Chapter 630
At last, the show began.
The lights came on inside the previously dark venue, and surround sound so powerful it seemed to shake the ceiling reverberated throughout the entire hall. At the same time, the first model walked out.
M Jacobs’ new collection this season was worthy of a brand that led the commercial fashion industry. Every time another model appeared, the texture of the high-quality garments was revealed in full beneath the bright lights.
But no one here was paying attention to the models.
What had completely swallowed everyone’s attention was the very center of the runway. Herno, the head of LMVH, and the Princess of T-ffany seated beside him.
With this, one of the labels that had been attached to Han Yeoreum disappeared completely.
Herno’s mistake.
Herno was announcing to everyone present that this was no mistake at all. I chose Han Yeoreum.
And so Han Yeoreum became LMVH’s unconventional choice and the Princess of T-ffany.
The Hollywood nepo babies gathered together in the front row of Section B across from them openly furrowed their brows.
Their expressions came from the displeasure of seeing an Asian woman in her twenties, who had only just set foot in the American mainstream, brazenly intrude on their territory. And she was seated beside none other than Herno himself.
Whenever Han Yeoreum turned her head to follow the models and focus on the show, the pink diamond around her neck glittered.
Herno on her left. Eastwood’s choice on her right. And T-ffany’s Blue Book around her neck.
Simply sitting there was enough to draw every eye from the press and local reporters.
Even among the backstage PR team, Han Yeoreum’s name was being thrown around without pause.
“What the hell is going on right now?!”
“...We have a serious problem. Most of the real-time press shots being uploaded to Betty Images aren’t of the models in the show.”
“Then who are they of?”
“Herno and the Princess of T-ffany. Haha. Fucking hell.”
The situation had gone completely insane. The head of LMVH had casually turned one of his own brands into the debut stage for a rookie actress.
How much capital went into a single major fashion show?
Herno had lost his mind. That was the conclusion reached by the M Jacobs backstage staff.
The production budget poured into a mere fifteen-minute runway show was at least five million dollars.
The rental fee for the building at the southern end of Central Park, the casting fees for fifty of the world’s top models, the cost of producing garments that hundreds of haute couture atelier artisans had spent thousands of hours sewing until their palms were raw, plus the marketing costs and even the potential long-term profits—all of it had been thrown away.
Senior editors from fashion giants such as WWD, V0gue, and Page Seven, seated in the second row of the runway front section, were pounding furiously at the keyboards of the laptops resting on their knees.
[WWD Analysis ⎮ The Princess of T-ffany Appears on New York’s Fifth Avenue, Seated Beside LMVH’s Herno]
A historic event that may change fashion history has taken place at the M Jacobs collection, one of the highlights of New York Fashion Week. Chairman Bernard Herno, emperor of the LMVH empire, took his seat at the exact center of the front row in Section A, directly beside Han Yeoreum, a rookie Korean actress in her twenties...(omitted)
Only seven minutes had passed since the show began.
Breaking-news articles were already flooding the front pages of local New York media outlets and Tritter in real time.
* * *
“Aaaaaagh!”
Manager Hong felt a thrill unlike anything he had ever experienced before.
The headline news being uploaded from New York was spreading throughout Korea. Everyone on JC ENM’s PR team felt a rush from a reality none of them had ever anticipated.
“Is this the opening of some movie or something...?”
“LMVH of all places is pushing her this hard. Wow.”
“What if Herno later tells Yeoreum, ‘You’re the granddaughter I gave birth to with my heart,’ or something?”
“That’s going too far. That’s pure JC sentiment.”
The JC ENM PR team babbled whatever came to mind in a daze, and not a single one of them could get a grip on themselves. It was simply too unrealistic.
Nothing like this had ever happened before, so they had no idea where to even begin.
“She’s probably going to get some forced hate locally too, right? Her status just jumped way too high.”
“It’s already happening a little. They’re saying LMVH is doomed and should stop handing out special treatment to Asians.”
“What bullshit.”
“What kind of balls do they have saying shit like that while living in a country where guns are legal...? Makes me want to kill them.”
But they came from JC ENM, the homeland of professional baiting. Everyone immediately began checking the local New York reactions.
At that very moment, a new title bestowed upon Han Yeoreum was rising through Tritter’s real-time hashtags alongside her name.
#Hanyeoreum
#Princess of T-ffany
“People who watched are losing their minds over this two-shot.”
𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
“Who? Herno and her?”
“No. Myeong Jeha. Kim Kangil and On Jihwa.”
