Japan Entry (3)
On the first day of the Shibuya opening, business at Lesser Factory had been slow enough to make Ah-young worry. But as time passed, the shop gradually came alive.
By the second day, even more people were coming and going in front of the store than the day before, and the local Japanese staff were busy keeping up with the customers.
Lesser Factory’s Dualtex fabric, along with its affordable prices, satisfied the appetite of younger shoppers, and before long, word of mouth began to spread.
“The response is better than I expected,” Seung-hyun said, watching the situation from one side of the store.
Ah-young beamed and nodded. “Yes! Especially after the news about Ms. Han Saet-byeol’s autograph event started circulating on SNS, interest seems to have gone up even more. They say the phone has been ringing nonstop with questions since this morning.”
The marketing staff dispatched from Hanil Global’s Japanese branch reported that applications for the autograph event had already exceeded 1,000 people.
For safety reasons, they had decided to cap attendance at 500, but then the question became how to choose among them.
After a long round of deliberation, the local corporation here decided to hold a lottery for 500 customers who spent at least 50,000 yen in the store.
Then a middle-aged man hurried into the shop, looking flustered.
He glanced around the store, spotted Seung-hyun and Ah-young near the back, and approached them with a broad smile.
“You haven’t gone back to Seoul yet?”
“No. I’m planning to leave after today.”
“You’re not going to watch the model’s autograph event?”
“I don’t think I need to stand beside it to enjoy it. But why the sudden question...?”
Okada Sota asked urgently, “To be honest, it’s funny even to me. I almost never ask anyone for favors, but given how things are, I can’t help myself. Could I ask you to help my daughter attend the autograph event?”
“Ms. Han Saet-byeol’s autograph event?”
“That’s right. I’m asking you, please.”
After listening to Ah-young’s translation, Seung-hyun looked troubled, and the man hurried on.
“If you’ll do this for me, I’ll give you a week’s stay voucher at Okura Tokyo, a five-star hotel. That’s practically worth nearly one million yen.”
“Well... the thing is, attendance is limited to 500 people. There are already so many applicants...”
“Those are the kind of passes you can’t just find anywhere. Since it’s my hotel, it’s possible. If necessary, I could even give you the voucher at half price.”
It was a sum close to ten million won, but the problem was that Seung-hyun didn’t really need an expensive hotel voucher like that.
His schedule in Japan was already finished, and it wasn’t as if he had so much free time that he planned to come here often just to vacation.
“I’m sorry, but a five-star hotel voucher just isn’t that useful to me. I don’t think I’ll be coming to Japan that often either...”
“Isn’t this your store anyway?”
“Haha, the brand is ours, yes, but distribution is handled by Hanil Global, the local subsidiary for our Korean fashion brands. I just came by to look around and get a feel for the atmosphere. Even the Han Saet-byeol autograph event we’re holding this time was arranged by the local corporation, not by us.”
“I see...”
Seeing the look of disappointment on Mr. Okada’s face, Seung-hyun smiled.
“For now it’s a lottery among customers who spend over 50,000 yen, but since you and I have a connection, I’ll ask that you be given an invitation to the autograph event, Mr. Okada.”
The unexpected kindness left him deeply moved.
“You’d really do that?”
Then a thought suddenly crossed Seung-hyun’s mind.
“No need to repay me, but... you are the owner of Okura Hotel, correct?”
“I am.”
Only then did he straighten his shoulders and wear a proud expression.
If he owned a five-star hotel in Tokyo, one could imagine the stature he usually carried.
And yet the fact that he was asking someone for help on behalf of his daughter was somehow both surprising and strangely endearing.
“By the way, what kind of bedding do you use at Okura Hotel?”
“Bedding?”
Okada asked in a puzzled voice.
“Yes. Our company produces a luxury bedding line called Gyeolbit, so I was curious.”
“Ah. We mainly use Italian Frette bedding. Since it’s a five-star hotel, we can’t just bring in any bedding we like.”
Frette, of all things...
In Europe, they had suffered a steep drop in sales because of Frette, and now Royal Department Store was bringing the brand in and aggressively promoting high-end bedding.
No one failed to see that it was, in effect, a strategic move to counter the Gyeolbit bedding that was doing so well at Mirae Department Store.
For Seung-hyun, it could only feel oddly fated.
“Frette? Ah...”
“Why do you ask?”
Seung-hyun smiled. “How about considering our Gyeolbit bedding instead of a stay voucher at Okura Hotel?”
“What? Bedding? You make bedding too, besides clothes?”
“We do. It sells at department stores for around 500,000 yen per set.”
“500,000 yen for one comforter set? That’s quite expensive. It’s a huge difference from the clothes you’re selling now. Is there a reason you managed the brand that way?”
As expected of a businessman, his question went straight to the point.
“The reason for making bedding and the reason for making clothes are different. Bedding is for the warmest, most comfortable sleep imaginable, while clothes are something we wanted as many people as possible to enjoy at an affordable price. That’s why we separated the corporations.”
“I see. So that’s Gyeolbit... Since you so readily agreed to help with my request, it would be no problem to take a look at the bedding. But as I said, we can’t bring in just any bedding. The conditions are fairly strict. I should tell you that it’s very likely it won’t work out.”
“That’s fine. You’ll be entering Japan sooner or later anyway, so I’m simply giving you the first chance, sir.”
When he heard Ah-young translate that, he burst out laughing.
“You’re saying you’re giving me a chance? Hahaha! You’ve got guts. All right, understood.”
“If you’ll just give me your name and contact information, I’ll add you to the attendance list.”
He gladly provided his information and then left the store.
