Juju Daily (Part 2)

"We work in the same industry, after all," I said smoothly. "Word gets around."

"No, but even within our company, this was kept under the strictest... whew... never mind."

Juho opened his mouth to press further, only to swallow his words and shake his head. It was only natural. Whatever Juju Daily was preparing behind closed doors, they had surely been treating it as a top-secret project. The only reason I knew about it was because of my regression, but even without that, it wouldn't have remained a secret for long.

"It was the Tasting Service, wasn't it?" I asked.

"Wait... how on earth...?"

The moment I named the exact initiative, Juho stared at me as if I had sprouted a second head.

Juju Daily's Tasting Service was an ambitious curated subscription model. Subscribers paid a flat monthly fee to receive miniature sample bottles of three standout artisanal spirits selected by experts. In my previous life, this very service had been the crown jewel that cemented Juju Daily's undisputed reign as the number-one liquor platform in the country. Yet its beginnings had been anything but smooth sailing.

"No matter how tightly you seal a vessel," I remarked quietly, "water always finds a way to leak."

That had been the real tragedy. In the past, someone inside Juju Daily had leaked the operational framework to a rival company. Juju Daily had been robbed of its first-mover advantage, and Juho had later recounted how a cascade of misfortunes had traced back to that single traitor. Juho was a man of decisive action; a hint this clear would be more than enough for him to root out the rot before disaster struck.

"Water always finds a way to leak, you say..." Juho murmured, letting out a dry chuckle. "Haha... Good heavens. It seems I owe you a tremendous debt today, Master Song."

"I only heard rumors through the grapevine, so I apologize for not having specifics to share."

"Not at all. You've done me an immense favor. Well, that matter aside, allow me to explain the proposal itself."

Juho launched into a breakdown of the Tasting Service. Even though I already knew every detail, I listened with polite attentiveness.

"For now, we're launching a pilot program focused exclusively on traditional Korean spirits, though we plan to broaden our catalog over time. I believe this presents an exceptional opportunity for Songhadang."

"So you'd like to feature Meari in this tasting service?"

"Precisely. To be frank, before coming here today, I shared a bottle of Meari with my staff. They practically shoved me out the door, demanding I secure a contract by any means necessary. Hahaha!"

Unlike me, Sejun hadn't been able to follow the conversation and had merely been blinking in mute confusion. When he nudged my elbow and whispered to ask what was going on, I gave him a quick rundown.

His eyes went wide. "Wait, that's incredible! We have to sign right now!"

"Haha! Then please, sign right here."

I reviewed the paperwork thoroughly just to be certain, but nearly every clause leaned heavily in our favor. With a light heart, I penned my signature. Juho carefully tucked the documents into his briefcase and rose to his feet.

"I'll return soon to inspect your inventory. You'll be able to meet the order volume, correct?"

"We'll make it work no matter what," I replied. "An opportunity like this doesn't come twice."

"I appreciate you saying so. Well then, I'll take my leave."

"Ah, hold on a moment..."

Sejun caught Juho before he could reach the door, presenting him with a neatly wrapped package. A quick glance inside revealed a single bottle of Meari.

"You came all this way out to Yeongwol, and it felt wrong to send you home empty-handed," Sejun said with a grin. "We wanted to pour you a drink properly, but since you drove, this is the least we can do."

"Oh, my... Now that's a temptation I'll have to endure until I get home. Haha! Thank you, I'll savor every drop."

Amid warm laughter and mutual goodwill, our contract was officially forged. It was another solid step forward.

As we waved goodbye to Juho's sedan humming down the gravel path, Sejun turned to me, arms crossed.

"Did you see this coming all along?"

"More or less."

"Man... Here I thought you were just a stubborn artisan, but look at you—you're a bona fide businessman."

"You think so?"

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In my past life, hearing that would have stung. Back when my heart had been consumed by a rigid obsession with honoring my grandfather's legacy, being called a 'businessman' sounded like an accusation of caring only for money. But that had been nothing more than my own stubborn pride talking.

"You can be an artisan and a businessman at the same time," I said.

"Fair point. After all, you're the one who brewed Meari. In any case, now that things have gotten this big, we're going to have our hands full."

"Right. We need to expand our facilities immediately. I'll contact our onggi potter right away, and we have to break ground on a storage warehouse too."

There was a mountain of work ahead of us.

