Obstacles and Hope 2
[Seung-hyun. Aren’t you going to turn in your graduation project?]
It was a message that arrived while he was having dinner with the factory manager.
After reading the message from his teaching assistant senior, Min-su, Seung-hyun finished his meal and headed back to school.
His workspace still had the unfinished graduation project lying there exactly as it had been left, as if time itself had stopped around it.
“At least you should finish your grad project, don’t you think?”
Min-woo, who had been waiting in the studio, said as he sipped his mix coffee from a paper cup, just as he always did.
“Hoo... I guess I should. But I just can’t get motivated.”
To be precise, it wasn’t that he lacked motivation. His mind was simply elsewhere.
He had to go with Mr. Park, the factory manager, to Dongil Sangsa first thing tomorrow morning and check the yarn quality. On top of that, he had to sort through the inventory piled up in storage and somehow cover this month’s payroll.
There was no way a graduation project could find room in his head under those circumstances.
“Yeah, I get it. You’ve got a lot on your plate.”
Min-woo patted Seung-hyun on the shoulder, but what he thought Seung-hyun was struggling with was simply the loss of his father.
He had no idea that Seung-hyun had inherited a factory and now had to run a company.
“I’m just... going to give up on this semester. I’m taking a leave of absence.”
“What? No, you’ve come this far. Why would you give up now?”
“I don’t even have the mental space or time to keep attending classes.”
As he said that, Seung-hyun gathered the half-finished graduation piece into a large paper bag.
“You’re really quitting?”
“There’ll probably be a day when I come back. But for now... let’s have a drink sometime later, when I’ve got time.”
Leaving the flustered Min-woo behind, Seung-hyun walked out of the studio.
The campus at night was undeniably romantic, but his heart felt nothing but sorrow.
Now the label of student had been stripped from him, and in its place had been pinned the title of CEO of Haesol Textile.
The cold wind of reality felt like it was clawing savagely at his chest.
Then it happened.
“Huh? Oppa Seung-hyun?”
When Seung-hyun turned his head, he saw a tall, slender woman just coming out of the library.
Jang So-hee.
A first-year in the design department, she was this year’s freshman and a beauty recognized as the top student in her class.
Of course, she had nothing to do with Seung-hyun...
After breaking up with his girlfriend last year, Seung-hyun had cut off all interest in women this year and thrown himself entirely into his studies, so he had hardly exchanged even a few words with Jang So-hee.
And yet here she was, calling out to him on a night like this.
“Oh? Uh... it’s been a while.”
“I heard about your father’s funeral. I wanted to go, but I figured you might feel burdened if a junior you weren’t close with showed up for no reason...”
“Good call. It’s fine.”
“But where are you going? And that bag...”
So-hee pointed at the large paper bag Seung-hyun was carrying.
“Ah, my graduation project.”
“Huh? It’s already finished?”
“No. I’m taking a leave of absence this time.”
So-hee’s eyes widened.
“Really? Because of stress?”
“No... I just want to rest.”
Seung-hyun didn’t feel the need to explain the details to her, so he was about to leave when he suddenly looked over her slim figure and stopped in his tracks.
She flinched when she saw his gaze dip downward and then hesitate.
But then...
“You... I think I heard somewhere before, while walking by, that you do fitting work as a part-time job. Is that right?”
“Huh? Ah, yes...”
“Good. Could I get your contact information?”
Contact information?
To So-hee, it was clearly just a senior she knew asking for her number, but something about the way he said it felt strange.
There was something strangely businesslike in his tone.
She wondered if that was because he was a senior on the verge of graduating, and as she hesitantly pulled out her phone, Seung-hyun added,
“Ah, and how much do you get paid per day?”
She froze for a moment.
“Per day? Oh... about 100,000 won? For around four hours.”
For a college student, 100,000 won was a fairly high rate.
But for Seung-hyun, who had spent the last few days buried under debt worth hundreds of millions and was now running a factory with a monthly payroll of 300 million won, 100,000 won a day sounded very reasonable.
So...
“100,000 won? Oh, that’s not bad.”
“Not bad... what?”
“Never mind.”
First, Seung-hyun called his own phone from her device, hung up, and handed it back.
“I’ll contact you sometime.”
“Huh? Ah, okay... please do.”
Only then did So-hee realize where Seung-hyun’s tone and manner had come from.
It was exactly the way countless clothing companies’ DMs sounded when they asked her to work with them.
And she also realized that the look he had given her body had been the same cold, measuring gaze a designer used when looking at a model.
So she stood there blankly, watching his back as he finished what he had come to do and walked briskly out across campus.
*
The next morning.
An alley in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District.
Among the old signboards, one sign read Dongil Sangsa.
For a business that had supposedly held its place for over twenty years, it looked far too shabby.
“Is this the right place?”
From the back seat, Seung-hyun looked over and asked, and Mr. Park, the factory manager, nodded.
“It may look like this on the outside, but in the silk yarn business, everyone who matters knows this place. Especially Mr. Kim. He’s the same age as the late chairman, and...”
Mr. Park trailed off, his expression darkening.
When they went inside, they saw piles of yarn being loaded out from the warehouse.
