Episode 34. Evening Primrose (3)
On the first day of their arrival in Ethiopia. As Executive Director Yoo In-seok had spoiled to Kang Dae-oh in advance, many of the coffee bean farms they visited on the first day fell far short of Kang Dae-oh’s expectations.
Nevertheless, Kang Dae-oh decided not to give up.
Even if he found a place he liked, he had come for a two-week business trip anyway, so he planned to continue visiting the remaining locations as scheduled.
It was just that the beginning was a little disappointing.
That was all.
Kang Dae-oh and Amare executives headed to a hotel located in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
After scattering to their pre-booked rooms, they decided to have dinner on their own.
They had finally finished a tiring day after driving hundreds of kilometers on rough roads in a car.
Wouldn’t it be obvious that eating with the company CEO would be uncomfortable?
Kang Dae-oh didn’t want to tire their minds when their bodies were already exhausted, so he took this measure for the executives.
However, this didn’t mean Kang Dae-oh intended to eat alone.
Lee Seo-joon decided to go with Kang Dae-oh.
“CEO-nim. Will you be having dinner at the hotel? Or outside?”
“Since it’s a rare occasion, shall we try to find a local restaurant?”
“Yes, I understand. I’ll search for one.”
“Please do.”
Lee Seo-joon had worked face-to-face with Kang Dae-oh for a long time, so he didn’t feel much discomfort even when accompanying him.
On the contrary, he was more comfortable with Kang Dae-oh.
“Oh right. Executive Director Yoo In-seok said he’d be eating at the hotel with the other executives.”
“Really? I’ll have to ask him later how the hotel food was.”
If it was good, Kang Dae-oh also planned to eat at the hotel restaurant tomorrow.
He couldn’t go on overseas business trips often. Since he was here, he planned to experience as much as possible before returning home.
Lee Seo-joon, who was searching for local restaurants, found a good one and volunteered to be the guide.
“You can just follow me.”
“I can trust you, right?”
“Of course, CEO-nim! If you can’t trust me, Amare’s official first employee, who will you trust?”
“Alright. I’ll trust you.”
He was appealing to his career like this.
If Kang Dae-oh said he couldn’t trust him here, Lee Seo-joon might feel very disappointed.
So, Kang Dae-oh decided to play along with Lee Seo-joon’s words.
Not far from the hotel, there was a local restaurant mainly frequented by Ethiopians.
The store was quite large, and there was also an English menu for foreigners.
As Kang Dae-oh occasionally went on overseas business trips, his English conversation skills had noticeably improved.
He could interpret restaurant menus sufficiently without an interpreter.
Lee Seo-joon was also good at English, so there seemed to be no major problem in ordering food.
The two ordered Injera, Tibs, and Beyaynetu.
Among these, Kang Dae-oh showed particular interest in the dish called Beyaynetu.
“So, you put vegetable side dishes and bean stew on Injera and eat it, right?”
“Yes. Like that.”
Lee Seo-joon subtly pointed to a nearby table.
Like Kang Dae-oh and Lee Seo-joon, the people at the next table also seemed to have ordered Beyaynetu, and they were concentrating on their meal just as Kang Dae-oh described.
Thanks to seeing the eating method in advance, Kang Dae-oh and Lee Seo-joon were able to easily proceed with their meal by following the locals.
“The taste is unique. It’s hard to describe in one word.”
“Me too. But this, I think it’ll be very polarizing, right?”
“Given that it’s a bean stew, it’s already bound to be polarizing.”
Kang Dae-oh enjoyed his meal because he liked beans.
However, it was expected that most people who disliked beans would find it unappealing.
After finishing such an exotic meal.
Kang Dae-oh and Lee Seo-joon entered a cafe right next to the restaurant to fulfill the universal rule of ‘a cup of coffee after a meal’.
“Labioula is here too.”
At Lee Seo-joon’s words, Kang Dae-oh looked at the cafe sign again.
This simple logo of a queen wearing a crown in a golden color, placed in the center, could surprisingly be found easily even in South Korea.
No, strictly speaking, using the word ‘surprisingly’ was a bit contradictory.
“Labioula is the trend.”
Labioula is the company that holds the majority of the coffee market share not only in South Korea but also worldwide.
It is an American company, and even though the number of stores in Korea may be insufficient, it is a very famous coffee brand, accounting for nearly 50% of the market share.
Just having the Labioula logo attached makes related products sell like hotcakes.
It was clear how high a brand value Labioula held.
Labioula stores were also easily found here in Addis Ababa.
The first thing visible upon opening the door was the sheer number of people filling the store.
Locals and foreigners alike had occupied all the tables.
Lee Seo-joon gasped and muttered to himself.
“I wonder if there’ll be a place to sit······.”
“If we go upstairs to the second floor, there’ll probably be at least one spot.”
“Then I’ll go check. It’d be better to secure a seat first before ordering, right?”
“Probably so, right?”
Lee Seo-joon quickly ascended the stairs to the second floor.
In the meantime, Kang Dae-oh briefly picked up his smartphone.
