Maison & Objet (4)
Hong Jang-mi watched her husband with her eyes narrowed, the corners of her own mouth tightening in disbelief.
Whatever was making him so happy, the suit, dress shirts, ties, and other things he was packing had put a broad smile on his face, and even without saying a word, anyone could tell exactly how pleased he was.
“What’s got you so happy?”
Hwang Seok-jae didn’t even turn his head at his wife’s question. He kept stuffing underwear and the like into a large travel suitcase.
“What do you mean, what’s got me happy?”
“You’re clearly excited right now. Why? Are you going with a woman?”
“A woman? Hmm... unfortunately, there isn’t one.”
“Ha! Unfortunately?”
“It would be nice to have a woman to chat with, if possible, but what can I do? It’s work.”
“You’re not even trying to hide it now, are you?”
“You golf with men all the time when you book tee times too, don’t you?”
At his reply, spoken as he glanced back at her, Hong Jang-mi frowned.
“Are you seriously saying that like it’s the same thing? You’re really childish, you know that?”
“How can someone spend their whole life acting their age? Once in a while, they get childish.”
Before long, Hwang Seok-jae even pulled out the perfume he rarely bothered using, sprayed it a few times, sniffed it with a satisfied nod, and packed it into the bag.
Her irritation shot up. She hurried over, kicked the suitcase with a heavy thud, and snapped, “Where are you going, huh? Where?”
Hwang Seok-jae didn’t get angry. He simply set the suitcase back in place.
“How many times do I have to say it? I’m going on a business trip. To Paris.”
“Paris? A business trip? You expect me to believe that?”
She was just about to blow up, but then their daughter came out into the living room, and Hong Jang-mi pressed her lips shut.
Hwang Min-ji, who was now about to graduate, looked at her father packing and asked, “Dad, are you going overseas?”
Her mother answered for him.
“Your dad’s going on a business trip to Paris.”
Min-ji’s eyes went round. “Really? Paris? That’s amazing.”
“It’s work.”
To his envious daughter, Seok-jae answered with practiced indifference.
But his wife didn’t miss the strange flicker of anticipation that lived in him beneath those words.
They had lived together for decades. At this point, she could tell his mood just by looking at his face.
“Hmph. You look thrilled, all right. What kind of company do you work for, anyway? Let’s hear it.”
“You never asked before. Why now?”
“Because I’m curious!”
“Now you’re asking about the new job you were never curious about?”
“I wasn’t curious then!”
Hong Jang-mi hadn’t had any reason to be curious. The first time she asked, she’d learned that the salary was only 2.4 million won a month.
A job that paid 2.4 million won a month was not something worth asking more about. She’d only brought it up because the word “Paris” had made her curious again.
“A fabric company.”
“Fabric? The stuff clothes are made from?”
“Yeah.”
Hwang Seok-jae spoke curtly, then packed everything neatly and set the suitcase by the front door.
He’d even prepared it so he could just grab it tomorrow morning, and that only made it more irritating to watch.
“Why does a fabric company go to Paris?” she asked again.
“Maison & Objet in Paris. It’s a world-renowned furniture and design fair.”
“Wow. Lucky you.”
Their daughter clasped her hands together enviously, then asked, “Dad, can I come too?”
“No.”
“Why not? I’d only need you to pay for the plane ticket.”
Hwang Seok-jae’s patience thinned at once.
“Just focus on getting a job.”
“You keep nagging me about job hunting like it’s so easy. I’m preparing, okay? You’re putting on airs just because you’re going to Paris.”
“What?”
“Ugh, you’re annoying!”
Hwang Min-ji slammed the door and went back inside.
Annoyed, Hwang Seok-jae started to follow her, but his wife blocked him.
“Forget it. What do you think you’re doing, going in there like you’ve done something right?”
“And what exactly did I do wrong?”
“If you had sent her when she asked to study abroad, do you think she’d act like this now?”
“Does everyone think I’ve got money lying around just because I’m me? Studying abroad isn’t something you can do on a whim. And was she even a good student? If she’d actually done well, I’d have borrowed money to send her. Same with Geong-min. He could’ve just taken a decent job, but instead you fed him this nonsense about becoming a patent attorney, and now he’s been cramming for exams for years.”
“If he could just become a patent attorney! Unlike you, he wouldn’t have to retire at all, so what’s not to like? What’s the point of joining a big company? After enough years, everyone’s just an empty shell anyway.”
“Hah. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.”
Hwang Seok-jae turned away and took clothes out of the closet to put on.
“What are you doing now?”
“This house isn’t a place for me to stay. I should’ve done this long ago...”
“You’re saying you’re leaving home?”
“Yeah.”
Ignoring Hong Jang-mi, whose jaw had dropped, Hwang Seok-jae packed up the rest of his things. As he stepped out through the front door, he said one last thing.
“You’ve got money, so take care of the kids and your card. You handle it from here. The money in my bank account is all mine now.”
“You really are...”
Thud!
After her husband left, Hong Jang-mi stared blankly at the tightly shut door.
*
Two days later, the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre on the outskirts of Paris, France.
The exhibition center was not far from Charles de Gaulle Airport, but Seung-hyun and Seok-jae had arrived a day early and stayed at a nearby hotel.
Rising before dawn for today’s schedule, they reached the venue on time and hurried toward the Home Linen sector of Maison & Objet.
Maybe because it had been recommended by LVMH, the booth had been assigned a pretty good location.
The problem was...
“Are they not here yet?”
“They’re supposed to arrive soon.”
Aside from the table they had set up, the tent structure, and the banner bearing the Haesol Textile logo, the space was empty.
Normally, they should have had the high-end duvet made with GyeolBit fabric laid out at the center, but there was nothing there.
