The Scent of Misunderstanding
“Good morning.”
“Oh, good morning!”
Assistant Manager Park greeted me with an unusual brightness.
“You’re in a good mood today. Did you strike it rich again?”
“No. Today’s for a different reason.”
“And that would be?”
“Ta-da!”
He pulled out his left hand and held out his arm.
On his wrist was a rather high-end leather watch.
“Oh, that’s a famous brand, isn’t it?”
“Of course!”
Assistant Manager Park shrugged and answered proudly.
“Bought myself one this time.”
“How much was it?”
“2.3 million won.”
“Whoa, that’s practically luxury-tier, isn’t it?”
“I splurged on it after thinking it over. Heh heh.”
“Did you buy it with your year-end tax refund?”
“Nah, I put that into stocks.”
Assistant Manager Park chuckled and threw an arm around my shoulders.
“This is thanks to you.”
“...Me?”
“Yeah. I started a side job too.”
That was welcome news if I’d ever heard it.
“Honestly, I’d been jealous of you for a while. At first I just thought you were making money the way I do with coins or stocks, but then I went to the workshop and saw how well you’d put everything together. Man, it really hit me then. Making a little hideout like that was my dream. So I figured I’d follow your lead and dip a toe in myself.”
“Oh, congratulations. So this watch is...”
“Bought with the money I made from the side job.”
“Nice, congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
Seeing people around me gradually take an interest in side jobs after being influenced by me made me feel oddly proud.
“So what kind of side job is it?”
At my question, he froze for a second.
“...That’s a secret.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a little complicated to explain.”
“What’s complicated about a side job?”
“It’s a pretty unusual one.”
“...?”
Looking at his face, it seemed like he really was having trouble talking about it.
“I’ll tell you next time we have a drink. I’d even recommend it to you.”
He said that with such force that his eyes practically widened with sincerity.
“This is really money duplication, I’m telling you. Money duplication. I don’t even think about coins anymore.”
“That good?”
When a coin-addled man said something like that, I couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
“It’s not dangerous, is it?”
“Hey, absolutely not.”
“If you need my help, just say so.”
“I told you, it’s not like that. Look at this. I made enough profit to buy this watch.”
“Well, yeah, but...”
It still sat badly with me.
Unfortunately, though.
“Assistant Manager Kang. Can we head out now?”
There was a meeting today, and Han Su-a, section chief, called for me right away.
“Ah, yes. Understood.”
I grabbed the meeting materials and headed out at once.
“Assistant Manager Park, let’s talk more later.”
“Got it. Take care.”
***
SYK Entertainment was located in Gangseo District.
When I first saw the building, I thought it was impressive enough at sixteen stories.
But once I actually checked, it turned out they were only renting two floors out of the whole thing, using one as a practice room and the other as an office.
No wonder people in the entertainment industry called Finesta a miracle of the underdog idols.
Still, that didn’t mean I had any intention of looking down on them.
They were the client, and we were here to do the work.
“After reviewing the proposal, including the previous meeting, we came up with a few ideas.”
Han Su-a led the meeting.
“First, I think the most important thing is to catch the public’s attention. So I was wondering if we could do a guerrilla performance for Finesta.”
“Ah, our artists are very busy. As you know, February is peak season. There are award shows, new program announcements, brand model shoots, and plenty of filming schedules. A guerrilla concert would be difficult.”
Our first proposal was knocked out.
But we’d brought several others.
“Then how about giving away free merch at a pop-up?”
“Free?”
“Yes. No matter how little someone knows about celebrities, it still has to be good enough to take home, right? That sparks curiosity, and naturally some people will become interested. If they have merch at home, they’ll glance at it at least once.”
“It’s not bad, but I’m not sure the fans who pay for it wouldn’t take issue with that.”
The second was rejected too.
We also suggested installing an AR photo wall, setting up a hologram stage, or doing an F&B collaboration, but everything we had prepared was turned down at the executive level by the general manager who came to the meeting.
“Is that everything?”
The general manager asked pointedly.
“We don’t have much time, so... I think we’ll need something better prepared.”
Han Su-a looked troubled, so I lightly tapped her arm under the table.
Instead of answering, she nodded.
That meant I could step in.
