The Cafe Owner
The owner of Honey Cafe. Kim Sun-young had been troubled lately.
A proper cafe owner at such a young age in her twenties. Others would have called these first-world problems.
But the problem was that her cafe was going bankrupt.
Two years ago, Kim Sun-young and her husband had been an ordinary college couple. Back when he was still her boyfriend. Before he got into coins.
"Babe, what's wrong with you lately?"
She'd gone looking for her boyfriend, worried about how often he was skipping class. And he talked about coins. She'd tried to talk him out of it at first, of course.
"Sun-young, school isn't what matters right now."
A seed fund of a few hundred thousand became a million, then in an instant ballooned into the billions. Even she, who'd only been watching from the sidelines, couldn't resist anymore.
She followed her boyfriend.
Bought when he bought. Sold when he sold.
That alone made her an asset-holder worth hundreds of millions in her twenties.
From then on, school took a backseat for her too. She followed her boyfriend into coin investment—no, speculation. She hadn't known anything, just copied what he did.
And yet the money kept growing.
Her boyfriend had talent. No, thinking back now, it wasn't talent. It was pure, dumb luck.
"Sun-young, let's get married."
His sudden proposal around that time. She hesitated, then accepted. Because she liked how he treated her like a princess.
A blissful married life followed. For their honeymoon, they spent an entire year traveling to famous tourist destinations around the world. Staying in luxury hotels, indulging in extravagant food.
"Sun-young, where should we go next? It's getting cold—how about Hawaii?"
"Babe... wait a sec..."
After a full year of reckless spending, she checked their bank balance and nearly jumped out of her skin.
'No, when...?'
More than half of their fortune was gone. The number of digits in their account had changed. At this rate, she'd become one of those fools who blew their entire fortune on luxury. She'd laughed at articles about lottery winners ending up as beggars, but now she was becoming exactly that.
"Babe, let's stop this and open a cafe or something."
"Huh...? Where's this coming from?"
"Our money's running out."
"Money? We'll just make more with coins. What's there to worry about?"
Her husband spoke as if making money from coins was a given. She snapped back to reality like someone had dumped cold water on her. Her face naturally scrunched up.
"Haah... I'm tired of playing around. Why, you don't like it?"
"Ugh, fine. Want me to chip in?"
"Forget it. I'll handle it myself."
Persuading her weak-willed husband was easy enough—a stern glare did the trick. She pooled together whatever money she had and started preparing to open her business. It had been so long since she'd done anything productive that her heart raced.
'That coffee I had back then was really good...'
She recalled the premium coffee she'd had at a famous tourist spot. The expensive stuff really was different. She wanted to create a cafe like that. There was no way she was going to work under someone else now.
After visiting countless real estate agents, she found a suitable location.
"This place is really cheap and great, miss. You've hit the jackpot. There's a line of people waiting to get in here."
"Hmm... is that so?"
The ground floor commercial space of the Guwon Clan building. Even she could see the location was good. It was a transportation hub leading to the rift cluster zone. An area that had been developing rapidly recently. Lots of foot traffic too, and most of it was hunters. Everyone knows hunters have money.
A solid plan came to mind.
'A stylish, high-sensitivity cafe.'
She planned to hire a professional barista and pour money into marketing. Even if she operated at a loss initially, she believed it would succeed once it built a reputation.
The cafe opening was just around the corner.
She went to find her husband. Today as usual, he was staring intently at his monitor.
"Sun-young, you're here?"
"Babe, you're buying coins?"
"Yeah, this is the bottom. I'm sure of it."
She had to admit, she could feel it too after watching for so long. RedMoon Coin hadn't dropped below 10,000 won even once since the day after its launch. Her husband, his eyes bloodshot like a rabbit's, began buying up coins en masse. He even tried to invest the money she'd set aside to run her cafe.
"Babe, stop. I told you I'm opening a cafe."
"A pathetic little cafe... ugh...! Fine. Don't come crying to me later."
When he was trading coins, her husband's personality changed. Unlike his usual weak-willed self, in those moments he was king. It annoyed her a little, but she held back.
"I'm done with coins now."
"A cafe? How much are you gonna make doing that? Just watch. Look at this graph, feel it. It's about to go up... huh?"
An uneasy silence passed. Fortunately, the coin price, which had dipped briefly, started climbing again.
"Haha! See? You know how much I just made in one minute...?"
"Uh?"
An insane vertical drop.
"Ahhh!! B-Babe, sell it now!"
"Wha...! Do you know how much I'd lose selling now... Why is it doing this!"
He frantically checked the news.
The media was tearing into coins with a vengeance, as if they'd decided to go all out. RedMoon Coin especially was being roasted over an open fire.
"What the hell..."
He glanced at the news and came back. In that short time, the coin price had plummeted.
Now there was no one buying, only sellers flooding the market. It dropped endlessly. It was hard to believe this had all happened in under an hour.
"Babe. Sell it now, even at a loss. If you lower the price a bit..."
"What?! Don't talk nonsense! Selling now would make me the biggest fool!"
In the end, they were ruined. RedMoon Coin, once it started falling, turned into worthless scraps of paper. The problem was that the entire coin market, affected by the crash, had frozen solid. Most of her husband's fortune had turned into meaningless data fragments overnight.
