Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 639

“Haha!”

Hyun-sung burst out laughing at Yoon Ji-soo’s playful back slap. Yoon Ji-soo immediately asked,

“Why are you laughing?”

“Then should I cry?”

“I should have just kept my mouth shut……”

Yoon Ji-soo turned her head away abruptly. Hyun-sung smiled at her reaction and continued,

“Okay, let’s go quickly, I’m hungry.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going to eat what Ji-soo likes.”

“What is it?”

Yoon Ji-soo asked, moving closer with curiosity. Hyun-sung glanced at her and replied,

“Gopchang [Korean grilled intestines].”

“Huh? How did you know I like gopchang?”

“I just guessed.”

“Hmph, another lie!”

This was a recurring theme these days whenever they went on dates.

Hyun-sung seemed to naturally know her preferences, and every place he took her had something she enjoyed. Whenever that happened, she would always ask how he knew. Hyun-sung’s answer was always the same. He would say he just guessed, like now.

Since he couldn’t give a different explanation each time, Hyun-sung had settled on this method.

But the problem was what came next.

After that, her reaction was always the same: calling it a lie and getting slightly sulky, just like now.

Hyun-sung always found her like this incredibly cute.

It was a new kind of joy he had never experienced in his past life.

Yoon Ji-soo spoke again.

“It’s really amazing.”

“What is?”

“How you always pick the things I really like.”

“Still don’t know?”

“Huh? Know what?”

“That’s what you call fate.”

“Tch!”

Yoon Ji-soo pouted and shook her head slightly. Hyun-sung immediately continued,

“Don’t keep doing that.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s too cute.”

“……”

Yoon Ji-soo glared at Hyun-sung instead of replying. Hyun-sung immediately spoke again,

“Don’t do that either. That’s also cute.”

“Oh, really……”

“That too!”

It was then.

Whoosh!

Her fist flew towards Hyun-sung’s side. But who was Hyun-sung? He had already experienced this when dating her in his past life, so his body automatically dodged the moment her shoulder moved.

“Are you really going to dodge that, like a coward?”

“Why are you doing this? A grown woman resorting to violence……”

“Tch! Whatever……”

Yoon Ji-soo pouted again and shook her head. Hyun-sung spoke again after seeing that.

“I clearly warned you.”

“Are you really going to do this?”

“What happens if you ignore the warning……”

It was then.

A cat suddenly dashed in front of them.

“Oh my!”

Startled, Yoon Ji-soo instinctively burrowed into Hyun-sung’s arms. It happened in an instant. Hyun-sung also inadvertently hugged her with both arms.

A moment later.

Hyun-sung released his arms and asked,

“Ji-soo, are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yes……”

Yoon Ji-soo seemed to realize the situation and quickly tried to pull away from Hyun-sung. But Hyun-sung grabbed her hand and said,

“Don’t you know there are a lot of cats in this neighborhood?”

“Then what should I do?”

Her eyes wavered. Yoon Ji-soo’s quirk was that she wasn’t afraid of cats during the day, but she became afraid of them at night.

“What do you mean, what should we do? We just hold hands like this and go eat gopchang. We’re almost there anyway.”

Hyun-sung gripped her hand again.

In his past life, he always held her hand wherever they went, but this was the first time he had held her hand in this life. Perhaps that’s why the sensation from her hand felt so good.

A moment later.

Hyun-sung looked around and then spoke,

“Meow!”

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m saying thank you to the cat. Thanks to it, I got to hug Ji-soo and even hold her hand like this……”

It was at that moment.

Swoosh.

This time, instead of a fist, her hand went straight for his side. The moment it did, he started to feel pain in his side.

It was her specialty, pinching.

“Aaaah……”

Hyun-sung’s groan echoed through the dark alley, but his face was full of a happy smile.

***

A few days later.

Hyun-sung headed to the side dish shop run by Yoo Young-seok. The reason he came was because Yoo Young-seok had contacted him, saying he had something to discuss.

“Hyung-nim [term for older brother or respected male figure], welcome!”

Yoo Young-seok greeted Hyun-sung warmly as he entered the shop.

“Oh, yeah. How have you been?”

“Yes, I’ve been doing well thanks to you, hyung-nim.”

“How’s your leg these days?”

“As time passed, calluses formed, so it’s okay now. Time is the best medicine after all.”

“That’s a relief. By the way, what’s going on today?”

Hyun-sung asked as he took a seat. Yoo Young-seok took out a bottle of Bacchus [Korean energy drink] from the refrigerator and handed it to Hyun-sung, saying,

“I think I need to expand the store.”

“You’re talking about expanding?”

“Yes, no matter how I think about it, the store seems too small.”

“Is that so……?”

Hyun-sung tilted his head and looked around the store. Then, after thinking for a moment, he immediately asked,

“You’re saying this store is small?”

“Yes, I need to bring in more side dish refrigerators, but there’s no space.”

“You’re bringing in more refrigerators?”

“Yes, as I increase the number of side dishes, I need more refrigerators to display them.”

“Hmm……”

Hyun-sung was silent for a moment, as if he was thinking about something. It was only after some time that he spoke again.

“Instead of increasing the space, how about changing the side dish refrigerator?”

“Change the side dish refrigerator?”

“Yeah, right. If you change it to a refrigerator that goes higher up than the current one, you can display a lot more side dishes than now. I think that would be much more economical than expanding the store. What do you think?”

“Hmm, I don’t know……”

Yoo Young-seok looked at the side dish refrigerator and was silent for a moment. He seemed to be contemplating. Hyun-sung spoke again.

