Jeon Segye, the creator of the B-bly app, felt that something was missing.

He had announced a flashy launch while beginning collaborations with several influencers, but for Jeon Segye, who had once received reports of monstrous sales figures at the giant corporation L&E, this was still nowhere near enough.

“What was this month’s revenue again?”

“130 million won.”

“And our net profit?”

“After subtracting 12 million won for seller settlements, and another 5,446,750 won for advertising and miscellaneous expenses, we’re left with roughly 65 million before-”

The employee’s calculator never stopped.

“Average daily sales volume was 160 orders, so 4,800 orders monthly. Then there’s logistics purchasing costs, the sourcing runners’ wages, salaries for the two packing staff, monthly courier contracts, ah, and one CS employee....”

The calculations went on endlessly. Running a company was no easy matter.

“And then losses from returns and exchanges, the open-event expenses....”

Selling clothes wasn’t the end of it. They also had to cover server operating costs and absorb every bit of loss themselves.

The sellers only did promotion.

That was B-bly’s biggest selling point.

Even after the meeting ended, Jeon Segye didn’t leave work. He stared silently at the night view, deep in thought.

“Ha....”

Alone inside the luxurious office, Jeon Segye let out a sigh.

That was when it happened.

-??

-Holy shit what is that

-So cute LMAOOO TT_TT

A tiny Jeon Segye — Little Jeon Segye — was sitting on top of the monitor.

“So at this rate, when exactly are you gonna win?”

Another one appeared on top of the mouse.

“It’s over. Totally over.”

The tiny Jeon Segye shook his head.

“At this speed, minimum eighty-seven years....”

Yet another Jeon Segye appeared on the coffee cup sitting on the desk.

“Ahem.”

With an irritated flick of his hand, Jeon Segye stirred them away and made Little Jeon Segye disappear.

Seo Eden’s expressionless face alone couldn’t properly convey the kind of vibe the department head character needed. Instead of having Jeon Segye openly display heavy worries, Hwang Boseok created Little Jeon Segye to act as the character’s inner thoughts.

Just as expected, the response landed perfectly.

-So freaking cute [N O V E L I G H T] TT_TT

-This is way more natural for Seo Eden lololol guess Music N MC experience really matters lolol

The acting could easily have come off as excessive, but because the directing turned it into a tiny Little Jeon Segye, it looked cute instead.

Riding the elevator down to the parking garage, Jeon Segye pulled out his phone from inside his jacket.

The glamorous photos of his stepbrothers had red notification circles floating above their profiles, signaling recent updates.

“Ha....”

Sighing again, Jeon Segye drove off. A message arrived from an employee who had just gotten off work. A CG message window popped up over Jeon Segye’s phone with a ding.

[CEO, influencer PinkJoo replied.]

Along with it, the influencer’s SNS account floated into view. She had an enormous follower count and was known for taking excellent photos.

[She says she won’t do it.]

Pshhhhh-.

A balloon-deflating sound effect played.

Jeon Segye immediately called the employee.

-Yes, CEO.

“What exactly was the reason?”

-She says...

PinkJoo’s answer had been simple.

-PinkJoo currently lives in Jeonju, and going back and forth to the Dongdaemun sourcing market is a waste of time and energy. She says if that’s the case, taking a single clothing ad deal is more profitable in every way. Plus, it’s not all that different from the B-bly system anyway.

Jeon Segye sighed. PinkJoo had one million followers. That meant a single sponsored feed post was worth at least ten million won. If she started doing group orders, the profit would increase even further.

Just like B-bly, the company handled everything from product management to shipping and CS while the influencer only uploaded photos, so B-bly didn’t really have any standout advantages.

“What if we provide samples?”

But who was Jeon Segye?

The eldest son of L&E, Korea’s number one fashion company. He had seen and learned things in a much bigger world.

“Send clothing samples directly to PinkJoo’s house and ask her to upload mirror selfies wearing whatever she likes onto her story and feed. I’ll personally prepare the samples according to her taste.”

-I’ll send the reply for now.

“Alright. Get some rest.”

Listening intently to the navigation instructions, Jeon Segye turned the steering wheel.

-You have deviated from the route. Restarting navigation.

The place Jeon Segye arrived at was Dongdaemun Market.

“Here it comes, here it comes!”

Aetami’s heart pounded with excitement at the long-awaited meeting between the two.

Jeon Segye had memorized several suppliers maintaining high sales figures on B-bly.

FlowyFlowy, SoftSoft, PinkPuff, CozyCozy.

The styles implied by the store names matched PinkJoo’s feed perfectly.

Carefully examining samples, Jeon Segye finally arrived somewhere.

“Lovely,” located on the first floor of Diot, currently one of the stores generating the highest sales.

He spotted an employee busily stuffing clothes tightly into boxes. The worker carefully checked the quantities of the Erua blouses by color.

Jeon Segye quietly watched the diligent figure for a moment before his gaze shifted toward a tiny notebook beside the computer.

A roughly sketched blouse design was visible inside.

“Hello.”

Hearing the employee greet him, Jeon Segye looked away from the notebook. The employee adjusted their glasses and asked,

“Are you looking for something specific?”

“Something new. Stuff that hasn’t gone up on Shinma yet.”

“Our new arrivals come out next week.”

“Then could I at least know the approximate unit price before release?”

The employee tilted their head slightly. It was a face they’d never seen before.

“Where are you from?”

“B-bly.”

Jeon Segye pulled out a business card from inside his coat and handed it over.

A ticklish background song began to play.

“We’ve already started our first transaction, and the order quantities are pretty decent.”

As the employee read the business card, Jeon Segye spoke.

“And now I’d like to receive samples.”

The employee glanced at Jeon Segye’s card and nodded lightly.

