Episode 45. Strike While the Iron Is Hot (4)
It was the third day since he came to Japan with Director Yang Hayoung and started looking around.
Although the long-awaited first Amare store in Japan was decided to open in Tokyo.
Only the region was decided; everything else had to be slowly examined from now on.
Tokyo was not some small rural village. As it was a metropolis among metropolises, selecting a location was quite challenging.
However, thanks to the local team having already selected a few candidate locations before coming to Japan, Kang Dae-oh’s worries were not too complex.
Inside a cafe in Tokyo, Japan.
“It seems to be narrowing down to one of about three places.”
Kang Dae-oh, who came out to the cafe alone with Director Yang Hayoung, expressed his thoughts.
Director Yang Hayoung nodded, showing a reaction as if she roughly knew which three places Kang Dae-oh was referring to.
“One near the subway station. One near the five-way intersection, and one inside the department store. Those are the three places, right?”
“As expected of Director Yang. You read my mind well.”
“Because the CEO reacted most positively when he saw those three places. Not only me, but all the other executives and staff probably know it too?”
“Really? Did I make it too obvious? I’ll have to be more careful in the future.”
“There’s no need to hide such things. Rather, when the CEO makes it obvious like that, we can catch on early and prepare accordingly, just like now.”
Indeed. Director Yang Hayoung’s words were not wrong.
“Among the three, which one are you leaning towards more?”
“If we’re talking priorities… I think opening inside a department store would be best. I saw earlier that there’s a huge floating population there.”
“They say even more crowds gather on weekends.”
“Really? Then I should go check it out tomorrow. Conveniently, there are also things the kids asked me to buy.”
When he first came to Japan, Kang Dae-oh had repeatedly reminded himself not to forget the items his daughters had asked him to buy, as if making a promise to himself.
Director Yang remembered his words because she was sitting next to Kang Dae-oh at the time.
It was typical of Kang Dae-oh, who would remember everything about his daughters, even if he forgot other things.
“If you go there tomorrow, your decision might be solidified.”
“Then should we have dinner with the executives and staff there too? They say even Geumgangsan is best after a meal.”
“Not bad.”
At that moment, as tomorrow’s schedule was being decided.
Suddenly, all of Kang Dae-oh’s movements stopped.
Director Yang Hayoung showed interest in his sudden reaction.
“What’s wrong, CEO?”
The thought, ‘Was there something problematic in the conversation we just had?’ briefly crossed her mind.
Suddenly.
“Shh.”
Kang Dae-oh raised his index finger to his lips, gesturing for silence.
At that sight, Director Yang Hayoung quickly closed her mouth.
Not long after.
Kang Dae-oh mentioned why he had asked Yang Hayoung to be quiet for a moment.
“Director Yang. Do you hear this?”
“What is it?”
“The song.”
It was, in a way, natural for music to be playing in a cafe.
But something felt a little strange.
A song that was all too familiar to both of them was playing.
While this could also be considered natural.
Knowing that this place was currently Japan, not Korea, the phrase ‘familiar song’ inevitably felt strange.
Since it was Japan, Japanese songs should primarily be playing.
But now, a Korean pop song with Korean lyrics was playing.
Moreover, this song was very familiar to Kang Dae-oh as well.
Director Yang Hayoung identified the song instead.
“This is Yera’s new song that she just released, right?”
Kang Dae-oh nodded, confirming her words.
A brand new song, released less than a week ago, was already proudly playing in a cafe located in Japan’s capital.
Beyond the feeling of pride as a citizen of his country.
He even felt pride as Kang Yera’s father.
“Yera seems to be very popular in Japan.”
While Kang Dae-oh was fairly well-versed in the trends of the Korean entertainment industry.
He was not well-informed about the situations in Japan or other foreign countries.
Director Yang Hayoung spoke about what she knew.
“Now that you mention it, I have an acquaintance living in Japan, and they said they hear Yera’s songs quite often on the streets during their commute.”
“Is it that much?”
“Yes. They also said a Japanese version was released separately a while ago?”
“Right. That’s true.”
It had also ranked quite high on Japanese music charts.
Kang Yera’s goal was not just to be active within Korea, but to become a world-famous singer.
In the long term, it could be seen that she shared the same goal as her second daughter, Kang Yebin.
Suddenly, Yang Hayoung came up with an idea.
“CEO. How about this?”
“What?”
“If we open Amare Tokyo’s first store in Japan in the second half of the year, how about bringing Yera to promote it? Wouldn’t that be effective?”
Putting Kang Yera, who is becoming a key figure in the Hallyu wave, forward as a promotional model.
Coincidentally, Director Yang Hayoung was also in charge of marketing.
It seemed like a good idea.
“It’s not bad, but Yera is busy with Kang Yebin filming a movie right now, so I’m not sure if that can happen.”
Because schedules shouldn’t overlap.
From a father’s perspective, this was a concern.
