Ties of the Pop-Up Store (3)
"Ah… but on our end… Excuse me, where did you say you were calling from…? Pardon? Yes, yes. Ah…"
The longer the phone call dragged on, the stranger Kim Sejun's expression became. Beside him, Lee Ha-jeong's face grew equally taut with nervous tension.
"Did something happen? I've never seen his face freeze up like that…"
When Sejun finally slammed the receiver down and began furiously scouring the internet with a grim frown, the anxiety in the office reached its peak.
"Why? What's going on?"
I stepped closer and asked, but Sejun offered no answer. He simply hammered the three letters—'Song-ha-dang'—into the search bar over and over, as though our very world were on the verge of collapse.
Right then—
Ring!
Rrrrring!
Riiiiing!
The other landlines throughout the office began shrieking all at once, an unrelenting downpour of incoming calls crashing over us like a monsoon squall.
"H-Hello?! Yes, yes! Whaaaat?!"
"This is Songhadang! Yes! We are currently looking into the matter ourselves!"
A scene like this had played out once before.
"Fret not. There are no scoundrels lurking among them."
"Bah! If that sort of trash were creeping around, do you think I'd be sitting here enjoying my drink? It'd sour the taste clean out of my mouth!"
"Indeed. Given the sweet scent wafting through the air…"
Before I even realized it, Moktong had materialized from thin air, casually sipping a ladle of freshly drawn liquor cradled in his right hand. Beside him, Songha adjusted the brim of his fedora, a refined chuckle rolling off his tongue.
"It seems our friend has forged yet another auspicious tie."
"Yeonwoo! Grab a phone, will you?!"
"I'm on it!"
I had no time to decipher Songha's cryptic words. To quell the frantic chorus of ringing bells, I bolted toward the nearest desk, but the moment my hand reached out, the line went dead.
"Pick it up faster! It disconnected!"
A heartbeat later, the phone shrieked again. Handing off from one line to the next like an Olympic relay, the deluge of incoming calls left no room to catch our breath.
Just as I lunged for the receiver a second time, Sejun grabbed my arm.
"Yeonwoo! Look at this!"
Having finally tracked down whatever he had been searching for, Sejun spun his desktop monitor toward me. Glaring from the display was an article headline.
No, it wasn't just a single article.
[Premium Domestic Spirit Sells Out 300 Bottles at First Pop-Up… Consumers Rave: "Incredible Flavor"]
[Songhadang Traditional Liquor Sells Out Early at Department Store Pop-Up… Viral Word-of-Mouth Surges]
[Limited Batch of 300 Bottles Cleared in 10 Minutes… The Rising Power of K-Spirits]
A thundering waterfall of press coverage flooded the portal. And standing at the absolute forefront, leading the charge, was one definitive feature.
[Domestic Yakju Sweeps Debut with Instant Sellout… Captivating Consumers with Taste and Quality. An Interview with Master Brewer Song Yeonwoo.]
"We hit the jackpot!"
Sejun's jubilant shout rang through the office as I leaned closer to inspect the byline. Printed clearly at the end of the text was a familiar name.
Choi Yoon-sung.
A broad smile stretched across my lips.
"I had a feeling this would happen, but I didn't expect it to catch fire so fast."
"You had a feeling?!"
My calm remark made Sejun whip around in utter astonishment. In truth, the mere fact that we could hold a normal conversation was a miracle that had occurred only moments ago. Unable to bear the crushing tidal wave of incessant ringtones any longer, Ha-jeong had taken matters into her own hands.
Snap!
"H-Ha-jeong-ssi?!"
"If we want to survive, this had to be done!"
The moment she yanked the telephone cords clean out of the wall, blessed sanctuary returned to Songhadang's office. Some might have scolded her, arguing that carelessly unplugging lines might cause us to miss vital business opportunities, but under the circumstances, it hardly mattered.
"I knew people would reach out, but this is beyond anything I imagined…"
"It was downright insane," Sejun muttered, rubbing his temples.
