Chapter 295: The Takeoff Of “designer Jung”
Just as Lin Xiuyuan was in the Magic City restaurant in ’25, his emotions surging because of Jessica’s profoundly meaningful Mobius ring ring.
On that side in Seoul in ’13, the night was also gradually deepening.
Jung Soo Yeon, who had just finished a day of personal activities, dragged her slightly fatigued body back to her apartment in Cheongdam-dong.
She casually tossed her handbag in the entryway, and seconds later practically “threw” herself into the soft sofa, closing her eyes and lying there, letting out a long sigh and pretending to nap for a bit.
After resting for about more than ten minutes, she finally recovered a bit of energy, got up, and went into the bathroom to remove her makeup and wash up.
As the warm water washed away the makeup and the day’s dust from her face, her nerves, which had been tense all day, finally found some relief at this moment.
After washing up and blow-drying her hair, she changed into a comfortable set of silk pajamas and returned to the living room.
The instant noodles she had soaked before blow-drying her hair were now at the perfect time to eat.
And with a space for one person, there wasn’t much to fuss over, so Jung Soo Yeon directly sat cross-legged on the soft carpet, placed the instant noodle bucket on the coffee table, and while watching the entertainment news on television, ate it in small bites.
Simple, quick, with a bit of the casualness of living alone—that was her daily routine after a busy day of work.
After eating for a few minutes or so, the mobile phone placed nearby rang with a familiar ringtone.
Jung Soo Yeon glanced sideways at the caller ID, and seeing it was Jung Soo Jung, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curved up slightly; at the same time, she picked up the mobile phone, answered the call, turned on speakerphone, and tossed it aside.
“Hey, Soo Jung, what’s up? How come you have time to call older sister today?”
Her tone carried the laziness and warmth after just finishing hot food.
From the other end of the phone came Jung Soo Jung’s voice, cool yet laced with care, “Older sister, what are you doing?”
“Just got back from work not long ago, eating instant noodles for dinner.” Jung Soo Yeon twirled a strand of noodles with her fork and told the truth.
“Personal activities?” Jung Soo Jung pressed.
“Yeah.” Jung Soo Yeon took a sip of the soup. “Team activities have been relatively few lately, mostly personal itineraries, though I still have to go back to the company occasionally to rehearse with the members.”
Hearing this, Jung Soo Jung on the other end seemed to hesitate for a moment, turned her head to look at Sulli next to her who was silently encouraging her with lip movements, and finally took a deep breath before asking, “Older sister, how long has it been since you last saw Lin Xiuyuan?”
“Xiuyuan??”
This name made Jung Soo Yeon’s motion of bringing the noodles to her mouth pause slightly; she narrowed her beautiful eyes, her tone betraying no ripples, “Several days, I think. Didn’t he say he was ‘busy’ before?”
Everyone knew about Jessica’s situation, and as a key figure, it was completely normal for Lin Xiuyuan to be busy.
But at the same time, Jung Soo Yeon keenly caught the unusual probing in Jung Soo Jung’s words, so she directly exposed it, “Soo Jung, you’re calling this time because you have something to say to me, right? Just ask whatever you want to ask directly—don’t beat around the bush like those aunties, all wordy and nagging.”
“Ah, older sister!”
Jung Soo Jung, whose thoughts were seen through, called out disgruntledly; since she was exposed, she simply stopped hiding, “Actually, it’s not really asking anything, just something I’m curious about. I remember you were the first among us to meet Lin Xiuyuan, right?”
This question instantly flashed back in Jung Soo Yeon’s mind to their first meeting, Lin Xiuyuan’s wild gaze that seemed able to see through people’s hearts.
She couldn’t help but find it amusing as she replied, “Yeah, didn’t you already know that? I’ve mentioned it to you before.”
“That’s not the ‘meeting’ I’m talking about.” Jung Soo Jung’s tone carried a bit of urgency. “I want to ask another question.”
“What question?”
Jung Soo Jung didn’t answer directly but instead threw out a counter-question first, “Older sister, do you know about Yoona older sister’s recent situation?”
At this, Jung Soo Yeon’s heart skipped a beat, but on the surface she remained composed as she continued, “Which aspect are you referring to?”
In her mind, however, the image of Lin Xiaolu from a few days ago—radiant, with nourishment evident in every corner of her eyes and brows—uncontrollably emerged.
Sure enough, Jung Soo Jung’s next words confirmed her guess, “Of course it’s Yoona older sister who looks ‘glowing with health.’ Older sister, don’t you think her state lately has been a bit too good?”
Jung Soo Yeon, who had been eating her instant noodles, tightened her grip slightly on the fork at her fingertips and fell silent without immediately responding.
Seeing her sister not speaking, Jung Soo Jung continued, her tone carrying a sense of urgency on her behalf.
