Dark Horse (1)
In truth, Hee-ju had not planned to go to the Hongdae store that morning.
Before she left for work, her great-aunt Yoo Hye-ryeong had called to pass along a message from her grandfather, asking her to stop by the house sometime.
When Hee-ju naturally asked why he wanted to see her so suddenly, she heard that her grandfather wanted to give someone else bedding as a gift, and decided she needed to meet Seung-hyun.
It helped that today was the opening day of the Hongdae offline store, so it made for a convenient excuse to meet him.
“Not the exact same thing?”
Seung-hyun frowned at the idea of deliberately looking for a different design.
If he wanted a pattern he didn’t already have, he would have to find a new one and program it, which meant a great deal more work.
Hee-ju looked troubled, but she explained patiently.
“Don’t misunderstand me. It’s just... how should I put it? People with a lot of money really want to be treated specially. I told you I gave my grandfather bedding as a gift, right?”
“Yes.”
“At first, when he received it, he just told me to give similar bedding as gifts to a few people he thought could use it. But after sleeping under it once, it seems like he wants to give it to the people close to him.”
“And?”
“The point is, if my grandfather wants to give a gift, he probably won’t want to give something identical to his own.”
“So, he wants to show off, but keep some difference?”
“Exactly.”
“Hah...”
“I know it might not make sense to you, but you really need to understand this. Basically, the reason people buy luxury goods is because they want to be different from everyone else. They want to own luxury items and feel as though they belong to a different class from ordinary people, and then there’s the jealous looks they get from others. That’s what they’re paying for.”
“You’re being surprisingly objective.”
Hee-ju shrugged.
“You have to understand it to sell luxury goods. Korea’s luxury market got this big because people who didn’t have money were made to buy them.”
“...”
“At our level, people don’t even want the same luxury item as someone else. We have to be different again. Seeing someone else with the same thing makes it feel less like they rose up and more like I went down, if that makes sense. You get how funny that is, right?”
“No. Though now that I think about it, maybe my own mindset as someone selling high-end luxury bedding hadn’t yet caught up to the people buying bedding.”
“Oh? Are you saying you learned that from me?”
“Yes.”
Seeing that Seung-hyun was readily willing to understand the mindset of people who owned luxury goods, Hee-ju smiled and relaxed.
“So from now on, the bedding you want to give as a gift needs to be a little different from that... something like that. It has to preserve your grandfather’s dignity and pride while still making it obvious that he’s giving a gift... you know what I mean, right?”
“I understand. Then what price are you thinking?”
As soon as he asked the most important question, Hee-ju hesitated slightly before testing the waters.
“Could we just make up for it with celebrity promotion?”
“I mean, I’d certainly appreciate that, but I’m fairly confident in Lesser Factory.”
“Wow. So you’re saying you don’t need it? The celebrity I’m talking about is Han Saet-byeol.”
Even Seung-hyun, who had never paid much attention to celebrities, jolted in surprise.
“Han Saet-byeol?”
“Yes... amazing, right?”
She really was.
Han Saet-byeol, an actress who had transitioned from being a Hallyu idol, had already been a star back when she was still an idol.
After becoming an actress, she had gone on to play leading roles and remained wildly popular. And now he could use someone like Han Saet-byeol?
But then...
“She is amazing, but you’re saying A-yeong looks like Han Saet-byeol?”
“The vibe is similar, isn’t it? You probably don’t know because A-yeong doesn’t really dress up. If we just refined her eyes a little...”
“...”
“Anyway, can’t this count as a fair exchange?”
Seung-hyun nodded.
“She is amazing, but no, this can’t be a fair exchange.”
“Why are your actions and words different? You nodded.”
“That meant I thought it was an excellent offer. But after thinking it over, I’m in the position of a craftsman making luxury goods. The process of creating a new pattern already contains the craftsman’s anguish. That can’t be compared to having a celebrity wear clothes and pose for photos.”