“Um, General Manager.”
I offered the idea carefully.
“What about scent?”
“...?”
“There’s something called scent marketing, especially in large corporations.”
The best-known example is the phrase “the scent of a big bookstore.”
Famous brands like Kyobo Book Centre and Youngpoong Bookstore have a distinctive hinoki-like fragrance at every branch across the country.
Most people assume it’s just the smell of paper that naturally comes with a large bookstore.
But in reality, it goes beyond simple paper scent; each branch uses a special fragrance diffuser.
So when people visit a bookstore, they end up thinking it smells pleasantly of books, and that memory stays behind, drawing them back next time.
Hyundai Engineering, for example, scents apartment complexes after construction with a citrus-and-herb blend, planting ideas like nature, forest, and a walk in the park in residents’ minds as part of the branding.
Department stores, luxury hotels, and resorts also release their own signature scents from the lobby to leave people with a favorable impression.
“In that sense, I thought it might be interesting to build the pop-up around a scent.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
The general manager’s eyes lit up as he responded.
“So the point is that big corporations use this kind of marketing a lot?”
He seemed to be fixated on something else entirely, but that was beside the point.
“Yes. It’s used quite often, especially in areas that involve hospitality.”
“I like this a lot.”
He snapped his fingers and looked straight at me.
“Let’s go with that.”
It was decided on the spot.
“But what scent should we use?”
He tilted his head.
“Our Finesta kids don’t exactly smell like anything... and just putting out a simple air freshener probably won’t be enough.”
“Leave that to me.”
I’d spent 25 million won on this talent, after all.
I had to make full use of it so it wouldn’t go to waste.
“I may not know much about anything else, but I’m confident when it comes to scent.”
“That’s very reassuring.”
The general manager smiled with visible satisfaction and offered me his hand.
“I look forward to working with you. I’ll be in touch again soon.”
***
On the way back to the office, in the car.
“That scent marketing idea is really good.”
Han Su-a looked at me with admiration.
“How did you come up with that?”
“I went to the hospital last weekend, and there was this incredibly cozy smell there. That’s what made me think of it. Still, I should have said something in advance and brought it up in the meeting. Sorry.”
“Oh, no.”
She waved both hands emphatically.
“That’s not what I meant. I’m not some kind of old fogey, am I?”
“Ahaha-”
“I’m serious. I’m not that rigid.”
“Understood.”
Glancing over, I could see she was genuinely flustered, worried that I might have misunderstood her as being critical.
“I won’t misunderstand.”
“Good. Really.”
Only then did she seem to let out a little of the tension she’d been holding.
“By the way, are you pretty knowledgeable about scents too, Assistant Manager Kang?”
“I’ve been studying them lately.”
“Oh... that’s suddenly making me trust you a lot more.”
Come to think of it, there was always a scent drifting from Han Su-a as well.
“There’s also a scent that always seems to linger around you, Section Chief.”
“M-me?”
She startled, then hurriedly lifted her blouse and sniffed at it.
“W-what smell? I don’t smell anything. Did I do the laundry wrong? Should I have worn perfume?”
“You don’t wear perfume.”
“What the hell.”
Her pupils shook violently.
Then she hastily rolled down the window and shrank into the far corner of the passenger seat.
“Do I smell a lot?”
Instead of answering, I reached over and closed the window.
“Hey, why’d you close it?!”
“I meant that you smell nice.”
“...R-really?”
“Yes.”
Even before I gained any real talent with scent, I’d already noticed it.
Whenever I got close to Han Su-a, there was always that soft vanilla fragrance hanging around her.
Not the kind of indiscriminately sweet smell you’d get from vanilla ice cream or bananas, though.
More precisely, it was like the creamy scent of vanilla bean mixed with well-melted butter.
“Do you use shampoo with vanilla bean ingredients in it?”
“Whoa, amazing!”
She seemed startled enough to clap her hands with a sharp smack.
“How did you know?”
It was awkward to explain, so I gave a vague answer.
“It’s a scent I like.”
“Ah. So our tastes are similar?”
But she still looked a little disappointed and shrugged.
