GyeolBit (1)
In a high-end Japanese restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul, the two men sat across from each other in a private room in the basement.
One was Kim Ho-yeol, the head of Taesung Group’s planning division and an executive director. The other was Kim In-hyuk, a handsome, tall young man who looked to be only in his late twenties, far too young to seem at home beside Kim Ho-yeol.
Though pristine plates of sashimi and sushi sat on the table between them, neither man looked pleased.
“So, In-hyuk. How have you been these days?”
When Executive Director Kim Ho-yeol spoke in a deliberately gentle tone, Kim In-hyuk across from him gave a smug snort.
“What can I say? Same as always.”
“I heard you’ve been doing well lately. I even had a few celebrity friends mention you a lot on social media.”
“Haha, I appreciate that. I do know a few celebrities too, but the people I’m close with are a little... low quality.”
In-hyuk broke off there and carelessly popped a piece of sushi into his mouth.
By contrast, Executive Director Kim knocked back a mouthful of the clear liquor in his small glass.
Just looking at this brat killed his appetite, so he was drinking instead.
“Oh, right. I told my mother that you helped me out a lot, Hyung.”
“Did you?”
Kim Ho-yeol smiled with false warmth.
“So my mother will put in a good word with Chairman Kim for you.”
“I wasn’t doing it just for that.”
“Come on, though. You and I are both illegitimate sons, so we should help each other out.”
In-hyuk never noticed the cold killing intent flicker through Kim Ho-yeol’s eyes.
“That’s right. We should help each other out. Yeah, social media will be buzzing. The chairman will be pleased too.”
Kim Ho-yeol forced out a laugh as he answered.
“Oh, my mother was thrilled too. You know how she is, right? ‘If my In-hyuk does well in fashion, surely Taesung or somewhere else can give him another position—’ Heh heh.”
As In-hyuk mimicked his mother’s voice, Kim Ho-yeol found the whole ordeal of pretending to listen unbearable.
“Right. If this works out, Chairman Kim will definitely look on it favorably.”
“Come on, it’s only a little brand... More importantly, um...”
In-hyuk’s expression cooled a shade as his gaze slid around the room.
Then he lowered his voice.
“So, Kim Executive Director.”
He even added the title out of habit.
“What about that Jung Seung-hyun guy? The one running Haesol Textile. He’s seriously irritating. What has he been up to lately? I asked around, and people just said he’s doing fine at the company. I’d honestly like to just get rid of him outright.”
Kim Ho-yeol, pouring more liquor into his own glass, asked, “Why do you hate Jung Seung-hyun that much?”
In-hyuk snatched the bottle from Kim Ho-yeol’s hand as if he were taking it away, poured for himself, and said, “What reason do you need to dislike someone? I just hate him.”
He claimed it was simple dislike, but judging by his rough, irritable behavior and ferocious eyes, there was clearly a reason.
Still, since he didn’t want to talk about it, Kim Ho-yeol didn’t press him further.
“I’ve been making sure every bolt of yarn headed toward Haesol Textile is C-Grade.”
“Really? Can that even be done? There must be more than one yarn supplier.”
He sounded skeptical, but his expression said he was impressed.
Kim Ho-yeol, forcing down his disgust, said, “We already brought in the yarn needed for this season in the right quantities. Unless they come to us, they’d have to turn to the Japan-Korea global suppliers, and they’re the ones likely to have A-Grade yarn. Why would they scatter surplus yarn anywhere else? If they try to source A-Grade now, it’ll take quite a while. And since it won’t be arriving by container load, the yarn cost will climb sharply too.”
“Ohhh, right! That’s Hyung for you! This is exactly why I like you so much! Here, have a drink.”
He poured liquor into Kim Ho-yeol’s glass even though it hadn’t been extended toward him, then grinned and said, “At that point, they won’t last long, right?”
“How long do you think a fabric company with an unstable supply line can hold out? And if rumors start spreading the wrong way...”
“Exactly, exactly. I’ll really tell my mother to speak well of you. Seriously.”
“I told you, you don’t need to do that.”
“Ah, come on, Hyung. Don’t be like that. That’s how I feel about it!”
Kim Ho-yeol smiled at In-hyuk, who was chattering away with a knife-edged look carefully hidden behind a joking manner.
*
By the time a day had passed and the president, who had been shut up in his office, finally came out, evening was already drawing close.
Having spent the entire day without sleep, refining the process for Art Fabric, Seung-hyun gathered the key staff.
