Episode 24. The Big Picture (2)
Another morning dawned.
Kang Dae-oh, who had woken up early as usual, hurried to get ready for work while listening to his wife prepare breakfast.
“Come to think of it, the kids are waking up late today, aren’t they?”
It seemed good for them to slowly get up, wash, and get ready for school/kindergarten.
Min Seung-yeon, perhaps thinking the same thing, paused what she was doing and headed to Kang Yera’s room first.
“Yera. You have to go to school.”
She said this while gently patting Kang Yera’s small bottom with her hand.
However, making her mother’s efforts futile, Kang Yera only burrowed deeper into her blanket.
“Just a little… can’t I sleep just a little more…?”
“You said that earlier too. Get up. You’ll be late at this rate.”
“Ugh…”
Kang Dae-oh gave a wry smile, watching Kang Yera who couldn’t seem to get out of her blanket.
‘When she had a busy broadcasting schedule, she used to jump right up without Mom or Dad even needing to wake her.’
It was as if she had reverted from an adult back to a 3rd grader.
Min Seung-yeon, who had barely managed to wake Kang Yera and send her to the bathroom, then headed to the rooms of her second and third daughters, her next targets.
Watching his diligently moving wife, Kang Dae-oh said with an apologetic tone.
“I’m sorry, honey, it feels like I’m making you suffer alone.”
“It’s alright. I know well that it can’t be helped.”
If their daughters were truly elementary schoolers or kindergarteners, it wouldn’t have mattered if Kang Dae-oh went around waking them up.
But unfortunately, Kang Dae-oh’s daughters were not like that.
They were only children on the outside. Inside, they were already fully grown, respectable young ladies.
Because of this, Kang Dae-oh couldn’t readily take on the task of bathing his daughters even when they were young.
This was because, no matter if it was a child’s body, a grown daughter being naked in front of her father was an extremely embarrassing thing.
Waking them up in the morning was the same.
Even for a father, showing oneself in a completely defenceless state required a lot of courage.
That’s why Kang Dae-oh usually tried not to go into his daughters’ rooms if possible.
For these reasons, Min Seung-yeon’s tasks unintentionally increased.
Even Kang Yebin, who had a serious and quiet personality in everything, became a daughter who whined to her mother in the morning, asking if she could sleep a little longer.
Kang Dae-oh swallowed a laugh inwardly at the power of going to school, which even made his second daughter act cute.
On the other hand, Min Seung-yeon couldn’t laugh.
“Ugh, really… I thought they were all grown up. But in the morning, they turn into kids again.”
“It can’t be helped, I guess. You and I were like that too when we were young.”
It was true.
Min Seung-yeon was just about to move to wake up Kang Yeyoung, who was the last one.
But before that.
Creak.
Kang Yeyoung’s room door opened first.
While her older sisters couldn’t even properly open their eyes yet.
It seemed the youngest sister had already woken up before Min Seung-yeon even went to wake her, as she walked out with steady steps.
Min Seung-yeon was surprised by her youngest daughter’s early awakening.
“When did you wake up?”
“30 minutes ago.”
“Oh, really?”
Her voice was clear and bright.
Her expression was full of life, as if something good had happened.
Kang Dae-oh subtly asked his youngest daughter.
“Looks like something good happened this morning?”
Kang Yeyoung nodded and explained the reason she had such a pleasant morning.
“It finally arrived.”
“What?”
“You know what I told you last time? That there’s an advertiser I’m waiting to hear from.”
Kang Yeyoung said, pointing to her tablet PC that her father had bought her recently.
“It finally came last night.”
Kang Dae-oh matched Kang Yeyoung’s eye level and checked what kind of advertiser she had been waiting for.
It was a brand Kang Dae-oh had heard of at least once.
“Ettoile… isn’t that a famous bakery company in Seoul?”
“Yes, that’s right!”
It was a mid-sized catering company that was gradually expanding its stores, centered in Seoul.
Kang Dae-oh had also bought and eaten bread from Ettoile several times before.
The taste was surprisingly good, so at one point, he even considered himself a regular customer there.
Recently, he had been too busy with cafe work to even have time to visit Ettoile.
Encountering the brand Ettoile again in this way through his youngest daughter made him feel inexplicably glad.
“You were waiting for an advertisement from here so eagerly?”
“Yes.”
“Is there a special reason?”
Kang Yeyoung, like her older sisters, was a regressor who knew what would happen in the future.
There was no way she would have anxiously waited for Ettoile’s advertisement without any reason.
Kang Yeyoung said with a significant smile.
“Of course, it’s for you, Dad.”
“Huh? For me?”
An unexpected reason popped out.
A week later.
Choi Se-in was staring intently at something on her smartphone during her break.
Judging by her occasional laughter, it was presumed she was watching an entertaining video.
Kang Dae-oh, who had put on his outer jacket, subtly approached Choi Se-in and asked.
“Se-in-ssi. What are you watching that’s so interesting?”
“It’s a video Yeyoung uploaded. I couldn’t watch the one that came out yesterday, so I’m watching it now. This series is super fun these days!”
Kang Yeyoung had recently launched a new video series to receive paid advertisements.
It was a series titled ‘Frank and Honest Review’, abbreviated as ‘Soldamri’.
The main concept was reviewing products from the pure perspective of a young child.
In other review videos, grown adults usually appeared to explain things item by item, or they promoted and marketed products by performing skits with them.
