Chapter 8
Inside the Neon Beauty fashion team office.
Employees gathered in front of the team leader’s office, craning their necks. Through the glass wall, they could see Danbi’s face, completely absorbed in something.
Since that incident, "Neon Beauty" had been battered by negative public opinion.
As it was revealed that the woman who had stormed the runway was an employee of the company, gossip that sounded like something out of a novel began to run rampant.
But every employee already knew. That the gossip, which sounded like a novel, didn't even come close to the reality.
The person who had led this Neon Beauty fashion show was none other than Yeo Danbi.
The show had proceeded steadily under Danbi’s direction. From beginning to end, there wasn't a single detail that hadn't been touched by her hands.
That was where the problem arose.
In the list of those who participated in the show, the three characters of the name "Yeo Danbi" had vanished like foam. That name had been replaced by another.
Park Harin.
The only daughter of the Neon Beauty chairman.
The reason everyone cursed Yeo Danbi for turning a show she had spent months creating into a laughingstock in an instant, yet couldn't bring themselves to hate her, was precisely because of that.
They had witnessed the glory she had crafted with her own hands being worn by someone else’s name tag and receiving the applause.
How heartbroken must she have been to go crazy like that? That was what everyone thought.
"What on earth is going on?"
"Is it really okay to leave her like this?"
But to think she would go this crazy?
Today, two days after the incident, the employees looked at Danbi with curious eyes. Earlier, she had been sketching in her drawing book, and now she was even working on blueprints.
It was already surprising that she had come to work the day after, but this was nothing compared to that. For an ordinary person, it would have been enough to stop eating and drinking for days.
And yet, it had only been two days since all the clothes she made were stolen, and she was already designing new ones? In the middle of this mess?
Just then, Danbi, who hadn't moved from her seat for hours, stood up abruptly. She gathered the blueprints she had been fussing over and her bag, and dashed out of the team leader’s office.
"T-Team leader, where are you going?"
"Oh, I’m taking a half-day off today."
"But what about the blueprints..."
As the employee looked at her with a puzzled expression, Danbi waved the blueprints and beamed.
"I’m going to go make clothes!"
Leaving behind the people whispering that she might have truly lost her mind, Danbi hurried home.
Current time: 12:30 PM.
She had to enter the game by at least 1:00 PM to finish the clothes on time.
After experimenting repeatedly for an hour, Danbi had discovered one fact about the game.
It was that there was a significant time gap between the game and reality.
The gist was this.
Roughly half a day in the game, or 12 hours, was about equivalent to 1 hour in reality.
That meant one week in the game was equal to 14 hours in reality.
If so, the key to this competition was how to distribute the remaining time and effort.
The day of the competition promised in the game was 6:00 PM. Even if she left work right on time, the schedule was tight.
Another thing: the game didn't have the tools she was used to. To design clothes within such a tight timeframe, she absolutely needed the tools she used regularly.
Danbi decided without hesitation.
Then I’ll do the sketching at the office and take a half-day for the rest!
1:00 PM.
As soon as Danbi arrived home, she put on the game console. There were now less than three days left until the deadline.
She closed her eyes and pressed the power button. She had come this far; there was no turning back now.
Simultaneously, her vision went black.
With a pleasant mechanical sound ringing in her eardrums, her consciousness was sucked into a distant abyss.
*Whoosh!*
A blinding flash assaulted her vision, turning everything white, and a thrill ran from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.
A chilling sensation, as if every single cell in her body was being reassembled.
The strange sensation of space twisting and her body floating was something she could never get used to, no matter how many times she experienced it.
"Haa, haa..."
When she opened her eyes, gasping for air, she was no longer in her room in reality.
The subtle scent of incense wood brushing against the tip of her nose and the soft sunlight filtering through the paper windows.
Danbi clenched and unclenched her hands at the familiar scenery inside the Small Palace. A smile spread across her lips on its own.
Perhaps because she had been taking a nap just moments ago, the sensations of her body, which had been languidly settled, began to wake up one by one.
It was a perfect connection.
"Alright, let's give this a try, shall we?"
Danbi shook off her lethargy and immediately rolled up her sleeves. Without hesitation, she pulled the paper and ink placed in one corner of the room toward her.
"My Lady...?"