“Though that’ll be changing soon. It’s my favorite shampoo, but it’s been discontinued.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. So I’ve been using it sparingly... Ah! I don’t mean I use less shampoo. I just mean I use a different one on weekends. Don’t misunderstand.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“...”
Embarrassed, Han Su-a opened the window again with a whir.
“It’s so hot today...”
She seemed to have gotten oddly cheerful from our little exchange.
“But, Section Chief.”
“Yes?”
“How much longer are you going to keep crammed into the corner like that?”
“...”
“You can sit normally.”
“Yes...”
Han Su-a straightened up at last, still embarrassed.
***
On the way home from work, Olive Young caught my eye.
‘My lotion’s almost out.’
When I was younger, just skin lotion was enough to keep me fine, but maybe because I’d gotten older, lotion had become essential even when it wasn’t winter, and I had to carry hand cream around all the time.
I was tempted to just order it online, but then.
- New Year sale: 30% off everything!
That line stopped me in my tracks.
‘Right, if I go home, I might forget again.’
I went straight inside.
“Welcome. Please let us know if you’re looking for anything.”
I didn’t need help, really.
I headed over to the men’s section and quickly found the all-in-one skin lotion I usually used.
Without thinking twice, I picked it up and headed for the register.
But then the perfume section caught my eye again.
‘Should I pick out a few?’
I’d recently become much more interested in fragrance.
And after talking scent with Han Su-a today, I’d grown even more eager to experiment directly.
‘I think Han Su-a liked scents like this.’
There weren’t many vanilla-type perfumes, but there were a few.
Still, since it wasn’t a commonly used ingredient.
‘There are things that give a similar feeling, but nothing that fits exactly.’
There was no way to reproduce that scent perfectly with off-the-shelf products.
Of course, even now, if I used an active effect, I could identify the raw materials behind that fragrance.
‘But I don’t know the exact ratios, and I can’t make it through conventional means anyway.’
Yet maybe because my perspective on scent had broadened.
‘Couldn’t I blend scents?’
Even with commercial perfumes, layering them could create an entirely new fragrance.
‘Then...’
I dropped a few more perfumes into the basket.
‘Maybe I should practice a few times.’
***
10:00 a.m.
I was at the office, but it was the exact hour when I desperately wanted to go home.
“Assistant Manager Kang. I think we need a meeting.”
Han Su-a called for me.
“I think we need to talk about the concept we came up with in yesterday’s meeting.”
“Should we go to Meeting Room 3 like usual?”
“Yes. Go ahead first. I need to report yesterday’s meeting to the department head, so I’ll stop by briefly and come right over.”
“Understood.”
I gathered the Finesta and SYK materials and went into the meeting room.
About ten minutes passed.
Knock, knock.
With a knock, the meeting room door opened.
“Assistant Manager. The department head said we can proceed as discussed. So we can move forward with the scent concept, but...”
I flinched.
Han Su-a’s eyes widened.
“Oh my. Is that your perfume, Assistant Manager Kang?”
She smiled brightly, looking delighted.
“It smells exactly like my shampoo.”
“It does?”
I’d stayed up studying until 3 a.m. last night.
And although it wasn’t a perfect match, I’d managed to create a fragrance that was remarkably similar.
“Wow, this is so good.”
She came closer all at once and pushed her face toward the side of my neck.
“It really is the same.”
Then she took a deep breath and smiled radiantly.
“Amazing.”
With her so close, my face heated without me even noticing.
I was newly aware of just how powerful scent could be.
But that thought lasted only a moment.
Bang.
The meeting room door flew open.
“Yes, Team Leader. Regarding the parts you mentioned for our work, we can handle them, but—”
Assistant Manager Park, phone pressed to his ear, met my eyes.
In an instant, all three of us froze.
It was an awkward scene, after all.
Han Su-a was right up against my neck, practically burying her nose there.
And I was red in the face, utterly at a loss.
As expected, Assistant Manager Park jerked backward in shock.
“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t know anyone was here! Sorry, Assistant Manager Kang!”
“No, it’s not like that—”
Before my answer could reach him, he hurriedly shut the door and fled.
“...”
“...”
Han Su-a and I locked eyes in a heavy silence.
“What do we do?”
“W-well...”
It looked like this misunderstanding had settled in very, very firmly.