New Wave (3)
In the lobby of Tokyo’s Okura Hotel, Hanil Group Chairman Cha Sang-wook was waiting for Jo Kang-min, the president of Hanil International.
Even in his mid-seventies, he still held himself ramrod straight, and though time had carved deep lines into his face, his sharp gaze only seemed to deepen the weight of his authority and experience.
Chairman Cha checked his wristwatch, then let a faint flicker of irritation show in his eyes.
About five minutes passed.
At last, Jo Kang-min of Hanil International hurried into the hotel lobby.
In his early fifties, Jo was dressed in a neat suit and looked slightly short of breath, though it was easy to guess that a driver had likely dropped him off right at the entrance, so he was not actually winded at all.
With a broad forehead and a strong jawline, he bowed toward the distant figure of Chairman Cha.
“Chairman, I came as soon as you called.”
There was obvious tension in Jo’s polite greeting.
He had no idea why Chairman Cha, who should have been minding other business in Japan, had suddenly summoned him here.
Chairman Cha merely nodded and motioned for him to sit in front of him.
When Jo took the seat across from him with care, Chairman Cha said in a low voice, “Jo Kang-min, stay at this hotel tonight.”
Jo looked momentarily taken aback.
“Pardon? Me... here?”
“Yes. I’m leaving first, so come to Hannam-dong tomorrow.”
Though he was confused by the abrupt mission, Jo did not dare pry into why he had to do it.
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
“And move a little faster. How long are you going to keep me waiting?”
“I’m sorry.”
With that, Chairman Cha had hauled a man all the way to Japan from first thing in the morning, given him a nonsensical assignment, and then swept out of the hotel as if nothing had happened.
After he left, Jo Kang-min was left alone in the lobby, his mind overflowing with questions.
He sat on the lobby sofa and fell into thought.
If there’s something special about this hotel... competitor analysis? Or a new service? What on earth is so special about this place?
He immediately called for the chief of staff who had been waiting outside.
“You called for me.”
The chief of staff, a man in his early forties who had been waiting in the parking lot, rushed up and bowed slightly.
He had literally run up, so his tie was a little askew.
“Chairman says I’m supposed to sleep here tonight and go to Hannam-dong tomorrow. Do you have any idea why?”
Even from the chief of staff’s point of view, it was an absurd instruction.
“I’m not sure either...?”
“Find out.”
“Understood.”
From that point on, Jo Kang-min closed his eyes and sank into thought while the chief of staff ran around making calls everywhere.
The employees back in Seoul would be thrown into confusion by the sudden order from their president.
But only about ten minutes had passed before the chief of staff rushed back with a report.
“President, this hotel is apparently famous for its sleep concept.”
Jo Kang-min’s eyes flew open.
“Sleep? As in sleeping well?”
“Yes. At some point they started selling something called the ‘Sweet Dream Package,’ and customer response was so good that Okura Hotel developed an image as a place where you can get excellent sleep. Their lower-priced rooms are nearly fully booked all the time.”
Hearing that the rooms were sold out snapped Jo Kang-min fully awake.
He went straight to the reception desk to confirm it, and as the chief of staff had said, nearly every room was occupied. Fortunately, however, the expensive Royal Suite was still available.
“Let’s go.”
He spent some time eating and killing time around Tokyo, then, once check-in opened, he brought the chief of staff with him and headed to the Royal Suite where Chairman Cha had stayed the previous night.
The room itself was in pristine, top-tier condition, but for a man like Jo Kang-min, who already owned five five-star hotels just in Korea, it did not move him all that much.
What mattered was the bedroom.
“There’s pillow mist prepared here?”
The chief of staff found the mist and note placed beside the bed and handed them over.
After reading the note, Jo Kang-min said, “Photograph everything and check the bedding.”
“Understood.”
But then,
“Huh? This bedding looks Korean.”
At the chief of staff’s words, Jo Kang-min examined the bedding and felt a jolt of electricity shoot up his back.
“GyeolBit? Isn’t this the bedding brand launched by Miss Cha Hee-ju, who works at Mirae Department Store?”