She'd pulled out earlier, so her losses were smaller. But that bastard she called a husband had been nibbling away at her savings bit by bit.
"Sun-young, just this once. Please, huh?!"
"Haah...! This is really the last time."
In the end, her plans fell apart. Forget aggressive marketing on social media—she didn't even have the money to hire a professional barista. Everything had changed from her original plan. She, who'd learned at a barista academy for just one month, became the sole employee and owner.
'Pull yourself together.'
A sense of crisis crept up her spine like a chill. She tried to coax her nearly ruined husband back to his senses, but he couldn't get up easily.
"There's no way... it, it'll moon. Just hold on a little longer..."
The cafe opening was imminent. She couldn't afford to worry about her husband anymore. What was originally supposed to be a side business, a safety net, had become her last chance—everything riding on it.
"Ugh... I'm going crazy."
Everything she knew was what she'd learned in that one-month academy course. Naturally, her skills were amateurish, and the coffee tasted terrible.
'Ugh...! It's so bitter...'
Even she couldn't drink the coffee she made with her own hands. The difficulty was too high because she'd tried to minimize using pre-made mixes. It was absolutely disgustingly bad. Not the premium coffee flavor she'd dreamed of. There was no way she could compete on taste.
"Ah..."
Completely stuck, opening day arrived.
'H-how many cups of coffee can I sell in a day?'
She hadn't done thorough research before starting, so she had no sense of it. She calculated based on selling 100 cups a day. 'The rent from last month... and the car payments aren't done either...' Even a simple calculation showed the revenue was pathetically insufficient. She clutched her head in despair, then decided to put out the most urgent fire first.
'Hunters have money anyway, right?'
In the end, she settled on the absurd price of 14,900 won for a single Americano.
'Honestly, just my labor costs alone are worth that much.'
Fortunately, she wasn't completely without customers. Though she had zero exposure, her slightly risqué outfit was having an effect. As a married woman, she wasn't unaware of what male customers were looking for when they came to her. She could tell from their eyes.
'Hmph! How dare they eye me.'
She'd chosen her uniform carefully with that in mind. A tight-fitting outfit that accentuated her proud figure, showing it off completely. She planned to use her voluptuous body as bait to reel in clueless men like fish.
'Ah... thank god.'
After a month of careful scrimpingand saving, she managed to pull it off. After paying rent and installments, there was nothing left over, but at least she succeeded in gathering money. Honestly, considering she worked from morning till night, it was a massive loss. The bigger problem was that the shop wasn't growing—it was dying.
'Customers are decreasing too... Should I change the uniform...'
The smartphone in Kim Sun-young's hand vibrated.
Her account was empty. Obviously, there was no money left for rent either. Just last night, it had still been there.
'No way...'
Brrrng— Brrrng—
She called her husband, but he didn't answer.
"I-I'm losing my mind..."
When money was flowing, she hadn't realized it, but when things got tough, her husband turned out to be utterly worthless as someone to rely on. Her legs gave out. The world spun so dizzily she saw white.
A sense of betrayal toward her husband surged up.
'I-if I borrow from someone...'
But when she actually tried to contact friends, there was no one to call. While she'd been recklessly spending money, she'd cut off contact with everyone. Most of it was her doing.
'Ah.'
There were no miracles.
In the end, the rent fell behind. A young girl's voice came through her smartphone. She recalled the image of the high school girl who'd acted as the agent when she signed the cafe lease.
"He says he'd like to see you in person. What would you like to do?"
What she'd felt while running the cafe for a month was that nothing in this world was free.
Without thinking,she sat down at her vanity and began to put on makeup. She didn't know why. Or rather, she didn't want to consciously acknowledge why.
Swish.
She put on stockings and a dress. The outfit her husband had given her as a wedding anniversary gift. It was cut so deeply at the chest that she'd only worn it once. Her husband had been disappointed, but it wasn't a dress she'd felt comfortable wearing. It was too revealing.
Even as she wore that dress, her mind was blank. Her spirit had been half-broken ever since her husband took the rent money.
In the mirror, she looked cheap, her cleavage exposed. She stared at it blankly, then covered herself with a coat and left the house.
The Clan Leader's Office.
Si-woo looked at the married woman sitting before him with a hollow expression. Twenty-six years old. Despite her youth, he liked the subtle mature aura she gave off. There was a certain erotic quality unique to married women.
"So you're saying you don't have the rent?"
"I-I'm sorry."
"Isn't there anywhere you can borrow from?"
"No... I'm sorry."
She kept repeating the word "sorry" like a parrot.
>"Well... if I give you another month, could you pay next month?"
"Th-That is..."
She squeezed her eyes shut and couldn't say anything. Si-woo studied her face as she chewed her lip nervously. She was a woman with a captivating beauty mark near her eye.
Honestly, her cafe wasn't beyond saving. If she got professional advice, reworked the menu, and invested a little capital, she could avoid losses.After all, it was in a location with heavy foot traffic.
But nothing in this world was free.
He openly let his gaze roam over her body. To the point where her face grew increasingly flushed.
"Well... it's not like there's no way."
Looking at her now, she had even put on pretty makeup and come. He wondered what kind of clothes might be hidden beneath that tidy coat. The anticipation was there.