The Popup Store Hit Harder Than Expected
“I think I should probably head out now.”
“Ah, right. It’s already past ten.”
They had come by to drop off the cake at four in the afternoon.
After that, I’d loafed around under the guise of employee theft, drinking coffee and draft beer, and before I knew it, it was quitting time.
Since the work was done anyway, we’d fallen into one conversation after another, and the hours had slipped by before we noticed.
“I’ll walk you to the station.”
“No, it’s fine. I can go by myself.”
“This is a rough neighborhood, so it’s pretty dangerous for a woman to walk alone. And I should be heading home soon too.”
“Oh, I see. Then shall we go together?”
“Let’s.”
I headed toward the subway station with Manager Han Su-a.
We walked slowly through narrow alleys where few people passed.
We’d talked nonstop for nearly six hours in the workshop without even taking a proper break.
Strangely enough, once we stepped outside, the conversation didn’t really continue.
Not that it felt awkward.
If anything, the silence made everything feel calmer, more peaceful.
The temperature had fallen to freezing, but maybe because the wind wasn’t blowing, it didn’t feel especially cold.
Breathing in the crisp winter air, we strolled along in the quietest possible way until, before long, we reached the subway station.
“You’re going south, right, Manager? I’m heading this way.”
“Ah, yes. Thanks for walking me here.”
“Not at all. I was coming this way anyway. Get home safe, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I had a good time today.”
Manager Han waved and disappeared through the opposite gate.
I bowed my head in return and boarded the train home.
Clack-clack. Clatter-clack.
The sound of the subway running felt oddly comforting.
I took the outer seat in one of the few open rows and leaned my head against a pillar.
Did I do anything stupid today?
Since I’d been in my own hideout, the workshop rather than the company, I went back over everything in case I’d gotten careless and said something I shouldn’t have.
Fortunately, I don’t think so.
Still, my chest had this strange fluttering feeling.
The mood back then was really strange.
Was it when we’d each had about three beers?
While we were praising draft beer as being entirely different from canned beer, Manager Han had suddenly picked up the perfume bottle.
“Could I maybe spray it on myself once?”
“Of course.”
She sprayed it on her wrist, then dabbed a bit at the nape of her neck.
And then, about five minutes later.
“Would you like to smell it once?”
It was a perfume I had made myself.
I wanted to know what it would smell like if I sprayed it on someone other than myself and let it mingle with their skin scent.
Curious, I’d stepped closer to her too and buried my nose near her neck.
“Mm? That’s nice.”
“Right? Mixed with skin scent, it seems even softer.”
“Yeah. Especially on you, Manager Han, there’s such a nice smell...”
As I said that and turned my head, our eyes met at the same time.
“...”
“...”
The distance between our faces wasn’t even two finger-widths.
Silence crashed down between us in an instant.
We froze there for a beat, then both of us drew back at the same time without needing to say a word.
“Whew, the fragrance really is lovely.”
“R-right? I think you’ve got a real talent for perfume, Assistant Manager Kang.”
“Thank you...”
My face was burning, so I tried to act normal, and when I glanced over, Manager Han’s face had gone red too.
Ziiiiiiing!
Lucky or unlucky, her phone rang.
“Ah, it’s a client. One moment.”
Manager Han got up at once and stepped away from the seat.
When she came back, the ordinary rhythm of conversation had returned, but for that moment, the air had been embarrassingly unsettled.
Damn it, this is all Park Assistant Manager’s fault.
Because of that jerk going on about being a thing or whatever, I kept noticing and overthinking it until my head hurt.
We haven’t even properly dated, so what the hell is this...
Wait a second.
Didn’t what we did today count as a date?
...It kind of does, doesn’t it.
But I shook my head hard and tossed the thought away.
The boundary kept trying to blur on its own.
Senior and junior at work was such a strange relationship.
You saw each other every day, spent all your time together in the office, and naturally ended up in positions where you could look after each other.
The real problem was that until you opened the box and looked inside, there was no way to know whether this was just simple fondness or a signal between man and woman.
And if I misunderstood, office life would get complicated in a hurry.
For now, hold. Let’s hold the thought itself.
***
The long-awaited popup store opening day.
SYK Entertainment had already given the final perfume I produced the green light, and thanks to Manager Han preparing the paperwork, the safety review had also been approved within the deadline.
And just like that, the design for the scent Temptation of a Summer Night was finally complete.
All that was left was to wait for customers.
“There is one thing I’m worried about, though.”
Manager Han Su-a asked carefully.
“From what you told me, the perfume is made up of three stages, right? The first impression, the main note, and the lingering finish. But in a popup store where people keep moving through, it seems hard to make them experience it in order.”
I had already thought about a few methods.
Honestly, the best way would be to assign numbered batches, like 1 through 10, then 11 through 20, and let them enter and leave all at once so the scent could imprint itself more easily.
But regular visitors probably wouldn’t stand around in line just to visit a popup store that way, unless they were fans.
So I’d chosen a different method.
“The traffic flow inside the popup is already fixed in one direction.”
“Yes, that’s right. Since we designed the interior around the theme of Pine Star’s growth, it’s one-way from the entrance to the exit. You can’t turn back in the middle.”
“So I divided the interior itself into three stages and designed each space so that a different scent would fill it.”
When applied directly to the body, the three scents would be used in combination.
Here, though, I’d separate them out and use them individually.
