Starting a Business
Starting a Business
Two days had passed since the date trip to Gimhae with A-ra.
A-ra's vacation had ended and she'd resumed her activities, so she had gone to work. As for me—practically unemployed except when filming CueTube videos—
I was sprawled out on the large sofa.
From the outside, it looked like just another ordinary day in the life of a jobless person,
but today, something different from usual was scheduled.
Now, even on days without classes or during school breaks, I wasn't just an unemployed guy staying at home—
I was a CEO...
- Ding-dong~
Just as I thought it was about time, the chime rang out from the tablet mounted on the wall.
Someone had pressed the intercom bell next to the front door.
At this hour, only two people would come to visit.
My younger siblings, Minji and Hojun.
"Mung."
"Shall we go greet your uncle and aunt together?"
I scooped up Pipsqueak, who had come to me upon hearing the bell, and hugged her tightly.
Whenever I was busy doing something and missed the doorbell, Pipsqueak would come to let me know, as long as I wasn't on the second floor.
Had she learned since that incident that the sound of the bell meant a stranger was coming into the house?
Or was Pipsqueak simply blessed with the instincts of a proper watchdog?
When I opened the front door, my younger brother came into view, wearing a thick coat and gloves.
Beside him, I saw my younger sister, dressed in short sleeves and shorts.
For a moment, I nearly let out a sigh, but I decided to say nothing—she had her dignity as an older sister, after all.
"Both of you, welcome."
"Hyung, hi."
Hojun greeted me with a smile.
That kid was probably going to be really popular with women.
Since Hojun loved dogs so much, he was completely smitten with Pipsqueak, who was nestled tightly in my arms.
The way he took Pipsqueak from me and held her—it looked just like he was trying to give a little baby an eobuba carry.
"Oppa, I'm hungry."
"Alright, alright. I'll get you some food."
They had every right to be hungry—I'd told them to skip breakfast and come straight home because I would make them a meal.
These days, Hojun was living with Minji, which made it much easier to keep an eye on whether Minji was eating properly.
It reminded me of when I'd taken her to the hospital for an examination before.
In the end, it had been a huge relief that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her.
She was probably still sturdy because she was only in her twenties.
I hoped she would stay healthy from here on out.
"For breakfast... mackerel... dried yellow croaker..."
Every morning, I found myself agonizing over what to grill.
"Oppa, dried yellow croaker for me."
"Me too..."
"Then shall I grill the dried yellow croaker?"
Even A-ra preferred dried yellow croaker over mackerel, so I had grilled some for breakfast.
If you made me choose, I was actually on the mackerel side, but...
Grilling two kinds of fish at once just didn't work well together anyway.
I took five cleaned and prepped dried yellow croakers from the fridge and laid them onto the fish grill.
Listening to the sizzling sound of the fish grilling, I took side dishes out of the refrigerator and arranged them on plates.
Minji was an extremely quick-witted kid, so she started setting out the spoons and chopsticks.
Hojun, timing it perfectly, took out the rice bowls, opened the rice cooker, and began scooping the rice.
To think that the training I had drilled into them since our days at the orphanage was finally shining through...
It was deeply moving.
The moment the loud ding sounded, I placed the five well-grilled dried yellow croakers onto a large platter.
I had salted them properly, so the seasoning was spot-on, and a murderously appetizing aroma was already wafting out, making my mouth water.
This was it...
No matter how delicious mackerel is, I couldn't beat the fragrance of dried yellow croaker coming off the grill.
Even though mackerel was a tasty fish, the fishy smell was unavoidable unless it was raw mackerel.
By comparison, dried yellow croaker, even if it started with a little fishy odor, gave off a clean, savory scent when grilled.
There was a reason it was served at the king's royal table.
"Alright, let's eat, quickly."
Once I placed the kimchi jjigae, boiled with a generous amount of pork belly, onto the table, it was complete.
After confirming that both of them had sat down in their chairs, I took my seat at the table as well.
*
After finishing the meal, Hojun did the dishes, while Minji and I took out the trash.
Despite her small stature and skinny frame, Minji was incredibly strong and carried all the trash that I struggled with in one hand.
I honestly wondered where on earth women got that monstrous strength from.
"Phew...! All done!"
Thanks to finishing the cleaning faster than usual, I let out a cheer.
Sure enough, whether in a game or in real life, the more people there were, the more efficient things got.
"To think you'd feed us and then make us clean... Our oppa is unexpectedly really good at putting us to work..."
Even as she grumbled, Minji was smiling, perhaps feeling refreshed.
If she considered hauling heavy trash a form of exercise...
Come to think of it, there had been rumors lately that she was practically living at the apartment fitness center.
