Chapter 181: Attacked (1)

The cafe experienced an ocean of people every day. And Kang Yu-Hwan's smile grew wider and wider each day to match the increasing number of customers.

“Fufufufu...!” He cackled happily—and a bit creepily as well—at the throng of people queuing up outside the cafe as the opening hours loomed.

Kang Eun-Yeong narrowed her eyes and stared at her father. “...Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“This whole thing is meant for me to experience life and society in general, right?”

Kang Yu-Hwan faltered a little. “O-of course.”

“I'm beginning to get this weird feeling lately, you know?”

“Don't you trust me, Eun-Yeong?”

“...Hmm.” Kang Eun-Yeong directed a strange gaze at her father.

Regardless of what Kang Yu-Hwan was scheming, though, his cafe continued to flourish. A sudden influx of eager customers to a previously-unsuccessful cafe could result in the degradation of the coffee's quality or lack of service, but such things didn't happen in Kang Yu-Hwan's establishment.

“...Jin-Ho?” Park Yu-Min stared at Kang Jin-Ho with narrowed eyes, forcing the latter to turn his head away and pretend as if he hadn’t noticed anything. Park Yu-Min still carried on with what he wanted to say. “Yes, I know I have lots of free time lately, but this..”

“...Mm.”

Park Yu-Min looked down at his apron and sighed at length. “...Yes, I get it. We should help each other when things get busy.”

“I'll definitely double your pay, Yu-Min.”

“Thanks, I guess...”

After deploying Park Yu-Min into the cafe's kitchen as an emergency measure, Kang Jin-Ho changed into his 'uniform' while constantly sighing away. He then stood at the entrance and made his announcement to the crowd waiting outside.

“We are now open, everyone.”

The door opening signaled the flood of the crowd into the cafe. Kang Jin-Ho's sharp eyes accurately counted those coming in, and as soon as the maximum capacity was met, he quickly lowered his arm to stop the next person trying to sneak in. “I'm sorry, dear customer. We don't have any free space at the moment. Please wait outside for a little while.”

“Dang it! And I was so close, too..” The man Kang Jin-Ho had stopped could only groan in disappointment and steal a few more furtive glances into the cafe. It seemed he was hoping to get as many glimpses of Kang Eun-Yeong as possible.

Kang Jin-Ho placed a?'Please Wait in Line' signboard outside the cafe, then stepped back inside.

'It's time to begin this war, then.'

Tension filled his face as he scanned the cafe's interior. In the beginning, around ninety percent of customers were men. But that ratio had seen a significant change these days. The cafe's space was now evenly split between men occupying one end and women occupying the other end, with the kitchen entrance in the middle serving as a neat dividing line.

Eventually, the ratio of men to women stabilized at around 50-50. No, wait, maybe there were slightly more women present? However, this shouldn't come as a surprise, considering women frequented cafes more than men. However, the difference in the situation this time was...

“Kkyahhk~!”

“Over here! Please get our orders~! Here~!”

“Can we take selfies with you?”

The female customers were clamoring to get Kang Jin-Ho's attention. He sighed deeply and pointed at the sign mounted on the wall. It said: [No Selfies Allowed.]

“Eiii~! Look at the other side! She's letting customers take her pictures, and she even hands out her autographs, you know!”

“That's right! Please sign our pictures!”

Kang Jin-Ho turned his head to look, and sure enough, Kang Eun-Yeong was letting customers take selfies with her while taking their orders.

“We're paying the same amount, you know! But that side allows for selfies, but not over here? That's not fair, right?” The female customer raised a valid complaint, leaving Kang Jin-Ho with no comeback whatsoever.

He powerlessly nodded and replied, “After taking your orders, I’ll bring your drinks and then... Yes, let us take selfies...”

“Kkyaaaahk~!”

Kang Jin-Ho got their orders and headed to the kitchen while quietly gritting his teeth.

'Mister Gyu-Min...!'

