Episode 24. The Big Picture (1)
Early morning.
Kang Yera, who had finished all preparations to leave the house even earlier than Kang Dae-oh, raised her voice and shouted.
“Manager unnie said she’s downstairs, so I’ll head out first. I’ll be back!”
“Okay. Be careful on your way.”
Min Seung-yeon, who had paused her morning preparations, stepped out to see off her eldest daughter.
After sending Kang Yera off first.
As Min Seung-yeon re-entered the house, Kang Dae-oh emerged from the bathroom.
“Yera? She’s already gone?”
“Yeah. It seems Yoon-a-ssi contacted her saying she arrived.”
“Ah… really? I should’ve washed up earlier then.”
Today was the last day of Kang Yera’s debut album promotions.
After six weeks of album activities, Kang Yera was scheduled to take a short break before starting preparations for her second album.
Her first debut album activities concluded quite successfully, drawing positive responses not only from broadcasting officials but also from the public.
Her highest rank on the music charts was an impressive 12th place.
For a third grader, and a solo artist rather than a group, to have her first title track reach 12th place was a truly astonishing achievement.
Those around her, including officials from Iroul Entertainment, generally considered this a great success.
However, Kang Yera herself couldn’t hide her disappointment.
She felt she could have done more.
This lingering regret gave birth to disappointment and regret.
Whenever that happened, Kang Dae-oh would pat Kang Yera and comfort her, telling her it was okay.
Because this wasn’t the end, but a beginning.
There would be another chance, and she could work harder then.
It seemed Dad’s words gave Kang Yera a lot of strength, as the sullen look she had until yesterday had completely vanished.
She had returned to her energetic self, just like a moment ago.
“Yera, how did she look just now?”
“She seemed to have sorted out her feelings well after listening to you.”
“That’s a relief.”
Kang Dae-oh was very satisfied that his efforts had not been in vain.
“But honey. You still have some time before work, don’t you? Are you planning to leave early today?”
“Yeah. Something came up.”
Kang Dae-oh usually leaves for work around the same time as the children.
However, today, like Kang Yera, he was preparing to leave the house earlier than usual.
As he was about to head to the dressing room to change his clothes.
His eyes fell upon a stack of delivery boxes.
“Come to think of it, what are all those?”
Yesterday, Kang Dae-oh had moved the delivery boxes stacked in front of the entrance into the house.
At the time, he thought they were items Min Seung-yeon had ordered online.
But now that he looked at them, there was too much for that.
Min Seung-yeon had never ordered such a large quantity of items at once when buying things online.
At most, it would be large quantities of formula and diapers she ordered when the children were very young.
That was all.
Min Seung-yeon lowered her voice, pointing to her youngest daughter’s room, where she was still asleep.
“They’re all Yeyoung’s. All of them.”
“Yeyoung ordered them?”
“No. She didn’t order them… what was it again. They said the companies sent them for advertisements.”
“Aha.”
Only then did Kang Dae-oh understand the identity of the stacked delivery boxes.
As the number of subscribers and video views on Kang Yeyoung’s YouTube channel increased day by day, advertising inquiries naturally grew.
This was the era of YouTube, after all.
Sales figures varied depending on whether a product was exposed even once in a video by a trending influencer.
Especially in Kang Yeyoung’s case, she had never caused social controversy, nor was her channel one that attracted views through provocative videos, so she received quite a few advertising inquiries.
It could be seen as the power of channel image management.
The items received for advertising proposals were varied in type.
Clothes, shoes, accessories, toys, drinks, and so on.
Kang Dae-oh checked the items and said in a playful tone,
“With Yeyoung around, we won’t have to worry about starving to death in the future.”
“It’s not just Yeyoung, but Yera and Yebin too. And you, too.”
“Compared to the kids, I’m just… a self-employed person.”
“Oh my, what are you talking about?”
Min Seung-yeon paused her dishwashing and countered Kang Dae-oh’s words.
“Because you, as the head of the household, hold us steady, the kids can go forward and pursue their dreams to their heart’s content. And because I have you, I could focus on raising the children with peace of mind. So don’t say things that put yourself down, even as a joke. I don’t like it.”
Encouraging her husband is, after all, the wife’s role.
Kang Dae-oh smiled broadly and walked towards her.
He went behind Min Seung-yeon and gently hugged his wife.
No matter how many times he hugged her, she always smelled good.
Min Seung-yeon’s face turned red at her husband’s sudden affectionate action.
“Why are you acting like this, suddenly?”
“Just because. I wanted to hug you.”
“What if the kids wake up?”
“What does it matter? We’re a married couple.”
Even though she said that, Min Seung-yeon didn’t seem to dislike it. She glanced around, then leaned her body closer to Kang Dae-oh.
Seeing Min Seung-yeon’s reaction, Kang Dae-oh chuckled softly and said,
“Our wedding anniversary is coming up soon, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“Should we go on a date then? Just the two of us, leaving the kids behind.”
Min Seung-yeon pondered for a while, then slowly nodded, her face even redder than before.
