【Deokseong】 was famous for its woolen products, just like 【Guseong】.
Then, sensing the advent of the SPA (Specialty Retailer of Private Label Apparel), or fast fashion era, Lee Hyun-woo, who was the head of the new product development team at the time, came up with a plan.
Manager Lee, the chairman has his eye on you.
Excuse me? What do you mean?
I’m talking about this plan. It seems he really likes it. Since Executive Director Jung has submitted his resignation, there’s an executive position open, and it looks like he wants to promote you.
Really?
Why would I lie to you? It will probably be announced on the company intranet soon. But you know that once you become an executive candidate, you’ll be investigated, right? And the interview with the HR committee is almost like a hearing. You need to prepare thoroughly. Got it?
Yes, yes, Executive Director.
Though the background check and interview were tough, Lee Hyun-woo eventually became the youngest executive.
Not only that, but after leading the group’s entry into SPA and securing a foothold in the market, he made significant contributions.
Later, he even took advantage of the boycott of Japanese products to significantly increase market share.
It would have been fine if everything ended well, but due to a miscalculation in inventory prediction…
‘Let’s stop thinking about bad memories here.’
Lee Hyun-woo asked another specific question to keep his father from getting too excited.
“But Father, 【Aejeong Apparel】 is a company that makes clothes, not fabrics.”
“Oh? You know quite a bit.”
“Haha… I’ve picked up a few things here and there.”
“That’s right. They make clothes by getting fabrics from other places. But they said they’ll take care of that too.”
“They’ll take care of that? So you’re saying the company supplying the fabric will outsource dyeing to your company?”
“Exactly. That’s why this is really interesting. I usually don’t talk to you about company matters, but here I am. Hahaha.”
Seeing his father’s good-natured smile, Lee Hyun-woo also smiled.
But his smile was mixed with complicated emotions.
Sensing his older brother’s feelings, Lee Jung-woo came by a little later.
“Hyung, what’s going on? Could it be that Manager Choi Seon-hwa has feelings for you…?”
“No, it’s not that. She knew I was dating Ah-young.”
“Well, you never know. In that world, talented people are often poached. That’s why when a chaebol daughter marries an ordinary guy, the women who get left behind exist, right?”
“Do you watch a lot of dramas?”
“Not really, I just remember hearing it somewhere…”
“Anyway, I think Seon-hwa did this because the collaboration product with our company is doing well. But I need to check it out.”
“If that’s the case, let me go.”
“You? Why?”
“You have sister-in-law, don’t you? If rumors spread, it wouldn’t be good, so you need to act carefully.”
Lee Hyun-woo shook his head at his younger brother’s overreaction.
However, this might be something Lee Jung-woo needed to do.
‘You never know who you’ll meet while managing a company in the future.’
Although he would serve as CTO for the next two years, his younger brother might climb to a higher position afterward.
Even if not, during business trips to places like the U.S. or Japan, he might meet bigwigs, so he should start learning to handle someone like Choi Seon-hwa now.
“It sounds crazy, but fine… This time, you go and convey our gratitude.”
“Okay, got it.”
Seeing the determination on his younger brother’s face, Lee Hyun-woo chuckled.
‘Training him like this is almost like giving him management lessons, isn’t it?’
Lee Hyun-woo, who always thought he needed to train multiple management talents for his eventual retirement.
One of them was, of course, Lee Jung-woo.
The next evening.
Lee Jung-woo met Choi Seon-hwa in a quiet place.
Since she had a rough idea why he came,
“I heard from my father about 【Aejeong Apparel】 yesterday. So I wanted to meet and express my gratitude.”
She laughed as soon as he said that.
In fact, his manner of speaking was quite funny.
It sounded overly formal and weighty.
In contrast, Choi Seon-hwa responded lightly.
“You should thank someone else, not me.”
“Someone else? I’m not sure who you mean.”
“Are you going to keep talking like that? Did you recently finish your military service?”
“Ah… it’s been over a year…”
“You sound much more natural without the formal speech.”
“So do I.”
“Why did you suddenly get so formal? You weren’t like that when I visited 【Jungle】.”
“I just felt like I should.”
In fact, Lee Jung-woo hadn’t used this formal tone when Choi Seon-hwa visited 【Jungle】 a few times.
“Anyway, who should I thank? Who is it?”
“Well…”
“……”
“You’ll have to find out yourself.”
“What?”
“It feels like I shouldn’t say. Just know that someone very close to Hyun-woo asked me to do it.”
“Oh? Sister-in-law?”
“Oh? Have they already promised to get married?”
Seeing him refer to her as sister-in-law, Choi Seon-hwa asked in surprise, and Lee Jung-woo quickly shook his head.
“No, no. It’s just easier to call Hyung’s girlfriend that. There aren’t many other terms to use.”
“Oh…”
“Anyway, did sister-in-law ask you?”
“Not just asking, but 【First Woolen】 also seems to be moving. No, it seems they’ve already decided, and your father’s company will soon get a proposal.”
“Wow…”
He was so amazed he couldn’t even speak.
At this point, it seemed like having a good son was leading to business prosperity.
‘Well, thanks to having a great brother, I became an executive before even graduating, so my brother really is an amazing person.’
After thinking this, Lee Jung-woo expressed his gratitude again to Choi Seon-hwa.
“No matter the favor, it’s not easy to do. From what I found out, 【Aejeong Apparel】 is a company that receives fabrics from subcontractors, not one that does its own dyeing.”