"Every single one was an interview request," Ha-jeong added, slumping into her chair with a heavy sigh.
Not a single caller had phoned regarding actual orders or brewing operations. They were all journalists who had caught wind of the story and dialed frantically, desperate to harvest whatever exclusive crumbs they could scrape together.
"And you said only one reporter actually came to the pop-up store?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"Wow… that's terrifying."
Yet every time we refreshed the browser, fresh articles referencing Songhadang multiplied across the web, living proof of the old adage that online news outlets simply copy and clone each other until a single spark becomes a brushfire.
"Boss! You have to see this!"
Having joined the browsing frenzy, Ha-jeong suddenly shoved her smartphone right in front of my eyes. On her screen was YouTube—specifically, Songhadang's modest official channel, which only had a handful of uploaded clips.
"The comment section is blowing up!"
"They're all singing our praises, aren't they?"
Neither Sejun nor Ha-jeong was exaggerating in the slightest. The most recent upload on our channel was a casual clip from months ago, back when we invited the elderly residents of Yeongwol for a tasting dinner. People were now flocking to that ancient video just to leave enthusiastic remarks.
"Wait, who's Sul Bin?" Sejun asked, leaning over.
"Ah. She's referring to the actress, Jeong Subin."
"An actress? Why on earth is an A-list celebrity involved?"
"She came in person to our pop-up store."
"Whaaaat?!"
As a widely acknowledged enthusiast of fine spirits, Subin filled almost every video on her personal YouTube channel with liquor. Even so, she wasn't purely a booze reviewer; her channel was styled as a relaxed lifestyle vlog, with alcohol woven in naturally as an occasional motif.
"Though it looks like this upload is on another level entirely."
Navigating to her channel, we saw a brand-new video that seemed to have been edited and rushed out just hours ago.
[The Legendary Craft Spirit, Meari! This Time It's Autumn!]
The premise was straightforward: she recounted the thrill of waiting in line for the morning open-run, followed by an in-depth comparative tasting between the original Meari and the barrel-aged Meari: Autumn, articulating every sensory impression with genuine passion.
"Isn't this… basically a full-blown connoisseur review?" Sejun murmured in disbelief.
"It really is."
Just like a seasoned spirits critic, she packed twenty full minutes with unadulterated liquor discourse. Yet it never dragged for a second. Subin's natural charisma carried the flow effortlessly, while her incisive tasting notes demonstrated surprising expertise.
"Man… we didn't spend a single won on marketing, yet a top star is promoting us for free…"
"That's because Songhadang's liquor is genuinely delicious!" Ha-jeong puffed her chest out with pride.
"Well, yes, but still… Shouldn't we capitalize on this momentum somehow? Or at the very least, find some way to express our gratitude…?"
"But what could we possibly offer a superstar like her?" Ha-jeong pointed out reasonably.
Sejun was right to pause. In any human relationship, reciprocity was the cornerstone; an entirely one-sided dynamic inevitably tilted, cracked, and crumbled under its own imbalance. The recipient was crushed beneath the weight of obligation, while the giver grew resentful.
Had that not been the bitter story of my past life? I had crossed paths with good, generous people, yet every one of those bonds withered away in tragedy. I had taken everything they gave, entirely incapable of returning anything of value.
But this life is different.
"Why do you think we have nothing to give?" I said with a light smile.
"Pardon? What do you mean?"
"Keh-heh-heh! Well spoken! Aren't we vastly wealthier than that slip of a girl?" Moktong cackled, sprawling comfortably on the floor as if delighted by my train of thought.
Behind him, Songha let out a soft, theatrical sigh, though the faint curve of his lips betrayed his satisfaction.
"Moktong, my gruff friend, I have told you time and again: mortals perceive wealth in quite a different fashion."
"We happen to possess an abundance of the very thing she cherishes most," I said, turning to Ha-jeong.
"We dooo?"
"Yes. More than anyone else." I chuckled softly at her tilted head. "Why don't we simply send her our liquor?"