However, there were hardly any promotional videos that reviewed products from a kindergartener’s perspective, like Kang Yeyoung’s.
Moreover, her reviews were surprisingly good.
She clearly stated the pros and cons, anticipated the target customers who would benefit from purchasing the product, and diligently explained her reasoning.
Initially, many viewers who came to watch the video because of Kang Yeyoung’s cute appearance ended up being persuaded by her surprisingly sharp explanations, eventually purchasing the product themselves.
The combination of freshness and professional insight, topped with a spoonful of Kang Yeyoung’s cuteness, naturally led to an enthusiastic response.
Choi Se-in said with a wry smile.
“I ended up buying all the products Yeyoung filmed for Soldamri.”
“Really? You bought them because they were things you needed, right?”
“…I’ll say no comment on that.”
An awkward laugh simultaneously escaped from Kang Dae-oh and Choi Se-in’s mouths.
Although it was good news that she bought the products after watching his youngest daughter’s review video.
Still, knowing that Choi Se-in’s family situation wasn’t yet affluent, he couldn’t simply take this news well.
“No overspending. Got it?”
“Yes, Boss! I’ll keep that in mind!”
Kang Dae-oh let out a hollow laugh, watching Choi Se-in give a perfectly aligned salute.
‘She must have learned something strange from Seo-jun.’
Lee Seo-jun, who had always worked closely with Kang Dae-oh at this main branch until the second branch was established, was particularly missed today.
Kang Dae-oh hurried to get ready to leave again, telling Choi Se-in to take good care of the store.
“If anything happens, contact me right away.”
“Surely, you haven’t decided to try a franchise meeting?”
“Not that. There’s a company that offered an advertisement to Yeyoung’s channel. They asked me to come to the meeting too. So I’m going there.”
“Didn’t Yeyoung sign a separate MCN contract? I heard that when ad offers like this come in, a representative from that company attends the meetings with her…”
As Choi Se-in said, Kang Yeyoung had indeed signed a partnership contract last year with an MCN company that famous influencers were affiliated with.
Thanks to this, Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon didn’t have to take turns attending every one of Kang Yeyoung’s meetings.
But since Kang Dae-oh said he would also attend the meeting today, from Choi Se-in’s perspective, it was naturally a puzzling statement.
He had heard the reason from Kang Yeyoung.
But.
“There’s a reason for it.”
It was a matter of the distant future to reveal now, so he had no choice but to keep silent.
This was because heavenly secrets should not be easily divulged.
Kang Dae-oh headed to the Ettoile headquarters with Kang Yeyoung and representatives from Green Rose, the MCN company managing her affairs.
The headquarters office was located directly above the first branch store.
Thanks to this, Kang Dae-oh first encountered the breads sold at Ettoile before the meeting.
‘Since there’s still some time until the meeting…’
Kang Dae-oh first sought understanding from the Green Rose representatives.
“Excuse me, could I buy some bread? My wife really loves the chocolate soboro sold here, and since it’s a limited edition, I don’t know when they’ll run out, so I want to buy some in advance.”
“Yes, of course. We were thinking of buying some ourselves anyway. Perfect!”
“Let’s go quickly, Yeyoung’s father! They’ll all be sold out at this rate.”
Fortunately, their intentions aligned.
Kang Dae-oh, holding a tray and tongs, began to look around the store with Kang Yeyoung and unconsciously took a deep breath.
‘The smell of freshly baked bread. Nice.’
Before meeting Min Seung-yeon and getting married, when Kang Dae-oh lived alone in Seoul, bread was one of the foods that filled his hungry stomach.
It was good because it was easy to eat, and it tasted good too.
If Kang Dae-oh hadn’t been interested in coffee, he might have opened a bakery instead of a cafe.
To that extent, Kang Dae-oh was a man who was truly passionate about bread.
Before Kang Dae-oh heard the real reason from Kang Yeyoung as to why he should attend the meeting, he thought his youngest daughter had intentionally encouraged him to attend because he liked bread.
However, after learning the whole story.
Kang Dae-oh’s perspective on Ettoile changed.
The chocolate soboro, a popular limited-edition item sold only 500 pieces a day, was already almost sold out.
Kang Dae-oh picked up the few remaining chocolate soboros, barely holding on, and tilted his head slightly.
Because Kang Yeyoung’s words came to mind.
Kang Yeyoung’s manager, who was standing next to her, asked Kang Dae-oh.
“Is there a problem with the chocolate soboro, perhaps…?”
“No. It’s just… something personal I’m concerned about.”
Kang Dae-oh looked down at Kang Yeyoung, who was standing next to him.
Kang Yeyoung met her father’s gaze and nodded.
It seemed like a response indicating she knew what her father was thinking.
Kang Dae-oh swallowed a sigh once more.
Kang Dae-oh purchased additional breads, including the chocolate soboro, to give as gifts to his family.
It seemed that it wasn’t just the limited-edition menu that was popular, as other breads also had limited quantities remaining.
He walked to the counter, holding the heavy tray.
“Could I ask you to ring these up?”
“Would you like them in a bag?”
“Yes.”
While the employee was busy ringing up the breads, Kang Dae-oh once again surveyed the entire view of Ettoile’s main branch.
And then he recalled Kang Yeyoung’s words once more.
‘Her words that Ettoile would go bankrupt in the second half of this year… could it be true?’
When business is doing so well like this?
He still couldn’t believe his youngest daughter’s words.
