Chapter 24. Back to Mullae-dong Again (4)
Creative Village wasn’t very large.
After parking in a public parking lot, it didn’t take long for Taesik to find his younger sister.
Coming with a mask to hide his identity had been an excellent decision.
Inside the mask, Taesik’s mouth opened wider and wider.
It was a scene he had never imagined.
Department Head Kang Jinhyeok was nowhere to be seen.
And the team members had spent thirty minutes laughing while making pottery.
“Hahaha! Assistant Manager Park, that shape looks ridiculous. Is that really what you were trying to make?”
“Art is supposed to look like that. Why don’t you worry about the clay on your nose instead?”
His younger sister wore an apron, laughing brightly while working the pottery wheel.
Taesik thought he had never seen her look that happy...
No.
That wasn’t important.
What in the world were they doing during working hours?
The only remaining hope was that Kang Jinhyeok himself wasn’t there.
Did my sister take control of the Commercial District Analysis Team? Is that why she told us not to interfere? Did she make the team leader do all the work alone?
That was how the unplanned stalking began.
Taesik had originally intended to observe for a moment and leave without interfering with their work.
Now he couldn’t bring himself to go.
His second brother had pulled the chairman into this.
The team didn’t know that.
But for Taesik, this was the last opportunity.
If he failed to produce a meaningful answer again, the landmark project would be taken away.
There would be no next chance.
Worry boiling inside him, Taesik adjusted his mask and followed the Commercial District Analysis Team.
And his frustration only grew.
After leaving the pottery workshop, they bought street ice cream.
They took pictures in front of unusual sculptures.
They entered a tarot shop to have their fortunes read.
They chatted while looking at murals and entered a small accessory shop to browse.
No matter how positively he tried to interpret it, they looked like people who had come to Creative Village to have fun.
Neglecting work.
He couldn’t interpret it any other way.
Unlike Taesik’s misunderstanding, however, the Commercial District Analysis Team was sincerely following Jinhyeok’s instructions.
When they first received the order, every member had wondered the same thing.
Are we really allowed to do this?
If it were the weekend, maybe they could understand.
But today was an ordinary Thursday.
Park Jongil, who had worked with Jinhyeok longest, trusted him completely.
“You all know he isn’t someone who gives meaningless orders. Let’s just do what he told us. We’ll probably understand the reason before the day ends. So we enjoy this place as seriously as possible, exactly as the department head told us. But keep thinking about what kind of landmark would fit here. Got it?”
Led by Jongil, the team did their best to enjoy Creative Village.
They appeared to wander around without thinking, but mentally analyzed various businesses.
While taking photos in front of murals, they checked the condition of exterior walls and considered possible improvements.
The team members had properly understood Jinhyeok’s request.
He hadn’t told them to find land where a landmark could be built.
He had told them to think about what kind of landmark should be placed there.
Understanding the key point, they walked through Creative Village while recalling landmarks from around the world.
Taesik, unaware of that, practically trembled with clenched fists.
Only four words floated through his mind.
Dereliction of duty.
The Jinhyeok Taesik had been desperately waiting for appeared just before five.
Finally, are they going to do actual work?
Taesik adjusted his mask again as he watched Jinhyeok enter a café carrying a laptop.
He would listen to their conversation.
If there was no legitimate reason for what they had done all day, Taesik planned to immediately report everything to Director Baek Kangjin.
After waiting a little, Taesik entered the café and sat behind a partition.
Perfect position.
He could hear everything.
Not even a strand of his hair would be visible.
Now tell me.
What kind of landmark did you design for Creative Village?
Contrary to Taesik’s expectations, Jinhyeok’s first words were ridiculous.
“Did everyone have fun?”
“Yes! We enjoyed ourselves as seriously as possible, exactly as you ordered!”
Park Jongil’s energetic answer made Taesik’s blood pressure rise.
“Good! Then tell me one at a time. What did you like and what disappointed you?”
Choi Iseul spoke first.
“I was impressed by the disharmony between the shops inside the buildings. Cute cafés and small accessory stores hidden between dark metal shops felt surprisingly fresh. I also liked how former factory buildings kept their original structure instead of being completely remodeled.”
“What disappointed you?”
“Hmm... Actually, what disappointed me is the same thing I just praised. That disharmony kept bothering me. There’s almost no connection between the different industries.”
“No connection?”
“Yes. This is supposed to be a metalworking alley. But the metal shops still sell huge steel plates one full sheet at a time, exactly the way they did decades ago. Nobody around here needs material in that size.”
Jinhyeok slowly nodded.
Good observation.
She had been with the company just over a year.
She mostly handled documents in the office.
Yet she had noticed something important.
“The metal craft workshops between them mostly use small pieces of material. I asked the owners, and they all buy those materials from other districts. Even though not only Creative Village but the entire area across the road is full of metalworking shops.”
“Good. Assistant Manager Park, did you notice the same thing?”
“Yes. Machine tools were similar. There’s a company here that manufactures machine tools directly, but they only make large industrial equipment. Meanwhile, the workshop inside the exhibition hall we visited needs compact machine tools and imports them from Taiwan or Japan.”
“Not bad. Any other opinions?”
Jinhyeok turned toward Oh Ilman.
“I focused on how the buildings are used. Keeping the old buildings was attractive, but some stores just looked dirty. It seemed like nobody had considered interior efficiency, and management felt unorganized.”
“Right. They probably focused more on saving renovation costs than deliberately preserving the old style. Anything else?”
Choi Iseul immediately raised her hand.
“Movement efficiency! Because restaurants and artists entered randomly after factories moved out, customer movement is completely fragmented. That gives Creative Village its unusual charm, but it also seems bad for customer convenience and sales. It feels like searching for hidden shops.”
Jinhyeok couldn’t hide his surprise.
Iseul had only been with the company one year and had barely done outside fieldwork.
Yet her analysis was remarkably sharp.
Behind the partition, Taesik’s eyes trembled.
They weren’t just playing?
No... Did experiencing the district directly allow them to see it more deeply?
He had never seen anyone work like this.
But what is this discussion for? If they’re buying land and building a shopping mall, why do they need to know any of this?
He got the answer quickly.
After drinking something, Jinhyeok moved to the main topic.