Som, who had been nodding off in the middle of the room, opened her eyes wide in surprise at the sudden movement.
Danbi didn't care and began to pour the clothing designs she had crammed into her head onto the paper.
The brush tip, moving without restraint, showed not a single moment of hesitation.
*Scratch, scratch.*
Only the sound of the brush scraping against the paper echoed quietly through the silent room.
The hand holding the brush moved across the paper as if it knew its own way, and her eyes slid rapidly along the ink lines.
Before long, Danbi’s hand, having completed the blueprint with a single stroke, came to a dead stop.
She set the brush down and stared quietly at the blueprint, which still smelled of fresh ink.
Her gaze, which had lingered on the paper as if contemplating something for a long time, soon shifted to Som.
"Som."
"Yes, My Lady."
"Did you prepare everything I told you to before?"
"Are you talking about the gardenia fruits?"
Danbi’s gaze turned to the tips of Som’s fingers.
There, a large basket was filled to the brim with well-ripened, reddish gardenia fruits.
"The fruits are all in the basket..."
Before the words were even finished, she threw off her cumbersome outer robe and ran out into the courtyard.
Som’s eyes went round as she watched her mistress dash off, not even noticing that the heels of her shoes were crushed.
"My Lady, what are you doing? Why are you suddenly in the courtyard...!"
Som followed in surprise, but Danbi didn't even have the leisure to answer; she roughly dragged the basket sitting on the ground toward her.
She sat down abruptly in the middle of the courtyard, held a metal pin in her mouth, and began to peel the gardenia fruits.
Every time the hard shell caught on the pin and crumbled away, the yellow flesh revealed its form.
"My Lady, surely..."
Only then did Som, who had realized Danbi’s intention, let her words trail off.
"Are you trying to make gold thread with that?"
"That’s right."
"That’s ridiculous!"
Som shook her head in disbelief. In her eyes, the gardenia fruit was nothing more than a common dye.
"Even if you dye the thread with gardenia water, it will only turn yellow! It looks completely different from real gold thread at a single glance!"
It wasn't as if Danbi didn't know that.
Gold thread made by melting real gold was on a different level from thread dyed with mere fruit.
But she couldn't give up.
The core of the Rain-Praying Ritual garment was a giant golden dragon embroidered on white silk.
Without that heavy majesty, no matter how excellent the tailoring was, it would never be recognized as "the King’s clothes."
That was why, just before ending her previous connection, Danbi had strictly instructed Som to pick every last one of the ripe fruits from the gardenia trees lining the courtyard.
"They say the Queen is embroidering with piles of real gold thread! It will definitely be obvious."
Som fretted and whined beside her.
Danbi didn't even look at Som, twisting her lips as she soaked the ripe gardenia fruits in water.
"Gold thread? That just makes your shoulders ache because it’s heavy."
"Pardon?"
"Som, listen carefully."
Danbi narrowed her eyes, making a small gap with her thumb and index finger.
At that confident look, Som’s lips pursed inward.
"A masterpiece isn't just about the material; it’s decided by the 'finishing touch' of how you handle it."
"It doesn't look like it’ll have a finishing touch, let alone a single ounce of quality!"
"Just wait. Even this is a skill, balancing the temperature and concentration."
Danbi didn't care and plunged her hands into the water without hesitation. A yellow hue spread like a haze over the transparent water.
As the yellow gardenia water grew thick and rich, she soaked the top-quality silk thread she had prepared in advance.
The color spreading across the surface wasn't just a garish yellow.
As the boiling time, temperature, and her own know-how blended together, the thread gradually turned into a lustrous golden hue.
It was an elegant color, close to champagne gold, as if it had melted while soaking up the sunlight.
Only then did Som’s complexion brighten.
"Wow... My Lady, is this really thread? It looks exactly like thread pulled from melted real gold!"
"See? If we use a mordant properly here, the luster will be even better. Now, dry it."
Danbi handed the wet thread to Som and tilted her stiff neck back.
The fragrant yet bitter scent of gardenia that had spread throughout the courtyard tickled the tip of her nose.
"Yes! But My Lady, when are you going to finish all the embroidery? There isn't even two days left now."
"It’s only just beginning."
Danbi’s gaze turned toward the room. There, the white silk was still spread out, waiting for its master.
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