A Way Out
Drunk, Seung-hyun did not go home.
Instead, he went back to the company, where the lights were off and no one was around, and wandered through the factory with the last traces of alcohol still clouding his head.
The machines that should have been running in shifts day and night stood quietly still, since the only contracted order on hand was for the high-density silk that would be delivered to Daeryung Trading.
He laid a hand on the cold, motionless machinery and thought, Father. Was this what you gave me?
This strange ability that had suddenly appeared. Looking back, it had manifested right after his father collapsed.
I don’t know whether you were worried about the factory or about your son, but thanks to the ability you gave me, I’m managing to hold on.
Seung-hyun slowly reviewed everything that had happened since he had become the company’s representative.
Only a few days had passed, and already so much had happened.
There had been the ugly matter of the employees demanding a mass resignation, and there had been Taesung Apparel’s heavy-handed behavior. But nothing had hit him harder than Kim In-hyuk’s words.
“What on earth happened? It couldn’t have been because of me, right?”
He didn’t think so.
Did it even make sense that some fourth-year college student could move a corporate executive? And just to trample a classmate from the same school? That would be like burning down the whole house to kill a single flea.
Even so, Seung-hyun still couldn’t shake Kim In-hyuk from his mind.
That was why he did not want to lose to Taesung Apparel.
Maybe not to anyone else, but losing to Taesung would feel like forgiving the people who had made his father suffer.
One by one, Seung-hyun touched every machine in the factory and took it in again with his own eyes. By now, these things had become inseparable from him.
It wasn’t enough to simply know fabric anymore. He would have to learn how to handle the machinery in practice, too, and he would have to be better at it than anyone else.
After he had gone through every machine and looked over the whole factory for a long while, he didn’t go home until well past 2 a.m.
*
Two days later,
“So they accepted it after all.”
Factory manager Park Han-soo said with visible relief as he looked at the official document that had arrived by fax.
He had thought there might even be a chance the contract would break down entirely, but as expected, Taesung Apparel had accepted Haesol Textile’s slightly firmer position.
When Seung-hyun took the document, he found dozens of inspection items listed on the page.
To anyone who didn’t know better, it would have been impossible to tell what was being inspected, since everything was written in English.
But Seung-hyun was confident.
“They raised the unit price by 20,000 won per yard, too. It’s barely anything, but if this is all settled, we should still be able to make something off it.”
The difference between the price they paid for raw yarn and the price they sold to Taesung Apparel had been only 70,000 won to begin with.
Once the machines were running and labor was paid, there was hardly more than enough left to keep their heads above water.
They weren’t the National Tax Service, but after tearing through every line of Haesol Textile’s incoming yarn costs and cutting the price down to the brink of death, this had been the delivery price they had landed on.
If the supplier didn’t hand over the books, there would be no business. So the subcontractor had no choice but to bring them out, swallowing his tears along with the bitter radish leaves.
So was Taesung Apparel the villain? Yes, they were. The problem was that there wasn’t a prime contractor in Korea who wasn’t.
Even the Won Intercontinental from Misaeng was like that.
“I just hope it stays this way.”
The factory manager was worried, oddly enough, because Taesung Apparel had accepted the young president’s nerve.
They had agreed to the contract for now, but he had been afraid that if anything went wrong, the deal might be cut off entirely.
Still, since things kept somehow working out, Park Han-soo never said to the young president that they should bow to Taesung.
He knew that sometimes it was better to let someone feel the wall of reality for himself than to keep trying to restrain him from the side.
He only hoped that when Seung-hyun met that wall, it wouldn’t deal the company a fatal blow.
“It’ll work out. There’s a lot of volume, so we’ll be busy from now on.”
“We’ll have to keep the line running in three shifts just to keep up. Luckily, the order came in before Team Leader Jo left, so that’s a relief... I’ll talk with the section heads and work out the schedule.”
“Yes, do that.”
After the factory manager left, Seung-hyun’s smile faded.
The look in his eyes as he stared back down at the official document was very cold.
A trap? Is that what this is?
He thought back to when he had met Kim In-hyuk a few days earlier.
At the time, he had not grabbed the bastard by the collar and forced him to explain, because there was no telling what he could have gained from that besides a little satisfaction and a lot of humiliation.
And so, looking at this document now, Seung-hyun could sense some unknown poison in it.
The numerous inspection items carried the feeling that if even the slightest problem turned up, they would not be let off.
Just then, someone knocked and came inside.
It was Mrs. Yoon Jeong-mi from the sewing department, wearing the same warm, friendly smile she always had.
“May I come in?”
“Of course. Come in. But what brings you here...”
The woman hesitated for a moment with an awkward smile, then asked cautiously, “I just heard. That Taesung placed the order...”
“Yes.”
“I was worried, so I’m really glad. How... will the company be okay from now on?”
“Don’t worry too much. We found a way forward in interiors.”
“Oh? Then... actually, it’s about my daughter...”
