Opening
Opening
"Minji and Lee Min-ho?"
"Yeah, that's how it turned out."
"They kind of seem like they'd match? Or maybe not?"
It wasn't a secret, and keeping it to myself wouldn't have been any fun, so I told A-ra about it too.
Honestly, I'd noticed something was up with Lee Min-ho's gaze ever since A-ra's comeback concert before...
But I never imagined the guy would make the first move.
Did he really like Minji that much?
Well, she was cute and kind, so it made sense.
"Well, dating is their choice."
"That's right."
It wasn't like they were saying they'd get married right away, so worrying about it too deeply would only give me a headache.
And if they did get married, wouldn't that actually be a good thing?
A dental college student and a chaebol family guy.
It was kind of funny how much it sounded like a drama.
"That's similar to the story of that drama offer you got, noona."
"Really? What drama is it?"
"Something about the girl being a dental student and the guy being a chaebol heir? It seemed like a story based on an old manga..."
Listening to it, it sounded like the kind of story that would be too juvenile for anyone to watch if they made it now.
That sort of content only worked in the old days. They apparently didn't realize that modern people would cringe so hard they'd turn into squid.
The spy drama I'd watched before was entertaining, though...
At this rate, an era where nobody watches TV and everyone only uses internet streaming sites like Qtube might really arrive.
"It's already this late..."
Looking at the clock, it was about time to head out to Hojun's shop.
Today was the final inspection day for the shop, and tomorrow was finally the long-awaited opening day.
Some might think starting a business was too rushed, but since we'd had a vision for this from the start, it shouldn't be considered rushed.
And originally, the sooner you start a business, the better.
"Heading to the shop?"
"Yes, do you want to come along, noona?"
"No, it might just make things more complicated for no reason."
"Hmm... then how about we go on a date after I get back?"
"A date? Where to?"
"Let's go to the fishing cafe. It's been a while."
The moment she heard the words "fishing cafe," A-ra's face lit up with a bright smile.
It was the kind of smile that made you think you'd need to warn strangers that they absolutely should not follow her if she asked them to go fishing.
*
I moved the last chair that needed moving and let out a deep sigh.
How long had it been since I'd done physical labor like this?
Of course, cleaning and doing laundry at home every day was physical labor too, but...
"Hoo... pretty much everything is sorted out now."
"Yeah... but I still can't believe it."
As we finished tidying up and sat on the customer waiting chairs to rest, Hojun spoke up.
What did he mean he still couldn't believe it?
"What can't you believe?"
"That I'm opening my own shop. It was a dream, but I'd completely given up on it."
"Live the rest of your life being grateful to your sister-in-law."
I had invested some too, but the biggest factor was that A-ra was only charging 200,000 won in monthly rent and had given him the first floor of one of the places with the highest foot traffic in the Republic of Korea.
If we hadn't had this location, we might've had to start on the top floor of some small building out in Gyeonggi Province.
Low accessibility meant fewer people would come.
On top of that, if it wasn't on the first floor, it would be hard for people to even notice it.
No matter how much I promoted it, there might not be many people who'd actually come.
"Yeah... without my sister-in-law, I wouldn't have even been able to start. Building owners around here set the rent based on what kind of business moves into their building."
Usually, convenience stores or banks move into the first floors of buildings around Seoul subway stations.
The kind of businesses that lots of people use and that can bring profit to the building, you could say.
This big building A-ra owned already had a convenience store, a bank, and a coffee shop all in place.
So while she'd been pondering for a while about what to put in the remaining space, she just decided not to worry about any of that and gave it to Hojun's secondhand center.
But Hojun's secondhand center, huh.
It would be nice if it had a proper name.
"By the way, you've decided on the shop name, right?"
"Yeah, the letter sign company is coming to install it later."
"Letter sign?"
"How should I put it... not a square sign, but those signs where each letter is separate and has a three-dimensional look, you know? I went with that."
"Hoo... that was a good call."
Personally, I thought the signboard culture of the Republic of Korea was the worst.
Making monochrome signs just to stand out as much as possible didn't just ruin the aesthetics — it psychologically made you not want to go inside.
"As expected, our Hojun handles everything well on his own."
"Getting praise from you, hyung, feels kind of nice..."
