Episode 49. A Cup of Warmth (1)
Thanks to Kang Dae-oh and Oh Myeong-un actively supporting the Namseol General Market, it has now transformed from a locally known spot into a nationwide attraction.
From the first day, Kang Yera came and held a mini-concert diligently. Kang Yebin and Min Seung-yeon walked around, actively promoting the market to visitors and receiving feedback. And thanks to Kang Yeyoung even stepping up to mobilize a film crew to shoot videos and upload them to her channel, the promotional effect was undeniable.
Now, people flock to the market on their own, even without Kang Dae-oh and his family stepping in.
However, there was a backlash to this.
Lee Seo-jun, who was put in charge of both the main branch and now the Amare Namseol General Market branch, found his difficulties doubled.
More customers visited the Namseol General Market branch than any other store, leaving Lee Seo-jun overwhelmed.
Whenever Kang Dae-oh received a call from Lee Seo-jun complaining about how hard things were, there was only one thing he could say.
“Hang in there. I’m rooting for you.”
—Is that all, CEO?
“If you keep working hard, I’ll take care of everything for you, so just bear with it for a while.”
—I, I’m going to believe that, okay? If you later say, ‘When did I say that?’, I’ll go to the head office and hold a one-person protest.
“You don’t have to worry about that, so relax and just focus on your work.”
At Lee Seo-jun’s warning, Kang Dae-oh burst into laughter.
Kang Dae-oh had, in fact, already intended to deploy more personnel to the Namseol General Market branch.
This was because he hadn’t anticipated so many people flocking there.
In short.
It was a failure in demand forecasting.
Instead, it could be called a pleasant failure.
Kang Dae-oh immediately instructed Managing Director Yoo In-seok to assign additional personnel.
‘Come to think of it, I have made Seo-jun go through a lot of trouble.’
Lee Seo-jun was a key contributor who had protected Amare with Kang Dae-oh for a long time.
From Kang Dae-oh’s perspective, it might sound apologetic to Managing Director Yoo In-seok, but Lee Seo-jun was such a special person to him that he cared about him even more than Yoo In-seok.
Seeing him faithfully acting as Kang Dae-oh’s right-hand man on site, he felt a sense of apology.
‘Seo-jun is also getting older, unlike before.’
When Kang Dae-oh first met Lee Seo-jun, he was in his early 20s.
He met him when he was still fresh and young.
But now, Lee Seo-jun was approaching his 40s.
‘Now that I think about it, didn’t Seo-jun say he had a girlfriend?’
He had even heard this news quite a long time ago.
But there was still no news of marriage. He couldn’t help but be concerned.
‘I’ll have to ask him sometime later.’
Marriage is a decision where the parties involved’s wishes play the most crucial role.
If they are full of intention to do it, they do it.
If not, marriage is something that keeps getting postponed indefinitely.
Kang Dae-oh himself had almost been in that situation.
Then one day.
Kang Dae-oh made up his mind and formally proposed to Min Seung-yeon.
He felt that if it wasn’t at that moment, he wouldn’t be able to ask her to marry him.
Fortunately, Min Seung-yeon was also contemplating marriage at that time, so their wedding proceeded smoothly.
‘There couldn’t be some unspeakable problem between Seo-jun and his girlfriend, could there be?’
Just as Kang Dae-oh’s concerns about Lee Seo-jun’s dating life deepened.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone visited Kang Dae-oh’s office.
“Yes, come in.”
His chief secretary opened the door first and informed Kang Dae-oh of a fact.
“You have a visitor.”
“A visitor?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t recall having an appointment with anyone today.
Just as he was wondering who would suddenly show up like this, the surprise visitor revealed her identity by poking her head in first.
“Appa, it’s me.”
Kang Yebin offered an awkward smile.
“What brings you here? No, wait. Come in and sit down first.”
Kang Yebin wasn’t the type to suddenly visit her appa’s company for no reason.
Kang Yera or Kang Yeyoung sometimes unexpectedly visited their appa because they had nothing to do.
But Kang Yebin, unlike the other two, had a very cautious and careful personality, so she had never come here just ‘because’ before.
This meant she had something to say to Kang Dae-oh.
It didn’t seem like a light conversation.
Feeling that the conversation might be long, Kang Dae-oh pointed to the coffee machine nearby and asked.
“Do you want some coffee? What kind should I get you?”
“Whatever appa makes.”
“Alright.”
Normally, guests visiting Kang Dae-oh’s office were served drip coffee. However, if they needed something to drink right away, he sometimes served coffee using capsules instead of drip coffee.
This was because Amare had recently started selling capsule coffee.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
Unlike his eldest daughter, who liked sweet things, Kang Yebin preferred the bitter taste of coffee.
Matching her preference, Kang Dae-oh slowly handed her a mug.
Slurp.
A smile blossomed on Kang Yebin’s face as she took a sip of the steaming coffee.
“It’s delicious. I think it tastes even better because appa made it.”