“Snowball told me today that yesterday she and Hara older sister made plans to have dinner with Lin Xiuyuan, but that guy showed up with Yoona older sister. So that’s why I’m asking you, older sister—are you sure you were the first to meet him? It feels like the progress between Yoona older sister and him is so fast, like she’s the first one.”
On this side of the phone, Sulli sitting next to Jung Soo Jung couldn’t help laughing and lightly patted her arm upon hearing this, feeling that the words were too direct, almost like stirring up trouble.
But she didn’t think about how this call from Jung Soo Jung had her credit from whispering in her ear all day today.
However, Jung Soo Jung was still continuing to “output” the intelligence she had gathered, “And also, I heard that Eun-jung older sister spent an entire afternoon alone with Lin Xiuyuan yesterday afternoon. Older sister, do you really have no sense of crisis at all? I think your brand design matter could perhaps be put on hold a bit, first…”
Just as Jung Soo Jung was trying to suggest that Jung Soo Yeon “focus on the priorities,” even wanting to say something like “keep an eye on him first,” the earpiece clearly transmitted Jung Soo Yeon’s calm, unwavering response, even carrying a strange certainty that interrupted her.
“No need to put it on hold.”
“Huh?” Jung Soo Jung was stunned, not understanding what she meant.
Jung Soo Yeon’s voice continued through the airwaves, clear and steady, “The design side has already produced results.”
“What?!” Jung Soo Jung was truly shocked this time, her voice sharpening considerably. “Didn’t you all agree during the team meeting that it couldn’t be monetized? How, how did results come so quickly?”
This completely didn’t match the brand development plan that Jung Soo Yeon had formulated before, as far as she knew.
Moreover, this sudden “result” left Jung Soo Jung, who had originally wanted to remind her sister of the “romantic crisis,” completely dumbfounded.
After a moment of stunned silence, she hurriedly pressed for answers, “What’s going on? Older sister, what results? Explain clearly.”
On the other end of the phone, Jung Soo Yeon’s voice carried a trace of calm and a hint of a smile from having everything under control as she began to explain.
“Originally, according to my initial plan, the design path was indeed meant to first build popularity, slowly establishing my personal brand recognition, and only consider large-scale commercialization once the foundation was solid. But plans can’t keep up with changes…”
At this point, her tone paused briefly, as if organizing her words, “Recently, people from the CJ Conglomerate contacted me through the company, expressing their intention to cooperate with me.”
“CJ??” Jung Soo Jung exclaimed in surprise; this was one of the top conglomerates.
With extremely broad fields of involvement, it had huge influence in entertainment, food, biopharmaceuticals, and more.
Especially in entertainment, it could be called NO.1 without exaggeration.
“Yeah, I was very surprised at first too,” Jung Soo Yeon continued. “My initial reaction was to use my contract with the company as an excuse, saying the contract restricted me from overstepping, to brush them off first.”
This was indeed a cautious strategy that artists often used when facing external invitations; Jung Soo Jung had used it many times herself, so she wasn’t too surprised, just curious about what happened next.
“And then?”
“And then?” Jung Soo Yeon chuckled lightly, with a touch of self-mockery. “As soon as I brought up that reason, the representative from CJ directly pointed out that yes, my management contract is with SM, but the copyright for my personal clothing designs does not belong to SM Company.”
This was actually something everyone knew deep down; if Jung Soo Yeon’s design copyrights belonged to SM, the company would have gotten involved long ago, even possibly bypassing her, and wouldn’t have waited until now.
With one tactic failing, Jung Soo Yeon brought out a second reason, which was also an issue recently discussed internally in Girls’ Generation.
“Later, I emphasized the importance of the team, saying that we had discussed in the meeting that we couldn’t let individual members’ personal brand activities affect the group’s overall cohesion and popularity distribution, worrying it would cause dispersion of popularity among members.”
This reason sounded perfectly reasonable, full of care for the team.
“But…” Jung Soo Yeon’s tone suddenly became a bit subtle, “Right after I finished saying that, the CJ representative smiled and said that wasn’t a problem at all—the company side would step in to coordinate and resolve everything for me.”
At this point in the story, Jung Soo Yeon still remembered how her heart had skipped a beat then, subconsciously looking toward the SM company manager who was accompanying her.
She then saw that usually authoritative manager wearing an expression of helplessness on his face, giving her an almost imperceptible nod.
That single nod made Jung Soo Yeon fully realize that in front of a behemoth like CJ, even a major entertainment company like SM didn’t have enough leverage.
The other side had come with a determination to succeed and conditions sufficient to make the company compromise.
After dispelling her concerns, the CJ representative very politely and clearly outlined the cooperation concept to Jung Soo Yeon.
