Real Man

Chapter 75

She was not as sophisticated as the emoticons she left on SNS in the future, but her expressions were lively.

She had a face that burst into laughter, a face that looked wronged, a face that furrowed her brows, and a face that was angry.

Even from the images alone, he could feel the message she wanted to convey.

“Not bad.”

That was Yoo-hyun’s conclusion after comparing the countless characters he had seen on the smartphone messenger in the past and the character his sister had created.

She had some flaws, but considering that this was her first attempt, she definitely had talent.

Yoo-hyun immediately called her.

The phone rang for a short while before he heard his sister’s voice from the other side.

-What? Why?

“Just. You drew well. It felt good, didn’t it?”

-Well, you asked me to draw and send it to you. You have to pay for the gift.

“Is that enough? Send me some more.”

-I’m busy. I don’t have time.

He didn’t have much reason to call her before.

Yoo-hyun knew how to catch his sister who was ticking off.

“Then think of it as a part-time job. If you do as I ask, I’ll pay you.”

-Huh? What? How much?

He knew she would bite at the mention of money.

“I’ll give you more than what you make at your part-time job.”

-Why? If you want to give me allowance, just give it to me first.

“It’s not an allowance. I’m buying your drawings.”

-What? Puhahaha. Why would you buy these drawings?

He didn’t have his sister’s drawings in mind from the beginning.

He gave her a tablet and advised her to use her talent as a wish for his sister.

But when he saw the result, he changed his mind.

He decided that his sister’s drawings could fit into his plan.

“If you don’t want to take it, then don’t.”

-No, no. Keep going.

“I want you to make different kinds of characters, and make them distinct from each other. For example, use contrasting colors or something like that. And also, change the main icons to match the character’s vibe.”

-You have a lot of requests…

Han Jae Hee grumbled, but Yoo-hyun didn’t care at all.

“Oh, and don’t plagiarize anything.”

-Of course not. What do you take me for!

She reacted angrily when he said something provocative.

“Good. I’ll send you the basic icons for the phone. Along with some examples.”

-Is this going into a phone? Are you really going to use it?

“Of course.”

-Really? Then I feel pressured…

Yoo-hyun poked at his sister’s pride again.

“Are you scared?”

-No way! What else? If you have anything else, say it quickly.

She raised her voice when he teased her a little.

“I do. I’ll write it down and send it to you with the request email. And about the deadline.”

-Deadline?

“Yeah. Can I get a draft within two weeks? Oh, is that too hard?”

-…Two weeks? What are you talking about? I’ll finish it in a week. Just prepare the money.

It was fun to order her around when she answered so quickly with just a click.

“Okay. Just send me your drawings. I’ll pay you as much as you draw.”

It was a win-win situation for Yoo-hyun too.

He could get the images he wanted at a cheap price by using the excuse of giving his sister some money.

If the result was as he expected, it would be a great help not only for Park Seung Woo’s contest, but also for later on.

Even if not, he could differentiate himself from other contest proposals.

“Then I’ll leave it to you, designer-nim.”

-Ahem. Yes sir.

His sister pretended to be arrogant.

Yoo-hyun chuckled and hung up the phone.

He looked at the call time and saw that it had been over 20 minutes.

They had gotten closer after the last drinking session, but this was the first time they talked for so long.

And they had a constructive conversation instead of being drunk.

“How did this happen?”

Giving Han Jae Hee a tablet as a gift, and asking her to draw some characters.

The small help he had thrown for his sister in the past came back as a ripple effect.

Now Yoo-hyun knew what he had to do.

He had a clear vision of the amazing result that everyone would create together.

71 points.

That was the score that the team members gave to Yoo-hyun’s seminar.

Objectively speaking, he deserved a higher score.

But some of the seniors who had a grudge against him deliberately gave him low scores, so he had to settle for passing the seminar.

Choi Min Hee, the Manager, came over and encouraged him.

“Don’t worry, Yoo-hyun. They just terrorized your score. It’s too much to be anonymous.”

“I passed, didn’t I? That’s all that matters.”

The important thing was that he passed, regardless of the score.

Thanks to that, Yoo-hyun was officially recognized as a team member.

He was not just dragged around anymore, but he had the right to do what he wanted.

Park Seung Woo, the Assistant Manager, asked him what he wanted to do.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to study the HPDA3 mockup a bit.”

“Why?”

“I think it would be more convincing if I see it in real life.”

“Haha, yeah, it’s hard to feel it when you only see the numbers in the report. Okay, I’ll get it for you.”