Herno was not the only one generating buzz. Hardcore K-Drama fans were delighted by the high-resolution candid photos of Myeong Jeha and Han Yeoreum together.
Show&pop @PopBest
(Myeong Jeha Han Yeoreum NYFW two-shot.jpg)
(Myeong Jeha Han Yeoreum Seoul Metropolitan City two-shot.jpg)
Jihwa and Kangil have reunited
5,561 retrits 23K likes
cloe @kdramalover
(photo of me losing my mind.jpg)
When I found out how Jihwa and Kangil ended
(photo of a beaming face.jpg)
When I saw Jihwa and Kangil’s photos today
11K retrits 35K likes
Even as the JC ENM employees checked the local New York response, Manager Hong quickly turned his thoughts toward the Korean media.
“Wait, wait. This isn’t the time for this.”
Even with his brain flooded with dopamine to its absolute limit, he analyzed the situation.
“Assistant Manager Shin. First, put up a separate post explaining just how big a deal the chairman of LMVH is. Yeah. We need to show his level first. And Tritter’s going to explode in a little while, so screenshot a few posts in order of highest retrit count and circulate them.”
The Korean public needed to understand just how enormous a company LMVH was and what it meant for Herno, its head, to be backing Han Yeoreum.
* * *
Shim Juhwan collapsed into his seat.
“Taeseok-Huijae is real....”
They really were dating after all. Because he had looked through every real-time photo currently being uploaded, and it was absolutely obvious that Myeong Jeha liked Han Yeoreum.
“A man’s eyes can’t lie.”
That wasn’t acting. No matter how good an actor Myeong Jeha was, that much had to be real.
If that was acting, then Myeong Jeha had to be the greatest con artist in history, capable of swindling the entire world.
This was reality, not business. Right now, Myeong Jeha had the same look in his eyes that Shim Juhwan had seen in the music video. There was love in them.
“He likes her. He really likes her.”
It was the face of Myeong Jeha in the early days of their relationship, after realizing his own feelings, when he liked Han Yeoreum so much that merely looking at her made him smile. Shim Juhwan could tell.
“I told you they’re dating.”
The two of them really were dating. This wasn’t a delusion. Shim Juhwan was overwhelmed with emotion.
“Save these first.”
Shim Juhwan swiftly saved every high-resolution photo. Even though they were genuine real-time photos uploaded directly from the venue without any separate retouching, they looked like professional pictorials.
The suit Myeong Jeha was wearing was especially perfect. Even the pin in his tie was extraordinary.
Shim Juhwan scrolled down very, very slowly, as though savoring the dating scandal. When he reached a photo that also included Seo Eden sitting near Han Yeoreum in the front row, he quickly scrolled past it.
Then he went back to staring at the two-shot of Myeong Jeha and Han Yeoreum.
“It looks like Taeseok, the boy who went to America and made it big, personally put that necklace around her neck....”
Once again wistfully recalling , Shim Juhwan’s face turned red. Then anticipation filled him.
“Soon Myeong Jeha’s American shoot is going to overlap with Yeoreum filming with Han Yohan....”
The corners of Shim Juhwan’s mouth rose.
“How jealous is Myeong Jeha going to get?!”
Unable to contain his pounding heart, Shim Juhwan slammed the hand holding his phone down onto the bed.
The phone briefly went dark from the impact before lighting back up, revealing a high-resolution Taeseok-Huijae wallpaper from .
* * *
[HOT/ The lunatics currently losing their minds over New York Fashion Week.jpg]
(The Great Garland Episode 1 ending Joseon bastard scene.jpg)
(Taeseok-Huijae photo.jpg)
(Jeha-Yeoreum two-shot.jpg)
(The Great Garland Minor Gallery popular post screenshot.jpg)
Taeseok-Huijae Cult
-Anonymous 1: Ah fuck LOLOL I thought somebody had stormed the show or something
-Anonymous 4: When the hell is the poison Ja Sokhwan dumped into the well gonna wear off LMAOOOO
˪Anonymous 12: Never
-Anonymous 23: No but seriously they started this first
˪Anonymous 36: They started it first 2222
˪Anonymous 49: They started it first 33333 This genuinely isn’t our fault
-Anonymous 51: LMAOOOO Fuck, Americans call this pairing Jihwa-Kangil (screenshot of Americans’ Trits.jpg)
˪Anonymous 88: Tasteless bastards, it’s Taeseok-Huijae fr
-Anonymous 91: Please unleash Ja Sokhwan upon America
˪Anonymous 105: The seed of an international conflict
˪Anonymous 123: Ah fuck LMAOO
-Anonymous 138: How long has it been since the show ended and the Great Garland gallery is STILL this active? This is genuinely terrifying and insane; fucking lunatics
[Today’s BEST/ The identity of the old man sitting next to Han Yeoreum at New York Fashion Week.jpg]
(Herno and Han Yeoreum two-shot.jpg)
Huh? Who are you, Grandpa?