“To be precise, the coffee machine made it, though.”
At her appa’s playful tone, Kang Yebin smiled once again.
“Alright. What’s the reason you came to see appa?”
He was curious about the main point.
Kang Yebin immediately revealed the reason without hesitation.
“I’ve been cast as the lead in a drama this time.”
“Oh, really? Congratulations. I heard you were in close talks with the production team last time. It seems to have worked out well.”
“Yes. The PD nim has been watching my acting for a long time. He even pleaded with me, saying he really wanted to work together someday.”
At the word ‘pleaded,’ Kang Dae-oh chuckled heartily.
How much must they have needed Kang Yebin to show such an attitude?
In fact, many film and drama production companies sent Kang Yebin such ‘love calls.’
Kang Yebin’s popularity was rising daily. Moreover, after it was revealed through Kang Dae-oh’s business expansion that she was a talent who also worked well in Japan, these love calls increased even more.
Kang Yebin always said this was all thanks to her appa.
But Kang Dae-oh thought the opposite.
That he, in fact, benefited thanks to his daughters.
It wasn’t just a polite remark; Kang Dae-oh genuinely believed it.
If it weren’t for his daughters, Kang Dae-oh wouldn’t even be in his current position.
So, Kang Dae-oh wanted to grant most of his daughters’ requests.
“It seems this new drama has some connection to appa.”
Did she want him to be a sponsor?
Or a cameo appearance by Kang Dae-oh?
Kang Dae-oh was willing to grant any request.
However, Kang Yebin brought up something different from what Kang Dae-oh had expected.
“They say the female lead this time is a barista. Don’t you have a barista license too, appa?”
“That’s right.”
Because he loved coffee so much.
So, he acquired a barista license incidentally.
“Before filming starts, I’d like to learn about coffee from appa. When would you be free?”
“Me? I can adjust my schedule for you. But are you really sure about me? Should I connect you with Sang-ho hyung instead? He’d be much better at baristas than me.”
Because he was a former World Barista Champion.
Kang Dae-oh thought learning from him would be much more helpful to his daughter.
But Kang Yebin thought differently.
“CEO Do Sang-ho is an expert in that field, but he doesn’t know much about me. But appa knows both baristas and me well.”
Perhaps not in the field of baristas.
But when it came to the academic field of ‘Kang Yebin,’ he was confident he wouldn’t lose to anyone.
Because it was a matter of his pride as an appa.
If he knew Kang Yebin’s personality and style, the teaching process would be much smoother.
She kept this in mind, which is why she decided to receive lessons from Kang Dae-oh instead of Do Sang-ho.
Kang Dae-oh immediately nodded at his second daughter’s request.
“Alright. Then just tell me the time. Appa will teach you diligently.”
“Please take care of me, appa. No, master.”
Perhaps because it was the first time his daughter called him ‘master’ instead of ‘appa,’ Kang Dae-oh felt very awkward.
“Just call me appa.”
‘Appa’ was the most comfortable title in the world for Kang Dae-oh.
As per Kang Yebin’s request, Kang Dae-oh made time and scheduled a separate appointment with Kang Yebin to help her practice barista acting at a cafe.
After much deliberation on where to set up the space.
The optimal location came to mind.
It was home.
Kang Dae-oh’s house had most of the equipment found in a cafe.
The same went for coffee beans.
Thanks to this, there would be no significant problem using the house as a practice location instead of a store.
“Today, let’s just learn the basics first. And once you get a feel for it, let’s go to a real store and practice as if it’s a live situation.”
“Yes, appa.”
Before starting practice.
Kang Dae-oh wanted to resolve the gaze that had been pricking the back of his head for a while.
When he turned around, he saw Kang Yera sitting on the stairs leading to the second floor, staring intently at Kang Dae-oh and Kang Yebin.
Kang Yebin seemed to have noticed her unnie’s presence belatedly, as she glared at her and asked.
“Why are you like that?”
“Didn’t you know a lot about coffee? You even explained things to me using words I didn’t know.”
“I did.”
“But I was wondering if there was really a need to learn from appa.”
“Of course there is. Theory and practice are fundamentally different.”
Kang Dae-oh vehemently agreed with this point.
This was the biggest reason why Kang Dae-oh couldn’t attract many customers when he first opened his cafe.
He thought he had thoroughly planned how to operate the store in his head and opened it.
But when he actually opened the cafe, the plans all disappeared, and his mind went blank more than once or twice.
Thanks to this, Kang Dae-oh was able to realize an important point.
That merely memorizing theory was useless.
He learned that true education was teaching accompanied by practical experience.
That’s why Amare’s training program for store managers required them to undergo practical training at other stores.
He intended to provide Kang Yebin with such an opportunity as well.
Kang Yera, who had been looking contemplative, jumped down the stairs like a cat.
Then she suddenly squeezed in between Kang Dae-oh and Kang Yebin and said.
“I want to learn too.”
“Yera, you too?”
“Yes!”
Suddenly, one more student was added.