The boxes had been held up at customs, and they’d only just heard that they had finally departed a little while ago.
“Haa... if only the duvet boxes could get here quickly...”
“All we can do is wait for now.”
Seung-hyun took a seat in one corner of the booth and stared at his phone.
The customs officer no longer answered calls, and no other contact came through.
The shipping company kept repeating the same line like a broken tape: there had been a paperwork issue, but “they left a little while ago.”
“I guess no amount of preparation is ever enough,” Hwang Seok-jae muttered, speaking indirectly to himself.
He had plenty of experience in the corporate world, but he had never personally led an event like this before, so he was feeling fairly cornered too.
At the neighboring booth, staff from the Belgian bedding company Atelier du Sommeil were busily arranging sample duvets, pillows, and bedding accessories.
There were products with luxurious patterns you might expect to see at a department store, embellished with gaudy decorations, and there seemed to be quite a lot of them.
When Seung-hyun glanced that way without much thought, one of the neighboring booth staff gave him a sideways look and seemed to whisper something.
Before long, a few of them were sneaking glances at the Haesol Textile booth with faint, amused smiles.
“What’s their problem?”
“Ignore them. Racism exists everywhere. If we’d met at an Asian exhibition, it probably wouldn’t be quite as bad, but here they seem to think we’re complete amateurs.”
Seung-hyun tried hard not to care, but as the neighboring booth’s snickering kept drifting over, he couldn’t help growing more and more irritated.
If the shipment had only arrived on time, we’d already have the duvet spread out proudly in front of them...
For several hours, his stomach burned as he endured the disappointed looks of buyers passing by the booth, and just as it was becoming hard to bear, the exhibition hall suddenly grew noisy.
“I’ll check.”
Quick on his feet, Manager Hwang Seok-jae got up and rushed off.
A while later, he came running back, panting heavily.
“They say an event official is coming by to check on the progress. Apparently it’s someone pretty high up?”
At that point, even Seung-hyun, who didn’t usually get rattled, could not help but feel a little tense.
“Well... there isn’t anything to show.”
He let out a light sigh, as if resigned to fate.
At that moment, another mocking voice floated over from the neighboring booth.
“They said all the heads would be making the rounds today, so this place probably won’t be able to say a word.”
“Haha, this is too funny. They came all the way to the exhibition empty-handed?”
The fact that they were snickering in English, not even French, made it obvious they were doing it on purpose so everyone would hear.
Just as the manager’s face began to harden, a voice came from outside the booth.
“Excuse me, are you from Haesol Textile?”
At the low voice, mixed with English, Seung-hyun snapped his head around.
A delivery worker in a blue uniform was pulling a carrier stacked with several large boxes.
“Yes! Yes, that’s us!”
Hwang Seok-jae spread his arms wide in a warm welcome.
At last, the long-awaited sample boxes of GyeolBit fabric duvets had arrived.
“We’re sorry for the delay. There was a missing customs document...”
“No, it’s fine. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Seung-hyun and Seok-jae quickly carried the boxes into the booth.
By then, the fair’s chief officials and several other staff members were already inspecting products at the neighboring booth and murmuring among themselves.
Soon they would move along to the Haesol Textile booth, and everyone would inevitably pass by.
“Manager, open it quickly!”
“Yes!”
As the tape was torn away and the box opened, a white duvet folded neatly inside a transparent protective case came into view.
The smooth, immaculate texture, free of even the slightest wrinkle, radiated luxury even through the plastic.
“Looks like the goods finally arrived.”
One of the neighboring booth staff glanced over and gave a small snort, but Seung-hyun had no time to pay attention. He carefully lifted the duvet out.
The moment it was unfolded after opening, its subtle sheen and the delicate embroidery pattern in an Eastern style filled the booth at once.
They had only spread out a single duvet in what had been an empty space, yet it was enough to make the whole place feel transformed.
“That’s it, sir.”
Hwang Seok-jae was certain the moment he saw passing buyers stop just to look at the spread-out duvet.
It needed no explanation. This was going to work.
Cars were much the same.
If the design was ugly, you had to keep explaining the performance at length, but if the design grabbed people, the seller could take control from there.
Before long, even the event staff were turning their attention to the booth in the center of the Home Linen sector, where something was being unboxed.
“That’s interesting. It has a sort of Oriental feel to it.”
“I’ve never seen a pattern like that. It’s mysterious.”
People began gathering in front of the booth.
Seung-hyun kept opening box after box, and gradually sample duvets, pillows, and cushions piled up one by one.
Then, at some point,
“Haesol... Textile? GyeolBit? Is that your brand?”
A fairly elderly white man appeared before him, touched the duvet, and asked the question.
“Yes, it is.”
“Remarkable. I heard you’re one of LVMH’s partners. Their judgment certainly doesn’t disappoint us.”
The fact that this company from East Asia was an LVMH partner startled everyone standing in front of the booth.
Seung-hyun immediately took out a business card and offered it.
“Thank you. I’m CEO Jung Seung-hyun.”
The man smiled, accepted the card, and said, “Etienne Laurent. Very impressive.”
Manager Hwang Seok-jae, who had been listening from behind, was startled and leaned in to whisper, “He’s the chairman of the board and managing director of Maison & Objet.”
He looked the booth over once, then tossed out a remark as he passed by and disappeared.
“I’ll buy one too, so please save a set for me.”
Though he had clearly meant it half in jest, the eyes around them changed noticeably.
And the Belgian bedding company that had been dismissing them for having prepared nothing at all...
“Please take care of us.”
Etienne Laurent passed by without saying another word.
“Well now... looks like the chairman didn’t get much of an impression from your side.”
Not wasting the chance, Manager Hwang Seok-jae shook his head with a look of mock regret toward the neighboring booth.
Of course, he said it in English.
---