Styling
Styling
"Headphones? I have a few I don't use, want me to give you some?"
"If you're not using them, I'll take them."
Since A-ra was a musician, she had a taste for these things too.
I'd seen her before, sitting on the sofa with headphones plugged into an MP3 player or something, listening to music.
As expected, when I went up to the duplex room full of A-ra's hobby activities,
the walls were covered with headphones hanging everywhere, and the built-in cabinets were full of boxes neatly storing items.
Anyone would think she ran a headphone business.
It looked just like she had a pile of excess stock sitting around at home.
A-ra had said I didn't need to clean the room in the corner on the second floor, so I hadn't really gone in there.
But I never imagined she'd decorated it like this.
"But isn't this a soundproof wall?"
"H... how did you know?"
"Because it seems a bit smaller than the room I first saw."
When I knocked on the wall, I heard a hollow, echoing sound.
Apartment walls are well-finished with concrete, so you don't hear this kind of sound normally.
"Then there must be speakers too."
"Yeah... in the corner over there."
A-ra pointed to four different spots.
I hadn't noticed when I came in, but there were definitely four large speakers positioned there.
This room must be a woman's dream come true.
I couldn't even begin to guess what all this would cost.
"Here, Seong-hwan-a. I have two of these, so I'm not using this one."
"It's a bit heavy..."
A-ra handed me a very fancy box.
The moment I took it, my arm sagged under the weight.
"And this is a matching amplifier. You know what an amp is, right?"
"Something about output, I think."
"With just a 3.5mm phone jack, it can't handle the impedance and power, so the headphones can't deliver 100% of what they're capable of, you know?"
"Ah, I think Hojun said something like that too."
I understood what output meant, but I had no idea what impedance was supposed to mean.
I couldn't even understand whether higher impedance was better or lower... tsk.
Of course, since I had no intention of using anything other than what A-ra gave me, I probably didn't need to know.
I nodded along as A-ra explained, just to be polite.
While nodding, the writing on the box caught my eye.
U... u...
It was written upside down, so I couldn't see it well.
"Utopia?"
"It's the product name, look it up later."
I nodded and slowly walked out with the heavy items.
A-ra said she'd tidy up a bit, play some games, and then come out, so she wouldn't emerge for at least three hours.
Wait, that would be a problem.
Come to think of it, I only knew how to plug an earphone jack into a phone. I knew nothing about any other audio equipment.
"...How do I even use this amp..."
I figured I'd have to look it up online.
And if that didn't work, I'd just have to ask A-ra, I guess....
***
The most leisurely part of my day.
It was the time I spent after school, sitting in the agency's cafe, drinking coffee and passing the time.
Today, since A-ra said she'd finish early, I had come to go back together.
She'd said she came in a hurry and didn't bring the car.
"Haah... It's a bit hot."
Even though it was April spring, the cafe still had the heater on full blast, making the air feel really stuffy.
Wouldn't it be better to turn off the heater and open the doors wide around this time of year?
Well, if opening doors is hard because of the fine dust from China, at least they could run an air purifier.
"Oh? Seong-hwan-ssi?"
"Hello... Director..."
When the Director spotted me sitting in front of the cafe's wide-open entrance, she smiled brightly and walked over.
She looked like she was in a very good mood, like a little kid who'd just gotten her hands on something she wanted, which was a little cute.
"Why is Seong-hwan-ssi so slumped over like that?"
"The air is a bit stuffy. But you, Director, seem to be in a very good mood."
"Hehe, do I look like that?"
Plunking herself down in a seat, the Director took a plastic bottle out of her bag.
Then she opened the lid and chugged it down.
Consuming outside food in the cafe.
The Director and A-ra were probably the only ones who could show this kind of nerve.
"Pwah! Actually, through A-ra, I finally managed to get my hands on a building I wanted!"
"A building? I guess the Director collects buildings too."
"...It's not on the level of A-ra's mindless collecting."
She pouted her lips slightly, insisting that at least she purchased things within reason.
But I could see at a glance that she was pretending to be upset, not really upset.
"Which area did you get it in?"
"You know the Burberry store in Cheongdam-dong?"
"Ah, the building that looks like a honeycomb?"
I remembered that A-ra had once spent over a hundred million won there and then just came out.
Even for a luxury brand store, to think they'd use an entire building in such a prime location in Cheongdam-dong.
Seeing A-ra spend that kind of money so casually, I'd thought she must really earn a lot.
"Right next to it, I luckily managed to secure a whole building."