(LMVH logo.jpg)
Just the owner of a small company, dear
(D-ol, P-di, C-line, G-venchy, K-zo, L-uis Vuitton, L-ro Piana, M Jacobs, ....jpg)
(covering ears meme.jpg)
Please stop
I’m not finished yet, dear
(C-line Beauty, F-ty Beauty, M-ke Up For Ever, G-lain, B-vedere Vodka, C-ife Mentelle, ....jpg)
(covering ears meme.jpg)
I said please stop
I’m still not finished, dear
(C-met, F-red, B-lgari, T-g Heuer, T-ffany, H-nessy, ....jpg)
(covering ears meme.jpg)
I said please stop
I’m still not finished, dear
-Holy shit, it’s THAT kind of company?
-What the hell? He’s not just some grandpa, he’s a fucking mega-rich grandpa LMAOOO
-Isn’t he richer than the US president at that level...?
˪Pretty sure he is, he’s one of the richest people in the world
-They own every luxury brand I know 😯😯
-Han Yeoreum is causing a fucking riot in America right now, but it’s not just the T-ffany company pushing her, the whole damn group is backing her at this point LMAO
-Korea,,
-Seoul Metropolitan City really must’ve been a massive hit. Myeong Jeha is a T-g Heuer ambassador too, maybe he came to see both of them??
America had gone wild. Which meant Korea had practically exploded.
Every time something became a topic of discussion—American media reactions, real-time Tritter hashtags—it was immediately reposted in Korea.
The scale was so enormous that people did not even have time to get drunk on national pride before....
INTUBE [Han Yeoreum Is Causing Chaos in New York Right Now]
110K views
[The World’s Mega-Billionaire Is Her Fan? The Identity of the Old Man Sitting Beside Han Yeoreum in New York 😯😯]
280K views
[The Class of the Korean Actress the World Is Watching! The Power of Seoul Metropolitan City]
420K views
...Or rather, the speed at which trends spread in Korea was on another level. Before even a few hours had passed, everyone knew about Han Yeoreum’s seven-billion-won necklace and the chairman of LMVH.
Everyone went wild over the sheer level Han Yeoreum was displaying the moment she arrived in America.
“....”
Holding her phone, Heo Haena unconsciously bit down on the tender flesh inside her mouth. Her head felt as though it were burning hot.
A pink diamond worth around seven billion won. A dazzling runway. Myeong Jeha on one side, the head of LMVH on the other.
And Han Yeoreum, watched and envied by everyone.
Looking at Han Yeoreum’s face, Heo Haena regretted it all over again.
A place she might have been able to go. A life she might have been able to have.
If only she had been a little older, if she had gotten , if she had become Influ 1 in , if that had gotten her signed to JC ENM, if she had appeared in and ...
“Haena. What’s wrong?”
Heo Haena’s manager spoke to her after seeing her face twist in real time. Heo Haena forced herself to shake her head.
“Seeing Yeoreum makes me nervous... Eeeing....”
“Why, why? What about her?”
“She’s just so....”
Fucking annoying.
Heo Haena desperately swallowed those words and smiled.
“She seems like such... an amazing person....”
Her manager smiled as though telling her there was nothing to worry about.
“You’re always so scared of everything. Can’t you tell just by looking at this? The viral spread is way too fast!”
“Is it...? I’m not really sure....”
“Geez. What are we going to do with you when you’re this innocent?”
Her manager shook their head.
“Just look at it. I heard JC is doing something with D-sney this time. They’re probably tying that together with LMVH and manufacturing the whole thing. It’s not like Herno personally mentioned Han Yeoreum by name. It’s probably just a simple corporate collaboration or something?”
Heo Haena exited the article about Han Yeoreum on her screen, pressing the back button again and again.
“Don’t worry. It’s nothing. Give it a few days and everyone will forget about it.”
But even after hearing her manager’s words, Heo Haena could not relax.
Because ever since Han Yeoreum’s debut, there had not been a single day when she had failed to attract the public’s attention. It did not seem remotely possible that people would simply forget about this.
If anything, this felt like the beginning.
Han Yeoreum still had another event left on her American schedule.
The Fashion Week after-party.