“But it’s Han Saet-byeol.”
“That’s why it was tempting, but no means no.”
Hee-ju puckered her lips and let out a long sigh.
“Fine. How about five million won per bedding set?”
“The amount of labor involved is similar to what went into making Davide Sossi’s set.”
“...Six million.”
“Since the chairman’s set was ten million won, I’ll make it eight million. Then your grandfather gets a proper gift and keeps his face.”
“......Seven million.”
“It’s eight million. Ah, and this will also take a week, so please explain that to your grandfather. This time I’ll be taking a deposit, so set the quantity first and send one million won per set to the account you used before.”
The atmosphere made it clear that haggling over the price would not be tolerated, and Hee-ju made a strange face.
“All right. I did come to ask for a favor, but I feel like I’m leaving having taken a huge loss. I even have to buy clothes before I go, too.”
“Thank you. I’m sure you’ll like the clothes. I can promise that.”
“Yes, yes~”
In the end, Cha Hee-ju became Lesser Factory’s first offline customer and left the store with her arms full of clothes.
After she went out, only the staff remained inside, but since the store was rent-free, the pressure wasn’t all that overwhelming.
Of course, that didn’t mean Seung-hyun wasn’t worried about the wages for the part-time staff, but he trusted the product value in the information window.
Maybe he looked too calm for comfort?
A-yeong, who had been peering out the front window all this time, finally sidled over and spoke up.
“Aren’t you worried, boss?”
“Why? Are you worried no customers will come?”
“Of course. If this big store keeps having no customers, then, ugh...”
She shuddered and hugged her arms, saying just the thought of it gave her chills.
“People will come soon enough. Don’t worry too...”
Before he could finish, a group of women walked in.
They looked around the newly opened store with interest and examined the clothes one by one.
Not long after, a couple came into the store as well.
As A-yeong gradually realized that location was indeed everything when it came to business, the face that had been frozen in tension began to brighten little by little as more and more customers arrived.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
One day later, late in the evening.
Hee-ju and Han Saet-byeol met again for the first time in a while at a luxury apartment in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam, Seoul.
Saet-byeol, wearing a loose sweatshirt and jeans, looked exactly like the cute image people were used to seeing on television.
Her bobbed hair, clear and large eyes, and the slight lift at one corner of her lips whenever she smiled were all part of her charm.
“Cha Hee-ju, you got a job and now you’re acting so busy? You look busier than me, and I’m the celebrity. Also, what’s that?”
When Han Saet-byeol greeted her in her bright voice, Hee-ju waved a hand.
“Working people are always the busiest. And you’re acting all relaxed because you don’t have a project right now. Haah... just open that for me.”
Hee-ju dropped a large plastic bag onto the marble living room floor as if throwing it down, then collapsed onto the sofa.
“What is it?”
“Clothes.”
“Clothes? Are you running a traveling goods stall?”
“I’ve somehow ended up doing something pretty similar.”
“Even though you’re a chaebol, you really live hard.”
“Heh heh. It just turned out that way. Anyway, I came today to make you wear it.”
“Huh? We haven’t seen each other in a month and you came to turn me into a model?”
“Be nice to me here. I need you to do this.”
Han Saet-byeol scrunched up her nose and lips in dissatisfaction.
Then she took a sip of water and opened the Lesser Factory shopping bag that Hee-ju had thrown on the floor.
As she examined the pieces one by one, her dissatisfied expression gradually eased.
“Oh! The color palette is good. It’s not a sports brand and it’s not luxury, but it’s still stylish.”
“Right? The designer is surprisingly only in his early twenties, but his sense is incredible. The material is really soft too.”
Saet-byeol sprang to her feet, held a T-shirt up against the mirror, and her eyes shone.
“Heh, not bad.”
“When you post about it on social media, just give your honest impression. I’ve prepared the promotion budget separately, of course.”
