Opening (2)
Opening (2)
It was opening day.
I'd been told I could just show up at opening time, so I took my time strolling over — but even before the store opened, the place was packed with people.
The people here were not customers.
They were celebrities and streamers who'd come out for promotion through our agency.
Plus a whole crowd of managers from the companies supplying the goods.
Among them were people I'd seen a few times on other Qtube channels.
"Our Director... really pulled some strings, huh..."
"It's not normally easy to put this much effort into opening just one business."
I suddenly heard voices beside me and turned my head.
A top-tier idol, who'd been resting from music activities lately, was standing there.
"Oh. Eun-ji, you came too?"
"Of course! A-ra unnie's husband's brother is starting a business — I had to come out of sheer curiosity!"
Not just Eun-ji — Yeji and Hwa-young had come out as well.
Unsurprisingly for a top idol, she was busy exchanging greetings with juniors and seniors from her agency.
"But where's A-ra unnie?"
"She's over there inside with the Director."
"Ugh... Don't tell me the Director came too? I was hoping to take it easy today..."
"Hey..."
To say something like that right in front of me, the number-one investor in this business.
I've never seen a promotional model treat a client like this before.
"I'm joking, joking. But aren't you here as a promo model just the same?"
"Well... I guess so."
"Doing promo for a company you invested in yourself. Kinda funny."
I could tell what Eun-ji was trying to say, so I smiled bitterly.
Still, even if I invested, it wasn't my company.
All the equity belonged to Hojun — I'd just made a credit loan investment.
And when celebrities start businesses, it's standard for them to promote it themselves directly, so I didn't think there was any room for nonsense talk to creep in.
"A-ra unnie's here too, so it'll be fine."
"You really think so?"
"Well... except for the fact that the business is used goods and computers? I heard you know nothing about computers?"
"Yeah."
"As expected, a guy's a guy, I guess."
I had no idea what that had to do with being a guy.
It's a misunderstanding to think that just because someone's a guy, they know nothing about computers.
"Oh yeah? Then what's the most important component in a computer?"
"Hmm... the power supply?"
You need a power supply to turn it on.
Even if you have everything else, without the power supply, you can't turn the computer on.
"That's true even if you're missing other parts, though? Without a CPU and RAM you can't turn it on either. No wait, without a motherboard you can't even build the system, so in a way the motherboard is the most important....."
"What interesting conversation are you two having?"
We'd been talking for a while when Yeji and Hwa-young walked over toward us.
Apparently, both of them had been curious about what topic two people the same age could be discussing.
"Yeji unnie! Seong-hwan here apparently doesn't know what the most important part of a computer is!"
Eun-ji had begun subtly spreading my shame.
I wanted to smack her on the head, but I held it in.
Hearing Eun-ji's words, Yeji and Hwa-young nodded.
At first their expressions said it was understandable, offering comfort — but then their faces suddenly shifted into those of seniors teaching a junior.
"Seong-hwan, no matter how much of a guy you are, you should know that kind of basic common sense."
"...I do know."
Even if you have other components, without power you can't turn on the computer, so isn't the power supply the most important?
Our A-ra lives by the strength of her meals, and everyone here does too.
I'll have to ask Hojun about it later.
"Huh? What was that?"
"Nothing..."
It was hard to talk back to Yeji and Hwa-young, who were two years older than A-ra and a full four years older than me.
If it were Eun-ji, I could attack all I wanted...
"The most important thing in a computer isn't which part — it's the compatibility of the parts you're trying to buy."
"Huh?"
"Unnie? What does that mean? In a computer, the CPU is the most important..."
Eun-ji seemed about to argue that the CPU was most important, but Yeji, radiating unnie authority, cut her off.
As expected, the hierarchy was firm.
"Don't tell me you were childishly debating which single part is the most important?"
"Ugh..."
In the end, Eun-ji was K.O.'d by Yeji's preemptive strike.
Seeing that, Hwa-young started gently stroking Eun-ji's head.
"Seong-hwan, where did your wife go?"
"A-ra Noona is inside the office over there with my younger brother and the Director."
"Ack... The Director came too?"
"She said she was busy today... don't tell me she said she was busy so she could come here..."
The two showed the same reaction as Eun-ji.
It seemed the Director being on site was very uncomfortable for them.
"Don't even get me started. Seong-hwan, you're a guy so she treats you well, but to us women, when we're on break she won't even give us a chair, you know?"
"Hwa-young."