"Oh, and we really need to hire someone now," Sejun added, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Honestly, physical labor is my forte. Design and marketing give me a massive headache."

It was true. Neither Sejun nor I had an artistic bone in our bodies. Sejun had taken on the design responsibilities simply because he was marginally better at it than I was, but the burden had clearly been weighing on him.

"You're right. Let's do that," I agreed. "I'll put up a job posting today."

With our workload expanding by the day, an extra pair of hands was no longer a luxury—it was a necessity.

"Woooow. Look at that. Dogs can use smartphones now?"

Staring at the screen with hollow, bloodshot eyes, Yoo Hajeong spat out a vicious scoff.

"Damn it all. Calling it an email when it's just another excuse to run us into the ground..."

She peeled off her glasses, tossed them onto the cluttered desk, and kneaded her throbbing eyelids with two exhausted fingers. Higher-ups were all cut from the exact same cloth.

'Don't you have something that's... modern yet classic? But also daring and bold?'

'It has zero personality! I said I wanted mainstream appeal, not something utterly bland!'

'Design? Can't you just slap something together in ten minutes?'

'Ah, great work on this, but for Revision Seventeen... let's just go back to the original draft from day one, okay?'

"Ugh. I wish they'd all just drop dead..."

Such was the glamorous existence of a designer at an outsourced subcontractor. Working for clients who had no clue what they actually wanted, spending grueling hours drawing things she had zero passion for just to scrape together enough money to eat. She wanted to throw her resignation in their faces a hundred times a day, but rent was due every month whether she liked it or not.

Still, she considered herself fortunate in one small regard: even amid this suffocating stress, she possessed a sanctuary.

"Hah... I need a drink..."

Ignoring the unread work email entirely, Hajeong idly tapped her phone. Beside her desk stood a large wardrobe—except instead of coats and dresses, its shelves were packed corner to corner with bottles of liquor. It was the quintessential liquor cabinet of a die-hard enthusiast.

"Whew... Do I just open an old favorite again? I really want something new, though..."

Right on cue, her phone chimed with a crisp notification tone.

Her Juju Daily Tasting Subscription Box had just been delivered to her front door.

"Oh! Time to see if it's worth the hype."

Hajeong had been thoroughly enchanted by Juju Daily's newly minted tasting service. Financial pundits on the news had squawked that sending out miniature sample bottles would never be profitable, but as a paying consumer, she couldn't care less about corporate margins.

"As long as they recommend good booze, who cares?"

Lately, blind purchases had felt far too risky. She craved artisanal spirits, but for an ordinary salarywoman, dropping forty or fifty thousand won on a gamble was a painful hit to the wallet.

"Small sample sizes are a godsend," she muttered.

Juju Daily's model delivered modest, curated quantities of three different spirits right to her doorstep. Because it was a flat monthly subscription, it never felt like an extra expense, and being able to test-drive bottles before committing to a full purchase made it an absolute dream for an adventurous palate.

Humming a cheerful tune, she cracked open her front door and carried the parcel inside.

"Ooh, nice packaging."

The sleek box was branded in Juju Daily's signature vibrant orange. Inside, nestled securely in molded cardboard, were three miniature bottles alongside an informative tasting brochure. Hajeong unfolded the booklet first.

"Let's see what we've got... Had this one before... tried that one already, too..."

The platform's algorithm was designed to cross-reference customer purchase history to avoid sending duplicates, but an avid drinker like Hajeong rarely bought alcohol from a single source. As a result, two of the bottles were familiar territory. Only one was a complete stranger.

"Wait... What is this? I've never seen this before."

It was an obscure spirit from a brewery she had never heard of, but that only stoked her excitement.

"Where did I put my glass?!"

A spirit she had never tasted was the greatest treasure of all. Giddy with anticipation, she retrieved a crystal tasting glass and picked up the bottle. The pale, luminous liquor sloshed gently behind a label bearing an ink-wash landscape of rugged mountain peaks.

"The label design leaves a lot to be desired, though. Ugh, damn occupational hazard."

An average consumer would have glanced past it without a thought, but to her trained eye, the amateurish brushwork and clumsy typography stuck out like a sore thumb. Still, knowing full well how hypercritical her day job made her, she brushed the thought aside and focused on the drink.

"Let's see if you taste as good as the brochure promises."

