Real Man

Chapter 454:

Yoo-hyun had a good sleep during the 11-hour flight from LA airport.

His journey in the US had been quite exhausting, so he fell asleep for a long time.

As soon as he arrived in Korea, he contacted his friends and checked on Jeong Da-hye’s schedule.

Then he went straight to sleep mode.

He rested at home without going out, even after having a long sleep.

Today was no different, as the launch of the Apple Phone 4 was imminent.

Click.

Yoo-hyun took a sip of cold coffee and browsed the domestic news after the foreign ones.

In the past, it would have been a story of another country, but this time it was different.

Although the release was delayed by a day due to the carrier issue, the enthusiasm was hotter than any other country.

This was evident from the pre-order status that appeared on the news.

It was 10 minutes, but excluding the time the server was down, it took less than 5 minutes to finish 100,000 pre-orders.

On various online reservation communities, pre-order confirmation shots were posted as the best posts.

Below them, envious comments were pouring in.

-So jealous. Should I just go out and line up now?

-There are already people who pitched tents in front of the Jongno store. You won’t get one if you’re late.

-Holy. Guys, where should I line up? I’m from Jeonnam, please give me some coordinates.

-If you’re from Jeonnam, it’s obviously Yeontae holy land.

Yeontae holy land?

Yoo-hyun, who was casually scrolling down the comments, chuckled at the familiar word.

Sure enough. When he went to Shim Hyun-ji’s blog, there was a post titled ‘Apple Phone 4 Yeontae Holy Land’ on the first page.

The blog views were no joke, as the reaction was hot.

Just by looking at this, he could clearly see that more people would flock than the last Apple Phone 3.

“Hyung-nim will have a hard time.”

Yoo-hyun laughed, thinking of Choi Jeong-bok, who had to deal with the situation without playing his favorite golf.

It was the next morning.

Yoo-hyun, who was on the bus to work, listened to the broadcast coming from the speaker.

-On the first day of the Apple Phone 4 launch, the global sales volume is estimated at 2 million units. This resulted in a revenue that surpassed the weekly sales of other mobile phone manufacturers, and with the domestic sales starting today…

As the announcer said, the sales volume of the Apple Phone 4 exceeded the experts’ expectations.

This was at least twice as much as the figure that Yoo-hyun knew from the past.

The domestic atmosphere was also not easy.

While the bus was briefly stopped, he heard the whispers of the students sitting behind him.

“Look at that. That’s all the line for the Apple Phone 4.”

“Sigh. It’s not the time to go to school right now…”

Yoo-hyun, who smiled, looked at the scenery outside the window.

In front of a fairly large dealership, people were lining up before the door opened.

Seeing the situation like this, Yoo-hyun was curious about the atmosphere inside the company.

Yoo-hyun’s curiosity could not be resolved even when he arrived at the 13th floor of Hansung Tower.

The office, which should have been full, was empty.

Yoo-hyun, who tilted his head, picked up his phone.

That’s when Kwon Se-jung, the assistant manager, came over, groaning.

He looked exhausted, and he spoke in a dying voice.

“Did you come? You worked hard, right?”

“What do you mean, worked hard? But did you stay up all night?”

“Don’t even talk about it. Sigh.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

Kwon Se-jung, the assistant manager, answered with a bitter face to Yoo-hyun’s question.

“Apple asked for more supplies, so it’s a mess right now.”

“Really? Didn’t they send out 10 million more panels?”

“They need more, I guess. And…”

Yoo-hyun, who sat down, listened carefully to Kwon Se-jung’s words.

He knew that Jang Jun-sik, Jung Saet-byul, and Yang Yoon-soo had gone to Ulsan and Gimpo respectively for the demo of the executives.

He also expected that people would go on business trips to deal with the mobile phone division that was on fire.

But he didn’t expect the other customers’ urgent reactions.

“Really? Nokia?”

“Yeah. Nokia, Motorola, the whole second part went out. TV and IT are the same. Sony, Skyworks, and Dell, who turned their backs, all want the Retina Premium.”

“That’s good.”

“It’s good, but it’s crazy when things happen at the same time.”

It was understandable.

Not only the team leaders, but even Kim Hyun-min, the manager, were on business trips.

Yoo-hyun patted the shoulder of his weary colleague.

“Think of someone who’s having a harder time than you at times like this.”

“Who?”

When Kwon Se-jung asked, the phone rang at a good timing.

It was Jung In-wook, the team leader of the ultra-high-resolution TF.

“This guy.”

“I guess.”

When Yoo-hyun showed the caller, Kwon Se-jung gave a bitter smile.

His face was full of pity.

The hardest thing about the sudden increase in supply was the development team.

Especially the circuit team, which was in charge of the project, practically lived in the factory.

-So I really…

Yoo-hyun, who silently listened to Jung In-wook’s complaints, cut him off.

“Well, you’re not calling to complain, are you?”

-Of course not, but I’m a bit disappointed. It’s been a long time since we talked.

It was fun to joke around, but there was no time for that now.

He had to solve the problem quickly for his colleagues who were working hard at the Ulsan factory.

Yoo-hyun guessed what he wanted first.

“You want to respond quickly, right? You’re calling because of the LCD factory production panel, right?”

-How did you know?

“You have no choice if you want to print more. Let’s do this.”

-How?

“Run the entire OLED factory on the Apple Phone line…”

He then told him the solution right away.

This kind of traffic control was something that the planning side should do, not the development team, and Yoo-hyun had his own plan.

