In Which My Family’s Reunion, Too, Gets Upgraded
Anyway.
After I asked the chief of staff for help, it wasn’t long before the advice came in.
For something like a large café, I’d need to prepare for a future gift transfer, so rather than a huge lot, it would be better to set it up on a prime piece of land. And to account for inflation, it should be built to be worth around 40 billion won.
That way, if it was worth 50 billion ten years later, I could hand it over as a gift without paying a single won in tax.
It wasn’t advice that raised any real objections, so I decided to go with it.
Mom, too, would probably rather run a café nearby than somewhere far away.
There was no reason to go out of the way.
As for the golf course and the resort, I was told that since it would be hard to find a plot that large in the city, it would be better to invest in the facilities somewhere land was cheaper.
Rather than the land itself, the idea was to make money through sales and operating profit.
Besides, a resort wasn’t something I was planning with a gift transfer in mind to begin with, so I nodded at that too.
“Please take care of it.”
“Yes, Chairman. While this matter is being handled, I plan to gradually entrust the lighter tasks to the new secretary. I’ll still review everything in the middle, but... there may be mistakes, so I’d like to ask for your understanding in advance.”
“Just give it a try. Even if there are mistakes, Chief of Staff, you can teach them properly. If it becomes difficult to even get the work moving at all, then let me know.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
So this was Suho’s first debut, huh.
He was the type to read my mood well and adjust his behavior accordingly, so I wasn’t especially worried.
From someone with a bad first impression to someone becoming my younger brother—just how hard must he have worked?
It was almost like he’d pulled off something impossible.
For now, my parents’ retirement hobby problem was solved like this.
“Where are we meeting this time? Grandpa’s place?”
“This time, we’re booking a pension and gathering there.”
“Really? What got into them?”
Usually, for Family Month in May, all the relatives gathered together at Grandpa’s house.
The location had never changed before.
But this time, it sounded like things would be different.
I was pretty glad to hear that. Whenever we went to Grandpa’s house, Mom always had the roughest time.
Dad did help out by reading the room and lending a hand, but with relatives calling him here and there, he never really had room to breathe either.
He was too busy carrying things and doing chores.
“That’s good.”
“Yeah. I was worried we’d have to go early again and spend all morning cooking and everything.”
“Then tell Great-Aunt and them to help prepare this time too. Isn’t it a little too much to keep using excuses like that?”
“Leave it. You’ll just start a fight among the relatives over it.”
It really didn’t sit right with me. Whenever the relatives gathered, my mother had to be out there from dawn, slaving away over food and everything else.
But my aunt and great-aunt didn’t exactly have to drag themselves out early and suffer much.
Back then, they used to say they were busy with work and all that.
But my mom had worked too.
The only difference was that one of them was a lawyer and the other was a teacher.
They just used one excuse after another and showed up late.
Grandpa and Grandma couldn’t exactly say much about it either.
Instead, they told my mother to come late too, but...
There was no way Mom would hear that and happily let Grandma suffer alone from dawn.
Still, since it was a pension this time, things would probably be a little easier.
That’s what I thought.
But before even a day had passed, an accident happened.
Apparently, they’d kept putting off the reservation until it was too late and lost it.
Thanks to that, they decided to gather at Grandpa’s house again.
“Mom, I’ll handle it. I’ll find us a place for this gathering, so don’t worry.”
“..”
“Grandma called too, right? She said not to come early this time. That’s why they were going to book a pension in the first place, but if it got canceled and you had to go early and suffer again... Grandma couldn’t possibly be happy about that.”
“.. How do they even do that?”
“I’ll look into it first.”
“Okay. Let me know when you find something.”
Everyone else gets to laugh and have a good time while only my mother suffers?
That, I couldn’t let happen.
***
“Finally.”
When Suho received his first assignment, he thought the time had finally come to prove he was useful.
When he took leave from school, worried looks kept coming his way from all directions. His college classmates, of course, but even his professors.
Even Si-hyun.
Needless to say, his family was no exception.
Of course, there was a single magic phrase that could make all those worries melt away like snow.
An annual salary of 200 million won.
Not a single person could argue with that.
Even so, apparently because they still weren’t completely convinced, the remaining concerns they voiced were about whether it was really right to offer him such good conditions and whether this was even a lifetime job.
In this world, who had a lifetime job anymore?
