Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 619

621

The next day.

The two men got into the truck.

Park Cheol-ho asked Hyun-sung first,

“Boss, which store are we going to first?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

“Pardon?”

Park Cheol-ho looked at Hyun-sung, seemingly not understanding what he was saying. Seeing this, Hyun-sung asked again,

“Why are you asking me that?”

“What? What do you mean…?”

“What’s the purpose of us moving right now?”

“Well, it’s to get a store that I’ll be running in the future…”

“And?”

“Pardon?”

Park Cheol-ho still looked like he didn’t understand what Hyun-sung was saying, staring at his face. Seeing this, Hyun-sung asked again, just like before,

“Still don’t know what the problem is?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why you’re saying this to me. Did I do something wrong?”

Park Cheol-ho’s attitude was consistent.

That meant he had no idea why Hyun-sung was acting like this. In other words, he didn’t know what the problem was.

Seeing this, Hyun-sung sighed briefly.

“Hoo!”

He called Park Cheol-ho’s name again.

“Cheol-ho.”

“Yes, boss.”

“You don’t know why I’m doing this, do you?”

“No, I’m sorry, but I don’t.”

Park Cheol-ho’s expression was the same as before. It was another moment of confirming that he had no idea what the problem was.

Hyun-sung continued,

“Okay, fine. Since you don’t know, I have no choice but to tell you. Then let’s ask again. What did we say was the reason we’re moving like this today?”

“Well, it’s for me to run in the future… Oh? Wait a minute.”

Park Cheol-ho stopped talking and seemed to be thinking about something, remaining silent. It was a while before he spoke again.

“Boss, I think I roughly understand now.”

“What do you understand?”

“Why you’ve been saying those things to me since a while ago. Now that I think about it, I think I made a mistake.”

“You get it now?”

“Yes, the problem was that I was thinking and talking about my own work as if it were someone else’s.”

Smirk.

Hyun-sung smiled, unlike before, as Park Cheol-ho finished speaking.

In fact, he didn’t want to frown from the beginning. But as soon as he got into the car, he thought and spoke as if it were someone else’s business, and he instantly thought that this wasn’t right, so he said that.

“Now, tell me. Which store should we go to first?”

“Just a moment.”

Park Cheol-ho hurriedly started searching through the classifieds. Seeing this, Hyun-sung immediately asked,

“What? You haven’t even checked yet?”

“I’m sorry. To be honest, I was only trusting you, boss.”

As soon as Park Cheol-ho finished speaking, he hurriedly started searching through the classifieds again. Then Hyun-sung called his name seriously.

“Cheol-ho!”

“Yes, boss.”

“You know why I’m doing this, right?”

“Yes, of course. I know you’re doing this all for me. After all, it’s my own store that I’m trying to get, so I think you’re saying that I should be more proactive.”

“That’s right, it’s not someone else’s store, it’s your store, so you’re the owner. That’s what I wanted to say.”

It wasn’t someone else’s store, it was Park Cheol-ho’s own store. Therefore, Hyun-sung’s purpose was to make him fulfill his role as the owner.

“Yes, I understand. From now on, I will think and act more proactively.”

“Yes, that’s normal. It’s your store, so of course you should take care of it. That way, you’ll have a sense of accomplishment later and you won’t have any regrets. You know what I mean, right?”

“Yes, I understand. I know it’s all for me.”

“Good, then do that role properly from now on.”

As Hyun-sung finished speaking, Park Cheol-ho nodded as if he understood, and then started searching through the classifieds again.

About 10 minutes passed.

Park Cheol-ho, who had been diligently searching through the classifieds, looked at Hyun-sung and said,

“Boss, let’s go to Bupyeong-dong first.”

“Bupyeong-dong?”

“Yes, this place is the closest to the conditions I was thinking of.”

“How many square feet is it?”

“It’s 25 pyeong [approximately 83 square meters].”

“What’s the price?”

“The deposit is 20 million, the facility and item costs are 15 million, and the key money is 20 million, so the total is 55 million.”

Hyun-sung took the classifieds and checked the contents that Park Cheol-ho had mentioned again.

After checking the contents, Hyun-sung immediately asked Park Cheol-ho,

“You know what key money is, right?”

“I’ve heard of it, but when I try to talk about it, it’s not easy. I’m sorry, but could you briefly explain what key money is? Hehe…”

Park Cheol-ho scratched his head, looking embarrassed. Seeing this, Hyun-sung smiled slightly and continued,

“It’s not complicated. Key money is…”

Hyun-sung continued to explain about key money. As Hyun-sung’s explanation continued, Park Cheol-ho pricked up his ears as if he were listening to a lecture and began to listen intently. And finally, as Hyun-sung’s explanation ended, he immediately asked,

“So key money has nothing to do with the landlord?”

“That’s right, this is a business key money traded between tenants. Of course, it’s different if there’s a floor key money.”

“What’s floor key money again?”

“It’s literally key money attached to the floor. In other words, it’s key money attached because of the good location. This is usually what the building owner asks the tenant for, but in reality, it’s very rare.”

“So in this case, there’s no floor key money and only business key money?”

“That’s right, if there was floor key money, they would have mentioned it separately, but the fact that there’s no such content means there isn’t any. And I’ve never seen a video store with floor key money.”

Park Cheol-ho nodded as if he understood. Then Hyun-sung continued,

“Then do you know how to calculate key money?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t had that experience yet…”

“Listen carefully, key money calculation is…”

This time, Hyun-sung continued to explain about the key money calculation method. As Hyun-sung’s explanation continued, Park Cheol-ho began to listen intently again. And finally, as Hyun-sung’s explanation ended, he immediately asked,

“So the conclusion is that it’s talking about the net income for one year?”

