Real Man

Chapter 132:

Chapter 132

‘That’s one part done.’

That was the preparation for the second presentation. Now, all that was left was to make it a success.

Yoo-hyun checked the time and got up from his seat.

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Are you really going there?”

The ‘there’ that Park Seung-woo, the assistant manager, mentioned was the art club.

There were over a hundred internal clubs in Hansung Electronics.

They were meant to support the hobbies of the employees.

Among them, the place that Yoo-hyun was heading to was the art club in the Sindorim campus.

“Yes, I wanted to check it out.”

“If you want to join a club, why don’t you go to one inside the Hansung Tower? Why bother going all the way there?”

“Maybe Yoo-hyun is interested in art. The art club is only in the Sindorim campus, you know.”

It was as Lee Chan-ho said.

The art club was only in the Sindorim campus, where engineers and designers from Hansung Electronics’ mobile phone division gathered.

But that wasn’t why Yoo-hyun wanted to go there.

“What’s with the art? Ah! You’re going there to learn how to change your phone wallpaper and icons, right?”

“That’s right! Yoo-hyun is really passionate, huh?”

“Right? That’s why he’s taking his mockup with him, right? Right? Eek, you’re so clever. Hehe.”

Of course, it wasn’t to learn design either, as Park Seung-woo and Lee Chan-ho were jokingly implying.

“There’s that too.”

“Then you should go and see for yourself.”

“Learn a lot and draw something for me too. Fighting.”

His real purpose was slightly different, but what did that matter?

Yoo-hyun nodded and Park Seung-woo waved his hand as if to hurry him up.

Lee Chan-ho clenched his fist and cheered him on.

Such nice people, really.

Yoo-hyun smiled with his eyes and turned around.

Thud thud.

The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes that had folded with his smile gradually smoothed out as he walked along the corridor.

His eyes became sharper and his mouth corners dropped.

“I guess I’ve got the second presentation evaluators on my side too.”

If it was Lee Kyung-hoon, the director that Yoo-hyun knew, he would have definitely prepared something for the second presentation as well.

He was someone who never repeated the same mistake twice.

If something got in his way, he would get rid of it by any means necessary. That was his style.

Then why not just defend against it again?

No way!

He couldn’t be dragged along by someone whose intentions were clear.

Yoo-hyun planned to change the game altogether.

That was why he was moving his feet right now.

Sindorim campus 10th floor, design center idea room.

The wall painted with various colors and the striking calligraphy that caught his eye were impressive.

Various geometric shapes of sculptures were placed on the ceiling and walls.

Yoo-hyun entered a room with a very unusual structure at a glance.

It was quite a spacious place, but there weren’t many tables and chairs.

And they were all design furniture, not office furniture.

‘How unique.’

It was a place made for the designers’ idea activities, so the interior design was very experimental.

People might not know, but it was designed by an employee of the company.

Yoo-hyun came here to meet that person.

Thud thud.

As he walked a few steps in, he saw some people gathered around a table.

There were four men and one woman.

“Hello. Is this the art club by any chance?”

“What brings you here?”

A man looked Yoo-hyun up and down.

He had shaggy hair, frayed jeans hem, and mismatched colored top.

From Yoo-hyun’s experience, most designers tended to care a lot about their appearance.

But this guy wasn’t one of them.

“I came here because I like art.”

“You look like a new employee?”

“That’s rare. Not many people volunteer to come here.”

“Hehe, you must think this is a place where we just draw pictures and chat.”

The others were the same.

They didn’t look like designers to Yoo-hyun either.

They didn’t seem to have much interest in art either.

That meant they didn’t come here because they liked it.

Then why did they come?

Why waste their precious time here?

“Just sit down for now. The president will be here soon.”

“Thank you.”

Yoo-hyun smiled politely and sat down.

The people who had been interested in Yoo-hyun soon fell silent, and an awkward silence hung over them.

That was how the atmosphere was originally, they were telling him with their bodies.

Then, Yoo-hyun opened his mouth.

“Excuse me…”

The air started to change in an instant.

At that moment.

A woman standing in front of the copier sighed.

“Sigh.”

The protagonist was Jang Hye-min, a senior researcher (equivalent to manager) at the mobile phone division’s design center.

She wondered why she was doing this every time she had to sort out the printouts herself.

She had finished her studies abroad and joined the company as a senior researcher, but she had very little experience in Korean society.

She tried to adapt to the company as well, but she couldn’t understand the way people worked at all.

Especially, it was unacceptable that her well-made designs were discarded due to conflicts of opinions between the development engineers and the designers.

Other talented designers left the company and moved to foreign companies or opened their own businesses.

But Jang Hye-min was in a position where she couldn’t do that.

‘If I can’t avoid it, I might as well enjoy it.’

That was the mindset that led her to create the art club.

She believed that if she could improve the aesthetic sense of the engineers, she could fundamentally change this frustrating structure.

But things didn’t go as well as she hoped.

-If we have a place, won’t more people participate? There’s a lot of interest in design these days.

She looked at the survey results and turned the idea room she had made herself into an art club exclusive for a certain time.

-The problem is time. There’s too much work to do, so it’s not easy to attend.