“Mr. Okada is the owner of Okura Tokyo Hotel... If you compare it to Korea, he’s practically a chaebol heir, right? Can someone like that really go around so modestly?”
“The clothes he wore before were all insanely expensive luxury pieces. It just didn’t show on the surface.”
“Still, if someone has that much money, wouldn’t they show it off more?”
“Maybe that’s just his style.”
Seung-hyun found himself very curious about what choice the middle-aged hotel owner would make now that his back had disappeared from view.
After returning home, Okada sat down in front of his computer at once.
He could not ignore the curiosity stirred up by the young Korean executive’s mention of Gyeolbit bedding.
When he searched for “Gyeolbit bedding,” he found all sorts of articles: pieces saying it had established itself as a high-end bedding brand at Mirae Department Store in Korea, news of its successful entry into the European market, and even articles about Han Saet-byeol serving as the brand ambassador.
“Goodness, this really is a remarkable brand!” Okada muttered, clearly astonished.
He examined images of the Gyeolbit bedding in detail.
Elegant patterns, refined design, and descriptions of special fabric technology made everything look perfect.
What if he brought this bedding into the VIP suite at Okura Tokyo? The thought struck him all at once.
Okada made up his mind.
“I have to see it for myself before I decide.”
He asked his secretary to book a flight to Korea for the following week.
On the day of the autograph event, the front of the Lesser Factory store was crowded from early morning.
Even fans who had not made the 500-person limit had come to look around, and as a result, the streets of Shibuya were packed shoulder to shoulder.
Okada entered through the VIP entrance with his daughter Miyuki.
Miyuki looked around with a face full of excitement, then turned to her father, who was standing awkwardly beside her, and said with moved wonder, “So I’m actually going to meet Han Saet-byeol in person... But how did you manage to get this?”
Okada smiled. “Haha, this much is nothing... I know the president of Lesser Factory quite well. I asked as a favor for you.”
“Hmm, I like you for once.”
It wasn’t quite the same as saying “Dad, you’re the best,” but just getting that one crooked grin that said he had done well filled him with emotion.
For Okada, it was truly the first smile he had seen from his daughter in a long time.
Ever since her mother died, she had rarely smiled at him, and he had lived all that time with a stone pressed on his chest. Now he felt that weight ease a little.
After that, Miyuki waited for the autograph event with an eager expression, not a hint of fatigue on her face despite the long line stretching before them.
The autograph event was a tremendous success.
Han Saet-byeol engaged with fans in perfect Japanese and won an enormous response, and Miyuki also got the chance to take a commemorative photo with Han Saet-byeol’s autograph.
“Today was really happy,” Miyuki said, overflowing with joy as they left the event.
“And these clothes are pretty good too. I think I’ll buy a few.”
“They were only available because you had to spend over 50,000 yen, so I did buy ten T-shirts to give to the staff...”
“Give those to the staff. I’ll buy my own.”
“All right, go ahead and choose.”
Okada smiled as he watched his daughter shopping.
When she came out in a changed outfit, looked at herself in the mirror, and turned to her father to ask, “How is it? Does it suit me?” he felt as if this must be happiness.
Miyuki bought several pieces from Lesser Factory, and watching her, Okada found himself admiring the young Korean executive’s technology and design.
In northern Gyeonggi Province, joint military training between South Korea and the United States was in full swing.
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Walker, commander of the 12th Regiment of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, was taking a brief rest and looking over the operations board.
Then he lifted his head, looked at the Republic of Korea Army 1st Division troops undergoing training, and then at Captain Lee Cheol-jin of the same division, who was participating in the exercise alongside them, and tilted his head.
“Have the combat uniforms changed?”
“Yes, sir. We switched to new combat uniforms not long ago.”
Captain Lee Cheol-jin, who was fluent in English, answered.
“The digital print is the same, but the material is different. I thought something was off. Are they any good?”
It was clear he wasn’t asking because he was genuinely curious, but simply because the subject had come up.
So Captain Lee Cheol-jin answered in a similarly formal but honest way.
“Yes, very good, sir. The troops are satisfied as well.”
Yet Lieutenant Colonel Henry Walker tilted his head again.
“Satisfied? That’s the first time I’ve heard Korean soldiers say they’re satisfied with military supplies.”
“Haha, that’s true. I used to think the things the army issued were always worse than what you could get in civilian life, but with these uniforms, I’m almost grateful to the Ministry of National Defense.”
“I see.”
Nodding, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Walker ran out of things to say and asked again, “What makes them so good?”
“Sir? Ah... first of all, they’re incredibly light. Compared to the old uniforms, maybe two-thirds the weight? Or even lighter than that? Anyway, they’re very light.”
“Really?”
“Yes. On top of that, they breathe well and don’t absorb much water, so even in the rain there’s less loss of combat effectiveness. And they’re durable too, so even after washing them several times, they don’t get damaged much. They’re sturdier than I expected, and since the fabric is functional as well, I’m very satisfied.”
“I see. Korea is still ahead of us in this area, too.”
“Haha, they can’t really be compared to the U.S. military, sir. Not in equipment or anything else. It just happens that the uniforms turned out quite well this time.”
At that moment, a signal from the tactical radio announced the start of the next exercise.
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Walker said, “We’d better move. We can talk more about the uniforms later.”
“Yes, sir.”
The training resumed, and the soldiers from both countries began cooperative operations in mountainous terrain.
Even while directing the operation, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Walker continued to watch the movements of the Korean troops.
Even in the humid environment, the combat uniforms did not cling to their bodies, and the soldiers’ movements looked free and unhampered.
He kept studying the Korean combat uniforms with great attention.