“Art Fabric with C-Grade yarn...?”
At this late hour, the factory manager Park Han-soo and section chief Kim Young-sook, along with a few other employees, gathered in the president’s office after dinner.
Seung-hyun stood before a large whiteboard, writing things like “ART FABRIC → irregular washing, bleed dyeing” as he explained.
“As the section chiefs know, the company is in an emergency situation. You know why, right?”
“Right. There’s a problem with the yarn...”
“Exactly. In an emergency, we can’t operate the way we normally do. So we need to make fabric that fits the emergency. That’s why I thought of this. Since C-Grade yarn has come in, let’s make fabric out of C-Grade yarn.”
“Is that really so easy? No matter how good the technique is, the feel itself has to be different.”
Section Chief Lee Hyuk-min, who handled the technical side, asked skeptically.
“That’s right. That’s why we’re going in a completely different direction. A fabric that can exist precisely because it’s C-Grade. That’s the solution I came up with. Art Fabric.
“Ordinary low-grade yarn has poor uniformity and weak strength. But what if we turned that ‘defect’ into an artistic pattern? We deliberately create water bleed and stains, and make a pattern that exists only once in the world.”
“...Can that really work? What if we fail ten times? We don’t have much time.”
Section Chief Kim Young-sook asked, rubbing her wrinkled forehead.
Seung-hyun nodded, but his eyes remained firm.
“That’s true. We might fail. But if we can’t even secure A-Grade yarn and just sit here as we are, we won’t meet Daeryung’s deadline anyway. Rather than fail without trying, I’d rather take a gamble. I know you’re all worried, but I’ve already worked out the process to some extent, so I’d like you to trust me and follow along.”
“First, at least a small amount, five or six yards minimum. I’ll show it to the branch manager and Brian tomorrow, get their okay, and then start mass production that same day. Fortunately, we still have a few months before delivery, so if it’s a limited line, we don’t need a huge volume.”
At times like this, Factory Manager Park Han-soo stood to lift the mood and said loudly, “Understood. Then let’s all get straight to work!”
First, they carried out “base printing” on the automated line.
They planned to stamp patterns such as flowers or ink-wash paintings at regular intervals, but Seung-hyun combined several from the many pattern folders on his father’s computer and adjusted them into a black-and-white gradient format so that a subtle bleed would naturally occur.
“Just stamp this section like you would with a seal. Use a little extra ink so it can bleed properly.”
The employees nodded silently and finished the setup.
As the rollers moved, the pattern began appearing over the irregular grain of the C-Grade fabric.
Anyone seeing it for the first time might have thought it looked a little messy, but Seung-hyun wore a satisfied expression.
They spread the fabric, still damp with moisture, out across a large table.
Now the section chiefs took turns using thin brushes or sponge brushes to lightly rub the edges of the printed patterns with water, or add more dye to spread the color.
“Uh... isn’t it bleeding too much?”
“Yeah, the color’s spreading here and making it look blotchy...”
“Come on, it’s running too much.”
But Seung-hyun repeated his instructions.
“It’s fine. The key is for it to look naturally disrupted. Once it dries, the gradients will come out soft and subtle.”
Some of the employees even tried flicking the dye on like paint splatter, while others cut styrofoam and used it as a stencil.
Everyone got into it directly, finding a little bit of the fun of art class in the process.
Once the brush bleed was finished, they sent the fabric straight to the washing process.
Using an industrial washing machine larger than a laundry machine, they carefully controlled the water temperature and timing to fix the fabric in a state of natural bleeding rather than complete staining.
When they took the fabric out and spread it open, soft gradients had flowed across it in an almost artistic way.
“This... this is really good, President!”
Section Chief Lee Hyuk-min exclaimed, eyes shining.
They finished drying as well, and when they checked the time, it was already past 4 a.m.
“What if this still doesn’t look good...?”
Section Chief Kim Young-sook let out an exhausted sigh, but Seung-hyun stared at the drying fabric from a distance, his eyes gleaming.
Around 5 a.m., the finished samples were finally laid out in neat stacks on the table.
The patterns varied slightly from piece to piece: dark ink bleed, marble-like splashes, some with strong brush marks left behind... each one showing a different kind of uniqueness.
“Wow... Who’d guess this was C-Grade yarn? It even has a subtle sheen, and there’s this vintage charm to it.”
As the employees ran their hands over the fabric with disbelief, they let out bursts of admiration.