It had taken some work to get every single scent cleared for safety approval, but in return it had made the design wonderfully precise.
In the first zone, right after entering, the perfume’s first impression, youth, drifted through the air.
I kept the heating low there, so it felt cool, while the scent of fresh, vibrant apricots gave it a clean, lively brightness.
Most of the goods displayed there highlighted Pine Star’s fresh image.
After that came the second zone, whose scent theme was summer.
I deliberately cranked the heater up in this section.
With the temperature higher, the fragrance would spread more richly.
It would feel like the thick green fullness of summer itself.
People who had bundled up against the cold would naturally start taking off their coats.
And as they kept walking, they would head toward the final third zone, where I emphasized sensuality.
Thanks to the strong heaters in the previous section, people would work up the faintest sheen of sweat, and that scent would blend with the perfume.
When people hear the word body scent, they usually think only of unpleasant odors like armpit stink or sweat.
But when a person’s own skin scent mixes with a particular note in a perfume, it becomes a kind of pheromone.
In other words, it stirs up sexual desire.
The setup was perfect.
All that remained was the field test.
“I hope it goes well.”
“It will.”
Manager Han clenched her fist and shouted a little fighting cheer.
“Oh, there’s the first customer. Let’s watch and see!”
***
3 p.m.
In Seongsu, now the hottest district among younger generations, couples who had finished lunch late were strolling leisurely down the street.
Then something in line caught their eye.
“Huh, what’s that?”
“There are middle-aged guys lined up?”
“But there are students mixed in too.”
“Looks like some kind of popup. Want to check it out?”
“Sure.”
Even though they had no idea what it was, the couple lined up anyway.
After waiting for about fifteen minutes, they went inside and were surprised by the store they found.
“Pine Star?”
“Oh, a girl group? They’ve been pretty famous lately.”
“So you’ve been interested in girl groups, huh?”
“...No? I just know the name.”
“Anyway, let’s look around.”
“Yeah...”
They slowly entered the popup.
“Hmm, there’s a nice smell.”
“Yeah.”
They didn’t know much about Pine Star, but after stepping out of the bitter wind of winter, and with the faint apricot scent drifting through the store, they already felt better.
By the time they reached the second theme, they could feel warmth tipping into actual heat.
“Should we take our coats off?”
“I’m kind of warm too.”
They hung their coats over their arms.
Even as they looked at the Pine Star goods, they didn’t have much in the way of strong impressions yet.
It was more like: so there’s a girl group, and this is how they do popup stores.
When they reached the third theme, the sweat that had gathered on their backs cooled a little and mixed faintly with the perfume.
Maybe because of that.
The couple walking side by side felt a strange pull, a pheromonal spark, between them.
But what mattered was that their attention was aimed at the Pine Star branding plastered all over the popup.
In other words, the stimulus they felt from the pheromones had to be, their brains decided, because of Pine Star itself, the group they were looking at.
“They’re pretty cute.”
“Yeah. Seeing how earnestly they’re growing makes them likable, doesn’t it?”
“What was that Pine Star song again?”
“You know, that one from the new album. The one with the chorus like, ‘I’ll become your light-♪’”
“Ah, I’ve heard that. They really are likable.”
“Yeah, should we watch a stage video or something?”
“I want to watch the music video.”
As they moved through the popup, interest in Pine Star naturally began to bloom.
***
Three days later.
“This is huge, huge!”
The head of SYK Entertainment was practically shouting with excitement.
“Even our CEO is extremely satisfied. There are loads of reviews from ordinary visitors on blogs too.”
“The response was better than I expected.”
“We thought scent marketing would work, but we never expected it to be this effective.”
It was a fairly exceptional situation.
Even when a project did well, it was rare for a company to come in person, hand out snacks to the department, and openly praise the work like this.
Thanks to that, my shoulders had risen quite a bit.
Our department head was looking at me with obvious satisfaction too.
Even the executive who happened to be passing by glanced over and nodded with pleased approval.
The head of the division, who had come in with a whole crowd of employees, kept praising the scent over and over before carefully approaching me.
“Oh, Assistant Manager Kang. Could I have a word with you separately?”
“Yes, of course.”
I followed him into a quiet meeting room.
“This time, the reviews were really excellent.”
The head smiled broadly as he spoke.
“In particular, a lot of fans left comments saying the fragrance was nice and really memorable.”
“I’m glad it turned out well.”
“So, what do you think about taking it a step further and scaling it up?”
“How exactly...?”
“The perfume you personally made. I’m wondering if we could release it directly as a Pine Star perfume.”
He straightened his posture as if he meant every word and spoke with serious intent.
“I came here today to make that offer to you, Assistant Manager.”
“...You mean you want to release it as an official product?”
“Yes. We’d handle the entire process ourselves, have it manufactured under contract, and launch it as Pine Star’s own brand. We’d take care of all the boring, irritating details for making it an official product too, like permits and business registration and everything else. All you’d need to do is tell us the perfume formula and collect the royalties.”
It was unexpected, so I was a bit thrown off.
But it doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
I had already finished the basic ratio for the perfume, so there wasn’t any additional work required on my side.
Besides, if SYK Entertainment handled everything, then all I had to do was hand over the recipe and there would be nothing else for me to do.
Even if they manufactured it in large quantities, the detailed process would still be handled on the company’s end.
“Let’s talk through the specifics.”