Episode 19. A Special Viewer (1)
As a new month arrived, a big change also came to Kang Dae-oh’s life.
This was because the cafe operated by Kang Dae-oh had finally opened its second expanded and relocated branch.
Seeing the ‘Amare’ logo, engraved in yellow, lined up on the 1st and 2nd floors of the new commercial building, Kang Dae-oh felt a fresh sense of emotion.
While operating a small store, he had been plagued by doubts like, ‘Can I really make a living with this?’ or ‘Can I consistently earn enough money to support my family for life?’
These doubts soon turned into anxiety, constantly putting psychological pressure on Kang Dae-oh.
However, now he could say it with certainty.
He could support them.
All of his family.
People were lining up long even from the first day of opening.
If he were to starve to death even with this, it wouldn’t make sense.
Lee Seo-jun’s voice was heard from inside the store.
“Boss! What are you doing outside! Drinks need to go out!”
“Oh, okay. I’ll be right there.”
Getting lost in emotion was good, but.
Finishing all the work was the priority.
Kang Dae-oh quickly joined his staff and began processing the rapidly pouring orders.
After the lunch rush, when the most customers flocked in, Kang Dae-oh and his staff finally had time to sit down and catch their breath.
“Wow… I thought I was going to die.”
Even Choi Se-in, who rarely showed signs of difficulty, shook her head today.
The condition of the other staff members was also indescribable.
If there was something scary…
“The afternoon shift is still left, kids.”
Kang Dae-oh’s words sent chills down their spines more than any horror movie.
Because business was good, Kang Dae-oh barely felt tired even though he was busy.
Indeed. He strongly felt that it was a good decision to move the store to a larger place, even if it meant overworking himself.
When the store settled into a somewhat lull.
Ding-dong! With the sound of a bell, Kang Dae-oh’s old regular customer appeared.
“Finally, the line’s gone.”
Oh Myung-woon looked around and muttered that he had waited a long time.
“I’ve been watching from the hair salon, wondering when the line would shrink. It took a long time.”
“Sorry.”
“Why are you sorry? Your friend’s store is doing well. Of course, that’s something to be happy about.”
While Kang Dae-oh was talking with Oh Myung-woon.
Lee Seo-jun and Choi Se-in got up from their seats and prepared to take Oh Myung-woon’s order.
At that, Kang Dae-oh lightly waved his hand at them, dissuading them.
“I’ll take the drink order. You guys sit down and rest.”
Because customers would flock in again later.
Preserving the stamina of his ‘soldiers’ in preparation for the war that would start again was also important.
Before Kang Dae-oh even took the order, he started preparing the drinks on his own.
“You’re ordering a Hazelnut Americano, right?”
“You know me so well, as expected.”
Kang Dae-oh accurately guessed the coffee Oh Myung-woon had been hooked on recently.
In addition, he started preparing two drinks: a Hazelnut Americano for Oh Myung-woon and an Iced Cafe Latte for the colleague who worked with Oh Myung-woon.
When Oh Myung-woon offered his debit card, Kang Dae-oh waved his hand, refusing the card.
Then Oh Myung-woon, showing a slight look of embarrassment, asked.
“Why, man.”
“I’ll pay, so put your card back.”
“I came to boost your sales, so just accept it quietly.”
“It’s fine. You helped me look at this building, remember? Think of it as compensation for your trouble.”
“What kind of compensation is that? I don’t need it, so just swipe the card quickly.”
“I said it’s fine.”
“Hmph! The customer is king. How dare you defy the king’s words?”
At Oh Myung-woon’s words, a short pfft of laughter escaped from the resting staff members.
Eventually, Lee Seo-jun stepped in to mediate.
“Boss. Why don’t you do as Boss Oh says? It seems like he won’t back down today.”
Normally, Oh Myung-woon would often get free coffee from Kang Dae-oh under the guise of being friends.
So, today, his determination to pay for the coffee himself was strongly felt.
Because it would be too shameless to receive a free drink even on his friend’s store’s opening day.
Because Lee Seo-jun sided with Oh Myung-woon, Kang Dae-oh had no choice but to wave the white flag.
“Alright.”
“Don’t try to just charge for one drink for nothing. I’m watching you.”
Oh Myung-woon accurately saw through Kang Dae-oh’s intention to only charge half price.
It was revealed through these points that they knew each other very well.
Kang Dae-oh returned the card and said.
“Here. You see I charged exactly for two drinks, right?”
“You rascal. You should have done that from the start.”
Kang Dae-oh was always grateful to Oh Myung-woon for consistently coming to his store and helping him sell even a little bit of drinks.
Kang Dae-oh quickly prepared Oh Myung-woon’s drinks for takeout and handed them over.
While waiting for the drinks, Oh Myung-woon scanned his friend’s store, which he hadn’t properly looked around yet.
“It’s an interior typical of you.”
“What’s ‘typical of me’?”
“Should I say it’s neat and clean? The store before you moved here… I mean, that small place you had when you first opened the cafe. For a small space, it didn’t feel very ‘narrow’.”
Kang Dae-oh’s unique interior secret was hidden here.
“Rather than just bringing in a bunch of things to decorate this and that, it seemed better to clear out all unnecessary ornaments and just arrange what’s needed. Like here.”
“That’s good.”
The house where Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon lived with their daughters was also decorated with a similar feel.
However.