Park Seung Woo rolled up his sleeves for Yoo-hyun, even though he was busy with the HPDA3 panel event and the contest preparation.

Thanks to him, Yoo-hyun was able to get the mockup in no time.

It was not a mockup made by a finished product company like HP or a mobile phone business unit, but a mockup made by the LCD business unit, so it was somewhat crude.

It was a shape that put an LCD panel in a thick frame.

It looked more like a small picture frame than a mobile phone.

The operation was also simple.

He could either press the side of the frame to display the image on the memory card according to the button, or test the touch pen on a fixed background screen.

It was enough to show the panel’s operation to the customers, since it was made for that purpose.

-Send me some sketches so I can work properly.

The first reason why Yoo-hyun touched the mockup.

It was to make a sketch to send to Han Jae Hee.

He used a different method than just telling her the concept of using different icons and wallpapers for each color.

He wanted to give her a feeling as close as possible to the real thing, since she had never used a full-touch phone before.

But the shape of the mockup was too different from the final image that Yoo-hyun drew.

It would have been better to just send her a rough image.

Yoo-hyun removed the frame and took out the panel.

Then, the thick edge of the picture frame disappeared and a very thin panel with a thickness of 2.5 mm came out.

The HPDA3 panel was difficult to produce because it was 30% thinner than before.

That advantage became apparent when he removed the frame.

The external device connection part protruded and the mechanical part on the back was exposed, but holding only the panel made it feel light and thin.

He could cover up the annoying parts with his hands.

Yoo-hyun displayed the images he had prepared for a few days on the LCD panel.

As Han Jae Hee said, he tried to draw it himself, but drawing objects with a pencil and drawing with a computer were worlds apart.

He ended up sending her simple images that he drew by hand.

He combined images that he found on the internet to create the overall atmosphere.

When he displayed different images for each color and put his finger on top of them, it felt quite realistic.

Snap, snap.

Yoo-hyun took a few pictures of his hand holding the panel and the front of the panel.

Then Park Seung Woo, who was next to him, asked.

“Why did you take out the panel?”

“I just wanted to see it separately. It’s light.”

“Haha, I guess it’s amazing. Is this your first time touching it?”

“I touched a monitor panel during the new employee training, but this is my first time with a phone. I like it better when it’s just a panel.”

Park Seung Woo nodded at Yoo-hyun’s words.

“It’s a bit thin.”

“Yes. It seems like there’s no need to make a frame, right?”

He started to talk.

The second reason why Yoo-hyun touched the mockup.

It was to inspire Park Seung Woo.

“Do you know how many parts are in there? You can’t do that. You need a battery too.”

“Wouldn’t the parts decrease over time? And the battery would get thinner too.”

“Haha, maybe someday, but it’s still far away.”

“That’s true. I just said that because I hoped there would be a phone like that in the future.”

The design of the phone’s appearance was very important right now.

But later on, its meaning would fade away.

The bezel (edge) would get thinner and eventually disappear, and the thickness would also get thinner.

Eventually, the phone would become like what Yoo-hyun was holding right now, only a panel.

“Then wouldn’t they all look the same? The differentiation…”

Park Seung Woo stopped talking as Yoo-hyun pressed the button on the edge of the frame to change the image.

Then the icon changed along with the background color.

It was still crude, but it was enough to give a feeling.

Maybe that’s why Park Seung Woo muttered to himself.

“Make the exterior as simple as possible, and change the interior design…”

“That’s right. That would be nice.”

Yeah. 

That’s how you give a differentiation point.

It was not necessary to worry about the phone’s exterior design too much for the mobile phone business unit contest.

That was not something Park Seung Woo could do in the first place.

Rather, he should focus on how to supply cheap touch panels.

That would be easier for him and better for the contest result.

Park Seung Woo paused for a moment and then answered.

“…Okay. That sounds good. How about matching the inner color and the outer color to differentiate them?”

“That sounds good too. We can name it based on that concept, right?”

Park Seung Woo flinched at Yoo-hyun’s question.

“Name?”

“Yes. We need a product name to enter the contest.”

“Huh? Um…”

Was it because of Yoo-hyun’s sparkling eyes?

Park Seung Woo rolled his eyes and blurted out a word.

“ColorPhone.”

“Wow! That’s good, isn’t it?”

“…Is it?”

“Yes. It feels alive.”

It was different from the name of Hansung’s low-end full-touch phone that came out in the past.

But what does it matter?

As long as it feels right.