Chapter 17

[ The office of Seongjun’s Wood ]

“Here, have a drink.”

Director Yoo Seong-jun said, putting a cup down on the table.

“Thank you.”

The water in the cup he put down looks clear and transparent, but if you look closely, you can feel the viscosity.

It felt familiar to me.

It was maple sap.

[ TL/N – Not maple syrup, that’d be kind of weird to drink? But yes, maple sap water exists ]

“Ugh…”

While Ju Ji-hoon frowned at the strange sweetness of it, I drank it in one gulp.

“Haha”

Director Yoo Seong-jun chuckled at the sight of me, even spitting out exclamations.

“Hey, you’re good at drinking. I’ve never seen a young person like you drink this much at once before.”

“I’ve had it a lot.”

Sometimes I stole it from the person in front of me and drank it.

“You’re a strange person. You said you were a Han Yewon art student, right? Then you must have studied well.”

“I did a lot of harsh studying and reviewing from my textbooks.”

“Really? My daughter has been complaining that she also wants to do art. You two can teach her later.”

“Oh. How old is your daughter?”

“She’s seven years old now. It’s her baby picture— isn’t she cute?”

“She looks like a princess.”

“I’m glad she looks like that to someone who doesn’t know her.”

Let’s chat for a while to relax the atmosphere.

Soon, Director Yoo Seong-jun said in a serious voice, “Okay. You want us to sell our stuff to you?”

“Yes.”

He smiled bitterly.

“What are you going to do with it? This isn’t a woodworking shop. You know it’s a place where you take the raw wood and sell it, right?”

“Of course.”

I nodded.

The difference between a carpentry shop and a lumber mill.

A carpentry shop was a place where wood was processed and sold according to the customer’s needs, whereas a lumber mill was a place that sold logs as it was after minimal processing.

“That’s exactly what we need.”

“······· hmm.”

He rubbed his bushy beard for a while before saying, “So, you’re going to take our stuff and process it yourself to use it.”

“Yes.”

“It won’t be easy.”

“What’s not easy about it?”

I knew the meaning behind his words, but Ju Ji-hoon didn’t know, so Yoo Seong-jun looked into my eyes and said, “Students, can I be a little nosy?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I don’t know where you heard about us, but it’s probably useless for a student like you to purchase things from here.”

A whisper of criticism.

It’s meaningless to buy wood from you.

“Can you tell us why?”

Ju Ji-hoon asked, intervening, as if he couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer.

“The wood that we handle is difficult to process.”

He got up from his seat, took out a piece of wood from his office desk, and brought it in front of him.

“It’s a piece of wood called rosewood, student. Just listen.”

It was the moment when Ju Ji-hoon was given the block of wood and held it in his hands.

“Is this a tree?”

He cried in a startled voice.

It wasn’t an ordinary block of wood—its density was almost as high as metal. The sense of grip itself was different from that of ordinary trees.

“It was originally used by emperors.”

It wasn’t a joke.

Rosewood was inherently more precious than even the most precious metals in the world.

There are a lot of rosewood sales in the market, but almost all of them are fakes or only similar wood products. It was right to say that even if you did find proper rosewood, it was still difficult or near impossible to get.

Director Yoo Seong-jun smiled and opened his mouth, “This is usually called hardwood, characterized by its heaviness and difficulty in handling.”

Hardwood was usually used for sculpting or to make high-end furniture, but the internal structure was so dense that it was extremely hard. In addition, because of its high price, most of the wood that students usually use for practical training was softwood.

“You students may not be aware of it, but even experts don’t use our products because it’s so hard to handle. How much money and rosewood will you end up throwing away because it was handled incorrectly? I almost feel sorry for the tree.”

It seemed as if he was quietly saying that we didn’t need this kind of wood.

However, I didn’t come here just to back down. I came prepared knowing that he wouldn’t give me anything willingly.

So I said, “Please take a look at this.”

I took a sketchbook out of my bag and showed it to the director.

“A figure…?”

“It’s a model. I’m going to put out a work for a contest soon, and I’m going to make it out of wood.”