“I know that, idiot...”
It had not been made abroad, but in Korea.
And not just that, it had been the very first brand launched by Cha Hee-ju, the chairman’s own granddaughter, at Mirae Department Store.
The fact that it had crossed the sea to Japan and become the leading factor driving booking rates upward was disastrous news for Hanil International’s staff.
“We’re screwed, seriously...”
Only then did Jo Kang-min understand why the chairman had told him, without explanation, to sleep here tonight and come back tomorrow.
He let out a long sigh, then called Yang Jae-seung, the managing director in charge of business planning.
“It’s me. I’m going to send you a few photos now. It’s this bedding called GyeolBit, launched by Miss Cha Hee-ju of Mirae Department Store, and it’s being used in Okura Hotel as hotel-exclusive bedding.”
[What? Yes.]
“I’m staying here tonight and heading to Hannam-dong tomorrow, so have all the materials and reports on GyeolBit bedding ready and sent to me before lunch tomorrow.”
[Understood.]
After hanging up, Jo Kang-min sent the chief of staff away and made another call.
After several rings and a long pause, a young woman’s voice finally came through.
[Hello?]
“Good evening, Miss. This is Jo Kang-min, president of Hanil International. We met once before, if you remember?”
[Oh, yes... I remember. What can I do for you?]
“I’m calling because you once launched the GyeolBit bedding line at Mirae Department Store, am I correct?”
[Yes.]
“At that time, did anyone ever tell you about hotel-exclusive bedding?”
[No? Not at all. Why do you ask?]
At least that was a relief.
If Cha Hee-ju had known about this, a much bigger disaster would have been waiting in the wings.
“Ah, well, I’m actually at the Okura Hotel in Tokyo right now, and the GyeolBit bedding you launched is installed here. I only learned that after the chairman stayed here last night.”
[What? My grandfather did?]
“Yes, so I came to stay here myself today, but the timing is so uncanny that I thought I should ask whether you knew anything about it.”
[I see...]
“Then I’ll let you get back to it.”
[Yes, yes. Take care.]
“Thank you.”
After hanging up, Jo Kang-min began to worry intensely about what result would be waiting for him tomorrow.
*
Seoul, Haesol Textile’s Hapjeong-dong office.
Seung-hyun stared at the portfolios piled on his desk and let out a sigh.
In front of him lay stacks of applications recommended by Director Hwang Seok-jae.
And yet...
“Out of all these applicants, not one of them is someone I like...”
Seung-hyun muttered in a voice heavy with fatigue and disappointment.
Every portfolio in front of him was excellent, but none of them stirred that indefinable pull.
To be honest, it was strange enough for him to be judging anyone at all, since he had no real experience either. But somewhere along the way, his standards had risen so much that, right now, none of these portfolios seemed better than the one Kim In-hyuk had brought to the LVMH Prize.
Director Hwang adjusted his glasses and said, “They’re all designers with outstanding careers and portfolios. In particular, this Ms. Kim Min-ju has five years of experience at a well-known domestic fashion brand, and she has also participated in overseas fashion shows.”
At Hwang’s words, Seung-hyun looked over Kim Min-ju’s portfolio once more.
Technically, it was certainly impressive, but it lacked something that could truly seize his attention.
“She has solid fundamentals. But...”
Seung-hyun stopped and looked out the window. The lively streets of Hapjeong-dong came into view.
Young people passing by, people gathered in cafes talking, and the various styles of clothing they wore.
“She didn’t show anything special at her previous brand. As a lead designer, she didn’t bring any real innovation to the brand, and she didn’t drive sales up dramatically either...”
Director Hwang nodded as if he understood.
“It looks like filling Lee A-young’s vacancy won’t be easy.”
Frustrated, Seung-hyun got up and walked a lap around the office.
There were plenty of portfolios coming in, but either they were too flashy or they left no particular impression at all.
If someone like that joined the company, he worried they would either keep clinging to the old ways instead of trying to develop designs that advanced Lesser Factory, or they would put out designs that were so over the top they could never properly reach the market.