The moment she broke the seal, a breathtaking symphony of pine needles and damp mountain forest surged into the room. It was an aroma so clean and serene that it instantly quieted the noise in her head. Spellbound, she tipped the bottle, watching the pale liquor tumble gracefully into the glass.

She raised it to her lips and took a sip.

"Gasp!"

The sound escaped her lips before she could stop it. The fragrance alone had signaled a remarkable drink, conjuring images of strolling down a forgotten forest path, but the first drop on her tongue obliterated every expectation. As if it had been waiting for this exact moment, Meari whispered its secrets across her palate.

"My tasting journal... where is it?!"

Hajeong scrambled across the room, knocking aside loose papers to snatch her leather-bound journal. Like many serious connoisseurs, she maintained a personal log of everything she drank—a cherished diary already half-filled with meticulous notes. Yet with her fountain pen poised over the pristine page, her hand froze.

She couldn't write a single word. How could mere text do this justice?

"Wild greens... pine... wood..."

No. Slapping ordinary adjectives onto this was an insult. How could vocabulary capture the fragrance of dewy clover crushed underfoot? What combination of letters could convey the sensation of that brisk liquor rolling across the tongue, blossoming like an ancient evergreen vaulting toward an autumn sky? What words could describe that gentle, comforting earthiness rising like damp soil after a morning rain?

"What on earth... is this...?"

By the time her glass stood empty, she hadn't jotted down a single syllable. Putting the sensation into prose was impossible. Instead, almost involuntarily, her pen began to glide across ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the paper in swift, sweeping strokes.

She began to draw. But even the drawing fell short—the liquor had tasted so divine that her throat had opened up and swallowed the entire pour before inspiration could fully take root. In her mind's eye, the misty peaks began to dissolve.

"No! Wait!"

In a blind panic, Hajeong tipped the bottle to refill her glass. Once more, the brisk chill awakened her senses, and the pen raced across the page with feverish intensity. Ink scratched against parchment, mapping out craggy soil, reaching boughs, and sweeping carpets of pine needles. Crisp alpine air. A murmuring mountain brook.

A mountain was blooming on the paper. The exact mountain she had beheld in her vision.

And then—

"Ah! No, no, no!"

The glass emptied. The bottle was dry.

"Not yet! I haven't finished the sketch!"

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Desperate, she held the miniature bottle upside down and shook it violently, but only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠two pathetic droplets fell against the rim of her glass. It was only a sample vial, after all; expecting it to last like a full five-hundred-milliliter bottle was madness. But her drawing wasn't done. Just a few more strokes and the vision would be complete, yet without the spirit on her tongue, the majestic mountain slipped through her fingers like smoke.

"Ugh... just a little more... Wait. Ah!"

Staring in despair at the empty glass, a sudden realization struck her like a bolt of lightning. Meari had arrived via Juju Daily's subscription box.

Which meant...

"They must be selling the full bottles on the app!"

Her thumbs blurred across her phone, launching the Juju Daily application. She opened the search bar to look for Meari—only to realize she didn't even have to type.

Plastered proudly across the app's prominent top banner was a high-resolution photograph of the bottle.

"Thank god!"

Heaving a massive sigh of relief, she tapped the banner and scrolled down to the customer reviews.

"Look at all these reviews..."

Every comment was a glowing rave. But as her eyes traveled toward the purchase button, a bright red notice made her heart skip a beat.

"What?! Fewer than five left?!"

She didn't even check the price tag. Her fingers hammered the checkout button in an adrenaline-fueled frenzy.

"Agree! Agree to terms! Agree to all! Just hurry up, damn it!"

Her desperate speed paid off.

"Phew... Holy crap..."

The tension drained from her shoulders, and Hajeong sank back against her chair in sweet relief. She would be able to taste that masterpiece again. She would be able to finish her sketch.

"It's been so long since drawing felt this fun..."

She brought the empty sample vial to her nose once more, breathing in the lingering ghost of the fragrance. That pure mountain air swept through her senses all over again. In a mood this sublime, she felt like she could endure her boss's asinine demands with a smile on her face.

"If I could design packaging for a liquor like this, I'd gladly pull all-nighters every single day..."

Even as she muttered the thought aloud, her thumbs were already typing 'Songhadang' into a search engine. And when her screen loaded an active recruitment posting seeking a brand designer, her fingers began flying across the keys without a second thought.