Their daughters’ rooms were not like that at all.
There were an enormous number of their own personal belongings piled up.
Every time he encountered this aspect of his daughters, Kang Dae-oh always thought.
That children don’t always resemble their parents.
Still, Kang Dae-oh loved his daughters very much.
A photo of Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon with their daughters was hung in one corner of the store, showing that he thought only of his children and wife, awake or asleep.
Oh Myung-woon also knew well about his friend’s family love.
“Now that I think about it, my wife mentioned something.”
“What story?”
“She asked if Yebin would appear in a drama again.”
“Well. Wouldn’t she prepare for it herself when she wants to appear?”
Kang Dae-oh didn’t want to strongly interfere with his daughters, telling them to do this or that.
Oh Myung-woon talked about an acquaintance of his.
“Among the people I know, I can’t remember exactly if it’s a son or a daughter, but they’re apparently going around everywhere making them audition to become an actor.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. They said it’s hell following them around. Their wish for this year was to land a role with at least one line of dialogue.”
In contrast, Kang Yebin landed such a role far too easily.
Furthermore, at the time of airing, viewers’ evaluations of Kang Yebin’s acting were quite good.
Thanks to that, interest in Kang Yebin was being shown from various places.
In particular, the interest from broadcasting station officials was the hottest.
“Now that I think about it, Seung-yeon said she got a call from a drama writer this morning before I left.”
“What kind of call?”
“I didn’t hear the content. I overslept today and rushed to work, so I said I’d hear about it when I got home later.”
“You almost overslept on your new store’s opening day?”
“Maybe because I was nervous, I couldn’t fall asleep until late last night.”
Kang Dae-oh felt as if every day was a dream.
He couldn’t help but feel this way these days, as he was experiencing things thanks to his daughters that he probably wouldn’t have been able to enjoy in his lifetime.
“I’ll have to ask my wife when I get home later.”
He hoped it would be good news for his second daughter, if possible.
After finishing all the work on the first opening day, which was like a war, Kang Dae-oh called Lee Seo-jun aside before closing the store.
“Seo-jun.”
“Yes, boss.”
Kang Dae-oh handed him a card.
“What’s with the sudden card?”
“Everyone worked hard today. So, take the staff and buy them some beef or something.”
“Huh? You could just buy it for them yourself, boss.”
“The boss doesn’t join where the staff gather.”
Kang Dae-oh himself had experience working as an ordinary salaryman in a company, so he knew this better than anyone.
Lee Seo-jun nodded profusely and thanked Kang Dae-oh multiple times.
“I’ll go to a reasonably priced place to eat.”
“Don’t do that. Buy them everything they want to eat.”
“Is that okay?”
“Yeah. When you treat them, you should do it generously. If you hesitate and calculate this and that, it doesn’t look good.”
Lee Seo-jun’s expression brightened even more.
After agreeing that the card would be returned tomorrow when they came to work, Lee Seo-jun approached the staff and relayed Kang Dae-oh’s words exactly.
The cafe staff, including Choi Se-in, raised their voices and shouted to Kang Dae-oh.
“Thank you, boss!”
“We’ll eat well!”
Kang Dae-oh lightly waved his hand and said.
“But don’t play until too late before going home. You all know you have to come to work tomorrow, right?”
“Yes, of course!”
Was it thanks to Kang Dae-oh’s big treat?
The staff’s eyes were sparkling, filled with loyalty.
In the days when he had no money, he wouldn’t have been able to be so generous.
Although there’s a saying that money is everything for happiness.
‘Even if it’s not everything, money seems to take up a significant portion of life.’
One more reason to work hard arose.
As soon as he got home from work, the scent of delicious late-night snacks wafted to Kang Dae-oh’s nose.
“Welcome home, honey.”
“Were you cooking?”
“Yeah. I thought my husband might be hungry. I was making some fried dishes that could be eaten with beer.”
Fried chicken wings, sweet potato fries, savory whelk fries, etc.
It was a lineup of snacks that would make anyone crave a beer just by looking at them.
Min Seung-yeon shouted towards the rooms where the children were.
“Kids! Daddy’s home!”
The doors to the children’s rooms opened, and the daughters he longed to see appeared.
“You’re home, Daddy?”
“You worked hard today.”
“You said many customers came?”
The eldest, second, and youngest daughters spoke to Kang Dae-oh in sequence.
Kang Dae-oh stroked each child’s head in turn and nodded.
“It was completely chaotic.”
Still, seeing his family like this, Kang Dae-oh felt as if the fatigue that had filled his entire body vanished instantly.
His wife and daughters took their seats around Kang Dae-oh.
After quenching his thirst with a glass of beer, Kang Dae-oh specifically asked his wife about the story he had heard that morning.
“You said you got a call from the broadcasting station, right?”
“Yeah. It was a call saying they wanted to cast Yebin as a child actress.”
“Oh, really? That’s great!”
It was as if another opportunity had come to Kang Yebin.
They also informed her who the director (PD) was, what the drama title was, and what the cast lineup would be.
“Many famous people are appearing. How about Yebin? You’re going to appear, right?”
Since many well-known actors were appearing, Kang Dae-oh thought it was an unparalleled good opportunity from his perspective.
But.
“No. I don’t want to appear.”
“Huh?”
At Kang Yebin’s completely unexpected answer, Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon simultaneously tilted their heads in confusion.
