Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 556

558

“So, what did the head office say?”

“They said they don’t know.”

“And what did you say?”

“I gave them a piece of my mind.”

“What did you say?”

“I told them, what’s the point of having a head office if they don’t even know this? And that I can’t entrust them with management anymore. They couldn’t say a word and just hung up… Hey, hang up, I have a customer.”

Click.

As a customer walked to the counter with a video, Yoo Seung-il immediately ended the call with his wife. Then, he took the video the customer brought and scanned it.

Scanning should naturally make a ‘beep’ sound.

But strangely, it didn’t make any sound. He tried several times, but the result was the same.

“Huh? Why is it suddenly like this?”

Yoo Seung-il was dumbfounded.

The rental program, which had been working perfectly fine, suddenly stopped working.

Yoo Seung-il had no choice but to take out a notebook and do it manually.

A moment later.

After the customer left, Yoo Seung-il immediately made a call. Of course, he called Park Sun-woo, the manager at the head office.

“What’s with this guy!”

Yoo Seung-il felt a surge of annoyance. He called several times, but no one answered.

Clang.

Just then, two customers entered the store.

Yoo Seung-il had no choice but to hang up and attend to the customers.

“Welcome.”

“Do you have ‘The Legend of Camelot’?”

“Just a moment.”

Yoo Seung-il started typing on the keyboard to search for the video as usual.

But only for a moment, Yoo Seung-il had to rush to the video shelves. Only then did he realize that the rental program wasn’t working.

Fortunately, he knew the location of and was able to find it quickly.

If he hadn’t, he would have been sweating trying to find the video.

But Yoo Seung-il’s luck ended there.

Another customer immediately asked.

“Mister, do you have ‘Raise the Red Lantern’?”

“Pardon? ‘Raise the Red Lantern’?”

“Yes, the Chinese drama starring Gong Li. It was released in ’92…”

“Ah, yes, just a moment…”

Yoo Seung-il immediately ran to the Chinese movie section. But since he didn’t know what kind of movie was, he had no choice but to search through everything.

And because of his presbyopia [age-related farsightedness], he couldn’t see the video titles properly. He was wandering around like that when.

Clang.

Two children entered the store.

The first child who came in immediately asked.

“Mister, what was the one I watched last time? I can’t remember the title. My mom told me to rent the next one.”

“Huh? Just a moment…”

Yoo Seung-il felt his mind go blank. The most urgent thing right now was to find , but he didn’t know where it was, and he had no way of knowing what video the child was talking about.

Then another child called out to Yoo Seung-il.

“Mister, this one I rented a little while ago doesn’t work well. My mom told me to exchange it for another one.”

“Oh, o-okay, just a moment…”

Yoo Seung-il’s mind started to get even more tangled. But that was only Yoo Seung-il’s situation.

The children started to pester Yoo Seung-il.

“Mister, hurry!”

“Mister, please exchange this for me quickly too!”

30 minutes later.

“Hoo!”

As soon as the customers were all gone, Yoo Seung-il couldn’t help but sigh. His face was damp with sweat.

But the rest was only temporary.

Yoo Seung-il immediately started making calls again. He felt with his whole body that the most urgent thing was the rental program.

The call was finally connected after several rings.

-Hello.

“Manager, this is Bupyeong [district in Incheon, South Korea]. We have a big problem. The rental program is…”

-I’m in a consultation with a customer right now, so I’ll call you back.

Click.

As the call was unilaterally cut off, Yoo Seung-il grabbed his phone and shouted.

“You son of a bitch!”

But there was nothing Yoo Seung-il could do.

***

Smirk.

Manager Park Sun-woo, who hung up the phone, wore a bitter smile. Chairman Min Hong-shik, who saw this, couldn’t stay still.

“Bupyeong?”

“Yes, he’s probably sweating bullets by now.”

“How did you do it?”

“I played around with the program a bit. Either way, if the program doesn’t work, it’ll be a pain in the ass to do business.”

That’s obvious.

If he had been doing it manually from the beginning, it would have been less difficult, but in Yoo Seung-il’s case, he had been using the rental program from the beginning, so the inconvenience would be indescribable.

Manager Park Sun-woo also knew this, so he touched the most sensitive part.

“So, you deliberately hung up the phone earlier under the pretext of a non-existent consultation?”

“He needs to suffer to listen to me.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’ll call him in an hour and start the operation.”

“Operation?”

A smile immediately spread across Chairman Min Hong-shik’s face. He knew exactly what that operation meant.

“Yes, I’m going to charge him 500,000 won [approximately $375 USD] for data recovery.”

“Isn’t that too little?”

“Actually, if you think about it, it’s a lot. Either way, there’s nothing wrong with the program.”

“No, Bupyeong is over anyway. Just make it a million won [approximately $750 USD]. He’s the one who’s desperate.”

“Then should I do that?”

“And about fifteen days later, do it again… You know what I mean, right?”

“Yes, I understand. You’re the best, Chairman.”

A bitter smile began to spread across Manager Park Sun-woo’s face again as he answered. Chairman Min Hong-shik was the same.

***

“Yes, yes, I understand. Then I’ll prepare 1 million won and wait.”

-And just in case, don’t mention this cost to other Movie Village stores. Other places usually charge 1.5 million won [approximately $1125 USD].

“Yes, I understand. Anyway, thank you for taking care of me, Manager.”

-And one more thing, if you badmouth the head office one more time, I won’t stand it anymore. So, be careful.”

“Yes, Manager!”

Yoo Seung-il unknowingly grabbed the phone and bowed his head deeply. The failure of the rental program had once again made him anxious.

