Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 593

A week later.

“Hehe!”

Hyun-seong was jogging during his usual early morning exercise.

He was just passing in front of the old Movie Mind after turning the corner.

“Hey, Mr. Kim!”

As if he had been waiting, a man approached him. It was Yoo Seung-il, the owner of the bookstore.

“Oh? Mr. Yoo, what brings you here so early in the morning?”

“I was waiting for you, Mr. Kim.”

He was right; he had been waiting for him.

It was 5:30 AM. To come out and wait at this hour meant that something important was going on.

Hyun-seong, curious, asked immediately.

“Has something happened?”

“Nothing happened, but I have a few things to discuss with you. Would you mind stepping into my store for a moment?”

“Sure.”

The two headed to the bookstore run by Yoo Seung-il.

Once inside, Yoo Seung-il plugged in the coffee pot and continued speaking.

“It’s quite chilly this early in the morning.”

“You’re right. Today is already November 18th, so winter is just around the corner.”

November 18th.

In just three days, a nuclear bomb would drop on South Korea. It was the 1997 financial crisis, also known as the IMF crisis [International Monetary Fund crisis, a period of economic hardship in South Korea].

The first financial crisis he would experience, and the whole country would be turned upside down.

But even knowing that, there was nothing he could do about it now.

“Sigh!”

Hyun-seong sighed without realizing it. Yoo Seung-il turned his head as if asking what was wrong and asked.

“Is something wrong? Why are you sighing like that so early in the morning?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

To be honest, he wasn’t thinking about nothing at all. He had to find a way to warn people about the coming crisis. But no matter how much he thought about it, there was no way.

He couldn’t just go to the President.

He wouldn’t even be able to meet him, and anyway, that guy probably already knew about it.

In hindsight, if they hadn’t requested a bailout from the IMF back then, they could have prevented the bankruptcy of so many companies. Then there wouldn’t have been so much unemployment.

“Here, have a cup of coffee.”

Yoo Seung-il had already made coffee and was handing it to him.

A moment later.

After taking a sip of coffee, Hyun-seong asked Yoo Seung-il.

“Didn’t you say you had something to discuss with me earlier?”

“It’s about this store. I was wondering if there was a more efficient way to use it.”

“Why? Is there a particular reason?”

“It might just be my greed, but after running the business for about a month, I feel like there’s too much wasted space here.”

Yoo Seung-il pointed to one side of the store.

Hyun-seong walked over to the area and began to examine it carefully.

In fact, it was something that had bothered him since the store first opened. The reason was that the store was too big to be used only as a book rental shop.

After looking around the store for a moment, Hyun-seong immediately spoke.

“If you push those bookshelves to one side, you’ll have about 15 square feet of space here, right?”

“That’s what I’m saying. So I was hoping to use that space in some way, and that’s why I was waiting for you today, Mr. Kim.”

“Hmm, just a moment.”

Hyun-seong was silent for a while, as if he was thinking about something. He seemed to be considering how to use the space.

After a while.

Hyun-seong immediately spoke again.

“It’s simple.”

“Simple?”

“Yes, you know about comic book cafes, right?”

“Of course, are you saying we should turn this place into a comic book cafe?”

“No, this place can’t be a comic book cafe anyway.”

“Why?”

Yoo Seung-il asked, curious. Hyun-seong immediately replied.

“We don’t have daily comics.”

“Ah, that’s right. The life of a comic book cafe is the daily releases. So what are we going to do here?”

“Hmm… How about a cafe?”

“A cafe?”

Yoo Seung-il stared at Hyun-seong as if he couldn’t understand. Hyun-seong immediately continued.

“We’ll turn this place into a book cafe.”

“A book cafe?”

“Yes, we’ll put about twenty comfortable chairs here and sell coffee and drinks. We’ll also sell simple snacks. And of course, we’ll sell ramen too.”

“Do you think that will work?”

Yoo Seung-il’s expression was full of doubt.

It was probably natural. Even though the concept of a comic book cafe existed at this time, the term ‘book cafe’ was still unfamiliar.

