Chapter 34: Eyes, Nose, Lips.

Youngjae gathered the key staff in the meeting room to introduce them his concept for the next month’s cover. Those present included Hyoseong, Himchan, Jieun, the managing editor, writers, graphic designers, production manager, sales manager, web editor, bloggers, fact-checkers, etc.

    The table was big and full of papers, and sushi, coffee, Red bull, chips, cupcakes to snack while they exchanged ideas and views. Youngjae was sitting at the head of the table and played with his phone as the sales manager delivered a speech about how low the sales in February were (it wasn’t a surprise, that’s why Youngjae didn’t pay attention) and they really needed to do something to increase sales in March.

    “Hey, it's your turn, sir” Jooe said as the sales manager finished his presentation and everybody stared expectantly at Youngjae.

    “Are you watching ?” the managing editor said.

    “What? No! I'm watching... I mean, I'm playing Candy Crush” Youngjae said.

    “Candy Crush? Is it still a thing?” someone said.

    “Of course it is! That game never gets old” another one said.

    “We aren't here to talk about Candy Crush still being popular or not, we're here to talk about the concept for March” the production manager said and then everybody stared at Youngjae again.

    Youngjae cleared his throat and buttoned his jacket as he got up. He started walking around the place and everybody followed him with their eyes. The young man was nervous, he had been working on his idea for days, however, he wasn't sure if his idea was going to be liked, after all, it was his first time running a magazine. A fashion magazine. Most of his life he was the fat kid who wore hoodies and pajamas, he never imagined himself being the editor in chief of the most important fashion magazine in Asia.

    “Youngjae, are you ok?” Himchan asked as his friend started sweating like a ham in the oven.

    “Yeah, I'm fine” Youngjae stopped and looked one by one in the eye “There's a week left before next month, so we’ll go in hard with the ads. My concept is called Mosaic. We’ll take shots of Dasom’s eyes, nose, lips, hair, ears, chin and put them on billboards around the city. Just shots of parts of her face, never full shots of her face, so people’ll get curious and have to buy the magazine to see her whole face on the cover”

    “This reminds me of Taeyang's song” Hyoseong said.

    “Really? This reminds me of a serial killer that chops down his victim’s body but instead of throwing her parts in the river, he wants to spread them on billboards through the city” Jongup said.

    “You aren't an important member of the staff, what are you doing here?” Youngjae said.

    “He's my assistant” Hyoseong said.

    “Assistants aren’t important”

    “Your assistant’s here”

    “Jooe’s different”

    “How so?”

    “Because I say so”

    “I don't get this concept” a writer dared to raise a hand and interrupt the argument.

    “What's so hard to understand?” Youngjae felt stupid, maybe his idea was stupid.

    “The idea is easy to understand” Himchan always got the younger’s back “We take close-ups of Dasom’s ears, nose, lips, eyes, hair and plaster them all over the buildings and billboards”

    “I still don't get it” the writer said.

    “Seriously?” Himchan raised one eyebrow “Just picture Dasom's eyes on a billboard and then picture her lips on a billboard… It’s not hard to understand, man”

    “I get it, it's like a collage” another writer said and frowned at Youngjae “Why do you call it mosaic? It's a collage”

    “It sounds like a puzzle” someone said.

    “Ok, the name doesn't matter” Youngjae said “My idea is clear?”

    Everybody nodded.

    “So let’s get started” Youngjae said “And, of course, within the pages Dasom will be rocking Jieun’s latest designs and maybe we’ll have a party-slash-fashion show at Park Hyatt with reporters and celebs” he said and looked at Jieun’s direction “What do you think?”

    “Uh-huh” she shrugged “Whatever”

    “Let's call it a day” Youngjae exhaled deeply and waved his hand, making everyone disappear.