“Have you been to other side dish shops?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Instead of that, go to the side dish shop in front of Bupyeong Station. I saw it the other day while passing by, and that shop’s side dish refrigerator is different from here, it’s taller. It looks pretty good too.”

“Hmm……”

Yoo Young-seok was silent again, as if he was thinking about something. Hyun-sung immediately spoke again this time.

“Hey, instead of that, let’s go to that shop right now. I think it’s better to see it once than to talk about it a hundred times.”

“Hmm…… Then shall we?”

Yoo Young-seok seemed to think for a moment and nodded. Hyun-sung immediately moved, and Yoo Young-seok followed behind him.

20 minutes later.

Arriving in front of Bupyeong Station, Hyun-sung said to Yoo Young-seok,

“I’ll be in the car, so go in and take a look and come out. And while you’re in there, don’t just look at the refrigerator, but also carefully examine what kind of side dishes they have. Compare it to your shop.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Yoo Young-seok nodded and got out of Hyun-sung’s Jeep and entered the side dish shop.

About 10 minutes passed.

Yoo Young-seok, who came out of the side dish shop, got into the car and immediately said,

“Hyung-nim, you were right after all.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I was short-sighted. I was only trying to expand the space because the space was small, but after coming here, I realized there was no need to do that. As you said, hyung-nim, it was a problem that could be solved by changing the refrigerator.”

Yoo Young-seok’s expression was completely different from before. Seeing that, Hyun-sung called his name seriously.

“Young-seok!”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

“Let me ask you one thing.”

“Yes, hyung-nim. Tell me.”

Yoo Young-seok turned his head and looked at Hyun-sung. His expression was quite serious. He also realized that the current atmosphere was serious the moment Hyun-sung called his name seriously.

Hyun-sung continued.

“Didn’t you feel anything today?”

“I realized that I was short-sighted after all.”

“That’s probably natural. After all, you still lack a lot of experience. So, that’s why……”

Hyun-sung paused for a moment and then continued.

“What can replace that experience is benchmarking other stores like today.”

“Yes, I also felt a lot while watching today. Not only the refrigerator but also the types of side dishes and the display of side dishes had a lot to learn from.”

“What I want to ask you is to not just stay in my shop from now on, but to visit other shops from time to time.”

“You’re saying to watch and learn?”

“That’s right, that’s how you’ll be able to survive in this industry in the future.”

“Yes, I understand what you mean. I will periodically benchmark other side dish shops from now on.”

Yoo Young-seok nodded as if he was making a resolution. His eyes were shining particularly brightly. That meant he was full of motivation.

Hyun-sung spoke again.

“And one more thing.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

“Of course, money is important since the purpose is to make a profit. But I hope you’ll think about the fact that that’s not all there is to it.”

“What do you mean……”

Yoo Young-seok tilted his head, as if he didn’t understand what he meant, and looked at Hyun-sung. That meant he was asking him to teach him what it was.

Hyun-sung spoke again.

“Business is also done in the relationship between people, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then what do you think is the most important thing between people?”

“Hmm…… I don’t know.”

Yoo Young-seok looked at Hyun-sung instead of answering. That was the meaning of asking him to teach him what it was.

Hyun-sung spoke again.

“Affection and trust.”

“Affection and trust?”

“Yes, if those two things aren’t the foundation, you can’t succeed in the long term. So, you should always do your best, even if it’s just saying a word to a customer.”

“Yes, I understand. But it seems difficult because I’m young.”

“If it was easy, everyone would succeed. That’s why it has value, right?”

While the two were talking, the Jeep had already arrived in front of Yoo Young-seok’s shop.

“Oh? We’re already in front of the shop? Would you like to get out and have a cup of coffee?”

“No, I have a lunch appointment. I’m going now, so keep in mind what I said earlier and always try.”

“Yes, I understand. I will do my best to say even one word to the customers. And thank you for today. Thanks to you, my worries have been resolved neatly.”

“Okay, go in. Take care……”

Hyun-sung smiled and gestured. Yoo Young-seok bowed his head and got out of the car.

A moment later.

Hyun-sung, who had left Yoo Young-seok’s side dish shop, started making a phone call to someone.

Beep, beep!

The other person answered the phone after the signal rang twice.

-Hello.

“Honey……”

-President?

“Yes, Ji-soo, it’s me.”

The person Hyun-sung called was his wife, Yoon Ji-soo.

-Are you going to keep joking like this?

“I like it though?”

-There you go again…….

“Okay, anyway, you’re at home since it’s your day off, right?”

-Yes.

“Let’s go out for lunch.”

-Instead of that, come home.

“Huh? Home?”

Hyun-sung was surprised. This was the first time she had ever told him to come home first.

Hyun-sung asked again.

“Did you just tell me to come home?”

-Why are you so surprised all of a sudden? It’s not like you’re coming for the first time…….

“No, that’s……”

Hyun-sung didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t make a fuss in this situation.

Then he heard her voice again.

-Do you know what day it is today?

“I don’t know…… What day is it today?”

Hyun-sung quickly started racking his brain. But nothing special came to mind. Hyun-sung had no choice but to ask again.

“What day is it? It’s not Ji-soo’s birthday……”

-It’s Boknal [Dog Eating Day].

“Huh? Boknal?”

-Yes, today is Malbok [the last of the three Dog Days of summer]. Come over and have a meal.

“Ah! Yes, I’ll go right away.”

Click.

Hyun-sung, who had hung up the phone, put it in gear and stepped on the accelerator with all his might.

It was a meal prepared by her for Hyun-sung himself. Hyun-sung felt like he was about to fly away.

Compared to his past life, it was a development that couldn’t even be compared.