“It’s a good idea to make it out of wood, but can’t you go to another lumber mill? Why did you come here of all places?”

Yeah, I’ve been waiting for this question to come up.

I spoke in a voice as serious as I could make it.

“Because the wood here is the best in Korea.”

“······.”

Director Yoo Seong-jun blinked as if he was surprised by what I said.

“You’re exaggerating”.

I continued speaking without missing a beat.

“No. I’ve been interested in furniture for a long long time now, so I’ve visited many artisans, and they all said that the wood here is the best.”

It wasn’t a lie.

There was no exaggeration in my words.

While other lumber mills only bring common trees, the trees handled by [Seongjun’s Wood] had different colors.

‘He would visit the site in person, select the items at the  best price, and close the deal even if the quality deteriorated just a little.’

The quality brought in that way is undoubtedly the best in Korea, and it was at the level that handmade furniture craftsmen and musical instrument merchants use.

To put it simply, it was Blue House desk wood.

One word of this was enough.

‘It’s incomparable to the cost-effective wood used in Arum.’

“Artisans say they are not picky about tools.” That was by the words of a stranger.

Most artisans were, in fact, crazy about tools.

How many artists poured out their living expenses just to use a single tube of paint even if they starved themselves? In the Renaissance, there were many families who went bankrupt after living crazy about marble sculptures.

‘Unless you know what the Hankook University team will bring, you have to widen the gap even in materials.’

That’s why [Seongjun’s Wood] was needed—because there’s nothing more excellent in Korea than what is handled here.

“Hmm… our stuff isn’t that good.”

Yoo Seong-jun coughed as if he was embarrassed.

“Students, our stuff is expensive.”

“Yes, I know.”

“······ stubbornness isn’t exactly a good thing.”

Yoo Sung-joon got up for a moment, stretching himself out and said,

“Then follow me for a second.”

*

[ A studio inside the lumber shop ]

He pointed at something with his finger.

It was a piece of black wood.

A piece of wood that looks very rough to the touch.

“It’s ebony. It’s an ebony for dogs and cows, but most of them are fake and only ours are real.”

If this was genuine, it’s value could not be underestimated.

Ebony wasn’t as expensive as rosewood, but it still cost dozens of times the price of normal trees.

It was precious wood that grew through the ground.

“The sculptors are crazy about it, so if you can cut it well, you can take it.”

“What if I can’t cut it?”

“Then you’re just throwing away the precious trees.”

While he chuckled, I touched the block of ebony with my fingertips and said, “Anyway, you’re going to sell this to us if we can cut it properly, right?”

“Sell it?”

Yoo Seong-jun said with his arms crossed.

“It’s a student discount. I’ll sell it to you at the cost of importing it.”

“Good. You’re quite generous.”

Fortunately, it worked out as expected.

It was the moment when I happily took the lead and grabbed the saw.

“Wait a minute.”

Ju Ji-hoon, who had been quiet the whole time, intervened.

“I’ll do this.”

“You?”

When I pointed at him with a puzzled expression, Ju Ji-hoon shrugged and said, “I’m also an architecture major. Until now, I’ve been quietly listening to the director, but I’ve also touched a lot of trees—I’ve sawed a lot, too.”

He confidently rolled up his sleeves.

The subtle fine muscles in his forearms twitched.

I don’t think it’s a lie that you sawed a lot.

‘As expected, he’s an architecture department’s student.’

Often, there were two departments in art schools where you could compete physically, excluding physical education.

It was the Sculpture and Architectural Departments.

As the two of them had their students working on cutting and trimming materials throughout the year, there were sometimes students who boasted a physique comparable to that of an athlete.

“Trust me”.

Ju Ji-hoon smiled.

Then, in a familiar position, he held the block of wood in one hand, and for a while, attempted to shred it with a saw.

“······· Huh?”

He looked embarrassed.

Was it that the saw blade wasn’t nailed well?

No, it was perfectly nailed, but the tooth wouldn’t go in.

“This isn’t….”

After that, it was a repetition of the same process. He tried to cut it again and again, but even if the saw blade was barely inserted, the cross-section was crooked, so it was impossible to use.

It’s almost like throwing away precious wood shavings.