But who was Hyun-seong? He was someone who had already lived through that era.

Hyun-seong said with conviction.

“Yes, it will work.”

“It will?”

“Yes, it definitely will. If we do that, our sales will easily double.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“No, it’s not that, but…”

Yoo Seung-il looked at Hyun-seong cautiously. Hyun-seong chuckled and immediately continued.

“Don’t be so cautious. Just trust me and let’s go with the book cafe. Our sales will basically double what they are now.”

“If that’s the case, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

“I’m telling you, it will definitely work!”

Hyun-seong’s voice was full of energy. Perhaps it was because he had lived through it before and had experience running a comic book cafe, but his voice was filled with confidence.

And perhaps that was effective.

Yoo Seung-il’s response came immediately.

“Alright, I’ll trust you, Mr. Kim. Can you take care of the construction starting today?”

“There’s not much construction to do. Just call a display case contractor to move the bookshelves to one side. And then we can go to a furniture store to pick out chairs, and the rest is up to you, Mr. Yoo… Yes, I understand. I’ll take care of everything.”

Of course, it wasn’t a difficult task if you had experience. But that was only true for Hyun-seong, who had experience. After all, this was a new experience for Yoo Seung-il.

That’s why Hyun-seong offered to do everything while he was explaining.

“Thank you. It was worth waiting up for you this morning.”

“Either way, you made a good decision. If we do this, our average daily sales will increase by about 700,000 won [approximately $600 USD, depending on the exchange rate at the time]. If that happens…”

“Wait a minute!”

Yoo Seung-il suddenly interrupted Hyun-seong. Then he immediately continued.

“Did you just say 700,000 won per day?”

“Yes, it will definitely increase by that much. And of course, it will increase much more during the peak season, which is the school vacation.”

“Hmm…”

Yoo Seung-il was silent for a moment, as if he was thinking about something. He seemed to be calculating the sales.

Sure enough.

The topic of sales came up from his mouth.

“Does that mean that the monthly sales will be at least 20 million won [approximately $17,000 USD]?”

“That’s right. And of course, it will basically increase by about 30 million won [approximately $25,000 USD] during the peak season, which is the school vacation.”

“30 million won… What would the profit margin be?”

“The most important thing is labor costs, so it depends on how many part-timers we hire, but it will basically be 30 to 40%. ”

“Hmm…”

Yoo Seung-il closed his mouth again and began to think. This time, he was probably calculating the net profit compared to sales.

Sure enough, the topic of net profit came up from his mouth.

“Basically, the calculation shows that we’ll be making at least 7 million won a month [approximately $6,000 USD].”

“Yes, we’ll be making at least that much. And you’ll be able to take home about 10 million won [approximately $8,500 USD] during the peak season.”

“Hehe…”

Yoo Seung-il laughed as if he was in a good mood. Then he opened his mouth again.

“I’ve met you and belatedly struck it rich.”

“It’s not exactly striking it rich, but just think of it as living a little more comfortably and don’t overdo it.”

“Alright, I will. So when will the construction start?”

“I need to find a display case contractor first, so I’ll look into it and contact you this afternoon. After the display case construction is finished, we can get the chairs and then contact the food supplier, so we should be able to open the cafe within a few days.”

“It’s really amazing.”

Yoo Seung-il looked at Hyun-seong with strange eyes. Hyun-seong immediately asked.

“What is it?”

“You, I mean.”

“Me?”

“Yes, isn’t it too strange? You were like that when you opened the bookstore last time, and now you’re changing it into a cafe, and you seem like such an expert. It’s definitely your first time too, but you’re doing it like a pro. Don’t you think so?”

“Haha, I don’t know…”

Hyun-seong could only replace his answer with a smile.

After all, he had already experienced it all in his past life. That’s why he was so skilled.

But the important thing was that he couldn’t explain it in words.

Then Yoo Seung-il opened his mouth again.

“And one more thing.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“There’s something strange that keeps getting into the books.”