“Your daughter?”
Seung-hyun tilted his head at the unexpected turn, and Mrs. Yoon said with an embarrassed laugh, “Do you happen to need any part-time help? My daughter’s quite deft with her hands. I heard a lot of people quit, so I was wondering if you might be short-handed...”
A part-timer or so wouldn’t be a problem...
And, just as she said, a lot of people had quit. Considering they now had to push out Taesung Apparel’s order first, they really were short on labor.
Besides, he had been half-listening when the accounting manager said they were overloaded and could really use one more person. If she wasn’t suited to the floor, he could always use her for clerical support.
“Yes. Please tell her to send in a resume.”
Seung-hyun smiled lightly, not thinking much of it.
“Thank you. She’s a smart girl, so I’m sure she’ll be a help. She’s curious because her mother works at the factory. She says she really wants to work together with me.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Thank you.”
After thanking him several more times, Mrs. Yoon Jeong-mi left the president’s office.
Before long, Seung-hyun had forgotten all about the part-time job and picked up the official document again.
An uneasy feeling with no clear source.
After staring at the document for a long time, Seung-hyun finally couldn’t sit still and got up from his seat.
When he stepped outside, the line that had been idle was already running hard, as if the factory manager had told them everything.
Far away, Team Leader Jo Han-gyeol was operating the machine with a blank expression.
Seung-hyun watched him for a moment, then headed for the material warehouse.
“Hoo... there’s been a decent dent.”
Half of the 2,000 yards of high-density silk blend fabric had been taken out, leaving one side of the warehouse with a noticeably empty gap.
Once the rest was shipped out, all that would be left was the apparel fabric that should have gone to Taesung in the first place.
“What am I supposed to do with this...”
If they could process Taesung Apparel’s order normally without any issues, there would be no problem. But if anything went wrong, then another cash-flow crisis was certain.
To prepare for that possibility, they had to clear out the stock piling up in the warehouse.
The trouble was, this wasn’t the kind of fabric that sold just because you put it up on a secondhand marketplace.
High-density silk blends had a clear use in furniture interiors, which was why he had been able to make calls right away about them, but this one didn’t have any obvious destination.
Seung-hyun touched the stacked fabrics in the warehouse again, checking their information.
He kept at it until his head ached and his stomach turned so badly he couldn’t go on, but there still wasn’t anything that made him think, This is it!
Just basic information about the fabric and some discussion of marketability.
As Seung-hyun bit his lip and turned back, he ran into Park Han-soo.
Apparently he had something to say, because he led him to the president’s office and soon handed over a folder.
“President, I pulled out the records for that LOT 1 fabric you mentioned before. Let’s take a look together.”
According to the material Park Han-soo presented, the main team leader in charge of LOT 1 fabric was, as expected, Jo Han-gyeol.
Of the seven workers assigned to the line, five had already said they would only stay through the end of this month.
Maybe because he had expected it, Seung-hyun wasn’t as shocked as he might have been.
“Is there a problem with the machines?”
“I checked when Team Leader Jo wasn’t around, and there wasn’t any problem with the machines at all.”
“Until when did Team Leader Jo Han-gyeol say he’d work?”
“Until the end of this month.”
“All right. I understand.”
With a blank expression, Seung-hyun nodded, took off his factory jumper, and hung it to one side as he got ready to leave.
Seeing that, the factory manager asked, “Where are you going?”
“I’m going out to clear my head and think about how to move the stock sitting in the warehouse.”
“But you already handled the high-density silk fabric that was piled up...”
“That doesn’t mean everything’s over. And if I can sort that out, isn’t that a good thing?”
“Well, yes, it is.”
“Then keep up the good work.”
After giving the factory manager a slight bow, Seung-hyun left the company and headed first for the department store.
Among all the products made of fabric in this world, two places gathered them in the greatest numbers: Dongdaemun and the department store.
He could have gone to Dongdaemun, but that place was mostly for cheaper items, so he had come here instead.
The brands Taesung Apparel carried used fabrics different from the ones sold in Dongdaemun, and the fabrics Haesol Textile mainly produced were used mostly in clothing from the contemporary tier and above, so the department store was the better fit.
Seung-hyun, who had already dressed in a suit for work that morning, started by checking every luxury clothing item on the second floor, one by one.
The idea was that if he simply touched the clothes, he could figure out the material, and maybe that would spark some inspiration.
After about ten minutes of touching everything one by one, he became so dizzy he could hardly stand.
Still, he refused to give up and kept looking for uses, touching anything that seemed remotely similar to the materials in the warehouse.
Even after he had checked the contemporary brands and still couldn’t come up with anything, he suddenly noticed that there was a floor above with furniture and bedding stores.
Bedding?
Tilted with curiosity, he rode the escalator up and reached the department store’s expensive bedding section, where he ran his hand lightly over the layered blankets on display.
And then,
Oh...!
Something flashed through his mind like lightning.