This was because he hadn’t had time to look at his smartphone all day while working.
As expected, a pile of unread text messages and chat messages had accumulated.
Among them, the first thing his eyes went to was the family group chat.
It mostly contained questions from Min Seung-yeon asking the children if they had eaten, if they had filming today, and if so, what time they would be home.
Just then, Kang Yebin had just replied to her mom’s question about tomorrow’s schedule.
[I think I’ll be home a bit late tomorrow.]
[Why?]
[It seems there was a bit of a problem. They said the filming time was delayed because of it. It won’t take long, maybe about······ 30 minutes? I’ll be late by that much.]
Filming, like Kang Dae-oh’s business, is fraught with many variables.
It’s always good to be prepared, as unexpected things can happen anytime, anywhere.
Moreover, the final filming for the drama was not far off. Kang Yebin, the actors, and the production team would try their best to make the ending a good one.
Kang Dae-oh recalled what Min Seung-yeon had told him before he left.
Although he was on a business trip and couldn’t celebrate Kang Yebin’s final filming moment with his family.
If he decided on a gift, Min Seung-yeon would buy it on his behalf.
‘Now that I think about it, I don’t remember ever hearing what Yebin likes.’
In Kang Yeyoung’s case, it was mostly filming equipment, and Kang Yera liked beauty-related gifts like clothes or cosmetics.
But he still had no idea what Kang Yebin’s preferences were.
It wasn’t because he was uniquely indifferent to his second daughter.
Rather, it was the opposite.
Because she doesn’t talk much about herself. So Kang Dae-oh had tried many times to find out his second daughter’s preferences whenever he had the chance.
He asked her whenever he had time if she needed anything on dates marked as anniversaries on the calendar, or if there was anything she wanted her dad to buy.
And each time, the answer was:
It’s okay, you don’t have to.
From Kang Yebin’s perspective, asking her dad for something seemed to put a burden on him.
‘That’s absolutely not the case.’
Thanks to the children living their second lives, they are much more mature and knowledgeable than other kids their age. And that’s really good, but.
Sometimes, in these cases, being ‘mature’ actually acts as a disadvantage.
They think too deeply, often trying to consider even things that don’t necessarily need to be considered.
‘You really don’t have to think about Dad and Mom this much.’
It’s quite troublesome.
Just then, Lee Seo-joon, who had checked the second floor and come down, gave Kang Dae-oh a thumbs-up and said,
“CEO-nim. There are plenty of seats on the second floor.”
“Alright. What do you want to drink?”
“I’ll have a Vanilla Latte.”
Kang Dae-oh ordered a Cafe Latte for himself, including the drink Lee Seo-joon requested.
Going up to the second floor and sitting next to Lee Seo-joon, Kang Dae-oh asked him for unexpected advice.
The content was:
“I want to send a gift on Yebin’s last day of filming. Is there anything good?”
“Anything good?”
“Yeah. A gift that women in their 20s or 30s would like.”
Lee Seo-joon tilted his head with a strange expression at Kang Dae-oh’s words.
“CEO-nim. Yebin is still a teenager. You shouldn’t ask about 20s-30s tastes for a kid who just entered middle school.”
For a moment, Kang Dae-oh looked as if he had realized his mistake.
What Kang Dae-oh said was Kang Yebin’s original age. That is, her age before she regressed.
But Lee Seo-joon had no way of knowing this inside story.
Because of this, from the listener’s perspective, Kang Dae-oh’s question must have seemed strange.
Fortunately, Lee Seo-joon simply thought Kang Dae-oh had made a mistake and casually let it go.
“A gift that women would like······ Wouldn’t it be better to ask Madam?”
“Should I?”
“Yes. They say women know women’s hearts better. And you never know. Children tend to communicate better with their mom than their dad, especially daughters.”
That wasn’t wrong.
Dads usually spend most of their time working outside to provide for their families.
On the other hand, Min Seung-yeon had devoted herself to childcare since the children were infants.
Although she’s working as a model now, back then, she was always with the children.
Then naturally, they would have talked a lot.
“I should contact my wife.”
He decided to contact her right away while he thought of it.
Late evening, almost midnight.
Min Seung-yeon, who received a text message from her husband, let out a short ‘Oh my’ and checked the content.
Just then, Kang Yebin, who was hurrying to get ready for bed, showed interest in Min Seung-yeon’s reaction, sitting alone in the living room.
“Why, Mom?”
Min Seung-yeon thought it was good timing.
“Yebin-ah. Do you, by any chance, want to receive a gift?”
“Why a gift?”
“Just······ because.”
She intentionally omitted the part about her dad wanting to give her a gift.
She wanted to surprise her second daughter.
“Anything is fine. Tell me if there’s anything you’ve wanted recently.”
Kang Yebin, who was drying the water from her hair with a towel, smiled slightly and replied:
“It’s okay. I don’t need anything. If I did, I could just buy it myself.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. Then, I’ll go to bed. Good night.”
It still seemed difficult to get gift-related information from Kang Yebin.