-You mean clear out the other panels we were testing at the OLED factory and go all-in on Apple?

“Yes. Use the ultra-high-resolution panels developed at the LCD factory for the other companies. I’ll contact the person in charge through our manager.”

-Okay. Thanks to you, it’s cleared up. When are you coming down?

“I’ll go see you sometime.”

-Fine. Just come. I’ll treat you well.

That was what Team Leader Jeong In-wook, who never said he would pay first, said with a big smile.

Yoo-hyun chuckled and said.

“Please take care of my junior who’s still there.”

-You mean Jun-sik?

“Yes. He’s a stubborn guy who will have a hard time.”

-Hehe. He’s very passionate. Don’t worry. I’ll feed him a lot. I’ll buy him some blood sausage soup at dawn.

“Haha. Sounds good.”

Yoo-hyun hung up the phone, recalling the happy memories he had with him.

A week passed since then.

The first week sales of the Apple Phone 4 exceeded 5 million units, breaking a new record.

This was more than four times the number of the Apple Phone 3, which had been a huge hit.

In the past, the sales would have slowed down due to the antenna gate issue, but that didn’t happen anymore.

The sales of the Apple Phone kept increasing without a brake.

The company was still busy, but there was also something to gain.

As the news articles showed, the LCD sales soared with the Apple Premium label.

People attributed the reason to the marketing, and thanks to that, the Innovative Product TF also shone.

Other teams with strong pride came to benchmark the Innovative Product TF.

Among them, there was someone who was very excited.

It was Assistant Manager Kwon Se-jung, who first suggested the logo marketing.

He sat on a bench on the outdoor terrace on the 20th floor, staring at the screen of the Apple Phone 4 he bought with Yoo-hyun this morning.

The logo marketing article he had been looking at for a while was displayed on the screen.

Yoo-hyun looked at him with disbelief.

“Are you looking at it again? You’ll lose your eyes.”

“No, I’m just amazed by the internet. Look at this.”

Assistant Manager Kwon Se-jung spread his two fingers on the screen.

He then showed him the enlarged internet page, making a fuss.

"Isn’t this amazing?

“Come on. You should have said that when the Apple Phone 3 came out.”

“I had to use a Han Sung phone back then.”

“And now?”

“The manager is using it too. Who’s going to stop me?”

Yoo-hyun laughed as he saw Assistant Manager Kwon Se-jung shrug his shoulders.

As he said, not only Manager Kim Hyun-min, but many people bought the Apple Phone 4.

Thanks to that, the business unit’s performance was a huge success, and no one would stop them.

“Do you want to see something more amazing?”

“What is it?”

“Install this.”

Yoo-hyun casually handed him the Apple Phone 4 with a yellow icon.

Assistant Manager Kwon Se-jung nodded as if he knew.

“KakaoTalk? Oh, this is the one that sends texts for free, right?”

“Well, something like that. Anyway, it’s useful.”

“In what way?”

“You’ll see. Just a second.”

Yoo-hyun logged in to the messenger for the first time in a long time.

The contacts of the employees who joined were synced with his phone number.

Assistant Manager Kwon Se-jung, who was watching from the side, was curious.

“Oh, there’s Saet-byul. Let me see her picture.”

“Picture?”

Yoo-hyun clicked and a large face of Jeong Saet-byul, who turned her head at a 45-degree angle and opened her eyes wide, appeared.

Assistant Manager Kwon Se-jung burst into laughter.

“Puhahaha. What’s with that picture?”

“Do you want me to tell her?”

“Never do that.”

He was about to get serious when a message from Jeong Saet-byul came.

-Jeong Saet-byul: Wow. Did you buy the Apple Phone 4 too?

It was such a perfect timing that Assistant Manager Kwon Se-jung was dumbfounded.

“What? Did she hear and send that?”

“How can she hear from Gimpo?”

Yoo-hyun smiled and was about to reply when one more person entered the chat room.

-Yang Yoon-soo: Finally, you joined us. Now we only need Jun-sik senior to complete the exhibition team.

-Jeong Saet-byul: What happened with Team Leader Jeong?

Assistant Manager Kwon Se-jung, who was watching the group chat with interest, asked out of the blue.

“Huh? Who’s Team Leader Jeong? What happened?”

“Stop talking nonsense and install it.”

Yoo-hyun turned his body and quickly replied.

-What are you talking about?

-Jeong Saet-byul: You two are dating, right? Oops. Already? (Heart)

-Yang Yoon-soo: I support whatever choice you make, sir. (Fist)

The messages from the juniors came up one after another with cute emoticons.

They had never asked him such things in text messages before.

It seemed that the conversation became lighter with the emoticons.

It was not a bad direction, so Yoo-hyun smiled and replied.

-Stop talking nonsense and work hard. Don’t mess with the development team for nothing.

-Yang Yoon-soo: Yes, sir. I will engrave your words in my heart.

Yang Yoon-soo was good at flattering even in the messenger.

He should have given up by now, but Jeong Saet-byul was stubborn.

-Jeong Saet-byul: But Team Leader Jeong, you’re staying in Korea until the G20, right? Please show your face once in a while. Love needs sincerity.

-I appreciate your concern, but do your job well.

Yoo-hyun pressed the send button and thought of Jeong Da-hye.

There were still four months left until the G20, but she was very busy.

She never postponed the appointments she made, but she kept delaying them.

He had a feeling what it was, so he didn’t ask her.