Episode 35. Still, I like being together (2)
Usually, when broadcast appearance requests came through their daughters, the majority of cases involved the daughters’ appearance as a basic premise, with Kang Dae-oh or Min Seung-yeon’s appearance being an added bonus.
However, the appearance request heard through Kang Yera showed a unique aspect different from before.
This was the first time Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon had received an appearance request for just the two of them.
Kang Dae-oh wondered if Kang Yera might have misheard or misunderstood what they said.
When he asked Kang Yera again in this way for confirmation, Kang Yera puffed her cheeks slightly and said with a sulky expression.
“Do you think my memory is that bad?”
“No, it’s not like that……”
As his daughter retorted in this way, Kang Dae-oh couldn’t help but show a slightly retreating attitude.
Just then, Kang Yebin, who had returned home after finishing her morning shoot and changed her clothes, looked at her unnie with an obvious gaze and said.
“Unnie, you are stupid.”
“I’m totally smart, you know?”
“Do you know where the capital of Germany is?”
“Ge-Germany?”
“Yeah.”
“……”
Unlike Kang Dae-oh, who expected a quick answer, Kang Yera’s mouth didn’t open easily.
Had his eldest daughter’s mouth ever been this heavy? He was surprised.
After a long silence.
Kang Yera said, sounding like she was probing, with a lack of confident expression.
“Luxem……bourg?”
“You really are a fool.”
“Th-then where is it?!”
“It’s Berlin. Unnie, last time you went on a quiz show and got eliminated right at the first stage, I told you it was embarrassing and to study a bit. You didn’t do it at all, did you? Be honest.”
Kang Yera expressed her dissatisfaction once more.
“Not knowing the capital of Germany doesn’t affect my life, does it?!”
“It doesn’t affect your life, no. Instead, if a related question comes up on a quiz variety show, you’ll just be humiliated.”
“Ugh……”
Kang Yera, who had once again become a good subject for teasing, visibly swallowed her anger, hissing ‘shweeik shweeik’.
Kang Dae-oh felt very sorry to say this to Kang Yera, but her current appearance felt incredibly cute and lovely.
Kang Yera, who had barely regained her composure, continued the story she was trying to tell.
“Anyway, it’s definite that Mom and Dad received a program appearance request. I guarantee it!”
Kang Dae-oh nodded.
“Alright. So, we’ll go by ourselves and have a meeting with them, right?”
“Yes. I’ll give you the contact information.”
“Alright. Honey. What do you want to do?”
Since Kang Dae-oh isn’t affiliated with any agency like his daughters, he can decide on appearances as he pleases.
Min Seung-yeon was also still maintaining a freelance position, so she could make a decision right there.
“A meeting is fine, I guess.”
“Then let me know the available date and time. We can just take my car when we go.”
“Okay, I understand.”
A program meeting without the daughters.
It felt quite unfamiliar to Kang Dae-oh for some reason.
Thanks to Kang Yera’s introduction, Kang Dae-oh and his wife went to the broadcasting station just the two of them.
Because ‘Yora Ttae’ had recently finished filming its previous season and entered preparation for a new season, Kang Dae-oh hadn’t had much reason to come and go from the broadcasting station for a while.
Then today, thanks to Kang Yera, he visited the broadcasting station after a long time.
Min Seung-yeon’s situation was similar to her husband’s.
“I don’t know how long it’s been since I came here.”
“Me too.”
Although it was their first time stepping into the broadcasting station in a while, there were quite a few staff members who recognized Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon.
It was true that they had appeared less on broadcast recently, but their daughters’ activities continued without a break.
Thanks to this, Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon’s names were constantly mentioned by people.
This effect was clearly visible at the broadcasting station.
“Hello, CEO! Oh my, you’ve come with your wife today?”
“Have the two of you decided to appear on a program together?”
It’s rare for people to come to a broadcasting station without any specific business.
As expected of a broadcasting station, most visitors come for matters related to broadcasting.
So, the staff members could easily guess why they were there.
However, they couldn’t directly mention which program they were having a meeting for.
This is because it would be troublesome if Kang Dae-oh casually dropped a few words and it reached reporters’ ears, leading to an article being uploaded.
Even if their appearance was confirmed, it would be fine then. But for such speculative articles to come out during the negotiation stage is quite troublesome for Kang Dae-oh, Min Seung-yeon, and the program staff.
It’s always good to be careful with your words, no matter where you go.
The program Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon were scheduled to have a meeting for today was a variety show called ‘Cheonsaengyeonbun’ (Heavenly Match).
It was part of an observational variety show that shows the daily lives of celebrity couples to viewers, and it was a rising star in the variety show industry with rapidly increasing viewership ratings recently.
Upon arriving at the waiting area for the staff, Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon exchanged business cards with the PD and writers, and exchanged brief greetings.
The PD looked at the two of them with a full, pervasive smile.
“You are a beautiful couple. I really felt that your daughters inherited their father’s and mother’s genes properly.”
Kang Dae-oh pointed to Min Seung-yeon and said.
“The children mostly inherited a lot of their mother’s genes.”