If you were useful, then it was a lifetime job.
At least, compared to proving his worth at one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates,
he could say with confidence that proving his usefulness by his brother’s side would be several times easier.
After all, it was practically the same as having a personal connection to the chairman.
“First...”
He prepared two plans at once.
For this family gathering of his brother’s. The things it would require.
One efficient, one inefficient.
His brother was not exactly the sort of man who pursued efficiency above all else.
So he prepared the highest-end version possible, and just in case, he also put together a reasonably efficient backup plan.
“If I line up Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and Maybach for my brother... there are nearly ten chauffeur-driven cars, and if I get help from the secretarial staff and the drivers... we should have no problem operating all of them.”
That would minimize the inconvenience of moving around.
Thanks to that, the restrictions on travel distance loosened a little.
Even so, he was sure his brother would be uncomfortable if it was too far.
So it had to be the best possible lodging without straying too far from Gwangju.
At the same time, regular hotels or resorts would have other guests using the facilities, which could make his brother uncomfortable.
So he prepared a place where they could rent an entire detached house if possible.
He made calls. Because it was Family Month, everything was fully booked.
Still,
he found one place: a newly completed pool villa with some rooms still available.
It was a trendy type of pension these days, but...
the price was so high compared to other pensions that people probably couldn’t easily bring themselves to book it.
As expected, it didn’t apply to his brother at all.
The problem was the customers who had already booked it.
Three groups in total.
He contacted the pension owner.
“If it wouldn’t be rude to the guests who already booked, could you ask whether I’d be allowed to offer compensation? If possible, I’d like to rent the entire pool villa for that date. Of course, if the customers are unhappy, I won’t force it. If you’ll compensate them with twice the original price...”
“I-I’ll ask them right away.”
Not long after, the answer came back.
The rooms could be vacated without any problem.
The lodging was settled.
For now, this would be the point where efficiency and inefficiency split.
“If there’s recreation too, I’m sure everyone will enjoy it. With my brother’s family...”
He even looked into a recreation instructor.
As for food...
“Since this is a gathering where all the relatives will be together, there’ll be plenty of elders. Rather than delivery...”
With so many older people there, there was no way to put out finished, pre-made dishes.
That would be rude to his brother’s family, and no different from smearing his brother’s face in the mud.
He looked into a catering service. One with excellent skill.
As expected, no problem there either.
For now...
Before reporting to his brother first, he had it reviewed by the chief of staff.
That had already been discussed in advance.
“In short... for the efficient part, I’ll minimize costs and keep things as reasonable as possible. For the inefficient part, I’ll ask the secretarial staff and drivers for help, run every vehicle, and handle everything—from transportation to lodging to entertainment—in the most inefficient way possible...”
“Yes, thank you, Chief of Staff.”
Approval had been granted.
His heart pounding, he called his brother.
All he could do was pray desperately that he wouldn’t be disappointed.
He explained everything exactly as he had to the chief of staff.
“Mm... not bad. I think I like the second option. For now, we can just make sure to give bonuses to the employees who help out that day...”
He went even further than Suho had.
But none of this made it seem like his brother was spending extravagantly.
Of course not.
At last, he was getting to see a little of his brother’s true colors.
He was a man whose assets had already surpassed 1 trillion won.
There was no way this would feel burdensome.
Rather, it was because a man like his brother was willing to spend like this that the Korean economy kept turning.
Fortunately, he got a passing grade.
***
After receiving word from his younger brother’s side ahead of the family gathering, Lee Deok-su passed the news on to his wife.
“They changed the plan again. We’re meeting at Dad’s place this time.”
“Again?”
“Apparently Gwangseop is going to rent a pension or something...”
“...Wouldn’t it be better to just go to your father’s house? If the pension is shabby, it’s worse than not going at all.”
“He says he already found one, so let’s just go. And he asked if we wanted to take a car over there—should we?”
“Looks like he’s just sending a call taxi to me... let’s just take your car.”
“That’s probably better. Are you going early this time and helping with the work?”
“Have you lost your mind? I’m sure I told you not to say things like that. Mother-in-law hates that sort of thing, so why are you like this?”
“...Fair enough.”
He held his tongue.
In the end, it was his younger brother’s side doing all the hard work anyway...
He didn’t want to end up fighting with his wife over that before the family gathering.