“You’re going to pay me? Hey, between us...”
“No, it has to be handled properly as a business matter too. It’s a real sponsorship. And tell me what conditions you want. I’ll listen to all of them.”
Han Saet-byeol laughed it off and stripped off her clothes right there.
Then she put on the clothes Hee-ju had brought and stood before the living room mirror, studying herself from different angles.
The white T-shirt and cotton shorts showed off her slim figure well, and her youthful beauty and bright eye-smile suited the outfit perfectly.
Saet-byeol looked at herself in the mirror with a satisfied expression and said, “It’s pretty, but the inside feels so soft. It’s like I’m not even wearing anything.”
“Good, right?”
“Yeah. But if I put this up on social media as a promotional video, that’d be a little much... and blatant advertising would be kind of awkward too. I’ll just wear it around.”
“Oh? Nice.”
If she hadn’t liked it, Hee-ju would have had her do a simple ad shoot and left it at that. But since the clothes were good enough, she was saying she’d just wear them in her daily life instead.
And this wasn’t just anyone; it was Han Saet-byeol. Wherever she went, she drew attention, so if she simply wore the clothes in everyday life, that would be more than enough to achieve the promotional goal.
“But this is a brand I’ve never seen before. Lesser Factory? So Hanil Global started a new brand?”
“No. If it were Hanil Global, do you think I’d have come all this way carrying clothes, asking you to wear them? The publicity department would’ve just sent an ad proposal to your company.”
“Fair point. So then?”
“I only heard about this brand recently myself, but they make blankets unbelievably well.”
Han Saet-byeol furrowed her brow and asked again.
“Blankets? A company that makes the blankets you sleep under?”
“Right. But the quality is insane. Honestly, I gave one to my grandfather recently, and after sleeping under it once, he called me the very next day and told me to get him a few more sets of bedding.”
At that, Saet-byeol cried out in alarm.
“I want one too!”
Hee-ju looked taken aback, since that wasn’t exactly the direction she had expected.
“You too? You already have a good blanket.”
“So what? Who doesn’t like a good blanket? And your grandfather’s had to have owned the best of the best in the world, so if he was satisfied after sleeping under this one, just how good is it?”
“It’s expensive.”
“How expensive?”
“I paid ten million won for my grandfather’s set.”
Han Saet-byeol’s mouth fell open.
Amused by her reaction, Hee-ju chuckled.
“Expensive, right? Makes you gasp, huh?”
“Ten million won for one blanket set? That’s insanely expensive.”
“I’m telling you. They don’t even sell in Korea. It’s all for export, but I specially asked them to make a limited edition for me, so once they quoted ten million, I had no choice but to say yes.”
The more Saet-byeol listened, the greedier her eyes became.
“They don’t even sell in Korea? Where do they go?”
“If I remember right, France and England, and maybe Italy too? The investment company behind them is LVMH. Since it’s a company invested in by Louis Vuitton, I suppose that’s why their stuff is so incredible.”
“So basically, it’s a blanket made by Louis Vuitton?”
Hee-ju tilted her head at the strange conclusion.
“I said they only invested.”
“Still, isn’t part of the company owned by the LVMH Group?”
“...Well, if you put it that way.”
“I want one too.”
Hee-ju blinked and looked at her friend.
“You haven’t even seen the actual blanket.”
“Do you have to see something to buy it?”
“Usually, yes. Don’t you try on clothes before you buy them?”
“I buy online without trying them on.”
Hee-ju bit her lip and gave Saet-byeol a side-eyed look.
“Fine. I’ll get you one.”
“I’ll pay. I have money too.”
“Forget it. I came to ask you to wear clothes for me, so why would I take money from you?”
“That’s one thing, this is another. You helped me out before, remember? Should I just transfer ten million won?”
“...This one is eight million.”
“Got it.”
Han Saet-byeol transferred 8 million won on the spot, humming to herself as she changed back into her clothes.