“Then I’ll check on that separately later.”
“Okay. Just in case, I’ll ask Yera too.”
“Yes, CEO.”
He never imagined that he would encounter such a significant opportunity at a cafe he had simply dropped into casually.
Having returned from Japan, Kang Dae-oh felt a surge of joy, perhaps because he saw his wife’s face after a long time.
“I’m home, honey.”
As Kang Dae-oh hugged his wife, Min Seung-yeon, with a slightly flushed face, raised her voice towards her husband.
“What’s with the sudden hug?”
“Because I missed you a lot while I was in Japan.”
“Ugh. You’re so silly, really…”
Nevertheless, Min Seung-yeon wore a secretly pleased expression, seemingly not disliking her husband’s skinship.
Kang Yeyoung, who was secretly watching her mom and dad’s affectionate and steamy (?) display from the living room sofa, softly whistled.
“You two are still like newlyweds.”
“Be quiet.”
Min Seung-yeon glared and warned her youngest daughter.
On the contrary, Kang Dae-oh laughed heartily and asked about the whereabouts of his absent eldest and second daughters.
“Where are unnies?”
“They’ll probably come home late today.”
“Because of filming?”
“No. They said they have to practice choreography.”
“So it’s not filming, but preparation for filming.”
“Not that either.”
“Then?”
Kang Yeyoung then seemed to realize something.
“Now that I think about it, Appa wouldn’t know.”
“……?”
What on earth had happened while he was gone? Kang Dae-oh’s curiosity reached its peak.
“Unnies are appearing as an idol group in the movie this time, right?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s not just filming and ending it; they decided to actually promote as idols for a short period.”
“What?!”
Kang Dae-oh had never imagined that a team formed simply for the movie would actually lead to a debut.
When asked how this came about, Kang Yeyoung mentioned the name of a person.
“Director Kim Jisook thought of it after seeing unnies practice on stage. She said if the two of them actually debut and promote as an idol group around the time the movie is released, the movie will get a lot of attention, it’ll be good promotion, and the movie OST might sell well. She called it hitting three birds with one stone.”
Internally, Director Kim Jisook’s opinion seemed to hold weight, so the project was immediately pushed forward.
“The kids agreed too, right?”
“At first, Yebin unnie strongly opposed it, saying she didn’t like it. But it seems the eldest unnie somehow managed to persuade her well.”
He had never dared to imagine that such a massive event was underway while he was briefly away.
“No wonder. I thought Yera and Yebin were hard to reach.”
At first, he thought it was because of their movie filming schedule.
But it turned out they were on the verge of debuting.
Since it was Director Kim Jisook’s movie, public interest would already be high. If Kang Yera and Kang Yebin’s idol project group debut also overlapped with it…
‘The entire entertainment industry will be buzzing for a while.’
Suddenly, a thought quickly flashed through Kang Dae-oh’s mind.
“Yeyoung-ah. When are unnies coming home?”
“Around 11 PM? They usually come home around then.”
“Really?”
“But why unnies?”
Kang Dae-oh slowly mentioned the reason as he took off his outer jacket.
“Because I have a proposal for the kids.”
Since he had bought the items his children wanted from the department store.
He wanted to see if he could get something in return.
After the crank-up, Kang Yera and Kang Yebin decided to fully focus on preparing for their project album debut.
In the meantime, Kang Dae-oh returned to Japan and visited the interior of the department store he had previously taken note of.
On the 7th floor, directly in front of the escalator entrance, Amare Tokyo’s first store was planned to be built.
Since the interior construction was not yet finished, a banner with the large inscription オープン準備中 (Open Preparation in Progress) was hung.
A Japanese representative informed Kang Dae-oh about the local atmosphere.
“Everyone is showing a lot of interest in Amare’s first store. Look over there, CEO.”
As he turned his head in the direction the representative pointed, many young people were seen filming the exterior of the Amare 1st store, which was under preparation, with their smartphones.
They seemed to be people who were already anticipating and waiting for the opening of Amare’s first store.
Kang Dae-oh smiled with satisfaction.
“Amare seems to be very popular among the locals.”
“Yes. Amare has been introduced several times on Japanese television. It was introduced as the place that sells the most delicious coffee beverages in Korea.”
Thanks to this, Amare subtly started gaining a lot of word-of-mouth popularity in Japan.
Then, with the news finally spreading that Amare’s first store would open in Japan, it was inevitable that people’s interest would be fervent.
However, this fact had not yet spread widely.
“I think we need a way to definitely inform more people.”
He had heard the news that Kang Dae-oh would be coming to Japan today and really wanted to tell him this directly.
Regarding this, Kang Dae-oh said in a confident tone that he didn’t need to worry.
“For marketing, Director Yang Hayoung is directly in charge of a promotion, so you can trust that.”
Then, Kang Dae-oh added with a meaningful smile.
“Japan will probably be abuzz for a while.”
He could state that with certainty.