The gist was: They had been paying attention to Jung Soo Yeon’s designs for a while and felt it was a pity for her talent and works to be “idling” like this.
At the same time, they noticed that many artists under CJ and in Korea, when attending red carpets and major ceremonies, chose gowns that were always a step below top overseas brands.
Either not standout enough or reliant on foreign brands.
As a leading domestic enterprise, they didn’t want to hand over such important exposure and traffic on the red carpet to foreign brands; it also concerned national cultural image and public pride.
And right at that moment, Jung Soo Yeon and her designs—which combined international vision with unique style—entered their view.
After several months of observation and evaluation, CJ believed Jung Soo Yeon’s designs were indeed at the fashion forefront, with diverse and mature styles, not inferior to some well-known luxury brands.
The most crucial point was that Jung Soo Yeon was a “wild,” highly potential domestic designer!!!
So after careful consideration, CJ decided to formally approach her, hoping to join hands with Jung Soo Yeon to launch a high-end clothing brand, focusing on red carpet gowns and high-end ready-to-wear.
After hearing this grand blueprint, Jung Soo Yeon finally looked at the SM manager and asked one of her biggest concerns, “Then if the members have any thoughts later…”
The manager immediately waved it off, his tone affirmative, “I’ll handle the communication and resolution for that. You don’t need to worry about internal team issues—just focus on considering the cooperation.”
Back to the present.
Jung Soo Jung listened to her sister’s account, which sounded like a movie script, and was completely dumbfounded, holding the phone without speaking for a long time.
After digesting it for a good while, she found her voice again, asking in disbelief, “Then older sister, in that case, the copyrights for those clothes you designed before…”
Before she could finish, Jung Soo Yeon interrupted her, replying with a transparency and openness beyond her age and situation, “Soo Jung, your thinking is still too narrow. Do I lack copyright issues now? No, what I lack is a powerful platform and a chance to take off quickly.”
She then continued explaining further.
“These designs sitting with me currently only build a bit of reputation and bring no actual income. So even if I ‘give’ them to CJ to some extent now, using their channels and resources to quickly break through the situation, I’m completely okay with that. Anyway, the initial cooperation term discussed isn’t too long—just a few years. Soo Jung, think about it: in a few years, would you still want to wear clothes in my current design style?”
Jung Soo Jung subconsciously and honestly replied, “No.”
After all, fashion trends change too quickly.
“Then do you think, with my abilities, I’d lack new, better design ideas?” Jung Soo Yeon asked again, her tone full of confidence.
This made Jung Soo Jung startled again, suddenly thinking of that time-space connecting to the future with infinite possibilities, a source of endless inspiration.
So she immediately shook her head, “No shortage.”
Her tone was extremely affirmative.
“That’s right~” Jung Soo Yeon laughed, with the calm of having everything in hand.
“So, if this cooperation with CJ really works out, it’ll be like I’ve skipped the long stage of precipitation and accumulation needed originally, directly hopping on the high-speed train and finishing in advance the path that would have taken years in my previous plan—it’s a super good thing.”
Hearing this, Jung Soo Jung couldn’t help drawing in a sharp breath, feeling immensely happy and excited for her sister—this was practically a step to the top opportunity.
But following that came even deeper worry, “Then it seems, older sister, you’ll definitely be even busier next, almost non-stop, right? At that point, with Lin Xiuyuan…”
“Soo Jung.” Jung Soo Yeon interrupted her again, her voice carrying a hint of understanding and amusement. “Are you sure you’re genuinely worried about this for me now? Or do you have some ‘improper thoughts’ about him yourself and are using me as an excuse to probe?”
“Huh?? Of course not me.”
The person sounded like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, her little face instantly flushing red as she hurriedly denied into the microphone, her voice pitching up eight degrees, “I don’t have any thoughts at all—Jessica, don’t talk nonsense. I-I’m just worried for you! Afraid you’ll be too busy and neglect other things!”
The guilty Jung Soo Jung even called out Jessica.
Jung Soo Yeon, having finished her last bite of ramen, smiled, her voice calm yet carrying an indescribable certainty.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. And you don’t need to fret over nothing—just because you’re ‘Krystal,’ you can put ten thousand hearts back in your stomach. That guy’s feelings for the existence of ‘Krystal’ run very deep, deeper than you might even imagine.”
This meaningful response, as if privy to some inside story, was like a stone thrown into Jung Soo Jung’s heart lake, instantly stirring up endless ripples.
For a moment, various complex emotions, like an overturned palette, intertwined and spread in her heart.
There was curiosity and inquiry about the meaning behind it, faint worry about that “very deep feelings” statement, and embarrassment and annoyance at having her thoughts exposed.
And a trace of… a secret excitement and palpitation that even she herself was unwilling to delve into.