This whole situation was Jo Gyu-Min's fault. That edited footage released by Jo Gyu-Min left far too great of an impact on various social media sites!

People would obviously share the clips of a broadcast incident during a live event quite enthusiastically. But what happened with Kang Eun-Yeong was no mere on-air incident. She had been performing live only to get dragged away from the stage, so it was no wonder that online communities were in an uproar over what had happened.

That was the situation when Jo Gyu-Min bought the private stream's footage, edited it, and released it online along with an army of paid posters talking it up. His actions had the intended effect of decreasing any criticism aimed at Kang Se-Ah, but it also came with the unwelcome side effect of—an explosive increase of interest in Kang Jin-Ho. And this was the end result.

Kang Jin-Ho held his head while glancing at the female customers excitedly giggling and chatting away.

'I just can't understand this.'

He was neither a singer nor an actor. He was also definitely not a celebrity or an entertainer in any shape or form, so why were all these women so excited to see him?

“Don't worry, son. This is also another phase in life.” Kang Yu-Hwan patted his son on the shoulder to offer some words of comfort.

Kang Jin-Ho sighed again. “I hope it'll be over soon, Father.”

“Honestly, I want it to stay like this for as long as possible, son. Oh, by the way. Do you mind stopping by a hair salon later? I think your popularity will get a boost by tidying up your hair. The higher your popularity, the better our sales will be, son.”

“...Father.”

Kang Yu-Hwan utterly disregarded his son's pained heart and remained swimming in happiness. Then again, both Kang Jin-Ho and Kang Eun-Yeong were powerless to stop their father anyway.

However, even Kang Yu-Hwan had a natural enemy, and it would be...

Clank~

The cafe's door opened, and another person stepped inside.

Kang Yu-Hwan reacted first. “We're sorry, we don't have a... O-oh, it's you, honey?”

The person entering the cafe was none other than Baek Hyeon-Jeong. Her presence immediately put Kang Yu-Hwan at unease, and he began to fidget nervously.

Baek Hyeon-Jeong didn't say anything and simply confirmed the order backlog situation first. With her eyes set ablaze, she began glaring at her husband. “You have all these orders waiting to be fulfilled, so what are you doing? Why aren't you brewing more coffee, dear?!”

“I.. I was about to get on it.”

“Looks like you're not fulfilling the orders as quickly as you used to, dear! You need to understand that you'll be replaced if you keep this up!”

“I said I was about to get on it, honey!”

“And didn't I tell you not to drag Jin-Ho here in the morning? He has been working the night shift at the delivery warehouse and only comes home in the early dawn, you know! Yet, you're forcing him to work here first thing in the morning? Are you really his father?”

“...Listen, honey. If he doesn't grab this chance, then when will he ever experience this kind of work? Isn't the lessons learned in your youth supposed to prove their worth later in life?”

“Is that something you should be saying to your son who served in Gangwon's frontlines? Especially when you were just a measly defense corps member?”

“W-what do you mean, a measly defense corps member?! I was a short-term enlisted soldier, honey!”

“Isn't that the same as being a defense corps member?”

“L-listen, honey—”

“You're being noisy, dear! Hurry up and start brewing the coffee already! And Jin-Ho? Why don't you start sweeping the front of the cafe in the meantime?”

“Yes, Mother.” Kang Jin-Ho nodded and went to find a broom.

And just like that, Baek Hyeon-Jeong's entrance into the scene brought the curtains down on Kang Yu-Hwan's iron-fisted rule. Park Yu-Min witnessing this spectacle could only sigh deeply under his breath.

'Is this what they call a peaceful family life?'

However, one thing was for sure—the Kang family was an entertaining place to be.

***

Bang! Boom! Bang!

“Y-young man! Jin-Ho! Slow down, please! We're all people here, you know! Not machines! What do you expect us to do if you keep bringing all these cargoes here?!” A loading bay worker tried to plead with Kang Jin-Ho.

