Yoojin felt conflicted.
She had a mountain of work to finish, yet spending one lunch hour helping with a buyer meeting didn't seem like a big sacrifice.
Her head dipped in a small nod of agreement.
"Um… but none of our measurements were taken. Is that okay?"
Dongha asked Oh Min-ji. His arms and legs were unusually long, and standard sample sizes rarely fit him properly.
"If Department Head Kim from Development heard you say that, he'd be offended. He already checked your proportions yesterday—just by looking and lightly measuring. And Yoojin? She's practically a living mannequin."
Assistant Manager Oh gave Yoojin an unabashed once-over.
"Yes, understood."
"Come to the Design Team at noon."
Once Oh Min-ji got what she wanted, she left the office with a buoyant expression.
At Section Chief Lee's gesture telling them to get back to work, Yoojin quickly turned away and headed to her desk.
Dongha followed closely behind—almost glued to her heels.
Like a large dog refusing to lose sight of its owner. He didn't seem to mind how it looked. A broad, unmistakable smile stayed on his lips.
Since the morning meeting had officially assigned them to handle the Ocean Bay orders together, everyone in the department was already used to seeing the two of them side by side.
"Is this all mine?"
Dongha crossed his arms as he looked at the mountain of fabric swatches and fabric bundles piled behind Yoojin's chair.
Huge transparent bags stuffed with swatches and fabric blocked half the aisle.
Another trash heap?
Dongha remembered the disaster in the basement storage the day he arrived.He looked down at the bag behind Yoojin's seat with clear disapproval.
"These are color swatches cut from each dye lot. And this pile is the first lot. We need to confirm the colors on the first lot and cross-check the lots that had color-issue reports."
"Got it."
Without hesitation, Dongha grabbed the giant bundles—one in each hand—and lifted them as if they weighed nothing.
Yoojin's lips parted in surprise.
She needed both arms, her whole weight, and a grunt to drag those bags even a few centimeters.
Dongha dropped them neatly by his own desk, then returned to Yoojin's side.With the bags gone, her workspace looked cleaner, almost refreshing.
When Yoojin gathered a bundle of packages from her desk, Dongha instinctively reached out and took them from her arms.
"Thank you. Let's organize them together."
She picked up her task list and the remaining swatches and headed to his desk. Dongha followed right behind her.
"Okay, this is the first lot—yeah, what the factory calls the first 'bath.' Batch number matches."
Yoojin pointed at the label on the swatch: P1044872.
Probably a dye-lot management number.
"The vendor emailed, and Sales also asked us to confirm it. There should be five pieces total."
Both of them bent forward, searching through the mountain of fabric.
"Here."
Dongha handed Yoojin the swatch she needed, then arranged them in order across the desk.
Their fingers brushed several times while they worked. The soft warmth of Yoojin's skin made Dongha's heart stutter, his cheeks warming.
Did she notice?
He glanced sideways. Yoojin was completely absorbed in sorting the list, muttering as she dug through the giant bag of swatches.
Her eyes narrowed—not in anger, but in tired frustration.
Dongha's eyes softened.
"Why weren't these sorted? Why throw everything into one giant bag like this?"
Grumbling, Yoojin began sorting all 35 order numbers one by one.
Her principled, orderly nature showed itself again. Dongha let out a small laugh and kept up with her hands, accepting swatches as she passed them to him.
"This one has a color defect—they're asking if it's still okay to ship…"
As the two silently organized the swatches and yardage, the huge bag eventually emptied.
Noon was approaching.
"I'll organize the confirmed colors and request approval from the colorist."
Dongha laid out what he would handle next.
It was his first office job, but he knew enough to get checks done beforehand so they wouldn't run into trouble later.
"Thank you. I honestly had no idea when I'd ever clean this up."
Yoojin exhaled in relief and smiled brightly.
But Dongha knew there was one more task she absolutely needed help with.
"And about Assistant Manager Oh Myung-ju…"
Yoojin immediately stiffened at the name.
"I can schedule a separate meeting and talk to her first. You already have enough work on your plate. And it's especially hard for you to check her orders through the system."
"Just the two of you?"
"Yes. We'll talk first, and if it still doesn't work, we can call in Section Chief Lee, you, me, and Assistant Manager Oh for a joint meeting. Since you're busy."
"If you do that for me… thank you."
Yoojin's expression softened at once.
Her anxiety had been building—she hadn't even touched half the tasks she organized over the weekend, and she still had filming during lunch.
"Shall we go down?"
"Yes."
*
When they arrived at the Design Studio on the 3rd floor, about five people—including Assistant Manager Oh—were already preparing for the shoot.
"Hello."
Yoojin had met Oh earlier in Development, but this was her first real look at the studio.
The design studio resembled the purchasing department in that swatches and fabrics were everywhere, but here they were unusual fabrics—lace, jacquard, piqué, ponte, velour—the kind used in high-end small-batch collections rather than mass production.
Yoojin stared in fascination at the prints, patterns, knitted samples, and yarn boards.How do they make these?
"You're here?"
At the greeting, Yoojin instinctively bowed again.
"Yes, hello."
"We already met earlier. Come on, this way."
The hostility Oh had shown last week when she snapped at interns during the sample search was nowhere to be found.
Her eyes even held warmth.
Meanwhile, the design team stopped what they were doing, staring openly at Dongha and Yoojin.
Whoa… unreal.Did they come out of a magazine?Even actual fit models don't look like that…
Several staff moved quickly to gather items—a DSLR, sample outfits, and a style sheet.
Assistant Manager Oh gestured them into the inner studio, separated by white partition walls.
"This is our showroom area. We cleared it for the shoot."
A mannequin stood against the wall.Yoojin stared at it, and Oh smirked.
"We usually put the garments on that. But this time… well, I wanted more."
Footsteps approached.
It was Development Department Head Kim Jung-ho.
"Hey, Dongha! Yoojin!"
He walked over from the Development glass-walled office across the hall.
They both bowed.
"Our models are here. Min-ji, did you prepare something good for them?"
"Of course. Pizza and burgers. They should arrive soon."
"Man… sending photos to a high-end buyer with the clothes on actual people? This is a first. We usually just hang them on the wall or lay them on the floor. I guess you're really ambitious this time."
"Oh, come on, sir. If we nail this sample, we can finally start a true high-end line under Samho Apparel."
Department Head Kim chuckled, entertained.
"That's true. Do well, then. I'll come watch when you start shooting."
When he left, the team started moving briskly.
Yoojin went to change in Director Hwang Ji-yeon's empty office.
The garments were a printed silk dress covered in delicate flowers and butterflies, and a black knit dress.
"Wow…"
Bright neon colors blended into the silk prints, shimmering under the light.
"Beautiful, right? Silk printing is expensive and slow. In stores, this would easily go over 1 million won."
"It's gorgeous…"
When Yoojin slipped into the dress, the silk draped softly over her body.
"Here, wear these too."
The staff handed her 8-centimeter strap sandals.
Her height shot close to 170 cm.
When the staff stepped back to look at her, their eyes rounded.
Like someone who'd been waiting for this moment, Yoojin raised her voice as she entered the studio:
"Look—this outfit grew wings."
People gasped.
"Wow… stunning.""She looks like a real model."
A porcelain face, a long graceful neck, a soft upper body, a narrow waist, and gentle hips—everything was showcased naturally by the silk.
Dongha stopped in place when he saw her.
His thoughts blanked for a moment.
He traced her new silhouette with his eyes, caught between awe and disbelief.
"Wow… this is perfect. If Carmamax becomes our new buyer, it'll be all thanks to our models."