Employees in work clothes moved busily about, and one of them shouted toward the old counter.
“Boss, someone from Haesol Textile is here!”
The man who soon appeared was a stooped old gentleman, Mr. Kim.
As soon as he saw Seung-hyun, some old memory must have surfaced, because he wiped at the corners of his eyes.
“My goodness, I only saw you at the funeral... so you’re that man’s son. Jung Seung-hyun, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Mr. Kim came closer and gripped Seung-hyun’s shoulder tightly.
His hand was shaking. He seemed almost guilty, as though standing before the dead man’s son weighed on him.
“You look just like your father. He was your age when we first started doing business too... Come on in.”
Silence hung in the air for a moment.
Mr. Park gave a light cough.
Even as he carried that sadness with him, he needed to get straight to the reason they had come.
“Mr. Kim, the truth is, we came today because of a yarn quality issue. The yarn being supplied to Haesol Textile has been far too inconsistent lately, and the defect rate has been rising sharply.”
At that, Mr. Kim’s face stiffened.
“I’m sorry. I know. But...”
He sighed and led them into the inner office.
The desk looked more than thirty years old, the cabinets were worn, and the photographs hanging on the wall had faded with age.
Among them was one of him with Seung-hyun’s father in their younger days.
“You’re the boss now, so I should recognize you as the representative. Sit down, Mr. Jung.”
“Yes.”
The coffee Mr. Kim brought out was instant coffee from a vending machine.
Apparently, there had once been a time when a secretary served them freshly brewed coffee, but that era now felt almost impossible to believe.
“The yarn quality has been very unstable lately.”
At Seung-hyun’s words, Mr. Kim let out a long sigh.
“I know. I’m sorry. Honestly...”
Then there was a commotion outside.
“Boss! Deputy Manager Lee Sang-moo from Taesung Apparel is here!”
The door flew open, and a young man in a crisp suit entered holding a file.
The moment Seung-hyun saw his face, a chill ran down his spine.
It was the very same man he had met at his father’s funeral.
“Mr. Kim, this won’t do. What about the quantity you promised us...?”
Deputy Manager Lee Sang-moo gave a sideways glance at Seung-hyun, who was standing beside Mr. Kim.
Then he smiled slickly and gave a small nod.
“The late Chairman Kang’s son. We met at the funeral.”
Seung-hyun felt a wave of irritation rising, but he forced himself to keep his expression in check.
“It’s been a while.”
“Indeed. I was surprised to hear that the son had taken over the company. I’m sure my being here makes our guest uncomfortable, so I’ll come back another time. But I’ll need your answer by this afternoon.”
After speaking in a sharp tone, he left the office without giving anyone else a chance to respond.
The instant the door shut, the tension drained from Mr. Kim, and he swallowed hard.
“I’m sorry. These days, Taesung Apparel has us tied up in knots... I’m sure Haesol Textile isn’t having an easy time of it either. That deputy manager is especially...”
Watching Mr. Kim trail off, Seung-hyun instinctively thought of Deputy Manager Lee Sang-moo and Taesung Mills.
Mr. Kim’s gaze briefly drifted to a pile of yarn in the corner of the office.
Seung-hyun looked there too.
Something felt off.
“May I take a look at the yarn for a moment?”
He was only a kid who had just become a boss; Mr. Kim probably didn’t think he’d understand much. Still, he nodded.
Inspecting the fabric was, after all, a perfectly reasonable request from a client.
Seung-hyun walked over slowly and touched one of the skeins.
At that instant, his head swam.
A faint beeping sound, and then information about the yarn flowing through his fingertips...
【Country of Origin = China】
【Quality Grade = B】
【Supplier = Taesung Mills】
Taesung Mills? Seung-hyun’s eyes widened. It was a subsidiary of Taesung Apparel.
“These yarns... were you sourcing them from Taesung Mills?”
Mr. Kim stared at Seung-hyun in surprise.
“How did you know that?”
After hesitating for a moment, Mr. Kim let out a long sigh and pulled a document from the cabinet, handing it over.
The company name Taesung Mills was clearly printed beneath the title Supply Contract.
“To be honest, about six months ago our regular supplier went bankrupt, so we had to switch to Taesung Mills in a hurry. At first it was fine, but then the grades started fluctuating all of a sudden...”
Mr. Kim’s voice trembled with a frustration that sounded almost wronged.
Seung-hyun didn’t ask him anything else. It was clear he was hiding something, but there wasn’t even time to pry.
As he was leaving the office, a framed photograph on the wall caught his eye: his father and Mr. Kim, years ago, standing together.
Had his father known about this problem...?
“Haa... I see. Understood.”
There was nothing more to discuss with Mr. Kim.
But just as Seung-hyun rose from the sofa, he suddenly rubbed his hand against the smooth leather of the seat.
Then he said quickly to the factory manager,
“Let’s get back to the factory right away.”
“What? Right now? Don’t you want to look at any other clients...”
“Hurry. Let’s go now.”
In Seung-hyun’s mind, all thoughts of other clients had vanished.
Maybe... he had just found a way to deal with all that inventory piled up in the factory warehouse.
---