Episode 43. Rural Cafe (3)
The first thought that came to Kang Dae-oh’s mind as he looked around the store’s interior was this.
“What a waste.”
The thought immediately popped out of his mouth.
What was a waste. Even though many words were omitted, the real estate agent reacted as if he knew what Kang Dae-oh wanted to say.
“The couple who owned this place prepared a lot before opening the cafe. What did his wife say again…? I think she was from an art department? And the husband came from working in architecture. So, they collaborated and decorated the cafe really nicely. But it seems business was terribly bad.”
That’s why Kang Dae-oh said it was a waste.
The building was almost perfect, to the point where they could just do a little interior work and open the store right away without any problems.
But in the end, they had to close the cafe without ever seeing the light of day.
“I can roughly guess how heartbroken they must have been.”
When things you’ve ambitiously prepared end without any results.
The self-loathing felt at that time is so great that it’s hard to express in words.
Kang Dae-oh knew this well, as he had similar thoughts many times when his business wasn’t doing well.
“If no one comes forward to acquire it, what will happen to this building?”
“From what I’ve heard… they might tear it down and build accommodation facilities. That’s what I heard. The infrastructure here isn’t great, but it’s good for a resort.”
It was too much of a waste to tear down the building.
“I think a cafe would suit it better.”
“If customers kept coming, the building owners would probably have continued to operate the store. But that didn’t work out well.”
Kang Dae-oh nodded his head several times, as if fully understanding the real estate agent’s words.
He had roughly looked at all the properties.
The real estate agent directly asked Kang Dae-oh.
“What will you do?”
In fact, the answer was already decided in Kang Dae-oh’s mind.
“I will buy this place.”
The real estate agent beamed, as if he knew Kang Dae-oh would say that.
“Understood. I should contact them right away. It must be inconvenient for you to come and go often. How about signing a provisional contract while you’re here?”
“Sounds good.”
It was even what he had hoped for.
Before returning home, Kang Dae-oh went to Amare’s headquarters, where Executive Director Yu In-seok was.
Before leaving that place, he had already informed Executive Director Yu that he had decided to acquire a cafe store.
Returning to the office, Kang Dae-oh took off his outer coat and asked Executive Director Yu In-seok.
“You’ve seen all the photos, right?”
“Yes. You took a lot of them. I noticed right away from the number of photos. I thought, ‘The CEO really likes that place.’”
The number of photos taken is bound to be high when there’s a lot of affection.
If there was no affection, he wouldn’t have taken many photos.
“Based on the address you sent, I checked the vicinity with Street View. It looked desolate.”
“Thanks to that, the surrounding scenery is really nice.”
“It’s nice, but… will it be okay? There aren’t many residents living nearby, and the transportation isn’t good either, so I think there will be limitations in attracting customers.”
“These days, everyone has at least one car at home, so it won’t be a huge problem. And if it’s a truly great spot, people will flock to it regardless of distance or transportation.”
That was true.
Instead, the question was how to let people know that there was a famous cafe spot here.
This was the problem.
“I’ve already called upon a distinguished person to solve that problem. They’ll be here soon…”
As soon as he checked his watch, Kang Dae-oh’s chief secretary knocked on the office door.
“CEO. A guest has arrived.”
At the mention of a guest, Kang Dae-oh quickly told them to let her in.
A moment later.
A person very familiar to Executive Director Yu In-seok also appeared.
“Appa! I heard you had a good idea, so I rushed over! What is it? Tell me quickly—!”
Kang Dae-oh’s youngest daughter, Kang Yeyoung, was the identity of that distinguished person.
Kang Dae-oh had been watching Kang Yeyoung struggling for several days, saying she lacked content ideas.
Then, he suddenly saw the failed rural cafe he had visited in Uijeongbu.
Kang Dae-oh wanted to acquire this rural cafe and promote it to as many people as possible.
Kang Yeyoung needed video material to film for her content.
So he thought.
“I was thinking, what if Yeyoung and I film ourselves, from opening the store to operating it?”
“Then that video… will it be uploaded to Yeyoung’s channel?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Then it would naturally promote the cafe.
From Kang Yeyoung’s perspective, it was good because she got new video material.
Kang Dae-oh’s thought was, “Wouldn’t this be killing two birds with one stone?”
Kang Yeyoung, who had been quietly listening to her appa’s idea, showed a bright smile.
“That sounds good? There were variety shows where celebrities gathered, opened a restaurant abroad, filmed themselves operating it, and achieved high viewership ratings.”
Since there were already such cases, Kang Dae-oh’s proposed idea also seemed quite plausible.
Executive Director Yu In-seok also reacted by saying that it wasn’t as bad as he thought once he heard the story.
Most of all.
“If it’s the combination of the CEO and Yeyoung, it’s trustworthy.”
It was a combination already proven during Yora’s time, so there was no room for doubt.
But there was a slight regret.
“It would be good to cast a few more people.”
Although Kang Dae-oh and Kang Yeyoung were celebrities with sufficient recognition.
As the saying goes, ‘the more, the merrier.’ Executive Director Yu In-seok’s opinion was that it would be even better if more celebrities could join.