As he worried over it for a long while, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind, and he turned sharply.
“I should go to the school.”
“The school?”
“Yes.”
Leaving the dazed Director Hwang behind, Seung-hyun grabbed his jacket and left the company at once.
Seoul Fashion Arts University, where he had still not yet graduated, was as busy and full of life as ever.
Seung-hyun went straight to the office of Professor Woo Ji-yeon, his former advisor.
As he walked the corridor, he thought back on his past self.
The anxious, passionate student he had once been, always touching fabrics and clothes and trying one thing after another because he loved them.
Compared to who he had been then, he had changed so much now, but the hunger to create still lived unchanged inside him.
Knock, knock.
Only after he arrived and knocked on the door did he realize, with a pang of regret, that he should have made an appointment first. But there was no help for it now.
When no sound came for quite a while, Seung-hyun bit his lip, thinking he had been too impulsive, and was about to turn away when,
“Who is it?”
The door opened, and the familiar voice of the professor reached him.
Seung-hyun smiled, turned back, and bowed to the advisor he had not seen in a long time.
“Hello, Professor.”
Now nearly fifty, Professor Woo Ji-yeon still looked strikingly polished, as one would expect from a fashion professor.
“Oh my! Well, look who it is. Jung Seung-hyun, isn’t it?”
“Yes, how have you been?”
“We’re always the same, aren’t we? But you...”
She quickly scanned him from head to toe, and immediately noticed that the suit he was wearing was no ordinary thing.
“That’s luxury, isn’t it?”
He had not dressed with any particular intention that day, but of all days, he happened to be wearing the suit Antoine, the Loro Piana chairman, had given him as a gift.
She stroked the lapel of his suit as if testing the fabric, and her eyes widened.
“Hahaha...”
When Seung-hyun laughed awkwardly, she realized it truly was the real thing and stared in amazement at the student she had taught, now suddenly reappearing as a success.
“What, you took a leave of absence to start a business and then suddenly showed up successful?”
Even a former advisor would have no easy way of knowing just how far Seung-hyun had risen.
Back then, Haesol Textile had not been a famous company, and he had not gone around making noise about being its CEO either.
“I came because I had something to ask you for a moment.”
“Oh, right... Come in.”
She kept looking at him as though seeing him anew.
After leading him into the office and seating her former student, Professor Woo first took out a drink, then asked, “What on earth have you been doing to get so successful?”
“Well... actually, Professor, you know the brand Lesser Factory, right?”
“Of course. That brand has become famous recently. Don’t tell me...”
“Actually, I made that brand.”
“What?”
Professor Woo’s eyes went wide, and she even started smacking Seung-hyun on the shoulders.
“Oh my, oh my! What is this? My goodness!”
“P-Professor... that hurts...”
“Good heavens... it’s yours?”
“I was running a factory called Haesol Textile, and Lesser Factory is a brand made by Haesol Textile. This is my business card...”
When Seung-hyun even took out a business card and handed it over, she stared at it in astonishment.
“That’s impossible...”
“And not long ago, didn’t I say we were going to sign a licensing deal with a domestic company for U.S. military combat uniforms?”
“What, don’t tell me that was you too?”
“Yes, that’s our company’s technology.”
“Hoooh!”
At the sight of his advisor’s jaw hanging open, Seung-hyun found himself thinking, for the first time in a long while, So this is the look people give when you’ve succeeded?
“Haha, things just happened to work out that way by luck.”
“No... you’re completely a company president now... no, a CEO?”
“Haha...”
“So? What brings you here today?”
“Actually, our lead designer for Lesser Factory had to step down for personal reasons, so we’re looking for a designer.”
She immediately clapped her hands.
“You came to the right place.”
“R-really?”
“So?”
“I was wondering if you might recommend someone, or perhaps... if we could hold a contest that included current students and even graduates. Would that be possible?”
“A contest?”
“Yes. There’ll be a prize too, 100 million won.”
Her eyes became pure delight, and she seized her student’s hand.
“Of course it’s possible.”