“Something strange? What is it?”

“There’s hair and boogers, and sometimes…”

Yoo Seung-il’s words grew longer.

Hyun-seong immediately understood what he was talking about.

It was the most difficult part of running a bookstore. It was that foreign substances would get on the rented books and they would be returned like that.

The foreign substances were also diverse.

The hair and boogers that Yoo Seung-il had just mentioned were cute compared to the rest. There were foreign substances that he couldn’t even describe.

He didn’t know why they did that, but surprisingly, there were quite a few people like that.

When Yoo Seung-il finished explaining, Hyun-seong immediately asked.

“How much foreign matter is there?”

“I didn’t know, but a customer told me yesterday and I checked and there were surprisingly a lot of books like that. What should I do about this situation?”

The method was simple. It was something Hyun-seong had done countless times in his past life, which was to check. Check when renting and check again after returning, there was no other answer.

“There’s only one way.”

“One?”

“Yes, check it. Check when you rent it out and check it again when you receive it back. There’s no other way.”

“So you’re saying I have to check everything one by one?”

“Yes, that’s right. And the important thing is that it doesn’t matter the gender or age. You have to check everyone, no matter what.”

What was most absurd in his past life was the culprit of the foreign substances.

In other words, no one was an exception.

The biggest problem was the illusion of ‘surely not’.

Surely this person wouldn’t do it.

But later, when he caught the culprit, it turned out that the culprit was among those he had thought ‘surely not’.

In the end, he had to check everyone, regardless of gender or age, to catch the culprit.

“Everyone?”

“Yes, everyone. You can’t leave anyone out. Otherwise, you’ll get backstabbed later.”

“Surely not even the young ladies?”

“That ‘surely’ is what gets people. So there are no exceptions.”

“Alright, I’ll start checking from today.”

Yoo Seung-il nodded as if he understood. Then Hyun-seong spoke again.

“And one more thing.”

“One more thing?”

“Yes, you have to be careful about knife marks as well as foreign substances.”

As well as foreign substances, knife marks were also a headache when running a bookstore.

In other words, knife marks, cutting out pictures.

If there were pretty pictures or lewd pictures, they would cut them out with a knife.

But Yoo Seung-il, who couldn’t possibly know that, was unfamiliar with the word ‘knife marks’ itself.

“Knife marks? What are you talking about?”

“It’s literally knife marks. It’s using a knife to cut out pictures from comic books.”

“Surely not?”

“It’s not ‘surely not’, it’s a fact. Especially when pretty pictures or lewd pictures come out, they cut them out like ghosts.”

“Hehe, this is just too much…”

Yoo Seung-il just laughed as if he was dumbfounded.

Hyun-seong was just as dumbfounded in his past life. One day, he suddenly heard a customer’s story and checked the comic books, and the pictures were missing in the middle of the comic books. Only later did he realize that it was knife marks.

“Then I’ll contact you this afternoon.”

“Alright, please do.”

Hyun-seong was about to leave, but he turned around again and continued.

“And also, I was wondering if we could adjust the rental fees starting in three days.”

“Rental fees? Why suddenly?”

“A big event will happen in the country. If that happens, there will be a huge increase in unemployment.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Yoo Seung-il stared at Hyun-seong as if he didn’t understand. Hyun-seong immediately replied.

“That kind of thing will happen.”

“What on earth is going on… Anyway, what does the increase in unemployment have to do with the rental fees?”

“It’s a sign of comfort.”

It was Hyun-seong’s heart for the unemployed. Since he couldn’t do anything personally, he wanted to comfort them in that way.

In fact, many people who lost their jobs during the IMF crisis flocked to video stores and comic book cafes. Hyun-seong was going to convey his condolences to those people by adjusting the rental fees now.

“Hehe, I don’t really know what you’re talking about, but I’ll do as you say.”

“Yes, thank you. Then I’ll be on my way…”

Hyun-seong said goodbye and left Yoo Seung-il’s bookstore.

The three letters ‘IMF’ were still heavily weighing on his mind.