studio’s design and construction parts to the next level.

What would be discussed at today’s WJ Studio meeting was the design of the Cheongdam Seonyoung Apartment, which would be reconstructed.

Woo-jin stared at Jin-tae and opened his mouth again.

“Kim Manager.”

“Yes, CEO.”

“When thinking about the luxury of an apartment, what do you think is the most important thing to consider?”

At Woo-jin’s words, Jin-tae paused for a moment, and the other employees also began to ponder.

But Woo-jin wasn’t expecting a truly perfect answer from them.

Because the employees of WJ Studio’s construction part were still made up of personnel specialized in on-site work.

Therefore, they had no choice but to rely almost entirely on Woo-jin’s directing for the design and direction.

That was no different for Jin-tae than for the other employees.

So, before Jin-tae’s answer came out, Woo-jin’s words continued first.

“Of course, there are countless keywords that fall into the category of luxury.”

“There are more than one or two factors to consider for the luxury of housing.”

“But I think the two words that can encompass most of them are ‘consideration’ and ‘showiness’.”

While Woo-jin’s words continued, the conference room was as quiet as a mouse.

They needed to think about the contents of his words, and they were also curious about what he would say next.

Woo-jin paused for a moment and looked at the employees’ expressions.

Some employees had expressions that they understood what Woo-jin was trying to say to some extent, while others scratched the back of their heads with difficult expressions.

Woo-jin’s words continued again.

“First, shall we talk about the keyword ‘consideration’?”

“This is something I mentioned before during the construction of the Clio brand promotion hall…”

Woo-jin took a sip of the orange juice on the table.

“Luxury. So, ‘premiumization’ is ultimately about making the user feel like a special person.”

“And designs that contain excessive considerations to the point where you wonder, ‘Even this?’ can make users feel like special people.”

The atmosphere in the conference room began to heat up more and more.