"Then I'll give you as much as you want from now on."
Getting happy over just this much.
It almost made me tear up for no reason.
"Hmm..."
I checked the interior one last time.
The white interior was clean, easy on the eyes, and the expensive-looking light fixtures completed a striking sense of design.
On top of that, the displayed items were also neat and white-colored...
Now all that was left was to open tomorrow.
"Are you coming for the opening tomorrow too, hyung?"
"Of course. I promised I'd come and sign autographs tomorrow."
"Hoo... then a ton of people are going to show up."
"And did you get all of that ready?"
There was something Hojun had promised to give me as a gift.
Ah, though even if I called it a gift, I paid for the parts.
Hojun was just sourcing the components and assembling it.
"I've got it all ready..."
"How much did it cost?"
"Since I did it exactly the way you wanted, hyung... about 40 million won..."
"Geh..."
I didn't know the exact specs, but I'd ordered it with the best settings commercially available.
Specs that weren't for regular users, but for use in research labs or places like that.
"They don't even use stuff like this in research labs... you know the people at your agency who edit 4K music videos and stuff? This is what those people use."
"Huh... so there are people who actually use it."
Then it should be fine, right?
I'd use it for gaming, and those people would use it for editing.
That was how things stayed socially balanced.
"Sigh... anyway, you're doing a live broadcast of assembling it tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, so no mistakes, got it?"
"I won't make any mistakes."
Hojun, who insisted he was confident and wouldn't make any mistakes, gulped down his saliva.
Acting tough and saying he wasn't nervous when he was secretly nervous — as a younger brother, it was just endearing.
"Then I'm heading off, hyung?"
"Already?"
"I'm going to the fishing cafe with your sister-in-law."
"Fishing cafe? Take me along next time."
"Then let's go together after we finish up tomorrow."
It seemed he'd gotten a taste for fishing when we first went with Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho.
The desire for fishing seemed to be growing more and more among the people around me...
***
"Ah... it's a goldfish again..."
Spending time at the fishing cafe with A-ra after so long was fun and all, but...
Why was it that every time I came, I could only catch goldfish?
A-ra was catching only big fish on the freshwater side, and only huge fish on the saltwater side too.
And that wasn't all — she'd even caught two lobsters, which were released once in a while.
Well... we came to the fishing cafe because A-ra enjoyed it, so it didn't really matter, but...
Still, I did want to catch a proper fish too.
"Hmm... what you catch is random, so even if you say that..."
"I suppose so..."
"Still, if you keep at it, you'll get a big fish eventually, don't you think?"
A-ra comforted me while stroking my head.
I accepted the head pat and removed the goldfish from the hook, then started re-rigging my setup.
Then I placed the hook with the bobber back into the water and fixed it in place.
"If I don't catch a big fish this time, I'm going to stay here all day."
"I'd like that even more. Let's stay until our Seong-hwan truly feels the real taste of fishing."
A-ra smiled softly and rested her head on my shoulder.
It seemed I'd accidentally said something you shouldn't say to someone who liked fishing.
"Ahem... but once I've picked up the fishing rod..."
I had to catch a big fish at least once, didn't I?
I hoped the next fish would be a big one.
"Hit!"
At that moment, A-ra yanked her fishing rod up hard — she seemed to have caught something.
At the end of the rod A-ra had lifted up was a big catfish, that familiar fish with the two whiskers.
"Geh... this is why people fish."
"...Noona."
"Hmm?"
"Can we swap rods and spots?"
"Should we? Then Seong-hwan, you fish here."
I figured there had to be some secret to A-ra's rod and spot, so I asked to switch places.
A-ra smiled wryly and immediately gave me her spot, and since the rod she'd been using had just caught a fish, I re-rigged it and cast it out.
"Hmm..."
"I told you, it's no use."
"We'll have to see about that."
A-ra said that, but I couldn't believe it this time.
Seeing how only A-ra always had good luck fishing, there had to be something to it.
I just hadn't caught on to it yet...
"Hit!"
But what was this!
I'd been lost in those thoughts for a while when A-ra, who was beside me, yanked her rod up hard as if she'd caught something.
What came out this time was a crucian carp.
And a pretty big one at that.