“Um·····.”

Seeing Ju Ji-hoon moaning, Yoo Seong-jun laughed as if he knew it would happen.

“See? If you take this, it’ll be useless to you. I’ll recommend another lumber mill, so go there instead. No matter how good an object is, it’s only meaningful when someone who knows how to work with it touches it.”

“Uh·····.”

Eventually, Ju Ji-hoon stepped down as a loser.

But that didn’t mean that I was going to give up.

“Can I try this time?”

Human Lee Jae-ha’s turn has arrived.

Yoo Seong-jun tilted his head.

“Another try?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t you see that even I couldn’t do it before?”

Ju Ji-hoon spoke in a way that asked what I was going to do when he himself couldn’t do it.

In fact, when comparing me and Ju Ji-hoon, my body fell behind.

First of all, he was taller and slightly skinnier than me.

But I was confident.

“Sawing is not a physical technique, but rather, a technical one.”

Director Yoo Seong-jun laughed at my words.

“That sounds plausible.”

Then, he crossed his arms and said, “Okay. Try it if you can.”

“Just watch.”

I rolled up my sleeves and lifted one leg up, stepping on the piece of wood.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve done this.’

It reminded me of something that happened a long time ago.

In my past life, I experienced the same situation as I am in now.

It was time to prepare a bid for furniture design.

[This bidding was ordered by the boss himself. There’s a lumber mill called Seongjun’s Wood. We have to purchase the wood they handle somehow. But the owner’s never thought about selling it. What do you mean? Why do you keep taking on things that you know you can’t handle? What kind of two-year-old determination is this?]

Director Yoo Seong-jun was such a person.

There were a lot of complaints towards him about not selling his goods, and many merchants were saying, “Does this even make sense to you?”

At that time, it was me who came forward to persuade him. But even then, Director Yoo Seong-jun made me do the same thing.

If you want to buy it, I’ll sell it—but it wasn’t that simple. Instead, he tells you to cut it to a level that he can acknowledge and accept.

Of course, I didn’t cut well, so I had to go through a lot of trouble.

‘I would cut and chop until I dropped dead.’

I had gotten a lodging nearby and came down every day to practice cutting down trees.

After about a week like that, I finally succeeded in cutting a piece of wood to the level that could be recognized.

Since then, there has been a myth that when there was a need for sawing at work, they called me first, but anyway, I learned something properly then.

‘Sawing is a skill, not a force.’

No matter how hard the wood is, it still has its own weakness. The success or failure of sawing was divided into whether or not that weakness could be targeted.

And I thought I’d find the weakness.

Turning the tree around to make a path for the saw to pass by and then cut them continuously like this.

In just a day and one minute, thick pieces of wood were cut. The cross section was also neat and almost entirely straight.

“······· Huh?”

Yoo Seong-jun stood there with a surprised look and said, “Wait. This can’t be right. ·····.”

“Should I cut another one?”

At my words, he shook his head.

“Yes. It must’ve been a bit rotten here.”

I soon grabbed another block of wood and started sawing.

Shhhk. Shhk.

This one cut even faster.

“······.”

Director Yoo Seong-jun opened his mouth.

He looked as if the impossible had happened right in front of his eyes.

“Huh. That’s weird. It’s not usually like this. ·····.”

Perhaps he still couldn’t believe it after seeing it twice with his own naked eyes, so he grabbed the saw himself and slashed through the tree.

Then after confirming that it was a normal piece of wood, he asked, “Hey, have you ever worked in this industry?””

I immediately shook my head.

“No.”

“Don’t lie.”

“It’s true. Today is my first time.”

“But how can you cut it so well? It’s almost terrifying.”

He crossed his arms and exhaled.

I questioned him.

“Are you going to keep your promise of selling it to us?”

“Yes, I’ll sell it.”

He frowned, and after contemplating for a long time, asked,

“Do you have any thoughts of working here?””

“No.”

*

“….What’s all this?”

Hanseol said, surprised.

“I picked it up on our way here.”

“You, oppa?”

Ju Ji-hoon laughed at her question and said,

“No. Jaeha did.”