“It’s not accurate, but usually that’s how you should think about it.”

“So in this case, the key money is 20 million, so that means the net income for one year is 20 million [Korean Won]?”

“That’s right.”

After thinking for a moment, Park Cheol-ho asked again,

“Then how much is the monthly sales?”

“Calculate it, then it’ll come out right away?”

“Um… how?”

“If the net income for one year is 20 million, then if you calculate the profit margin as 40%, you know that the total annual sales is 50 million, right?”

“Just a moment…”

Park Cheol-ho was silent for a while, as if he was doing calculations again. It was a while before he opened his mouth again.

“But where did the 40% profit margin come from?”

“It’s the profit margin that’s usually applied to video stores. It means that if you sell 1 million won, you’ll make 400,000 won. Of course, it’s slightly different for each store, but usually it should be around that much to be normal.”

“Then that profit margin must depend a lot on the monthly rent?”

“That’s right, the monthly rent accounts for the largest portion, so the profit margin will inevitably vary depending on the monthly rent. It’s most advantageous if it’s my building.”

Park Cheol-ho nodded and continued,

“So if the income is 20 million, and you divide it by the profit margin of 40%, then the annual sales of 50 million comes out, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Then if you divide that by 12 months, you get the average monthly sales.”

“Um… then it’s usually 4.17 million won per month. If you divide that by 30 days again, you get the average daily sales?”

“That’s right.”

“Wow, it’s amazing. You can know the average daily sales with just the key money.”

Park Cheol-ho tilted his head slightly, looking amazed. Seeing this, Hyun-sung continued,

“The problem is trust.”

“Trust?”

“Yeah, it’s important how honestly the owner calculated the key money.”

“Are you saying that they might be lying about the key money?”

“In my opinion, almost 99% of them do. They probably inflated it a little bit.”

“No way!”

Park Cheol-ho’s voice gained strength. That meant he didn’t think so.

“Why? Do you think I’m lying?”

“Well, of course there are people who lie, but I don’t think it’s up to 99%.”

Pfft.

Hyun-sung smiled lightly as he looked at Park Cheol-ho. Then Park Cheol-ho asked again,

“Am I too naive?”

“What’s the point of saying anything? You have to experience it yourself to know. Okay, that’s enough studying, let’s go into practice.”

With those words, Hyun-sung started the car. Then he left the parking lot and headed to Bupyeong-dong.

About 5 minutes passed.

Park Cheol-ho asked Hyun-sung,

“Boss, what if the store owner can also deceive the daily sales?”

“What do you think?”

“Honestly, I think it’s possible if they set their mind to it, but…”

“But? Why is there a ‘but’ at the end? It’s either yes or no.”

“I just don’t think they would go that far.”

Pfft.

This time, Hyun-sung smiled lightly. As if he couldn’t possibly not know the meaning, Park Cheol-ho immediately continued,

“So you don’t trust people?”

“Why wouldn’t I want to trust them?”

“What does that mean?”

“That’s how the world is. Of course, it’s not 100% like that, but more people lie than you think. Only those who believe innocently become fools.”

“I guess…”

Park Cheol-ho nodded as if he somewhat agreed. His expression was full of bitterness.

20 minutes later.

[Video Land]

The two people who arrived in front of a shopping district looked at the sign.

“This is the place, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You know what to do when you go in, right?”

“I’m sorry, but can you do it for me…?”

Park Cheol-ho couldn’t say any more. The reason was that Hyun-sung was already shaking his head from side to side as if he couldn’t do that.

“What did I say earlier?”

“It’s my store, so I…”

“Yeah, I’ll be right behind you, so don’t worry and confidently find out everything you’re curious about and check everything you need to check. Especially for sales, don’t just look at the recent ones, but also check the ones from 2 or 3 years ago.”

“What? You mean check the ones from 2 or 3 years ago?”

Park Cheol-ho stared blankly at Hyun-sung as if he couldn’t understand. Then Hyun-sung continued,

“Don’t you know why?”

“Do we really have to go that far?”

“If you wanted to deceive the sales, what would you do?”

“Well, I would falsely write the sales every day.”

“For how long?”

“Um… 3 months? No, 1 year? Wait a minute.”

Park Cheol-ho stopped talking and was silent for a moment as if he had thought of something.

It was a while before he opened his mouth again.

“You’re saying that even if I try to falsely write the sales, I can only do it for about a year at most, and it’s hard to do it for longer than that?”

“That’s right, that’s why you need the sales from 2 or 3 years ago. People usually wouldn’t plan to deceive the sales from 2 or 3 years ago.”

“I guess that’s true. But what if there are no sales from 2 or 3 years ago?”

“That’s obvious.”

“Obvious?”

“Yeah, they deliberately threw them all away. Because they can’t have those materials.”

That’s obvious. The fact that there are no materials from 2 or 3 years ago means that they deliberately threw them away because having those materials would interfere with the transaction.

“What should I do then?”

“You have to lower the key money. The current key money is probably an inflated amount anyway.”

“It won’t be easy?”

“Have you ever been in a relationship?”

“What? Why are you suddenly talking about relationships here?”

Smirk.

Hyun-sung smiled instead of answering. Then he immediately continued,

“It’s not just when you’re in a relationship that you need push and pull, you need push and pull here too.”

“Ah, I understand what you mean.”

“Okay, let’s go inside now.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The two got out of the truck and went into the video store. No one knew what would happen.