Seung-hyun immediately selected the three or four pieces with the highest level of completion.
“I’ll take these to Daeryung Sangsa in the morning and show Brian. You all worked incredibly hard.”
The employees were utterly drained, but they smiled with relief.
*
The next morning.
Section Director Choi Jin-a and Brian, who had been informed in advance, were waiting in the reception room.
“I’m really sorry about this. I didn’t expect something like this either.”
As she had before, Section Director Choi kept apologizing to Brian.
“It’s all right. I’m not unaware that this isn’t Daeryung Sangsa’s fault. Since a Plan B is already prepared, there’s no need for you to keep apologizing to me.”
At that, Choi Jin-a’s face darkened.
She understood that having a Plan B and not telling her meant he had already secured something suitable from another company.
Meaning that at Aureum of Daeryung Sangsa, they had no interest in anything except a sofa made from high-density silk blend.
“Thank you. President Jung of Haesol Textile isn’t someone without ability, so I’m sure you can look forward to it.”
“Haha, yes.”
He nodded, but every so often he glanced at his wristwatch and thumbed through the Aureum pamphlet he had already examined in detail.
It was obvious enough to see exactly what he was thinking.
“Are you not expecting much?”
“Hmm... haha, I can’t fool your eye, can I? I think presenting Art Fabric was a very good idea. It may look like a breakthrough that could help them get past the situation they’ve been given.”
“It may look like it?”
“What matters in Art Fabric is not the ‘fabric’ but the ‘art.’ And the art has to move the buyer. If it were you, would you want to buy a sofa scribbled on by a child?”
“If it were me... no, I wouldn’t.”
“Exactly. So I’m not very hopeful.”
Choi Jin-a became curious.
“Then why didn’t you refuse it outright back then and say it wouldn’t work?”
“Because I needed two days to think about it as well. And since Plan B came along right on time, I can enjoy this all with a much lighter heart.”
Seeing Brian’s relaxed expression, Choi Jin-a gave an awkward smile and nodded, but inwardly she realized that the additional contract with Lium Design had fallen apart.
Once she thought that, her own anxiety vanished as well.
The additional contract may have slipped away, but the existing one had already brought in a substantial amount of sales.
A little while later, at the agreed time, Jung Seung-hyun entered.
“Thank you for waiting.”
He looked a little drawn, but his eyes seemed to shine with a fierce brightness.
“You’ve clearly been preparing all night... can we expect something good?”
Brian gave a light nod of greeting and leaned back in his chair as though he was ready to judge the fabric sample in silence.
“Rather than explain it, I’d like you to see it first and judge for yourselves.”
Without any unnecessary introduction, Seung-hyun took the “first sample” out of a large paper bag.
A deep navy gradient wrapped the whole cloth in a soft haze, with the white areas naturally stained by color.
“Oh...?”
Choi Jin-a instinctively touched it with her fingertips and let out an admiring sound.
“It almost looks like ink-wash painting,”
“Exactly. I deliberately emphasized the water bleed.”
He didn’t bother reminding them again that this fabric had started as C-Grade.
Choi Jin-a was admiring a fabric that was far better than she had expected, then glanced at Brian beside her.
But then,
“My...”
He kept running trembling eyes over the sample.
“What do you think?”
Even when Choi Jin-a asked, he couldn’t answer immediately. He kept laying the sample across his knees and holding it up to the light from different angles, his face shifting between awe and a hardened stillness, impossible to read.
President Jung, who had brought the sample, simply watched the situation expressionlessly, as if he had already done his part.
No, now he straightened his back and said in English, as if wondering whether they were finished admiring it.
“We apologize again for being unable to supply the high-density silk blend fabric on time. If you would like compensation for the delay, we will honor it according to the clause in the contract.”
The mood suddenly turned strange.
Choi Jin-a frowned.
“But...”
“If you want this fabric delivered, there is one condition. I’d like to amend the contract accordingly.”
“This...”
She bit her lip, then asked, “What exactly is the condition?”
“I’d like you to mark that this sofa uses our fabric.”
“Haesol Textile...”
Seung-hyun showed her a classical mark stamped in one corner of the sample fabric.
“No. GyeolBit. It’s the Art Fabric brand created by Haesol Textile.”
“What kind of condition is that...”
Then,
“Fine. I actually like it better this way.”
Brian was stroking the fabric sample with the look of a man who had been completely taken over by it.