"If you knew how much those three dried yellow croakers you ate cost, you probably wouldn't say that."
"H-how much is it?"
"Since they're gift-grade, some are especially more expensive, but... it's about five hundred thousand won for ten."
"Hiiik..."
Minji was shocked the moment she heard the price.
In truth, they were the cheap kind that cost about seventy thousand won for fifty, but teasing Minji seemed like fun, so I'd played a little prank.
The five-hundred-thousand-won gift set I had received was still sitting in the fridge.
I'd sealed it away to grill for A-ra and my younger siblings later, once I was confident I could grill it beautifully enough to do it justice.
"O-oppa..."
"What? Want me to grill you some more?"
Wondering how much further I could tease her, I brazenly pressed on.
Had I ever teased Minji this much before?
But then, an unexpected answer came from Minji's mouth.
"Yeah, pack some for me. I'll grill it at home."
"Huh?"
"I like dried yellow croaker. So pack some for me."
"Uh... alright..."
It seemed our little glutton Minji prioritized securing delicious food over being teased.
I'd ended up packing dried yellow croaker for her without even meaning to!
*
"Hyung."
"Yeah?"
Just as I finished packing side dishes and dried yellow croaker for them to take home, Hojun this time approached slowly, hugging Tiny.
Compared to me, lounging sprawled out on the sofa, Lee Min-ho slowly knelt down.
"About what you mentioned before, about starting a business."
"Oh, right. That's why I called you over."
Today was the final day to check on the assignment I'd given Hojun.
The company location had already been decided—the building A-ra owned near our house. I'd assigned him to look into the rest, like supply sources.
"I found a few business partners too. Some mid-sized companies and a large corporation at the right scale."
"Oh..."
"And stuff like website production—it's at the stage where it could be published immediately as long as you give approval, hyung."
What Hojun was going to do was buy used goods and resell them.
It seemed he had included everything from laptops, phones, and tablets all the way to desktop computers within his scope.
"Looks like you worked hard on it."
"Yeah, I even cut back on sleep to work on it."
Hojun had apparently been a little uneasy when I first proposed it, but the light in his eyes—the one that said he wanted to do it—had still been alive.
That must have been the driving force that pushed him to put in the effort all this time.
"So? How far are you aiming?"
"Number one in the used IT goods market."
Hojun answered concisely.
Was it from me that he learned once you start something, you have to see it through to the end?
To try to become number one in the industry.
If my younger brother had set his heart on it like that, then it was an older brother's duty to support him.
"Alright. Your hyung believes you'll do well."
"Yeah... thank you..."
"Oppa, when I get my medical license, are you going to help me open my own practice too?"
"You're asking something that's a given?"
Even if I didn't, A-ra would probably fuss over her and do it for her anyway.
Since Minji was the eldest daughter and planned to live with and care for our mother in the future, I was thinking of giving her even greater benefits accordingly.
Since A-ra had already gotten her the apartment, wouldn't I at least need to sweeten the deal by making her a hospital director to keep up my dignity as her oppa?
I was even saving up money for that.
"So, Minji, you work hard too."
"Of course! What kind of idiot slacks off on studying after being promised their own practice!"
"Minji noona's been studying incredibly hard lately."
I felt deeply satisfied to hear that she was working hard on her studies too.
The two of them would manage well on their own now, so I could focus on taking care of the other younger siblings.
"Won't the others all manage fine on their own?"
"Why do you think that?"
"Most of them are already working part-time jobs, and they're working really hard because they don't want to come holding their hands out asking you for things, oppa."
"Mm..."
It was a good thing that my younger siblings were working hard, but for some reason, I felt a pang of disappointment.
Hoping to stand on their own feet rather than just leaning on me—that was surely a good thing, and yet, I also didn't like that they weren't relying on me...
"Well, there's still a long time before they graduate, so think it over slowly."
"Alright..."
"Oh, right. Since we're on the topic of studying, it came to mind—I got first in the whole grade this semester."
"Really?"
Now there was an admirable kid.
Just how did she study to get first place in her year at the College of Dentistry at an In-Seoul University?
I had heard that the top student in my school's department had earned it with a 4.5 GPA...
Did that mean Minji had a 4.5 as well?
"No? It's 4.3."
"Huh? Aren't grades curved on a relative scale?"
Was the grading system different for medical schools compared to other universities?
Maybe there was something I wasn't aware of.
"No? Nothing's different, but... they just didn't give perfect scores."
What exactly went on in medical school...?
Seeing that they wouldn't even give the top student a 4.5, they must have thought she was still lacking, right?
If that wasn't the case, was there some other reason for it?
Yeah, they were probably doing it for the students' benefit.