She sent an official document to each team, reflecting their opinions.

She had even gotten approval from the head of the mobile phone division, so each team had to spare some people for her.

-It’s also awkward to meet after work. It doesn’t seem like art is something easy to do as a hobby.

She asked for cooperation from each team and made the art club members take out some work hours on Wednesdays and Fridays from 3 pm.

It might seem impossible for someone at the manager level to do that, but Jang Hye-min, the senior researcher, had the power to do so.

-It feels too much like work. And it’s not like there’s any result.

She created an internal design contest to encourage the engineers to participate actively.

Since Jang Hye-min, the senior researcher, personally guided them, they could win a prize if they followed her well.

-I feel like it’s taking too much time. I’m quitting.

But people dropped out one by one.

They had to get re-approval from their department head to quit, which was a hassle.

Still, they were so dissatisfied with the club that they wanted to quit.

There were still some people left, but they were only formal participants.

They couldn’t move as Jang Hye-min wanted them to, since they had joined reluctantly.

As time passed, the relationship between the members became more businesslike.

They became uncomfortable with each other.

She knew something was wrong.

But she didn’t know what to do.

It was hard for her to live a normal social life, after living such a smooth life.

“Huh…”

Jang Hye-min, the senior researcher, who was holding the printouts, sighed in front of the idea room door.

She was thinking of smiling as usual in the awkward atmosphere that would unfold soon.

That was the only way to keep this art club that she had made with her own hands alive.

She opened the door then.

“Hahaha.”

“Hohoho.”

Laughter came from inside the idea room.

Did she hear it wrong?

She tilted her head and cautiously stepped in.

No.

She didn’t hear it wrong.

It was definitely the laughter of the art club members.

‘But who is that guy?’

The people were gathered around a man she had never seen before.

“Oh, president!”

The female employee from the mobile phone circuit design team, who had always been distant, smiled brightly and waved her hand.

What was going on?

“Yes, Eun-ae.”

“Come here. This guy’s face reading is amazing.”

Face reading?

Thump.

Jang Hye-min put the printouts on the table and looked at the new guy with a puzzled expression.

The man in neat clothes greeted her politely.

“Hello. I’m Han Yoo-hyun.”

“Oh, you’re the one who emailed me? You said you work at Hansung Tower? You really came.”

“Yes. I really wanted to come.”

He sounded sincere in his tone.

Just as she was about to say something more, Kim Jae-joong, the chief researcher (equivalent to assistant manager), who usually didn’t talk much, cut in.

“Yoo-hyun, no, Yoo-hyun-nim, please look at me too.”

He even used the respectful suffix ‘nim’, which he usually refused to use.

And his expression?

There was no trace of his usual grumpy and cynical look.

She was so surprised by this situation that Jang Hye-min stared blankly at Yoo-hyun.

That was when it happened.

Yoo-hyun and Jang Hye-min locked eyes for a moment.

‘Long time no see, Jang Hye-min executive. No, Jang Hye-min senior researcher.’

She looked much more innocent and young than his past memories of her.

He saw her young face overlapped with the fearless face of Jang Hye-min executive.

He had many memories with her.

He felt happy for a moment too.

But he smiled with his eyes and moved his gaze to the man sitting across from him.

“Jae-joong-nim’s eyes are…”

Yoo-hyun didn’t study face reading in particular.

He just knew some terms because he had used it a few times before.

He was just making it sound good, but what he was doing now was more like observation than face reading.

“Ah…I do send money to my parents every month.”

“Yes, you have a kind nature…”

“Wow, amazing.”

He just smiled at their enthusiastic reactions.

He wasn’t happy because he got attention in this awkward atmosphere.

He was happy because he confirmed that Jang Hye-min senior researcher joined in the positive mood.

He wanted to win her over and make her move eventually.

He believed that was the fastest way to solve the tangled problem.

“President, please let him look at you too.”

“Me? Ah…”

And he knew what she wanted.

When Jang Hye-min senior researcher hesitated, he made a troubled expression.

“Actually, I came here today to learn design. I want to improve my aesthetic sense too.”

“Really?”

She felt her heartbeat quicken.

“I heard that the art club in Sindorim campus has great support and is good for learning art even for beginners.”

“Ah…”

Her eyes became crescents and wrinkles formed at the corners of her eyes.

“I’m in the product planning team, so I don’t know much about art, but I feel like I need to know design for my work. I can’t learn everything today, but I want to hang out with good people and learn from them.”

“Hmm. Our club does have great support.”

Her mouth corners rose and her face turned red.

“You came to the right place. It’s hard, but you’ll definitely learn something.”

“That’s right. The support is awesome.”

“And they give us some time off during work, so we have some leisure too.”

As the people continued to talk, Jang Hye-min senior researcher’s eyes started to get bloodshot.

She seemed moved by just a few words.

‘She’s still the same.’

When Yoo-hyun slipped his hand away, Jang Hye-min senior researcher was startled and lifted her hand.

“Oh, I must have gone crazy for a moment.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Then she awkwardly picked up the printouts she had put on the table.

She tried to hold it in, but a smile leaked out of her mouth.

Her emotions were clearly shown on her face, just like before.