Kang Dae-oh had already considered this aspect.
“So, I’m thinking of contacting some acquaintances I know.”
They needed to have some interest in coffee.
And he intended to select people who would work well with Kang Dae-oh and Kang Yeyoung.
“Do you have anyone in mind already?”
“Well…”
He hadn’t considered that far.
At this moment, Kang Yeyoung made an additional suggestion.
“There are already three people near Appa, though.”
At the mention of three people, Kang Dae-oh made a ‘no way’ expression.
As soon as she saw her appa’s expression change, Kang Yeyoung nodded her head.
“Yes, that ‘no way’ is correct.”
Unlike the two who had telepathy, Executive Director Yu In-seok seemed completely unaware of whom the two were talking about.
“Who could they be…?”
To this, Kang Dae-oh replied:
“They are people you can meet right away when you go home.”
A short gasp escaped Executive Director Yu In-seok’s lips.
The people Kang Dae-oh and Kang Yeyoung had in mind to recruit were their family members.
Kang Yera, Kang Yebin, and even Min Seung-yeon.
However, in Min Seung-yeon’s case, unfortunately, the casting request fell through.
“I’m sorry. I’m busy with work these days. I think it might be difficult.”
It wasn’t even in Seoul. It was located on the way to Uijeongbu.
The travel time back and forth would be quite long.
On the other hand, Kang Yera and Kang Yebin happened to be on hiatus from their activities at the time, so they gave positive responses that they would be able to appear.
Although only the mother’s appearance fell through.
As much as that, appa and the daughters just needed to work hard to fill their mom’s empty spot.
In the middle of the family meeting, Kang Yebin brought up another topic regarding this.
“Are you not going to tell the broadcasting station? Like during Yora’s time, it would be good to organize a regular program. Then you’d also get support from the broadcasting station.”
Regarding this, Kang Yeyoung expressed a negative opinion.
“If the broadcasting station gets involved, we won’t be able to fully realize our vision.”
If it’s organized as a regular program, many restrictions arise.
Moreover, things like PPL could be forced.
Each of these becomes a factor that hinders viewers’ immersion.
The primary purpose of this program was to promote the rural cafe that Amare would newly open.
And through this, to increase the views and subscriber count of Kang Yeyoung’s channel.
There was no place for the broadcasting station’s stance and opinions from the beginning.
Instead, Kang Yeyoung’s financial burden for program production would increase.
However, Kang Dae-oh decided to resolve this concern for her.
“Amare has decided to handle the production support. You just need to comfortably film with Appa and come back.”
“That’s great!”
“As expected of our appa!”
No matter what kind of broadcast it was, Kang Dae-oh always wished for an environment where his daughters could comfortably participate in filming.
So, for the video content they decided to film in collaboration with Kang Yeyoung this time, they decided not to receive any external production support.
Kang Dae-oh had that much money, so there was no problem.
And Kang Yeyoung herself wasn’t without money, so production cost issues were not a consideration for them from the beginning.
Kang Yeyoung wrote down all the discussions so far on her tablet PC and said.
“Then, once the specific schedule is set, I’ll let unnies know too.”
“Okay.”
“Got it.”
Meanwhile, Min Seung-yeon couldn’t easily hide her regret.
“If it weren’t for work, I would have joined too.”
Kang Dae-oh patted her shoulder.
“There will be another chance later. Definitely.”
If there isn’t.
Kang Dae-oh can just create one, like today.
Because her husband has that much ability.
Before starting the rural cafe project.
Kang Dae-oh first began discussions on how to change the cafe’s interior.
Although he liked the existing cafe store interior.
“Still, it needs to give off the feeling of an Amare store.”
Kang Yeyoung also agreed with this.
“Exactly. It would be a bit strange if only this place felt too different.”
It’s the same coffee brand. It’s right to maintain the basic consistency that should be kept.
If there’s too much differentiation, subscribers might get confused whether the store appearing under the title ‘Rural Cafe’ belongs to Amare or is just a neighborhood cafe.
Broadly speaking, it’s a video planned to promote Amare. Wouldn’t that be troublesome then?
Still, they decided to proceed in a way that preserved as much of the existing elements as possible.
Because it was too much of a waste.
After reaching a certain compromise.
Kang Dae-oh asked about the filming schedule.
“When did you say filming would be possible?”
“In two weeks. We’ll pick one day a week for filming. The day will be decided sometime this week. You said everything was okay, Appa, right?”
“Except Monday.”
“Monday… Got it. Then I’ll coordinate the rest with unnies. And there’s something else important.”
Kang Dae-oh tilted his head and asked what it was.
“Regarding our positions.”
“Ah, right.”
“What should we do?”
“Well… Yeyoung and I will make drinks and desserts. You and Yera will be in charge of the hall and managing the store’s surroundings. How about that?”
“That sounds good.”
Division of labor is the most fundamental task in pursuing efficiency.
At the thought of being able to directly operate a store again after a long time, and with his daughters no less, Kang Dae-oh was already starting to feel excited.