Of course, Yoo Seung-il, who had no idea that it was all Manager Park Sun-woo’s work, was endlessly grateful to him.

As Yoo Seung-il hung up the phone, Han Mi-sook, who was next to him, immediately asked.

“What did Manager Park say?”

“He said he’s leaving Seoul right now.”

“Can he fix the program?”

“Yeah, he said he can fix it.”

“Hmm…”

Han Mi-sook didn’t say anything, wondering what she was thinking.

After a while.

Han Mi-sook suddenly tilted her head and opened her mouth.

“Honey, doesn’t something seem a little strange?”

“Huh? What?”

“That Manager Park, how can he say he can fix it right away without even seeing what’s wrong?”

“Huh? Come to think of it…”

Yoo Seung-il also tilted his head like Han Mi-sook. Come to think of it, there was some truth in Han Mi-sook’s words.

When they were on the phone, he had simply said that the program wasn’t working. But he immediately spoke as if he knew what was wrong.

And what’s even stranger is the data recovery.

He didn’t know the details, but he couldn’t know the status of the data until he checked the computer. But he spoke as if the data was all gone and mentioned the recovery cost. Even a million won.

“You think it’s strange too, right?”

“Yeah, come to think of it, you’re right. I clearly only said that the program wasn’t working. But Manager Park spoke as if he already knew what was wrong. And what’s even stranger is the data recovery.”

“Data recovery?”

“Yeah, you can’t know that until you come and check the computer. But Manager Park said he had to recover the data without even looking at it and said it would cost a million won. I said okay without thinking at the time, but now that I think about it, something’s strange.”

The two looked at each other for a moment and tilted their heads as if it was strange.

After a while.

Han Mi-sook opened her mouth first.

“Maybe…”

“Maybe what?”

“Surely not?”

“What?”

“Manager Park deliberately caused the problem remotely…”

“Hey! No way!”

Yoo Seung-il shook his head from side to side as if it was absurd. Then Han Mi-sook slowly nodded and opened her mouth again.

“Right! Surely he wouldn’t do that, right?”

“Of course not, no matter how much people like money, it’s a chain store, surely they wouldn’t…”

Yoo Seung-il shook his head from side to side again as if that wouldn’t happen. Then Han Mi-sook, who was next to him, started nodding as if she agreed with Yoo Seung-il’s words.

But there was something the two didn’t know. That ‘surely not’ can catch people off guard. Their current goal is to persistently extract money like hyenas. That’s all.

And one more thing, the Bupyeong branch has already been excluded from the management list at the Movie Village headquarters. That means they’re ready to close the store at any time. Of course, the penalty for not fulfilling the basic 3-year contract is the responsibility of the store owner.

Two hours later.

Clang!

A man entered the store as the door opened. Yoo Seung-il, who saw this, jumped up from his seat and greeted him in a loud voice.

“Manager Park! Welcome!”

“You’ve been waiting a long time?”

“You have no idea, today was like…”

Yoo Seung-il’s words grew longer. He was talking about how difficult it was to do business without a rental program.

As his words ended, Manager Park Sun-woo put down his bag and said.

“Can I ask you for something?”

“Of course, just tell me.”

“I was in a hurry, so I haven’t had lunch yet.”

“Ah, is that so? Then what should I order for you?”

Yoo Seung-il handed the food delivery booklet to Manager Park Sun-woo. He intended to order delivery if he chose a menu from there.

But Manager Park Sun-woo didn’t even look at the delivery booklet and immediately continued.

“I’m sorry, but it’s a place where the owner has to go in person…”

“Pardon? What do you want to eat?”

“Haha, I always eat hamburgers for lunch. I’d like to go and eat it myself, but that would delay the time it takes to fix the program. So, I’m sorry, but the owner has to go in person…”

“Ah! Yes, I understand. It’s because of the program, so I’ll go right away.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Yoo.”

“No, I’m grateful. You came all the way here without having lunch. And it’ll take about 30 minutes to go to Bupyeong Station to buy a hamburger. Then I’ll leave right away.”

Yoo Seung-il left the store right after saying that.

“Hehe…”

As Yoo Seung-il left the store, Manager Park Sun-woo made a sinister laugh and went inside the counter. Then, as soon as he sat in front of the computer, he pressed the power button.

Tap tap tap.

The rental program started working right away after pressing the keyboard a few times.

In fact, the hamburger was an excuse.

In order to pretend to fix a program that had nothing wrong with it, Yoo Seung-il couldn’t be there, so he made him run errands with the absurd excuse of a hamburger.

Tap tap tap.

Manager Park Sun-woo started typing on the keyboard again. This time, the operation was to lock the program again in 15 days. This way, the same thing will happen in 15 days. Then he can come back and get another million won.

“Hehe…”

A sinister smile began to spread across Manager Park Sun-woo’s face again.

30 minutes later.

“Manager, here you go.”

Yoo Seung-il handed the hamburger and cola to Manager Park Sun-woo. Then Manager Park Sun-woo immediately continued without even looking at the hamburger.

“Something urgent has come up, so I have to leave right away. The program is running normally, so you don’t have to worry. And after seeing it today, the computer’s hard drive is unstable, so I think this might happen again…”

It’s a setup. If the same thing happens again in 15 days, he won’t stay still. But if he sets it up in advance today, there will be no suspicion even if the program stops working again in 15 days.

“Pardon? Then what should I do?”

“Let’s wait and see a little longer. I’m not sure, so I’ll be on my way…”

Manager Park Sun-woo left Movie Village after saying that.

Yoo Seung-il’s expression, who was left alone, looked like he was about to cry. Next to him were the ownerless hamburger and cola.