“You want me to slow down?” Kang Jin-Ho narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

That was when the warehouse manager ran up to the loading bay like a streak of light. He then yelled at the workers. “Slow down, my ass! Listen, Jin-Ho! Don't worry about anything, and just keep doing what you've been doing, okay? Don't sweat about a thing since I'm gonna talk to these idiots and sort everything out.”

When Kang Jin-Ho headed back to the truck to get more cargo, the warehouse manager resumed scolding the other workers. “Even if that guy brings more cargo and piles them here, just leave them be and do your jobs! Isn't that simple enough? So, why are you trying to stop someone from doing a good job?!”

“...But, Manager! We're working our asses off here, but our bloody workload isn't decreasing at all! How can we motivate ourselves to keep going in that case?”

“Motivation? Did you just ask me about motivation here? Is going home three hours early not enough motivation for you?!”

The complaining workers heard the manager's yell and began nodding away without realizing it. There was no denying that Kang Jin-Ho's introduction to the team led to their shift ending earlier than scheduled. Before that young man's arrival, the earliest their shift ended was around five in the morning. But these days? It would regularly end around four o'clock—sometimes at three.

“But, uh, Manager? Don't we have fewer part-timers these days?”

The manager tilted his head. “Fewer part-timers? So what?”

“I mean, we have fewer workers manning this loading bay, no?”

“Oh, that? If you're not happy about it, why don't you go and tell the higher-ups to hire more part-timers? Don't forget to mention that the shifts also end three hours early while you're at it.”

“Oh...”

Doing that would only make the upper management demand a further reduction in the workforce instead. The debut release occurred at N-ov3l-Bin.

The worker didn't give up, though, and tried to complain for one last time. “It's good to end the shift early, but... I don't know if my back will survive this ordeal, Manager.”

“What are you so worried about? You don't have any other uses for your damn back, anyway! It wouldn't matter if you break it, so get back to work, will ya?”

“...Eii.”

The manager pointed toward the loading bay. “Look, Jin-Ho's already coming back.”

Kang Jin-Ho was carrying several sacks of cement on his back.

One of the workers muttered, “Maybe.. he was a slave building the Pyramids in his previous life?”

Piling up that many sacks at once would make most people lose their balance regardless of the cargo’s actual weight. But such logic didn't seem to affect Kang Jin-Ho at all. Even though the sacks of cement were stacked so much higher than his own height, he was deftly maintaining his balance without any issues. At this point, it was like witnessing an acrobatic stunt performance.

“Jin-Ho would make a killing in the circus, so why is he even working here, I wonder?”

“What can I say when this is what he wants to do?”

The workers groaned deeply as Kang Jin-Ho walked up to them.

“I guess we'll have to deal with even more cargo now...”

***

The manager guffawed. “Jin-Ho, thank you for your hard work!”

“It was nothing, sir.”

“Here! Here's your wages for today.”

“Thank you..” Kang Jin-Ho bowed after receiving the envelope with money inside.

“Well, then! We'll see you tomorrow as well.”

"Manager, there's something I wanted to talk to you about that..."

“Mm?!” The manager's eyes grew wider. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Kang Jin-Ho wanted to say in this kind of situation. “A-are you thinking of quitting?”

“Yes, Manager. I've accumulated enough experience, so I was thinking about getting a different...”

“Is it because the pay isn't good enough? T-then, how about I pay you a hundred grand more?”

“No, Manager. It's not about the money, but...”

“In that case, I'll double your pay! Six hundred grand per day! How about that!”

The workers listening from the side gasped in shock and their jaws dropped to the floor.

“Heok?!”

“Holy cow. Doesn't that mean a month of work is, what, eighteen million won? Is this a law firm or something?”

“Gee whiz, that young man might become the 'Warren Buffett' of the physical labor market at this rate. Filthy rich, I tell ya.”