“Oh? You even know that?”
“Actually, Hyung knew. I don’t really know whether they dye fabrics or clothes.”
“He really is amazing. It seems like he knows every step of production and distribution for any product. I wonder what he doesn’t know?”
“I’m amazed every day, even though he’s my brother. He makes work look so easy and keeps succeeding, so it’s hard to tell if work is easy or if he’s just that good. At this rate, if he gets involved in father’s company, he could probably grow it quickly.”
“Why doesn’t he do that?”
“I think our father wants to retire and rest at home soon.”
“How old is your father…”
“He’s not even sixty yet, so it’s a bit much. And my brother is also determined to retire before forty, which drives me crazy.”
“……”
Now Choi Seon-hwa was speechless.
If he’s talking about retiring before forty, that means he has about ten years left.
“Why so soon…”
“Exactly. That’s why I set conditions. I told him to train someone as good as him and make one of our information communication companies number one in the world before retiring.”
“And what did he say?”
“He said he’d do it. He answered so easily that I felt deflated for setting the conditions. And seeing his recent work, it doesn’t seem that hard. As you know, 【Jungle USA】 is about to launch, and 【Jungle Japan】 keeps requesting for online shopping and music services every day. By the way, 【Jungle Japan】 is currently preparing for an IPO, and it seems like it will go public in the shortest time ever.”
Lee Jung-woo boasted about the recent achievements as if he were bragging.
But Choi Seon-hwa had already seen the news.
So she couldn’t help but nod.
“Maybe… if it’s Hyun-woo… he might actually do it within ten years.”
Suddenly, she felt really envious of Kim Ah-young.
And also felt a sense of emptiness.
It was an inexplicable sense of loss.
Perhaps because of this feeling, she made an unexpected proposal to Lee Jung-woo.
“I’m feeling a bit down today… want to have a drink?”
“Sure! I never refuse a drink.”
That day, the two drank until they were quite tipsy.
And they didn’t stop there; they even went to a karaoke bar, where Choi Seon-hwa repeatedly sang the very meaningful song, Kim Yoon-seon’s ‘A Love Forgiven by Heaven.’
Is it because they’re young?
Despite drinking heavily the night before, Lee Hyun-woo laughed as he saw his younger brother Lee Jung-woo get up early.
“You drank a lot.”
“Yeah, Manager Choi can really hold her liquor.”
“So? Did you talk well?”
“I thanked her. But actually…”
The person to thank is my sister-in-law, not me.
He stopped just as he was about to say this.
He remembered Choi Seon-hwa asking him to keep it a secret the night before.
-Ah-young seems to be envisioning a rosy future with Hyun-woo. But as you know, Ah-young’s family isn’t easy to deal with. So she’s trying to grow your father’s company as much as possible. You know what that means, right?
While drinking, they dropped the formalities.
Since Choi Seon-hwa entered school early, she was about two years older.
The alcohol had created a comfortable atmosphere where they could talk freely like siblings.
In any case, the conclusion was that Kim Ah-young was working hard to bridge the gap between the two families.
Since he couldn’t tell his brother, he had to come up with an excuse.
“…It’s almost like she got caught trying to secretly repay what she owed your brother. So she said there’s no need to thank her.”
“What did I give her that she would repay?”
“She said she lives with a constant sense of indebtedness.”
“Ha, that girl.”
“Anyway, let’s wrap it up here and focus on our own work. Delving deeper might distort the goodwill.”
“What do you mean distort? Anyway, got it. I’ll have to take care of that girl later.”
Take care?
Then, Manager Choi will gain something big again.
These days, whenever his brother gets involved in a project, it’s not a small business.
So he envisioned that she would gain even more than what she had given.
He was slightly curious, but he figured it would be revealed eventually.
‘Today, I should stop by and see Dad after work.’
From what he heard the day before, there was a high chance that 【First Woolen】 would place another order, so he needed to figure out a way to keep it from his brother.
Why?
Because even though his sister-in-law was acting out of goodwill or for their future, his brother wouldn’t be pleased if he found out.
Despite his appearance, his brother had a strong sense of pride and valued fairness and justice, so he might not accept the idea of their father’s company getting work without conditions.
‘Good things are good things.’
With this thought, Lee Jung-woo went to school and then stopped by his father’s factory.
“What brings you here?”
“Oh, just… I heard good things are happening lately, so I wanted to take a look…”
“Did you? Perfect timing. I also have something to brag about today.”
“What?”
“It seems this year is going to be great. I got a call from 【First Woolen】 today. Unlike 【Aejeong Apparel】 two days ago, they want to proceed after checking the fabric samples, but this is almost a done deal. Hahaha.”
Seeing his father’s laughing face, Lee Jung-woo also laughed.
Then he said,
“Dad, how about keeping this from Hyung?”
“What?”
“Hyung sometimes does that. He hides things and then surprises us with big results.”
“Well, he does keep his girlfriend tightly under wraps, which is a bit annoying.”
“Exactly. So, Dad, if you grow the company a lot and then surprise him, Hyung’s slightly droopy eyes will go up in surprise, right? I would really like to see that expression. Haha.”
Lee Jung-woo, who also had slightly droopy eyes, said this.
Their father, who also had slightly droopy eyes and had passed them on to his sons, laughed and nodded.
“Alright, then let’s keep this a secret between us and surprise your brother later. Hahaha.”