“While beauty might be true, surely the CEO’s eloquence and abilities cannot be ignored either, can they? Haha!”
He was a PD with a way of speaking that naturally elevated the other person.
As he ran a business, Kang Dae-oh occasionally met people like the ‘Cheonsaengyeonbun’ PD.
When working with these kinds of people, things usually went smoothly.
Perhaps thanks to his past experience and data, Kang Dae-oh’s first meeting with the PD was not bad.
Still, he definitely needed to hear the detailed explanation.
“Have you perhaps seen our program before?”
“Yes. The kids’ mother is a huge fan of ‘Cheonsaengyeonbun’.”
“Oh, is that so?”
The expressions of the PD and writers brightened.
“In that case, we can skip the explanation of what ‘Cheonsaengyeonbun’ is.”
Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon nodded simultaneously.
“We invite guests every time, and there are people who are frequently mentioned on the viewer bulletin board. You two are among them.”
It was an open secret, so to speak, behind asking the Kang Dae-oh couple to appear.
You always have to understand what viewers want, grasp their tastes, and try to cater to them. That is the secret to raising viewership ratings.
Kang Dae-oh could clearly realize why ‘Cheonsaengyeonbun’ was rapidly rising in the variety show industry recently, through the PD’s words.
‘It must be thanks to this attitude.’
This attitude of actively targeting viewers’ tastes.
Kang Dae-oh briefly thought to himself that the ‘Cheonsaengyeonbun’ PD would have achieved some level of success even if he had worked in business instead of variety shows.
“You don’t need to overthink our program. You just need to film your daily lives for one to at most two days and show it to viewers. Of course, any scenes that shouldn’t be broadcast will be self-reviewed and cut by us. We will also send the edited version to CEO Kang and Ms. Seung-yeon for a second review to confirm if any revisions are needed.”
He repeatedly emphasized that there was no need to worry about ‘devil’s editing,’ which is what celebrities fear most.
“However, there’s one suggestion we’d like to make……”
At the word ‘suggestion,’ Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon nodded simultaneously.
“What is it?”
“This time, we’d like to make travel the concept.”
At the word ‘travel,’ Kang Dae-oh immediately had a hunch.
“Is it PPL (Product Placement)?”
“As expected. Since CEO Kang is a businessman, you immediately know.”
He thought there was no way the production team would have suggested a trip to the Kang Dae-oh couple for no reason.
Because there was something linked to PPL. That’s why he thought they readily suggested a travel schedule.
“This time, a certain hotel made a strong PPL offer. You just need to stay there, do some sightseeing around, and eat delicious food.”
At the word ‘travel,’ Min Seung-yeon reacted first.
“That sounds good? Honey. We’ve hardly ever traveled just the two of us, have we? It might be nice to go on this occasion.”
Although it would be a trip accompanied by staff, they didn’t know when they would get another chance if not now.
The moment he saw Min Seung-yeon looking happy, Kang Dae-oh no longer needed to hesitate.
“Understood. We will proceed with the appearance.”
“Thank you, CEO! Since you’ve made your decision, while you’re here, there’s something additional I’d like to explain……”
Watching the PD speak with an excited expression, Kang Dae-oh also naturally felt good.
The fact that they decided to appear on ‘Cheonsaengyeonbun’. And through this, that Mom and Dad would go on a 1-night, 2-day trip to Gangwon-do, etc.
He shared all the details that came up during today’s meeting with his daughters.
Then Kang Yeyoung’s eyes sparkled.
“Then can I go too? I haven’t been filming many vlogs lately, so I was wondering what would be good to upload. It would be great if I filmed a travel vlog with Mom and Dad…… Ow!”
Kang Yebin pinched Kang Yeyoung’s side.
“You don’t not know the term ‘couple’s trip,’ do you?”
“I do know it, but…… I can just discreetly step out during filming, can’t I?”
“Then what kind of couple’s trip would that be? You just stay quietly at home with your unnies.”
“Tsk……”
The youngest, forcibly swallowing her desire to go with Mom and Dad.
At that sight, Kang Dae-oh involuntarily smiled a bitter smile.
Of course, traveling with the children is something a father would welcome.
But sometimes. Really, very rarely, he missed traveling just the two of them.
Min Seung-yeon seemed to share Kang Dae-oh’s thoughts, as she stroked Kang Yeyoung’s head, trying to soothe her youngest daughter’s feelings.
“We can just go on a family trip later when we all match our schedules. We can go whenever we set our minds to it, right?”
The daughters nodded simultaneously, indicating that their mother was right.
Since he had also obtained his children’s agreement.
Kang Dae-oh picked up his smartphone to check the schedule for that day once more.
At that moment, he felt Kang Yera looking at Kang Dae-oh with a meaningful gaze.
Kang Dae-oh tilted his head, looking at his eldest daughter.
“What’s wrong?”
He wondered if she had something to tell her dad.
Then Kang Yera asked with a mischievous smile.
“This time, you’re not going to have a fourth child, are you?”
“……”
Thanks to his daughters’ regression, things that hadn’t happened in the original future sometimes occurred.
Kang Dae-oh became thoughtful at the idea that the birth of a fourth child might be one of those things.