These workers had all spent many years in this profession. Even so, none of them could remember hearing about someone getting paid six hundred grand for a day's work. As a matter of fact, even specialists working in highly-specific fields wouldn’t get paid that much!

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head. “Manager, the issue is not with the money. I'm sorry.”

“W-why are you doing this, young man?! Y-you're born for this work, can't you see that?! The heavens sent you to Earth to become the best loading bay worker ever!”

Kang Jin-Ho coughed uncomfortably. “Manager, please calm down. What you said just now is actually an insult, you know?”

“I-is it?” The manager frustratingly scratched the back of his head when Kang Jin-Ho made a troubled face and clamped his mouth shut. Eventually, the manager spat out a lengthy groan. “Urgh... I see. Fine, there's no helping it, then. However, we will have to find new people to fill the void left behind by you, Jin-Ho. In the meantime, your fellow workers will have to bear the brunt of the workload. Sorry about this, but can you work here for three extra days while I find new workers? Please?”

“I can do that,” said Kang Jin-Ho with a simple nod.

“Alright, then. Let's agree to three extra days of work for you.”

“Understood. Well, then..” Kang Jin-Ho bowed and said goodbye before heading back to the parking lot.

The manager let out a long sigh of lamentation. “Ah... So, this is how the legend of the delivery service world's shining star will end, huh.”

Vroooom-!

Kang Jin-Ho's sleek Lamborghini let out a low rumble as it glided toward the exit. The shuttle bus service was still in operation, but the shifts always ended way ahead of schedule, so Kang Jin-Ho had no chance to catch the bus. In the end, he chose to just keep commuting in his car.

“See, I told you, Manager. Why would a dude driving a Lamborghini keep working in a warehouse like this? I told you that this situation won't last..” The worker standing next to the manager muttered in a flat voice.

“Yeah, yeah. But your 'won't last' and this situation isn't quite the same now, is it? You thought Jin-Ho would quit because working here is too hard. The way I see it, Jin-Ho's quitting since he had already gotten all the experience he could ask for in this place, and he simply wants to move on to the next stage.”

“Huh. Now that he's leaving, I wonder, what will he do next?”

“Maybe... hunting lions in Africa?”

The warehouse's workers grew increasingly curious about Kang Jin-Ho's next part-time job, even though it didn’t matter to them.

“Now, now. Let's just go home, shall we?”

“Yes, Manager.”

The manager shepherded the workers away, then sighed one more time at the distant Lamborghini's brake lights. “Aigoo... Just how many people do I need to hire now?”

The good times were coming to an inevitable end, so it seemed that the manager would have to roll his sleeves up and get serious once more. He headed back to his office while sighing in disappointment, knowing that he wouldn't get to ride on Kang Jin-Ho's coattails anymore.

***

“A new part-time job, you say?” said Jo Gyu-Min as his brows rose up.

“That's correct,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

Jo Gyu-Min chuckled hollowly while putting a cup of coffee in front of Kang Jin-Ho. Wasn't this young man working in a delivery service warehouse until now? Did he already master that and want to move on to the next challenge?

“Honestly speaking, it'll be difficult to find a job more physically demanding than your previous work, Mister Jin-Ho. I'm sure there must be some if we look hard enough, but... I'm beginning to wonder if simple physical labor holds any meaning to you at this stage.” Jo Gyu-Min took a sip of his own coffee while offering his opinion.

“Hmm...” Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded along.

“Well, I guess you might have some fun working in a fishing boat, but that's no longer the territory of part-time work, so... That's why I'd like to make a suggestion, if I may. Mister Jin-Ho, there's a job that might prove to be pretty fun for you. Well, are you interested?”

“Pretty fun, you say?” Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head.

Jo Gyu-Min responded with a sly chuckle. “Yes. You will find it very amusing. It's not what you usually do, you see.”

Kang Jin-Ho cocked an eyebrow while staring at Jo Gyu-Min's chuckling face.

1. ~ 420 USD