“We’ll send the new arrivals to the number listed here before they’re registered on Shinma.”

After giving a brief greeting and turning to leave, Jeon Segye looked back at the employee and asked,

“That blouse.”

“Yes?”

“Is it original production, or did you draft the pattern from somewhere?”

Aetami placed a hand over her racing heart. It felt like something important was about to begin.

“It’s original production.”

“Hmm....”

Jeon Segye said the sentence that would change Nam Pyeonghwa’s life.

“When does the designer come in?”

* * *

The next morning, Nam Pyeonghwa told the owner unni who had come in for the shift change.

“What? B-bly?”

The owner unni’s face lit up brightly as she looked at the business card. Pyeonghwa, who had already added the number on the card as a contact, stared at Jeon Segye’s empty profile picture before pressing the X button.

“The designer unni said she’s coming Tuesday.”

“They’re probably trying to order custom production from us, right?”

“That’s the feeling I got.”

“Oh my god, oh my god! We seriously hit the jackpot.”

Life returned to the owner unni’s eyes. She knew that landing one fashion app like this was far more profitable than dealing with multiple shopping malls separately.

“But next Tuesday’s your day off, isn’t it, Pyeonghwa?”

“Yeah.”

“Heyyy. Don’t do that, come too! What are we supposed to do without you~? Every hit item in our store came from your ideas!”

“The designer unni will feel bad if she hears that.”

Laughing, Pyeonghwa finished the handover and left the store with her bag.

One of the hangers sitting on the shelf fell to the floor.

On it were the words:

[Erua BL]

A design created by Pyeonghwa herself.

* * *

A few days later, on the morning Lovely’s designer came to work, Jeon Segye made a shocking proposal.

“One thousand units per color. We’ll produce the stock in advance and operate on a same-day shipping system.”

“Same-day shipping?”

He had already coordinated things with the courier company.

Order today, receive tomorrow.

Anyone who had ever bought products through influencers would understand how absurdly impossible that sounded.

“We’ll turn the production process itself into content and share it live through stories. Followers will vote on colors, fits, and details themselves, building rapport in the process.”

To summarize it in one sentence:

“This Diot store itself becomes another stage for B-bly.”

SNS windows floated above the heads of Jeon Segye, the designer, and Lovely’s owner.

Got into another fight with the factory manager today...! ㅠ_ㅠ But you know I obsess over details, right? I’ll bring you seriously pretty clothes, so look forward to it ♥︎

“So I’m the factory manager getting into fights with you?”

“Bingo.”

The fact that consumers were wearing clothes made by these people would strengthen B-bly’s customer base tremendously.

“But if you’re B-bly, there must be plenty of other places. Why did you choose our store...?”

Jeon Segye answered immediately.

“Because I liked the designs.”

* * *

L&E headquarters.

Inside the office, there were men leisurely spending the morning swinging golf clubs.

“So he crawled his way into Dongdaemun.”

“Ehh.”

They were Jeon Segye’s stepbrothers.

The younger older brother sprawled on the sofa snickered.

“What’s he planning to do, selling ten-thousand-won blouses?”

“But still....”

The eldest brother inspected the golf club in his hands before speaking.

“You never know, right?”

A cold smile spread across his face as he decided to sabotage Jeon Segye’s project.

If they were doing original production over there, then this side would do original production too.

“Even if Segye’s playing house, we still have to maintain quality.”

If they collaborated with influencers, then this side would collaborate with influencers too.

They had no intention of giving even the slightest foothold to some cheap app that had barely just launched.

* * *

Meanwhile, on her long-awaited day off, Pyeonghwa visited a trendy new café.

The European-style interior had clearly been decorated with great care, and the place was packed with people taking photos.

“Burst shot for me!”

“Okay.”

Clickclickclickclickclick-!

Amid all the people snapping pictures, Pyeonghwa sat alone drinking an Americano, feeling like she existed in a completely different world.

Unlike the women dressed up from head to toe, Pyeonghwa wore clean but comfortable clothes.

“Ah, so annoying....”

“She keeps getting in the background.”

Pyeonghwa had merely been sitting there, yet the girls complained loudly enough for her to hear because she was appearing in their photos.

“This spot takes the best pictures.”

Even as the girls muttered as though telling her to get out of the way already, Pyeonghwa remained deep in thought.

Whenever she looked at people’s clothes, ideas kept coming to her.

Using a mechanical pencil, Pyeonghwa began sketching outfits into her notebook.

With little boing-boing sound effects, every person nearby suddenly changed clothes.

It was as though the contents of Pyeonghwa’s imagination had been laid bare.

The woman wearing a slim-fit knit transformed into a glossy silk blouse, the wide sleeve cuffs adding elegance.

The woman in a long dress became dressed in a neat tweed two-piece outfit accented with a simple belt.

The short skirt gained added detail, organza fabric attached to the hem to create a softer, more delicate look.

Bzzzt-.

A vibration sounded alongside the popping of soap bubbles.

Pyeonghwa’s imagination shattered, and everyone returned to their original clothes.

Instead, new designs remained sketched across the notebook on the table.

[1:00 PM]

Send out new arrivals

As the alarm instructed, Pyeonghwa opened her messenger app. Holding down the contacts she had saved as business partners, she typed out a message.

Hello~ This is Lovely, Diot 1 A-27.

Sending over our new arrivals that have been getting great reactions and steady orders♥

Exclusive production available!

Additional colors available!

Feel free to contact us after checking them out~

Store number 010-1111-1111

After sending dozens of photos bundled together to each business contact, Pyeonghwa’s eyes suddenly stopped on one saved name.

[B-bly CEO / Jeon Segye]

She pressed the empty profile picture once more.

At some point, the unread 1 beside the message Pyeonghwa had sent had disappeared.