"Mm-hmm, hm-hm-hmmm~"
A jaunty melody floated from the passenger seat as the young woman hummed without a care in the world. Behind the wheel, the man driving the van stared straight ahead, his eyes completely devoid of life.
While maintaining vigilance on the road was standard protocol, his gaze went far beyond routine discipline—it was the look of a man who had renounced worldly desires and cast his soul adrift. He soon broke the silence himself.
"Subin-ah…"
"Yes? What is it, Oppa?"
"You… seem awfully happy today."
"Of course I am! Positively ecstatic!"
Her radiant smile blossomed like spring petals, untainted by a single speck of doubt or distress. Her manager, Gu Yunhwan, abandoned any lingering effort to analyze her behavior.
Transitioning from a popular idol to a serious screen actress had plunged Subin into a brutal storm of public malice.
'Nowadays, any random idol thinks they can act.'
'She jumped ship because her group was flopping, didn't she?'
'Skip on sight. Zero talent.'
The venomous vitriol festering in the dark corners of the internet had left deep, festering wounds on her heart. Even now, celebrated as one of the country's most respected rising actresses, those scars lingered beneath the surface. When the cameras stopped rolling, a hollow, vacant look often settled over her face—proof of the ghosts that still haunted her.
She only seemed at peace when she was drinking.
Contrary to public gossip, Jeong Subin hadn't fallen in love with alcohol out of casual hedonism. Driven to the brink of collapse by ruthless slander, she had turned to spirits as an escape hatch, seeking refuge from the suffocating dread that followed her everywhere.
Yet, somewhere along the line, something changed.
When had that shift occurred? It must have been a few months ago, when they visited her regular cocktail bar to shoot footage for her YouTube channel. The initial concept had been modest: introduce a few classic whiskies, highlight a serene, mature facet of her personality, and quietly reframe her public image.
Everything changed when the bartender set down a single, unheralded glass.
'Meari… that was the name, wasn't it…?'
Steering the van smoothly through a left turn, Yunhwan recalled that fateful evening. Just one sip of that spirit had rekindled the spark in Subin's eyes—not the fragile, forced cheerfulness she put on for public appearances, but genuine, incandescent vitality.
From that night onward, her devotion was absolute.
'Look, Oppa! I managed to snag these! Here, one's for you!'
'I'm on duty right now, Subin-ah…'
'Aish, you have a legendary tolerance anyway! One sip won't hurt, and you're not driving today!'
The instant Meari became available through online orders, she bought every bottle her monthly quota allowed, sipping it with utter reverence. When her favorite bar developed a signature cocktail using Meari as the base spirit, her post-filming destination was set in stone. For an actress who had long secluded herself from the world, this sudden craving for life was undeniably a blessing.
Still… having her newfound joy revolve around alcohol is dangerous for an actress's image…
So when news broke that Songhadang was holding an open-run pop-up for Meari: Autumn, her reaction was entirely predictable.
'Let's go.'
'Go where?'
'Seonkyung Department Store. We're going. No excuses!'
Dragged along in the freezing morning hours, they had even wound up participating in an unscheduled media interview. Worse yet, the young man who introduced himself as the president of Songhadang had immediately recognized Subin through her disguise.
Thankfully, he proved to be a man of his word.
Seeing that not a single rumor or eyewitness report about Subin's presence had leaked to the press, Yunhwan concluded that the young brewer possessed exceptional discretion. It was precisely that quiet integrity that allowed him to craft liquor worthy of a true master artisan.
To be frank, if I had bumped into him on the street, I would've asked if he was interested in acting.
He was not an impossibly sculpted, flashy idol type, but his warm, reassuring smile and uncanny air of seasoned maturity put anyone in his presence instantly at ease. Had he not been the master of his own renowned brewery, Yunhwan would have handed him a business card on the spot.
Yet his true calling was the art of brewing. And the spirit born from his hands…
It really was something else…
Yunhwan swallowed quietly. The memory of that golden, fragrant autumn liquor was nothing short of breathtaking.