"Woah... How much does a building go for over there?"
"It's a bit expensive. I purchased it for a little over 30 billion won, estimating around 150 million won per pyeong."
"...The Director is also worlds away from common sense."
Was 30 billion won an amount that could be neatly summarized as 'a bit expensive'?
Actually, since the Director was born into a chaebol family, that made some sense. But considering my wife grew up in an ordinary middle-class household, she was definitely different when it came to market economics...
Probably, the person who made our A-ra like this was the Director.
This was all her fault.
"Wh... why are you looking at me like that?"
"Director. You wrecked our noona's economic sense, didn't you?"
"Hehe..."
The Director just laughed 'hehe,' with nothing else to say, and opened her bottle and chugged her drink again.
She must have been quite thirsty after receiving that sudden attack.
"I... I was thinking of going to take a look at it now, would Seong-hwan-ssi like to come along?"
"I'm waiting for A-ra Noona."
"A-ra is coming too."
"Then I'll come along."
I didn't know about anything else, but if A-ra was going, I had to go too.
I jumped up from my seat, shoved the coat that was hanging on the chair into my bag, and shouldered it.
The Director burst out laughing seeing that, but I wasn't sure why she laughed.
*
"Noona, but why are we going to see the building?"
"I originally had my eye on that place. But I felt bad for the Director unnie, so I just handed it over to her."
"Ah-ha..."
To put it simply, she meant she'd just take a look around out of lingering attachment and then let it go.
But she had been trying to buy that building...
35 billion won was way too expensive though.
"O...of course, if I'd really been thinking of buying it, I would've consulted you."
"Sure, sure, that's our A-ra Noona for you."
"Hehe."
When I stroked her head, she laughed happily and leaned into me slightly.
While driving, the Director looked at us in the back seat through the rearview mirror and smiled bitterly.
"No matter what... I am the Director though..."
"Unnie?"
"Ah... it's nothing..."
It seemed the Director was planning to launch a cosmetics company.
This time, she said she wasn't doing it independently but was bringing in the name of her family's chaebol company...
Wasn't that basically guaranteeing it would sell well?
"And I also went through a lot of trouble to bring in coordinators for the overseas luxury cosmetics."
"Coordinators?"
"They're the people who create the combinations for customizing which cosmetics to mix and how, or customizing the scent of perfumes."
"Woah... so cosmetics aren't just mass-produced in a factory, I see."
I had simply thought they mixed the contents together to make them.
Apparently, before mass production in a factory, individuals do all sorts of mixing to produce a satisfactory product.
Now that I thought about it, among the movies I'd seen before, there was one set in the Roman era or somewhere, where fragrance blending was the main story.
I remembered it ended on a slightly scary note, where they made perfume out of a person.
"So that's why you got the Cheongdam-dong building?"
"Yes, that's planned to be the main retail shop. I'm planning to set up the company right next to the Gangnam agency."
The Director's other business venture...
To be honest, I was actually a little worried.
What would happen if she ran that business into the ground and the agency started to falter!
As expected, I was worried.
If there was anything I could help with, I had to help.
"Director, maybe a promotional mo..."
"You're saying Seong-hwan-ssi will be our promotional model!? Then I'm so grateful!!"
"No, I hadn't finished saying..."
She'd snatched my words and turned them into a done deal, this person.
When I looked at A-ra, I saw a somewhat grateful look in her eyes.
So my wife had been worried too...
Well, she would be worried if a woman who knew nothing about cosmetics suddenly started a cosmetics business.
Especially since she was such a close unnie to her.
"But you'll take care of the advertising fee, right?"
"Of course! With our Seong-hwan-ssi, there's nothing to be afraid of!"
"No, be a little afraid. It's a business."
I ended up laughing bitterly.
It was because I found it a little funny that the Director thought she could always succeed in business as long as she had me and A-ra.
Well, Hojun's business was also prospering...
So in a way, you could say it was proven...
"Unnie, are you going to give me a stake?"
"No way! The cosmetics company is under my family's name, you know?"
"Tsk..."
A-ra, who already had more money coming in every week than she could spend in a lifetime, apparently wanted a stake in the cosmetics company.
Even though she was the majority shareholder owning all the stock in the Director's agency...
"Then I'll just ask the Chairwoman."
"Mo... Mom?"
It seemed our A-ra personally knew the chaebol chairwoman.
...Now that I thought about it, back when I'd just debuted, there was that time I was invited to dinner, right.