"Huh? What."
Yeji poked Hwa-young in the side repeatedly.
Wondering what she was trying to say, Hwa-young turned her head and looked at Yeji.
"I saw before, the Director brought Seong-hwan a chair and even got him cola."
"Wow... seriously, polar opposites... Every time I see our Director, it seems like she discriminates like crazy."
And so began a Director roast session among three women.
Idols and celebrities who agreed came flocking after hearing the gossip, and suddenly a full-on roast session broke out.
How were they planning to handle that?
If it were me, I'd do it secretly... but to badmouth on that scale with the Director just on the other side of the wall.
"Hmm... It seems they have truly tremendous guts."
"You're here?"
"I'm here. The million-subscriber Qtuber Lee Min-ho has arrived."
Lee Min-ho, who'd recently reached a shining million subscribers, walked in with extreme arrogance.
Beside him, his younger sister Ji-ye came in holding tightly to her brother's hand.
"It's okay I brought Ji-ye, right?"
"Of course. Honestly, Ji-ye might do better than you, don't you think?"
"Still, Ji-ye probably won't hit a million subscribers, though?"
Lee Min-ho admitted it surprisingly meekly as he walked in.
I felt like I ought to knock that guy down a peg.
Next time, I'd have to make Ji-ye her own channel and promote it to boost her subscriber count a bit.
Since she might end up being a Qtuber later anyway.
"Hey, I can see exactly what you're thinking, you know? Ji-ye's going to be a company executive, so don't go putting weird ideas in her head for nothing."
"Ahem... What did I do... But company executive?"
"Ji-ye unnie... I mean, the noonas are teaching her and having her study for a reason that's obvious, isn't it? Ji-ye's sharp."
Apparently, the noonas who were already working hard as executives and employees of the company planned to give Ji-ye a position when she grew up.
But was it really okay for that guy Lee Min-ho to be leisurely doing Qtube?
"I said I'm not doing that kind of thing. I'll just get a reasonable inheritance and live my whole life."
"Tch... You really do need to get smacked."
"Ah... Ow! Wh-why are you doing this!"
"There's nothing you won't say in front of Ji-ye, you jerk!"
With a pathetic guy like this as her older brother, what was she supposed to look up to?
It really is a relief that her noonas are such sharp, capable people.
***
"Hyung, hold this here."
"L-like this?"
When we opened on time, people poured in like crazy.
I'd heard something about a collaboration partnership being signed?
If you bought a used laptop, tablet, or computer at Hojun's computer shop, they'd include a collaboration distribution card pack.
The announcement apparently said they'd give out a limited collaboration pack for the next year, but after that period ends it would switch to a regular pack.
Maybe because of that, from the very first day people swarmed in, and it was absolute chaos.
And right now, we had a live broadcast on and I was assembling a computer with Hojun.
Beside us, A-ra was tapping her feet with a slightly frustrated look, but expecting too much from me when this was my first time...
"Now press until you hear a click from the lever, and secure it."
"L-like this?"
The RAM going into my computer was eight sticks total.
Eight sticks of 32 gigabytes each, so 256 gigs.
In the chat, a question came up asking what on earth I needed a computer like that for, and when I mentioned the RPG game I played, they were busy laughing with 'lolololololololol'.
Anyway, such awful people.
At any rate, all eight memory sticks went in smoothly with a satisfying click.
I'd heard they even had RGB lighting on these.
"Hmm. For a first-timer, you did well."
"What's next?"
"Shall we start plugging in the graphics cards now?"
With that, Hojun brought over the four graphics card boxes that had been sitting on the next table, one by one.
Inside were beautiful graphics cards shining with a golden glow.
"Four RTX Titan Founder's Edition cards will be going in."
"Oh..."
The appearance of such high-end graphics cards made the air inside the store ripple.
Hadn't he said they'd gotten a lot more expensive because of gold coins, costing over 5 million won per card?
Four of them... that was 20 million won.
"Was this indeed a bit too wasteful?"
"Well... at the level hyung earns, it's hard to call it wasteful."
"Is that so..."
In that case, I wouldn't worry about it too much.
I took the first graphics card from Hojun and plugged it into the PCI slot.
It was so heavy and solid that I felt like if I left it standing upright, it might snap.
"It'll be properly secured in there with the NVLink bridge."
"That's a relief, then."
Since I didn't know what that was, I decided to leave it entirely to Hojun.
But what exactly was NVLink?