Despite having three children,
Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon were still as passionate as newlyweds.
As he was busily preparing to welcome customers at the cafe.
Choi Se-in picked up Kang Dae-oh’s vibrating smartphone from the table and said,
“Sajangnim! You have a call!”
“Thanks, Se-in-ssi. Hello?”
As soon as he saw the unfamiliar number, Kang Dae-oh made a face that seemed to indicate he roughly knew the purpose of the call.
As expected.
Kang Dae-oh’s prediction was exactly right.
“I’m sorry. We don’t have such plans yet. Ah… you don’t need to set up a meeting. Nothing has been decided internally, so even if we were to meet, I wouldn’t have much to say. Yes. I apologize.”
Kang Dae-oh pressed the end call button and let out a small sigh.
“I didn’t know refusing someone’s request was this difficult.”
“Come to think of it, Sajangnim, didn’t you receive a similar call yesterday? I think you said no then, too.”
“That’s right. You have a good memory, Se-in-ssi.”
“But what’s it about?”
Choi Se-in hadn’t heard the exact conversation, so she was curious what Kang Dae-oh kept refusing.
“It’s nothing much. It’s about franchise inquiries.”
“You’re getting so many calls from people who want to franchise our cafe?”
“Yeah. At first, it was just one or two calls. But at some point, it suddenly increased dramatically.”
Kang Dae-oh knew very well what triggered the increase in calls.
It was when Yera, Yebin, and Yeyoung began actively pursuing their respective activities.
From then on, Cafe Amare’s fame also rose.
Customers increased explosively, and sales continued to climb without a single drop.
Given this, the brand name ‘Amare’ was naturally very desirable for those in the same industry or future owners dreaming of opening a cafe.
Because they could clearly see a future where customers would flock just by having the ‘Amare’ sign.
Of course, even a branch of a famous brand cafe isn’t guaranteed to always do well.
The location of the store, service quality, taste of beverages and desserts, etc. The difficulty of the food service industry lies in its many variables.
Despite this, inquiry calls never stopped.
Kang Dae-oh even thought about hiring a separate employee just to answer calls.
That’s how constantly the calls came in, regardless of time.
It also meant that Amare’s brand value had increased significantly.
‘There’s a saying that too much is worse than not enough.’
Kang Dae-oh was precisely in that situation.
Choi Se-in, who had been contemplating the franchise inquiries, suddenly had a question.
“But Sajangnim. Didn’t you say your goal was to expand the store?”
“That’s right, it is.”
“Then wouldn’t it be better to increase the number of branches when you get franchise inquiries?”
Because it would reduce the effort of having to post job listings and find owners to manage each store individually.
However, Kang Dae-oh shook his head.
“As I said before, it’s best to increase the number of stores only when we have enough capacity to manage all of them sufficiently. If we indiscriminately increase the number and then fail to manage them properly, we’ll keep getting complaints from customers. In the end, it’ll only be self-sabotage, won’t it?”
Upon hearing this, Kang Dae-oh’s words made sense.
What they needed now was not to increase the number of stores, but to solidify their foundation.
In the future, Kang Dae-oh and Cafe Amare would have to continue to compete and grow against famous cafe brands already established in South Korea.
As challengers, they needed to carefully prepare their declaration of intent.
That’s why Kang Dae-oh was politely declining the incoming franchise proposals.
“A better opportunity will surely come later. When that time comes, we’ll have to move aggressively, unlike now.”
Watching Kang Dae-oh approach things cautiously, Choi Se-in realized once again today.
She felt she had chosen her workplace well.
Returning home today after another demanding schedule, Kang Dae-oh approached Kang Yera, who was already home and resting.
“You worked hard, my daughter. Was it very tough?”
“No. It was actually fun. Personally, I wanted to promote for a bit longer. That’s what I’m sad about.”
She couldn’t continue her broadcasting activities forever with just her debut album.
It was best to stop at an appropriate time and prepare for another album.
Kang Dae-oh’s gaze shifted to the smartphone Kang Yera was holding.
“That’s a case I haven’t seen before. Did you buy a new one?”
“Yeyoung gave it to me. She said the company that gave her an ad sent it? It’s better than I thought, so I’m using it.”
“So there were smartphone cases too.”
Indeed, a wide variety of items were living and breathing in that tower of delivery boxes.
Meanwhile. Kang Yeyoung, who was meticulously examining the delivery boxes, seemed to be deep in thought.
“It should be arriving soon…”
Kang Dae-oh now turned his attention to his youngest daughter.
“Is there something missing?”
“No, it’s not that. There’s one company I’m targeting for an advertisement. But they haven’t contacted me yet. I’m thinking about making an indirect appeal through a video.”
Kang Dae-oh felt curious about his third daughter, who seemed to be plotting something.
He had a mountain of questions he wanted to ask.
‘For now, it’s probably best to just watch quietly, right?’
All three of his daughters were the type to handle things well on their own.
Thinking this, he felt a little regretful that there wasn’t much of a chance for him, as a dad, to step in.
